Exploring the Ming Dynasty; Imagine a World
AMANPOUR: Welcome back to the program. Now the eyes of many other nations are on Scotland and what they might call an insidious separatist movement here, including China, which, as we know, stares down such challenges. But a very different period of Chinese history is open to the world at London's renowned British Museum today. It's an exhibition called "Ming: 50 Years that Changed China." Most of us know the Ming dynasty because of its iconic blue and white porcelain. As curator Jessica Harrison-Hall told me, to understand China's massive footprint on the world today and tomorrow, it is vital to know its past.</s>AMANPOUR: Why did you choose Ming?</s>JESSICA HARRISON-HALL, CURATOR, THE BRITISH MUSEUM: We chose this period because it's got such an interesting material culture and because of so many new things that have been discovered, for example, the gold ewer over there --</s>AMANPOUR: Over there, yes.</s>HARRISON-HALL: -- was literally in China's earth in 2002. So we're bringing these things which were only discovered within the last 10 years or so and putting them alongside traditional things that people are more familiar with.</s>AMANPOUR: This is not so usual for non-scholars and non-experts. That is a whole color scheme that none of us perhaps associate with what we internalize as Ming, blue and white.</s>HARRISON-HALL: Absolutely. I mean, there are only two of these in the world. They're --</s>AMANPOUR: Only two in the world?</s>HARRISON-HALL: -- only two in the world. One is in Switzerland, which is its pair, and then this one. It was made for the Xuande Emperor between 1426 and '35 and its production was overseen by a eunuch agency within the Forbidden City. So you're looking at the earliest piece of finely crafted Chinese cloisonne in the world.</s>AMANPOUR: And eunuchs were, what, the group who made all this?</s>HARRISON-HALL: They were the group that supervised their production. Eunuchs were men who -- and sometimes boys -- who were castrated from the age of 10, brought into the palace to look after the needs of the imperial family. But gradually in this period, they became more and more educated and their roles became increasingly important. And one of those eunuchs led the voyages to the East Coast of Africa in the early 1400s.</s>AMANPOUR: And that is really incredible, given China's association with Africa right now.</s>HARRISON-HALL: That's right. I mean, to think of these flotillas of boats, 600 boats, traveling with 27,000 men, most of whom were armed, arriving in these different communities to reestablish trade is extraordinary.</s>AMANPOUR: It was trade and not conquering?</s>HARRISON-HALL: Definitely not conquering. But it was an armed force that were prepared to involve themselves in local conflict if they were required. They were reopening the yen trading routes. So they were bringing people back to China. They were bringing goods back to China. Everything from special scented woods to perishable goods to animals, giraffes, exotic animals which would then join the --</s>AMANPOUR: And they would never have seen a giraffe before.</s>HARRISON-HALL: Absolutely not.</s>AMANPOUR: What did these special 50 years, the first 50 years of the Ming dynasty, do for China? How did it revolutionize China in the Middle Ages?</s>HARRISON-HALL: Very much by moving the capital to Beijing from Nanjing. Before this period, China's capital moves around all the time. It's been in Luoyang, Hangzhou, Xi'an, many others, different places. But from this point onwards, Beijing becomes the capital and there it stays. But the moving of the capital north creates a character of China that we know today.</s>AMANPOUR: Tell me about the porcelain with the gold top.</s>HARRISON-HALL: This is a very, very special -- it was excavated from Liangzhuang Wang's tomb in Hubei. Before this was discovered in 2002, we only knew about this from paintings. So when we found an actual blue and white stem cup, with the cover, with the silver stand, we could see how they were used in paintings. It was a remarkable discovery.</s>AMANPOUR: Is it unique?</s>HARRISON-HALL: It is utterly unique. There's only one of these in the entire --</s>AMANPOUR: Only that one in the world? And on these porcelain Chinese vases, there is Islamic calligraphy, Islamic design.</s>HARRISON-HALL: Yes, absolutely.</s>AMANPOUR: How important is that?</s>HARRISON-HALL: You've picked a very pertinent point because, in fact, both the Islamic design at the top here and the shape of this ewer in the Islamic form are very, very fashionable in the early 1500s. And this is partly because of contact with those countries and also partly because of things which were left behind by the Mongols when they fled China and were copied in porcelain at this period. This is a vogue at court, which only lasts for about 30 years.</s>AMANPOUR: Here we're walking into the arts of war section of this exhibition. Was it a very expansionist time for the Chinese, for the Mings?</s>HARRISON-HALL: It's a terrifically important time for military culture. In fact, at the early Ming, I would say that military culture is more important than civil culture.</s>AMANPOUR: They didn't skimp on their equipment. This is an incredible saddle. Is that the emperor's saddle?</s>HARRISON-HALL: Well, it's the most extraordinary saddle because it's iron and then covered with gold foil, inlaid with turquoise -- the pale blue -- and then lapis lazuli for the deep blue.</s>AMANPOUR: What do you think is the significance, the importance of this kind of exhibition, of this period of Chinese art and culture?</s>HARRISON-HALL: I think what it tells us is how sophisticated and how globally engaged China was before the arrival of Europe. Often Ming history has told us China awakened through the arrival of the Europeans in the early 16th century. But from all the beautiful things that surround us and all the interesting things that you can see in the exhibition, that idea is very old. And the new scholarship tells us how deeply engaged with the whole world China was in the early 15th century.</s>AMANPOUR: What is this long scroll of what looks like ledger activities?</s>HARRISON-HALL: Well, this is one of the portraits of the emperors that we borrowed from the palace museum in Beijing and it shows the emperor engaged in different sports with his eunuchs, keeping everybody fit and ready for battle.</s>AMANPOUR: So this is...?</s>HARRISON-HALL: This is him engaged in watching an archery competition. And here we have football. So these eunuchs, front, have got a ball that they're playing keepy-uppy, which strengthens --</s>AMANPOUR: Keepy-uppy?</s>HARRISON-HALL: Yes.</s>AMANPOUR: I love it. So did the Chinese invent football in here? Or did the British?</s>HARRISON-HALL: Oh, I think Chinese invented most things.</s>AMANPOUR: So after a break, another game-changing vote in Scotland today, and we'll tell you more when we come back.