Chapter 12 Section 3 White Porcelain and Blue and White

The Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties were the period when white porcelain developed rapidly and achieved great achievements. On the basis of the achievements of white porcelain, blue and white decoration was invented, which added new splendor to the development of painted porcelain. As mentioned above, white porcelain was invented in the Northern Dynasties. As a daily-use vessel, this kind of porcelain is more attractive in appearance.White glaze reflects vividly to various colors and is suitable for various colored decorations. Therefore, since it was invented in the late Northern Dynasties, it has advanced by leaps and bounds in the Tang Dynasty and achieved great achievements.In the north of my country, due to the white clay, dry climate, and kiln structure, it is suitable for the development of white porcelain. A large number of white porcelain handicraft workshops have been established in Hebei, Henan, Shanxi, Shaanxi and other provinces to compete with the celadon with a long history in the south. A situation of "South Green and North White" has been formed.By the late Tang and Five Dynasties, white porcelain kiln sites had also been discovered in Anhui, Jiangxi and other places, but the production scale was small.White porcelain is still dominated by the north.

The white porcelain of the Tang Dynasty, represented by the products of Xing Kiln in Hebei Province, produced both high-quality fine white porcelain and low-quality rough white porcelain, which could meet the needs of all social classes. Therefore, Li Zhao of the Tang Dynasty wrote in "National History "Supplement" pointed out that Xing kiln white porcelain "is universally used by the rich and the poor".The shapes of white porcelain utensils with characteristics of the Western Regions are more abundant than those of celadon.In order to facilitate the needs of employers of different classes, white porcelain is often engraved with characters, such as the porcelain inscribed with "Ying" and "Hanlin" found in the Tang Daming Palace.In addition, in order to attract customers to buy, engraved on the carcass: "Ding Dagang made a bottle" and other similar trademark-style words.

In addition to Xing kiln, there are Gongxian kiln, Quyang kiln, Mixian kiln, Dengfeng kiln, Hejin kiln, Anyang kiln, Huangbao kiln in Tongchuan, Shaanxi, Jingdezhen kiln and so on.White porcelain from the Tang Dynasty was also shipped and sold overseas in large quantities, and has been found in many countries. Blue and white porcelain is the most distinctive variety in the history of Chinese porcelain, and people have made many explorations on it for a long time.Blue and white porcelain pieces of the Tang Dynasty were found in the archaeology of Tangcheng in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province. Later, archaeologists in Henan also found blue and white porcelain pieces in the kiln site of Gong County.After chemical analysis, all the blue and white porcelain pieces seen so far come from Gongxian kilns.Blue and white porcelain is created on the basis of white porcelain by using the techniques of over-glaze, in-glaze and under-glaze colors.The blue-and-white porcelain made by underglaze color technology will become the mainstream of blue-and-white porcelain in the future.

Blue-and-white porcelain uses cobalt blue as the pigment to draw patterns on the carcass, and then coats it with a layer of transparent glaze, firing at a high temperature of 1200°C once.The blue and white of the Tang Dynasty has not been found in the Xing Kiln kiln, which produces the highest level of white porcelain.Many were found in Gongxian kilns in Henan, which may be closely related to the availability of cobalt materials in Gongxian kilns.Because the three-color glazed pottery of Gongxian Kiln uses cobalt blue more, that is, blue color or blue glaze.The level of white porcelain in Gongxian kiln is not high, and it belongs to coarse white porcelain, so the blue and white porcelain in Tang Dynasty is characterized by thick carcass and low whiteness.Because the cobalt material contains iron, the blue and white color is rich and bright, and the blue is purple.So far, there are only 12 fragments of Tang Qinghua found in Yangzhou.Judging from these fragments, the shapes of the utensils include bowls, plates, pillows, etc.The decorative patterns include traditional Chinese flowers and patterns of West Asian sentiment.After the Tang Dynasty, the blue and white porcelain continued to improve its craftsmanship. After the development of the Song and Yuan Dynasties, it became the porcelain variety with the most ethnic characteristics in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.