The Jian tea bowl bearing the "Jin Zhan" mark at the Shanghai Museum is arguably the only one among the many museums in China, particularly the "Four Great Museums" (the Palace Museum, the Shaanxi History Museum, the Nanjing Museum, and the Shanghai Museum), that can compete with the vast collections of Jian ware in Japanese museums. But the main reason this specific tea bowl is unique is because it came from a royal family—the imperial court used it. Sadly, it falls short of other well-known works in terms of quality, which is a sad fact.
This tea bowl has been designated as a first-class national cultural relic. It is recognized as an imperial tea bowl from the Song Dynasty that was presented as a tribute to the royal palace because of the inscription "進琖" (Jin Zhan) on the bottom. While "琖" is written in traditional characters, with the lower part being slightly blurred but still entirely identifiable, "進琖" is a stamped seal in regular script, with the character "進" being easily readable. The bowl is totally round and undamaged. Its thin rim, well-constructed body, and obvious knife marks on the bottom foot are characteristics of an imperial Song Dynasty tea cup. The clay utilized for padding during construction is probably the cause of the inner bottom foot wall's small irregularity. The waterline is placed near the lip and the bowl's lip is flared outward, which sets it apart from regular tea bowls, where the waterline is usually around 1 cm below the lip. There are silver dots and silver rabbit-hair markings throughout the black glaze. The lower foot's glaze is notably thin, but the craftsmanship is superb and shows no signs of muddiness or extra glaze. The surface may have been even more elegant and lovely if the glaze had been thicker.
The "進琖" inscription attests to the tea bowl's renowned origin, despite its ordinary condition. The Shanghai Museum exhibits it inverted for this reason, enabling visitors to see the "進琖" symbol in its entirety. Regretfully, there is still no historical information available regarding this bowl. Since a similar Jian tea bowl with the marking "供御" (for imperial use) was part of the collection of renowned Shanghai collector Mr. Qiu Yan at Meiyin Hall during the Republican era, I have conjectured in earlier articles that he may have donated it to the Shanghai Museum.
So, is this Jian tea cup with the marking "進琖" a real relic or a piece from a kiln site? The bowl in the Shanghai Museum is, in my view, a kiln site item. We can logically analyze this because the reasoning is straightforward. The "進琖" mark would undoubtedly suggest that this bowl was a part of the Song Dynasty imperial collection if it were a well-known surviving artifact. Nonetheless, it is evident from the bowl's remarkably common condition and absence of internal usage signs that it was not suitable for shipment to the imperial palace during the Song Dynasty. Additionally, the quality of the artifacts from other city site excavations—like those from Hangzhou, particularly imperial-use Jian tea bowls—is frequently significantly better than this one! Only this bowl, with its common appearance, could have survived and been preserved—that is just not imaginable! We would have countless tales about its past if such were the case, but we don't have any knowledge at all.
Why do I think it's a piece from a kiln site? A significant number of Jian tea bowls from the Song Dynasty were discovered as a result of the excavation boom of Jian kiln sites that started in the late Qing and early Republican periods. Many of these were sold in Shanghai and even Japan, which is a particularly regrettable chapter in the history of Jian kiln ceramics, according to historical archives. According to Chen Liu's Tao Ya entry from the second year of the Xuantong era (1910) in the late Qing, "recently, Fujian people have been digging for ancient tea bowls, many of which are thick and dark purple-black in color." Both the emergence of Song Dynasty Jian tea bowls into the antique market and the start of Jian kiln excavations in the late Qing era were lost to time.
"Rabbit-hair tea bowls from He Yi Li... unearthed from the mountain, with various forms," the Jian'ou County Annals noted in 1929. The shattered bottoms of rabbit-hair tea bowls that were stacked in the vicinity of Chidun Village occasionally had the inscription '進琖,' which was stamped in regular form, and other times had the inscription '供御,' which was scrawled in a terrible handwriting style. Following their excavation, these Jian tea bowls from the Song Dynasty were sold to Shanghai, Japan, and other places. Even overseas attention was drawn to the fervor surrounding this time. A private study of the Jian kiln site was carried out in June 1935 by Professor Plangma of the Shanghai Customs, who collected numerous specimens and sent them back to the United States. According to his published works, Jian tea cups frequently have markings like "供御." In light of these historical facts, it is extremely possible that the "進琖" Jian tea bowl in the Shanghai Museum originated during this excavation and trading period, and it was most likely purchased by Mr. Qiu Yan, a well-known Shanghai businessman at the time. Later on, he might have given the bowl to the Shanghai Museum.
Of course, it's also conceivable that this tea bowl was not given by Mr. Qiu Yan but rather was given to the Shanghai Museum as part of one of the museum's many donation drives after it was founded. After all, this bowl was probably purchased by one of the many collectors in Shanghai and the Jiangsu-Zhejiang area in the late Qing or Republican era.
I have seen Song Dynasty imperial-use Jian tea bowls, which some museums even show. Some may even claim that many museums currently hold Song Dynasty Jian tea bowls. The question is, though, whether the Shanghai Museum's impact is comparable to that of similar exhibits at museums in Jianyang or Nanping. Even in the display of Song Dynasty Jian tea bowls at the Fujian Provincial Museum, number is prioritized over quality. The museum's iconic item, the rust-spot tea bowl, is its main marketing tool. Other state-run or private museums outside Jianyang also display "進琖" and "供御" marked tea bowls. However, from what I have seen, these are either old bowls with new inscriptions or fakes, and when compared to the genuine "進琖" Jian tea bowl at the Shanghai Museum, they simply do not warrant mention!
If you are also interested in learning more about Jian Zhan, you can check out the article "Jian Zhan: An Easy Guide for Novices" which provides a detailed explanation.
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What is Jian Zhan? What is its origin?