The history of making glass in China

In China, glass bottles were unearthed thousands of years ago. However, because glass was not valued by people in feudal times in China, people preferred metal craft, lacquer craft and ceramic craft, so China could hardly see the traces of traditional glass art.. In fact, as early as the 3rd and 4th centuries BC, China invented glass beads. It was not until the fifth century that the blowing method appeared. Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty, deeply influenced by the West, set up an autocratic glass farm in 1680. The works of this period are simple in form and full of Chinese flavor. Most of the works are inspired by porcelain modeling, engraved with brocade-like dragon patterns, scroll patterns and flower patterns. Because glass is ignored, it has not developed greatly in China, and it has not spread to people's lives, so the "stunt" of glass bottle products is still stagnant, and the goals and part-time jobs are shrinking.

The glass in the Han Tomb is the earliest glass bottle container in China. After 18 years of painstaking research, the National Cultural Heritage Administration Archaeological Expert Group recently revealed to the outside world that the glass unearthed from the Han Tomb in Beidongshan, Xuzhou is the earliest known and largest number of glass bottle containers in China, made in the 2nd century BC. The North Dongshan Han Tomb in Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province is one of the largest Han tombs with the largest number of tombs and the most complicated structure found in China. Teachers and students majoring in history and archaeology of Xuzhou Museum and Nanjing University excavated at the same time on 1986. The glass products found in the tomb are 16 glass, a glass beast and three small blue glasses. They were buried between 175 BC and 128 BC.

Experts believe that the glass unearthed from the Han Tomb in North Dongshan, Xuzhou was made no later than 175 BC to 128 BC, which is earlier than the glass in Liu Sheng's tomb, so it should be the earliest known domestic glass. At present, many ancient glass products unearthed in China are opaque, and so are the glass bottles unearthed from the Han tomb in Beidongshan. This batch of glass is opaque, not because transparent glass can't be melted at that time, but in order to get jade-like products through melting.

Experts believe that the owner of Han Dongshan's tomb is Liu Dao, the king of Chu. During the Western Han Dynasty, people regarded death as life, and tombs should be arranged according to the owner's lifestyle, such as houses, wells and granaries. These glass bottles may have been used by the owner before his death. It is understood that before these glasses were unearthed in Xuzhou, the earliest known domestic glass bottle container was the glass unearthed from Liu Sheng's tomb in Mancheng, Hebei Province, and its manufacturing age was BC 173.