Chapter 24 Section 10 Black Glazed Porcelain

In the Song Dynasty, when the art of porcelain was highly developed, the craftsmanship of black porcelain improved significantly.It makes ordinary coarse porcelain become a world-renowned treasure.The production of black porcelain in the Song Dynasty was very common, and almost all porcelain kilns in all parts of the country produced black porcelain.The black porcelain in the north and south of the Tang Dynasty had the local flavor of each place. In the Song Dynasty, it may be because Song Huizong especially loved the black tea cups in Shuiji Town, Jianyang, Fujian Province. The kilns in the north and the south competed to imitate it. Therefore, many porcelains tended to be consistent from shape to glaze color.

The kilns in the Cizhou kiln system produced the most black porcelain in the north.There are as many black porcelain wares as white porcelain and white-glazed black-flower porcelain. The black glaze is shiny and shiny, and has a deep and subtle beauty.The black-glazed engraving and flower-picking works are rough and unrestrained, with the temperament of folk sculptures, similar to today's folk prints and paper-cut art, the glaze is so black that it is brown, and there is no dazzling floating light.In the black porcelain in Henan, many utensils have white parallel protruding lines in the black glaze layer, and the contrast between black and white eliminates the feeling of monotony.

Jian Kiln is the abbreviation of Shuiji Kiln in Jianyang, Fujian.The characteristics of the works are that the carcass is purple and black, the glaze layer is very thick, black and moist, and the glaze layer reveals silver light, some of which are shaped like rabbits, and some are like the feathers of partridge birds, that is, partridge feathers appear on the glaze surface. Some of the spots are like oil droplets floating on the water surface, and some are like stars in the sky.Among them, the rabbit hair cup is the most famous, because it is suitable for fighting tea, it was loved by Emperor Huizong of Song Dynasty and became a tribute.The main products are bowls and cups.People in the Song Dynasty mostly used Jianyao rabbit hair cups for drinking tea, and Jianyao declined in the late Yuan Dynasty.

Jizhou Kiln is located in Yonghe Town, Ji'an, Jiangxi Province.Production was most prosperous in the Southern Song Dynasty.There are many kinds of porcelain produced, including white porcelain, celadon porcelain, white glazed black flower porcelain, flower glaze porcelain and so on.Among them, black porcelain is the most distinctive.It has been successful in mastering the crystallization of ferrous oxide, the change of silicic acid enamel, and the control of firepower and cooling temperature.A black and yellow glaze color mixed to form a glaze similar to tortoiseshell spots fired by Jizhou kiln is its representative product.In terms of decoration, Jizhou kilns ingeniously use the technique of stickers to make wooden leaf decorations that resemble leaves, and use folk paper-cut patterns as decorations to create a novel and unique art of paper-cut stickers.Jizhou kiln has a strong expressive ability of craftsmanship, and there are many varieties of black porcelain. Many artistic techniques have influenced the later Jingdezhen porcelain.