Chapter 3 Chapter 3 Brilliant Dawn - Pottery Art in the Neolithic Age

China has a vast territory. The ancestors who lived in this land had different living environments, and the process of social development was very different, resulting in great imbalance.The characteristics and artistic achievements of pottery crafts in different regions are not only related, but also different, forming a hundred gardens of pottery art.Taking the Yellow River Basin and the Yangtze River Basin where the culture was developed earlier, the Neolithic culture has the following systems, and their pottery features are as follows: This is the early Neolithic culture in the Yellow River Basin.This culture dates back nearly 8,000 years.The earliest site of the Cishan Culture was found in Cishan, Wu'an County, Hebei Province.The Peiligang Culture was first discovered in Xinzheng, Henan Province.Such cultures are widespread.The two cultural eras and connotations are very close.Although there are certain differences in the pottery making process, they are basically the same in terms of pottery quality, molding method and firing temperature.Red pottery is the main type, and there are two types of clay pottery and sandy pottery.They are all handmade, and the wall thickness is uneven.The firing temperature is between 900-960°C, and the shapes of the utensils include bowls, bowls, pots, cans, and tripods.A small-mouthed double-ear pot with a spherical or olive-shaped abdomen and ears attached to the shoulders.There are also round-bottomed bowls, three-legged bowls, deep-bellied bowls and tripods.There are many types of utensils in the Cishan Culture. In addition to the above-mentioned utensils, there are plates, beans, bowls, and four-legged tripods.Various types of pottery with slightly polished surfaces.There are many patterns, such as grate dot pattern, nail pattern, milk nail pattern, mat pattern, engraved pattern, etc., and a pottery piece was also found to be decorated with zigzag patterns painted in red.A pottery kiln with a horizontal cavity was discovered at the Peiligang site. Although the structure is simple, it is the earliest pottery kiln in my country.

It belongs to a culture in the prosperous period of matrilineal clan society.It got its name because it was first discovered in Yangshao Village, Mianchi County, Henan Province.Centered on the Central Plains where the tributaries of the Wei, Fen, and Luo Yellow Rivers converge, it reaches along the Great Wall and the Hetao area in the north, northwestern Hubei in the south, east Henan in the east, and borders Gansu and Qinghai in the west.The age is 5000-3000 BC.It is a mainstay of the cultures of the Neolithic Age in China, showing the social structure and cultural achievements of the Chinese matriarchal clan system from prosperity to decline.According to the summary of "Encyclopedia of China·Archaeology Volume", Yangshao Culture is divided into four periods, four main regions, and eight types.The first period is about 5000-4500 BC; the second period is about 4500-4000 BC; the third period is about 4000-3600 BC; the fourth period is about 3600-3000 BC.The four regions are Guanzhong, Jinnan, Western Henan, Central Henan, Northern Henan and Southern Hebei, and Southwestern Henan, Northwestern Hubei.The eight types are Banpo type, Shijia type, Miaodigou type, Xiwangcun type, Qinwangzhai type, Hougang type, Dasikong village type, and Xiawanggang type.Each type has commonalities and differences in economy and pottery.

From the perspective of economic type, the Yangshao Culture is a relic of a more developed settlement and farming culture, mainly cultivating millet and broomcorn millet.There is a pottery handicraft industry with a high level of craftsmanship.Remnants of pottery-fired kilns have been found near villages in various places. The kiln structures can be divided into two types: horizontal cave kiln and vertical cave kiln.Hand-made molding, that is, mud strip construction method.In terms of processing and modification tools, there are pottery wheels, pottery pads, and pottery rackets.The grooming process has been done with slow wheel grooming.Yangshao Culture has a relatively mature pottery-making process, and the pottery produced is divided into clay pottery and sand-filled pottery.Clay pottery is more detailed, and the utensils are quite regular and exquisite.Practical utensils in life include bowls, bowls, cups, basins, jars, bottles, urns, etc.Sand-filled pottery is mostly used as cooking utensils, and mixed materials are added to the mud, such as fine sand, mussel shell powder, or broken pottery smashed into fine powder and placed in the mud, so that the cooked food will not break when heated.Cooking utensils include kettles, stoves, steamers, tripods, lids and seats.The pottery of the Yangshao Culture has exquisite decorations, and the colored paintings that are common on clay pottery usually surround the upper part of the outer wall or the belly of the inner wall of the utensils, with geometric patterns, plant and animal patterns painted in black, and human heads are also painted in colored colors; On pottery, thick and thin rope patterns are commonly printed.In addition, the Yangshao culture produced many naive and simple pottery sculptures and sculptures in the process of pottery making, such as garlic flasks, boat-shaped pots, gourd-shaped bottles, and pointed-bottomed bottles in pottery, all of which are beautiful plastic arts.Animals and human statues adorned on pottery, such as the gecko on Miaodigou pottery, the falcon bird image in Quanhu Village, the sheep-headed button in Jiangzhai, the bird-shaped cover in Banpo Village, and the human head in Beishouling The decorations, as well as the half-relief sculptures of human faces in Jiangxi Village, Fufeng, Shaanxi, all have a certain artistic level.The gray and black pottery big osprey tripod unearthed in Taipingzhuang, Hua County, Shaanxi Province is a masterpiece.The art of pottery reflects some content of Yangshao Culture people's spiritual life and their ingenuity in artistic creation.

There are some inscribed symbols on pottery of the Yangshao Culture, which are mainly found on the black-colored wide band along the mouth of the bowl with a round bottom of the Banpo type, and also found in sites such as Jiangzhai and Beishouling.Some people think that this is the earliest simple text; some people suggest that it can be used as an intermediate link in the development from knotting notes and wood-cut notes to pictorial texts, and it is a symbol with a character or a specific meaning. It was first discovered in Chengziya, Longshan Town, Zhangqiu County, Shandong Province in 1928.The time of Longshan Culture is around 2310-1810 BC.The Longshan culture is very complicated, including Henan Longshan culture, Shaanxi Longshan culture and Shandong Longshan culture. After years of research, archaeologists call it the Longshan era.This era has entered the stage of patriarchal clan society from matriarchal clan society.The pottery handicraft industry changed from clan operation to family operation.

The pottery of the Longshan Culture is mainly handmade, that is, the clay sticks and plates are formed.Make the bottom of the device first, and then build up circle by circle.Slow wheel modification.From the second phase of Miaodigou culture, wheel-making began to appear, and in the Longshan culture of Shandong, the technology of fast-wheel pottery was relatively proficient.Because the shape of the pottery is very regular, the body is thin, and the wheel pattern is clear.Pottery is divided into gray pottery, red pottery and black pottery in terms of color.The firing temperature is around 840°C.The shapes include pots, plates, cups, basins (double-eared basins, three-eared basins, folded-belly basins, etc.), cauldrons, steamers, jia [jiajia], bowls, tripods, 鬲, 鬶, 盉 [he and], 甗 [ Yanyan], Daquan Zudou, etc.There are muddy pottery and sandy pottery.The highest level of craftsmanship is the shiny and polished eggshell black pottery.

It was named after it was first discovered in Majiayao in Lintao County, Gansu Province in 1924.It is mainly distributed in Gansu and northeastern Qinghai in the upper reaches of the Yellow River.It developed under the influence of Yangshao Culture in the Central Plains.The time is from 3190 BC to 1715 BC.It can be divided into four types: Shilingxia, Majiayao, Banshan and Machang.Handcrafted with finishing touches.The shapes of the utensils include bowls, cups, bowls, pots, basins, bottles, cans, double cans, beans, and statues.The firing temperature is 760-860°C. It was named after it was first discovered in Qijiaping, Hezheng County, Gansu Province in 1924.Distributed in Qinghai, Gansu and Ningxia.According to carbon fourteenth determination, the age is about 1890-1620 BC.There are also many types of Qijia culture pottery, including daily-use pottery cups, plates, bowls, basins, cans, beans, 盉, 疝, 鬲, 甑, 甗, etc., which are practical and beautiful.Painted pottery such as double-big-eared jars, extravagant-mouthed, high-necked, and deep-bellied amphorae are obvious representatives.Mainly sandy terracotta and muddy terracotta.The color painting is mainly black color painting, and red is not used much.The firing temperature is around 800-900°C.

The Dawenkou Culture, distributed in the lower reaches of the Yellow River, was named after it was first discovered in 1959 near Dawenkou Town, Tai'an County, Shandong Province and Baotou Village, Ningyang County.This culture is distributed in Shandong and northern Jiangsu.The age is 4040-2240 BC.Pottery is mainly made by hand, and wheel system appeared in the late period.There are red pottery, black pottery and white pottery.The production is very delicate, most of the surface of the pottery has been finely polished, and some of the pottery are covered with red pottery clothes and painted.The patterns on the pottery include scratch pattern, string pattern, basket pattern, hollow hole, circle pattern, arc triangle pattern, dot pattern, water ripple, rhombus pattern, swirl pattern, arc pattern, grid pattern and so on.There is a very thin black pottery similar to the eggshell pottery of Shandong Longshan culture.

The Neolithic culture in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River was first discovered in Daxi Town, Wushan County, Sichuan.It is mainly distributed in the Three Gorges area and the banks of the Yangtze River in western Hubei.The age is 3825-2405 BC.Daxi culture has red pottery, gray pottery and black pottery.There are mostly red pottery, and some ruins also have white pottery.The production method is handmade, and the edge of some works is modified by slow wheels.Sand-filled pottery used as a cooker, the mud contains fine sand such as quartz, broken rice husks and mussel shells.There are many types of utensils, including bowls, cups, basins, bowls, beans, ring-footed plates, bottles, jars, urns, tripods, cauldrons, gui [gui ghosts] and so on.Some pottery surfaces are polished, and some are decorated with string patterns, tile groove patterns, grate patterns, stamp patterns, hollow holes and additional pile patterns.Painted pottery is very characteristic, black color is applied on fine clay red pottery, and there are arc lines, wide band lines, Jomon lines, parallel line lines, horizontal herringbone lines, swirl lines, etc.Zhu painted on a few black pottery.The firing temperature of pottery is 600-800°C.

It is mainly distributed in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and the Han River Basin. It was named after it was first discovered in Qujialing, Jingshan County, Hubei Province.The age is 2550-2195 BC.This culture has a certain inheritance relationship with the Daxi culture, and has a high level of pottery making. The method of making pottery is mainly handmade, and there is also wheel making.The types of utensils include three-legged plates, high ring-footed cups, ring-footed bowls, long-necked ring-footed pots, folded-bellied beans, bowls, and flat-footed tripods, as well as extra-large pots and jars.There were more black pottery in the early stage, and gray pottery in the late stage.Qujialing culture is a culture in the south that can make thin eggshell pottery. The decorative patterns include string patterns, shallow basket patterns, engraved patterns, additional pile patterns, hollow holes and some vermilion paintings.The firing temperature is around 900°C.Painted pottery has black color, orange color.Patterns include dots, stripes, arcs, lozenges, squares and egg dots.The pattern on the pottery spinning wheel is the most exquisite painting on all primitive society pottery production tools.

It was named after it was first discovered in Hemudu Village, Yuyao, Zhejiang in 1973.The age is 6360-5360 years ago, and the earliest can be close to 7000 years.The pottery making process is relatively primitive, and the pottery is a kind of carbon black pottery, some are black gray, and some are black.The firing temperature is between 800-930°C.The surface of pottery is often decorated with dense rope patterns and various engraved patterns, such as plant patterns such as rice, and animal patterns such as pig patterns, similar fish and algae patterns, phoenix bird patterns, and lizard patterns, etc., which are vivid and lifelike.Daily utensils include cauldrons, jars, cups, plates, bowls, basins, bowls, stoves, lids and supports.Three pieces of faience were found.The method is to put a layer of off-white soil on the surface of the carbon black pottery, then polish it, and draw patterns in maroon and dark brown.There are also some sculptural works of art, such as human figures, pigs, sheep and fish.

It was named after it was first discovered in Majiabang, Jiaxing County, Zhejiang Province in 1959.This kind of culture is mainly distributed in the vast areas of southern Jiangsu and northern Zhejiang.The age begins from 5000 BC to 4000 BC and can be divided into three periods.In the early days, there was the lower floor of Majiabang and the fourth floor of Luojiajiao.In the middle period, there are the upper floor of Majiabang, the first, second and third floors of Luojiajiao, the lower floor of Weidun and the tenth floor of Caoxie Mountain.Pottery includes muddy red pottery, gray pottery, black pottery and black leather pottery.There are also fine sand, scale shell powder, coked grass clippings and chaff in the mud.Mainly handmade.Wheel-made pottery appeared in the late period.The firing temperature is about 760-950°C.The level of pottery technology is high.Utensils include bowls, beans, cups, plates, pots, yi [yiyi], bottles, goblets, statues, pots, spoons, 鬶, 盉, cauldron, tripod, 甗 and supports.Multi-surface polished.The decorations include string pattern, jomon pattern, scratch pattern and so on.Bean products are popular for engraving holes, and the hole shapes are round, square, rectangular, triangular, and diamond-shaped. It was first discovered in the middle layer of the Songze site in Qingpu County, Shanghai, and has been found in Wuxian, Changzhou, Wujin, Wuxing and other counties.Pottery is generally dominated by sandy red-brown pottery and argillaceous gray pottery, and there are also a small amount of argillaceous red pottery and argillaceous black skin pottery.The argillaceous gray pottery has a delicate texture and a high degree of heat. This kind of pottery is rare in Majiabang type, but occupies a dominant position in Songze pottery industry.The blending materials of sand-filled pottery are sand, mussel shells or burnt rice husks.It is mainly plain surface, and the decoration includes additional pile patterns, embossed patterns, arc string patterns, perforated holes, colored paintings, etc. In terms of production process, the processing of raw materials is more delicate.Forming generally adopts slow wheel dressing.According to the observation of the utensils, judging from the regular, fine and uniform wheel spiral pattern, it may have been shaped by wheel.Common utensils include cooking utensils, cauldrons, pots, and steamers.Containers include pots, goblets, basins, straight-mouthed round-bottomed cylinders, etc.Eating utensils include beans, cups, etc., and others include grinders.The firing temperature is between 760-810°C. The type of the lower layer of the North Yinyang Camp.This is a cultural type similar to Majiabang culture.The residents produced painted pottery of good quality, such as ring-footed bowls, round-bottom basins, round-bottomed bowls with handles, pots with handles, three-legged pots, folded-foot tripods, and high-rounded-foot statues.Painted in red and black.Some are painted with white or red pottery clothes first and then painted. The contents of the paintings include triangle patterns, arc patterns, net patterns, rhombus lattice patterns, band patterns, etc. It is a primitive culture that emerged after the Majiabang culture.It got its name from Liangzhu, which was first discovered in Hangzhou County, Zhejiang Province in 1936.The distribution range of this type of culture is roughly the same as that of the Majiabang culture.The age is about 4700 to 3800 years ago.Pottery is the most characteristic of muddy gray pottery.Represented by black pottery, most black pottery is gray-bodied and black on the surface, and only a small number of thin-bodied black pottery are black inside and outside.There are also muddy gray pottery and sandy red pottery.The production method generally adopts the wheel system, and the shape is regular. Only a few utensils or utensil parts are handmade or patterned.The decoration of pottery is mainly polishing, and the decorations include string pattern, basket pattern, rope pattern, scratch pattern, cone pattern, wave pattern, additional pile pattern and hollow hole, etc.The main utensils are bowls, basins, cups, beans, jars, pots, gui, zun, 盉, cauldron, tripod, 鬶 and large-mouthed and pointed-bottomed utensils.Its fin-shaped three-legged tripod, large circle-footed shallow plate, and bamboo-shaped thin-stalked beans are the most distinctive.The firing temperature is around 940°C. There are still many primitive cultures with relatively developed pottery handicrafts.Early Neolithic sites include Xianren Cave in Wannian County, Jiangxi, Qingtang in Yingde, Guangdong, Zengpiyan in Guilin, Guangxi, Dadikeng, Yuanshan, Fengbitou and other cultures in Taiwan.Some later ones include Shanbei in Xiushui, Jiangxi, Shixia in Qujiang, Guangdong, Tanshi Mountain in Fujian, and Dadunzi in Yuanmou, Yunnan.In Northeast China, there are cultures such as Xinle in Shenyang, Liaoning, and Hongshan in Chifeng.The pottery crafts have their own characteristics, and some of them are more or less related to the pottery crafts of the Neolithic Culture in the Central Plains.The level of pottery making technology varies from place to place, and because of the different connotations of primitive culture, different characteristics are shown on pottery.But one thing is obvious, that is, with the development of the times, the level of craftsmanship has gradually become the same, and the common features have gradually increased, forming a common style of Chinese Neolithic pottery art, which is manifested in the following aspects: The shape of Neolithic pottery laid the foundation for the shapes of living utensils in various historical periods in my country.Although it has changed with the changes of the times, various living utensils have developed and evolved on this basis.The arrangement of the shape and structure of pottery in this period is all to meet the practical needs in life.The shapes of all kinds of utensils are very regular, mainly round, and pay attention to symmetry.Use the most concise structure to achieve the balance of power, easy to pick up, and stable to put down.It satisfies the needs of storage and use to the greatest extent, and is absolutely not complicated and trivial, and obtains the artistic effect of excellent practical craftsmanship.These molding laws are completely in line with aesthetic principles. The basic rules of the pattern process are established.Although Neolithic pottery is a product of thousands of years ago, these utensils are simple and pure from shape to decoration, without any sense of mystery.The pottery modeling structure comes from life.People who make pottery create the most familiar plants, animals and other natural phenomena that they come into contact with almost every day when collecting and cultivating the land, by using imitation, refinement and exaggeration. , leaves, flowers, etc., animal images such as pigs, dogs, ospreys, long-billed birds, water birds, snails, snails, canoes, and human figures.When beautifying pottery, techniques such as patting, carving, painting, and kneading are used for modification.The raw materials for painting are also a kind of loose iron and manganese nodules found around their residences or cultivated land, which are made into color materials after crushing.A paintbrush is a tool similar to a brush made of animal hair and the like.The decorative patterns are drawn from water waves, plants, animals, figures and other images, which are very close to the life of primitive people, which means that the life of primitive people is the source of pottery art in the Neolithic Age.Take the painted pottery patterns that are too rich to count, it has refined the familiar phenomena in nature into patterns, and there have been excellent laws that conform to aesthetic principles, such as the laws of balance, order, symmetry, repetition, and continuity that everyone abides by. .There is absolutely no disorder, inversion of weight, and imbalance of proportion.Whether these patterns are complex or simple, they all conform to the principle of beauty in pattern science. The production of pottery in the Neolithic Age is based on practicality, and all means and purposes of beautifying pottery do not deviate from this principle.All patterns on pottery must obey the shape of the vessel.The combination of decorative beauty and practical beauty is very rare in the primitive society thousands of years ago. All kinds of patterns, pictures and sculptures on pottery are arranged on the most prominent parts of the utensils, such as the abdomen and shoulders.People who use pottery not only meet the needs of daily use, but are also the easiest to touch with their eyes during use, making life rich and colorful and enjoying the beauty of spirit.The maturity of the skills and the simplicity of the character make the pottery made must be dignified, plump and straight.These pottery arts express the rhythm and rhythm produced by nature, form and movement, which are harmonious and amazing (Fig. 1). The Neolithic Age has been thousands of years away from today.Archaeologists understand the history at that time by excavating living relics, production tools, and people's analysis. The shape of pottery and the painted paintings on it vividly reproduce the life of people at that time and reflect people's ideology. A vivid historical picture scroll.There are many plant pictures on the pottery, showing the scene of collecting and farming at that time.On the surface of some pottery, the growth of seedlings under the sunlight is drawn, and curly branches, petals, and seeds are regularly drawn, which is both decorative and realistic.Life is rich and colorful, and people love life even more passionately (Figure 2). The images of animals are mostly docile animals that people fish, hunt, and domesticate, such as fish, deer, pigs, dogs, storks, ospreys, birds, etc.People have the most contact with them and are the most familiar with them. It is easy to grasp their habits and characteristics, and they can accurately describe their images and expressions. They are very good at choosing, refining and exaggerating.For example, the pig depicted on the carbon black pottery bowl unearthed from the Hemudu site is the image of a wild boar in the process of being domesticated into a domestic pig.Long snout, big ears, and high neck ridge are the characteristics of wild boars, but the shoulders and abdomen have obvious arcs, which are relatively plump and have a docile personality, just like domestic pigs.The Majiayao culture pottery depicts the frog crawling in the rice field. The four legs are exaggerated to be bigger than the body. Pottery decoration always distills the most beautiful things in the world and puts them on them.Of course, the image of the human body is also the most beautiful. The pottery makers made many images of people on the pottery, such as molding the lid and button of the vessel into a human head.The slender pottery bottle mouth is shaped like a girl's head, with a slender neck, prominent shoulders and upper abdomen, just like a girl's high chest, and a slender lower abdomen. The whole is polished red pottery.A pottery vase is like a slim young girl.A small-necked flask is in the collection of the Chinese History Museum in Beijing.The bottle is molded into a nude figure with protruding upper breasts, which is a female image, and the lower body is a structure with masculine characteristics.This is entirely a kind of reproductive worship in primitive society, that is, if men and women communicate with each other, they can reproduce offspring.In the Hongshan Culture of Liaoning, many beautifully sculpted images of women were found, naked, with bulging belly, protruding breasts, and raised buttocks, which are images of women before labor (Figure 3 [1-2]).These images were found in large numbers in a sacrificial site.Unearthed at the Yangshao Cultural Site in Yanhe Village, Linru County, Henan Province, a straight cylinder-shaped three-ear jar, made of relatively thick pottery, was used for secondary burials to contain the bones of the deceased. It was painted with a picture of a stork, fish and stone axe.A gigantic stork with wide-eyed eyes holds a large dead fish in its powerful beak.Next to it stands a huge stone axe, which is wrapped with a rope on a wooden handle, and the end of the handle is carved with a diamond-shaped grid.Some archaeologists believe that this complete picture has deep meaning and can reveal a profound social phenomenon.It seems to represent two fighting clan tribes, with the stork and the fish representing the totems of two different clan tribes.The tribe with the stork as its totem is powerful.Defeated the fish-totem tribe in a bloody battle between the two tribes.The leader of the stork tribe is brave and good at fighting, and has contributed to the strength of the tribe.The stone ax signifies his power, and the dead fish signifies the surrender of the fish tribe.After the death of the mighty chief of the stork tribe, potters drew such images in order to show his exploits on the clay urns in which his ashes were placed.If this conjecture is correct, it can be seen that the content of painted pottery in the Neolithic Age has gone far beyond just meeting the requirements of use, but reflects the complex relationship between clans and rich ideological content. At the Majiayao cultural site in Shangsunjiazhai, Datong County, Qinghai Province, a painted pottery basin with dancing patterns was unearthed in 1973, with a slightly closed mouth, slightly curved abdominal wall, and a small flat bottom.The painted decoration of this basin is mainly three groups of figures dancing, with a circle of stripes along the upper port, and four parallel strings at the largest abdominal diameter of the basin.Between the upper and lower groups of patterns is the theme pattern, that is, the pattern of dancing figures. On both sides of each group of dancing figures are five to eight parallel arcs.Between the two groups of opposite arc lines, there is a diagonal willow leaf-shaped wide band line.The dancing figures are in groups of five, facing one direction and holding hands.They danced to the beat, to the melody of the dance, their braids swaying to one side.The person on the outermost side holds the partner with one hand, and the other arm does not hold hands, and simply draws two lines, which are intended to show that the dance moves more.The two legs of the character are represented by two lines, which form a certain angle, which means that the whole body has been padded and the toes are used to dance.According to the analysis of modern stage dance movements, what people dance is a relatively cheerful dance.Each person has an upturned tiger-tail-shaped decoration at the lower end of the buttocks, which is a favorite decoration in primitive society.After working, they danced hand in hand around the pond under the shade of trees.Pottery makers use smooth lines to express people's happy life, with realistic images and prominent characters.In particular, the orange-yellow pottery basin is skillfully used. After filling with water, the water reflects the pottery color, and the arc-shaped pottery wall beautifies and enriches the image.This is a portrayal of the entertainment and cultural life of people in primitive society after work.It shows that the pottery art of the Neolithic Age reached a very high artistic level, which reflected the rich and colorful life of people at that time (Figure 3.3).