From East Asia to America: The Pottery and Porcelain during the 16th and 17th Century in the Spanish Historical Documents

• Main Authors: Li-Wei Hung, 洪麗崴
• Other Authors: 李文良
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2018
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/3etvge

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 歷史學研究所 === 107 === In 1565, Spain arrived at Cebu and successfully built a round-trip route between Philippines and Nueva España across the Pacific Ocean. In 1571, the Spanish conquered Manila and established a port, building closer trading relationship with East Asia countries which led to the circulation of pottery and porcelain. In the past, scholars tended to see the subject of “the trading in the Pacific Ocean route” as a single and complete topic. As the issue contained too many distinct aspects, it was hard for researchers to pay attention only to the pottery and porcelain from East Asia to America. Despite few scholars concerning about the research of pottery and porcelain, most concentrated on specific fields like art history, archaeology and history, without mutual communication and discussion; for some other scholars, they emphasized only the pottery and porcelain in certain areas. This research aims to integrate pottery and porcelain researches from different disciplines and regions through organizing different arguments from scholars. The pottery and porcelain for practical use were adopted to contain food and valuables such as preserved meat, oil, wine, gunpowder and clothes. Potteries which might be used to contain wine were also found on the Spanish sunken vessel San Diego. On the other hand, delicate porcelains were not only used as daily necessities, but also functioned as collections and gifts. The Chinese and Japanese porcelains were comparatively popular in the sixteenth and seventeenth century with their styles changing as time went on. Through collecting and analyzing the pottery and porcelain records in the sixteenth and seventeenth century historical documents in Spanish, we see that instead of simply being commodities, pottery and porcelain could also be used as, for instance, daily necessities, valuables labeling status and sacred objects in aborigines’ traditional religious rituals. By organizing historical documents in Spanish and other scholarly researches, and simultaneously checking material objects like relics from archeological sites and museum collections, the author aims to understand the circulation and usage of pottery and porcelain after the Spanish arrived at Philippines and built a round-trip route.