Chapter 5 Chapter 5 Development of Building Pottery

In China, it is very early to make building materials and utensils with pottery clay raw materials.In Pingliang, four kilometers southeast of Huaiyang County, Henan Province, in Dazhuzhuang, a site of Henan Longshan culture with a very rich connotation was excavated, covering an area of ​​more than 50,000 square meters.At a place 0.3 meters below the road soil belonging to the south gate of the city site, a five-meter-long pottery drainage pipe was found.The discharge method of these ceramic drainage pipes is: dig a ditch under the doorway, which is high in the north and low in the south, wide at the top and narrow at the bottom. The upper width and depth are about 0.74 meters each. The pottery water pipes are 0.35-0.45 meters long and straight cylindrical. One end is slightly thinner with a diameter of 0.23-0.26 meters, and the other end is thicker with a diameter of 0.27-0.32 meters. They are all made of wheels.The surface is printed with basket pattern, square pattern, jomon pattern and string pattern, and some of them are plain.The small mouth of each section faces south, and is put into the big mouth of the other section, so that it is buckled step by step.Seen from the whole pipeline, the north end is slightly higher than the south end, which is suitable for drainage to the outside of the city.The surrounding of the pipeline is filled with material 〔jiangjiang〕 stone and soil, and then paved with soil as the road surface.According to the dating of carbon fourteen, the cultural site is 4130±100 years ago, or 4355±175 years ago, and the ancient city is 4355±175 years ago.If the Longshan culture in Henan is identified as a Neolithic culture according to the current opinion of some people in the archaeological field, then this batch of materials shows that there were cities and well-fired pottery drainage pipes in the Neolithic age.If it should belong to the scope of Xia culture as claimed by some other people, then these architectural pottery were made in Xia Dynasty. The author prefers the latter, because its geographical area and age are both within the scope and chronology of Xia Dynasty.

In the rammed-earth foundation site of a large palace in Erlitou, Yanshi, Henan Province in the early Shang Dynasty, it was discovered that there were interconnected drainage pottery water pipes.The pottery is muddy black gray pottery, and the tire is fine and hard.The shape is the same as described above.The length of the tube is about 42 cm, the diameter of the thick port is about 14.4 cm, the diameter of the thin port is about 13.5 cm, and the wall thickness is about 1.02 cm.Decorated with thin rope patterns.Similar pottery water pipes were also unearthed at the Luoda Temple site in Zhengzhou.

A pottery water pipe in the middle of the Shang Dynasty was unearthed from the ruins of the Shang Dynasty pottery handicraft workshop in Zhengzhou, Henan Province. The shape and structure are the same as those mentioned above.Many pottery water pipes have been found in the Yin Ruins of Anyang, which belong to the late Shang Dynasty. There are three types of shapes: the first type is the same as the above, one end is large and the other end is small; The caliber and abdominal diameter are both 21.3 cm, and the wall thickness is 1.3 cm.The third type is cylindrical, with a circular nozzle protruding from the middle. The diameter of the nozzle is roughly the same as the diameter of the two ends. It is like a modern three-way pipe. Two vertical and horizontal pottery water pipes intersect in a T-shape.

After entering the Warring States period, pottery water pipes became more complete, and were found in Yanxia Capital of Hebei, Liyang and Xianyang of Shaanxi, Jianglingji Nancheng of Hubei, Dengfeng and Xinzheng of Henan, and other capitals and urban ruins at that time.It is generally in the shape of a round tube, with one end large and the other small, matching in size to form a water delivery pipeline.Some of them are very large in shape, similar to well rings, and also set in size.In order to install the vertically and horizontally two water pipes that communicate with each other, there are also T-shaped three-way water pipes.In addition, there are pottery water pipes with triangular or pentagonal cross-sections, which are giant drainage pipes for large buildings.The pottery water pipes found in Yanxiadu are made in the shape of animal heads with eyes open and mouth open.In Xianyang, the capital of Qin Dynasty, a very complete ceramic drainage equipment was discovered: there is a water receiving pool on the ground, which is shaped like a round pot, and it receives the falling water.There is a funnel in the center of the pool, and a circular right-angle elbow is connected to the water pipe under the funnel, so that the water can be sent to a far place.There will be pottery or porcelain water delivery and drainage pipes in all subsequent ages, but they are becoming more refined and more scientific.

The most important achievement of building pottery is the creation of plate tiles, tube tiles and tiles in the early Western Zhou Dynasty. The tile products are mainly argillaceous gray pottery, and there is also a small amount of argillaceous red pottery, which is generally coarse in texture.The production method is to make a cylindrical blank first, and then cut it.If a small tubular blank is cut in half with a cutting tool, it is a tubular tile.If a relatively large cylinder is cut into thirds, it is a slab.According to the needs of use, the cylindrical blank must be made thick at one end and slightly smaller at the other end.In order to make the tile stable on the roof, after it is done, stick a conical tile nail or a semicircular tile nose in the middle of the inner surface of the tile billet or near one end while it is wet.If there are tiles, there must be tiles.The tile is to add a plug to the narrow end of the tile.The tiles have a full tile as a circle, and a half tile as a semicircle.It is generally plain, but also decorated with simple patterns.On the roof with grass and mud, insert tile nails into the mud, or use a rope to penetrate the nose of the tile and tie it to the rafters, so that the bedding is firm.Two kinds of tiles are used: the tiles are laid flat on the roof, and the tube tiles are buckled between two rows of tiles.Tongwa with tiles are used at the edge of the eaves.During the Spring and Autumn Period, the quality of the tube tiles and slate tiles improved. The most obvious thing is that the tile nails and tiles were separated, and they were made separately during production. A hole was drilled into the tile, and the tile nails were inserted into the small holes when it was used, and it was firm.There is a tenon slightly smaller than the tile head at the end of the tube tile and the tile. The tenon ensures that the joints of the two tube tiles are more consistent.The tiles of later ages, including glazed tiles, developed along these shapes.