Archaeological Research On The Remains Of Coastal Port Cities In The Lower Reaches Of Yangtze River During Song And Yuan Dynasties

During Qin and Han Dynasties,the central government already started external communications.After development during Sui,Tang Dynasties and the period of Five Dynasties,external exchanges turned more frequent during Song and Yuan Dynasties,bringing external trade into prosperity.External trade can be realized by sea or by land.In comparison with the transport by land,the transparent by sea is advantaged in large freight volume and relatively low transport cost.As a key link,ports play a very important role in transport by sea.Located in the middle of coastal regions of China,the lower reaches of the Yangtze River are advantageous in geographical locations.During Song and Yuan Dynasties,the lower reaches of the Yangtze River developed rapidly in economy,especially the handicraft industry.With southward migration of Song Kingdom,the regional advantages turned more obvious.To bring up the taxation,the central government gave a positive boost to external trade and set up urban ship management organizations.At that time,ports such as Hangzhou,Mingzhou(Qingyuan),Qinglong Town,Shanghai Town,Liujiagang emerged one after another,symbolizing the prosperous development of external trade.In comparison with other bulk commodities such as tea and silk in external trade,porcelain appeared to be easily saved in later ages and has attracted more and more concern and researches of scholars.To a certain extent,circulation of porcelain embodies associations between ports.Hence,archaeological research on remains in coastal port cities located at lower reaches of Yangtze River based on porcelain is of great significance for research on associations between ports in this regions during Song and Yuan Dynasties.The paper comprises five chapters.Chapter 1 is the introduction,wherein materials concerning remains of ports and wharfs located at lower reaches of Yangtze River as well as tombs,cellaring and ruins in urban areas are listed;then,research results on ports located at the lower reaches of the Yangtze River are summarized;in the end,reasons for topic selection are illustrated.Chapter 2 describes materials of porcelain unearthed from remains of ports and wharfs located at the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and tries to analyze rise and fall of these ports based on archaeological materials.Chapter 3 summarizes materials of porcelain unearthed in tombs,cellaring,ruins and the like located in urban areas of those ports and makes a comparison between them and porcelain unearthed from remains of ports and wharfs so as to discuss association between consumable porcelain and trading porcelain in a region.Chapter 4 studies some issues,wherein associations between ports are analyzed from the perspective of porcelain transport routes;secondly,based on porcelain materials unearthed from relevant shipwrecks,the roles played by ports located at the lower reaches of the Yangtze River in overseas trade during Song and Yuan Dynasties are analyzed.Chapter 5 gives a summarization on main contents and limits of the paper.