Chapter 2 Section 1 Pottery and Porcelain

Folk crafts originated from the decoration and beautification of daily necessities, and from the carving and processing of practical utensils.Archaeological discoveries have proved that as far back as the Neolithic Age six or seven thousand years ago, our ancestors had a relatively mature aesthetic concept and awareness of beautifying daily necessities through shapes, colors, and decorations.The invention of pottery technology, especially painted pottery technology, marks a major leap in the development of production and art in ancient my country.Its appearance not only gave birth to painting and sculpture, a pair of traditional sister arts, and pioneered Chinese decorative art, but also laid a national foundation for the development of arts and crafts in my country for thousands of years, and its influence has continued to modern times.

Painted pottery is a kind of pottery painted with black and red patterns, which was mainly popular in the upper and middle reaches of the Yellow River during the Yangshao Culture Period.There are many shapes and styles of painted pottery. For cooking food, there are tripod and 鬲 [li li]; Beans, bowls, cans, bottles, urns, etc. are used to carry water and food. The shapes are all round and plump, in line with the principles of mechanics.Painted pottery decorations are mostly painted with a brush dipped in red (ocher) and black (manganese compound) pigments after the pottery is polished.The content of painting and decoration mainly includes various geometric patterns (such as ∽ shape, cross shape, net shape, water wave shape, swirl shape, hook leaf shape, etc.) and vivid animals (such as fish, frog, turtle, deer). , plants (such as flowers and fruits, valley leaves, branches), and character patterns.The style of painting and decoration is generally concise and extensive, simple and healthy, and different regions have different local characteristics.

Painted pottery is a practical utensil, and the painting and decoration of painted pottery objects generally express the labor and life of the ancestors of the Neolithic Age, full of the simple and unrestrained artistic spirit of the early civilization.There were very few pigments at that time, but the crude material conditions did not restrain the artistic talent of the craftsmen.They expressed their cherishment of the fruits of labor by depicting plants and animals with concise brushstrokes (the social economy at that time was in the transition period from fishing, hunting and gathering to settled agriculture), and expressed them with a variety of combinations of various shapes. The feeling of life is simple and fresh, extensive and smooth, filled with a friendly and pleasant atmosphere of fitness.A batch of pottery with human face and fish pattern was unearthed from the Yangshao Cultural Site in Banpo, Xi'an. The direction of the fish pattern is very vivid and friendly.The dance pattern pottery basin unearthed from the Majiayao cultural site in Sunjiazhai, Datong, Qinghai, shows three groups of silhouetted dancing figures, dancing hand in hand, the images are lifelike and full of dynamic and rhythm (Figure 1).There are also some utensils, such as the painted pottery unearthed from the Majiayao cultural site in Ningding Banshan, Gansu Province, which are decorated with multi-angle and multi-effect characteristics.Viewed from the side, these pottery decorations appear as smooth water ripples or hooked leaf patterns, but when viewed from top to bottom, they look like a blooming flower, which has a great sense of space.Many experts said, take a close look at the ceramics we use now, whether in shape or decoration, they still have many of the same characteristics as the Yangshao relics.This also shows that from the perspective of the development history of ceramics, Yangshao painted pottery is actually the source of Chinese ceramics, at least one of them.It and the later Longshan Culture pottery (black pottery) and Liangzhu Culture pottery have laid a solid foundation for the development of my country's ceramics (Figure 2).

After ancient China entered the Bronze Age, exquisitely shaped and magnificent bronze wares were exclusive items for the aristocratic ruling class, while pottery, bamboo and wood wares were still the main practical utensils among the people.During the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the most popular pottery among the people was wheel-made or wheel-moulded gray pottery and red pottery, and the shape of the pottery was somewhat similar to that of bronze ware (because the shape of bronze ware was mostly imitated from pottery).Most of the decorations on Shang and Zhou pottery are made by stamping the engraved clapper boards sequentially when the pottery is still wet.In the late Zhou Dynasty, a kind of dark pattern pottery that can distinguish the pattern structure under suitable light but does not reveal concave and convex traces appeared. The density of pottery is increased, and the surface will appear luminous black gray after firing.This is a treasure of civil pottery at that time.

The highest achievement of Shang and Zhou pottery is the exquisite white pottery and glazed pottery with crystal glaze. White pottery is white and delicate pottery with kaolin as raw material and fired at high temperature. It has been found in the early sites of Longshan Culture and Erlitou Culture.The white pottery made in the Shang Dynasty, such as 鬶 [gui gui], 盉 [he and], beans, gui [gui ghost], pots, jue, etc., are finely refined in mud, neat and rich in shape, pure white and flawless, with luxuriant carved patterns. , very precious.Glazed pottery is a pottery in which certain natural minerals and plants (such as caustic soda, lime, plant ash, etc.) are applied to the pottery body and fired to form a pottery glaze.This kind of glazed pottery with grayish white body, hard and dense texture, and a layer of transparent green glaze on the surface is similar to coarse porcelain in chemical composition, so it is also called primitive porcelain.Glazed pottery from Shang and Zhou relics, especially those from the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, is found in many places, especially in Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Jiangxi in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and Guangdong and Guangxi in the Pearl River Basin. , Yu mainly.Although it was not the daily necessities of the working people like white pottery at that time, the development of pottery from unglazed to painted, from unglazed to glazed, marked that ancient Chinese pottery technology has taken an important step towards porcelain firing. step.At that time, there was a kind of imprinted hard pottery in the southeast coast of my country, which had a body quality close to that of the original porcelain but had no glaze on the surface. The firing temperature was above 1200°C, which was also a remarkable achievement at that time.

The earliest and real porcelain in our country only appeared in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, or in other words, from pottery to porcelain, from primitive porcelain to porcelain, its transition period was finally completed in the Eastern Han Dynasty.Many celadon kiln sites of the late Eastern Han Dynasty have been discovered in Shaoxing, Shangyu, Jinhua and other places in Zhejiang Province of my country.According to measurements, the firing temperature of the porcelain pieces found in these kiln sites has reached 1310°C±20°C, and the bending strength is 710 kg/cm2.The main difference between porcelain and pottery is the use of raw materials and firing temperature: pottery can be made from ordinary clay, and the firing temperature is between 800°C and 1100°C; kaolin must be selected for porcelain, and the firing temperature is between 1200°C and 1100°C. Around 1400°C.Porcelain carcass has the characteristics of high hardness, translucence, corrosion resistance, easy cleaning, and beautiful appearance. Therefore, with the development of porcelain from the Three Kingdoms and Jin Dynasties, it soon replaced copper and lacquerware with absolute advantages and became the most important in people's daily diet. daily necessities.After the Southern and Northern Dynasties, "Southern Green and Northern White" became the basic trend of porcelain production at that time.

"Nanqing" means that the porcelain kilns in the south centered on Zhejiang mostly fired celadon that is as crystal clear as lake water; "Northern White" means that the porcelain kilns in Henan and Hebei mostly fired pure white porcelain.However, this is only in general terms.Because the production of white porcelain was invented by northern craftsmen on the basis of learning the firing of southern celadon. They not only fired white porcelain, but also fired celadon and black porcelain. The Sui and Tang Dynasties were a period of high development of my country's porcelain.At that time, the general pattern of "Southern Green and Northern White" remained unchanged, but the development of northern celadon, three-color, floral glaze and southern underglaze colored porcelain indicated that a new situation would emerge in the development of Chinese porcelain.Porcelain in the Tang Dynasty has rich shapes and colorful decorations. According to Lu Yu's "Tea Classics", the kilns in the Tang Dynasty were famous for firing fine ceramics. Known for making secret-colored porcelain with jade-color effect), Xing Kiln (now Neiqiu, Hebei, which belonged to Xingzhou in Tang Dynasty, famous for firing high-quality white porcelain), Dingzhou Kiln (now Fuping, Shaanxi, which belonged to Dingzhou in Tang Dynasty), Wuzhou [wuwu] Kiln (now Jinhua, Zhejiang, belonged to Wuzhou in Tang Dynasty), Yuezhou Kiln (now Xiangyin, Hunan, belonged to Yuezhou in Tang Dynasty, mainly for firing celadon with strong glass texture), Hongzhou Kiln (now Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, belonged to Hongzhou in Tang Dynasty, famous for firing sauce brown celadon), Shouzhou kiln (now Huainan, Anhui, belonged to Shouzhou in Tang Dynasty, famous for firing unique yellow glazed porcelain), etc.Archaeological discoveries, Tang Changsha kiln (now Changsha, Hunan), Qiong [qiongqiong] kiln (now Sichuan Qionglai [lailai]), Gongxian kiln (now Gongyi City, Henan), Lushan kiln (now Lushan, Henan) fired The level of underglaze color, three-color, white porcelain, celadon porcelain, flower glaze porcelain, etc. is also quite high.

The Song Dynasty was the most prosperous period in the history of Chinese ceramics.At that time, famous kilns spread all over the north and south, the ceramic decoration was rich and colorful, and various tire carvings were also unique.According to the records of the Ming Dynasty, there were five famous kilns at that time.The five famous kilns are Ding Kiln (present-day Quyang, Hebei, which belonged to Dingzhou in Song Dynasty, famous for printing, engraved and scratched white porcelain), Ru Kiln (now Baofeng, Henan Province, which belonged to Ruzhou in Song Dynasty, famous for blue-glazed porcelain) , Guan Kiln (the official kiln of the Northern Song Dynasty is located in Kaifeng, Henan Province today, and the official kiln of the Southern Song Dynasty is located in Hangzhou today, specializing in the firing of palace porcelain), Ge Kiln (in Longquan, Zhejiang Province today, it is said that the Zhang brothers are in charge of kilns, and the elder brother is called Ge Kiln, famous for ice cracked porcelain), Jun Kiln (now Yuxian County, Henan Province, which belonged to Junzhou in Song Dynasty, famous for kiln color-changing glazed porcelain).Together with the five famous kilns, there are also eight porcelain series, namely Ding kiln series, Cizhou kiln series (Cizhou kiln is located in Guantai Town, Ci County, Hebei today, and it belonged to Cizhou in Song Dynasty), Yaozhou kiln series (Yaozhou kiln is located in present-day Tongchuan, Shaanxi Province) , which belonged to Yaozhou in the Song Dynasty), Jun Kiln, Longquan Kiln, Jingdezhen Kiln (Jingdezhen Kiln is located in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province), Yue Kiln, Jianyao System (Jian Kiln is located in Jianyang County, Fujian Province, to fire black glazed porcelain) world famous).These famous kilns and kiln series compete with each other with their unique firing techniques and decoration techniques, making the porcelain crafts of the Song Dynasty colorful and famous all over the world.

Porcelain kilns in the Song Dynasty were divided into "official kilns" and "civilian kilns". "Official kiln" is a government-run kiln for the production of palace porcelain for the feudal ruling class. Porcelain is rich and elegant, and the decoration is exquisite and complicated. Except for some products that were forced to produce tribute to the royal family, most of the rest were mainly for civilian use, so the general cost was low, and the style was also strong and simple, which is a typical folk craft porcelain. According to the literature, the most distinctive folk kilns in the Song and Yuan Dynasties were the "Cizhou Kiln" in the north and the "Jizhou Kiln" in the south (in Ji'an, Jiangxi Province today, Ji'an was called Jizhou from Sui to Song Ji'an).Cizhou kiln mainly produces plates, bowls, jars and bottles, as well as porcelain pillows and toys.Its characteristic is that it is widely used to make iron paintings with pens on the tires or use half-cut and half-painted, colorful flower-picking methods to fire unique white-glazed black flowers, black-glazed white flowers and black-brown glazed wares. The decoration is fresh and free, with a unique Strong style of life.Cizhou kiln likes to use flowers, character stories, life sketches (such as enjoying the shade, playing football, circus, baby play, duck release, etc.), animals (including imaginary animals such as dragons, phoenixes, unicorns, celestial horses and real animals such as tigers) , hares, magpies, mandarin ducks, swimming fish, etc.) and popular poems, folk proverbs, etc. as the theme of decoration.The decorative form of the pattern is good at using continuous and regular intertwining flowers, scattered scattered branch flowers or neatly arranged small scattered flowers to "enlighten the brocade", and draw birds on the branches, ducks swimming in spring water, etc. within a specific geometric outline. Flying geese in the lotus pond or interesting life sketches make people feel friendly and vivid, with a particularly strong meaning of life (Figure 3).

The types of Jizhou kiln porcelain include black glaze, green glaze, green glaze, white glaze, and colored painting.It is characterized by a variety of patterns, meaningful meaning, concise and straight, full of the beauty of Jiangnan Water Town.Jizhou Kiln is most famous for its black glaze wares, among which paper-cut and "wooden leaves" are the most distinctive.The so-called paste printing is to apply the paper-cut or the tendon of the leaves on the porcelain body by spraying glaze, and then fire it in a special way, so that the dark brown inner wall of the porcelain will reflect the light-colored paper-cut and golden color after the porcelain is fired. The leaf tendons, don't have some looming taste.There are many patterns of paper-cutting in Jizhou Kiln: broken branches, plum blossoms scattered, flying phoenixes, peonies, lotus, daylilies, green bamboos embedded in flower frames, as well as "Fushou Kangning" and "Longevity and Wealth" Such auspicious words.The style is generally simple and lively, exuding an attractive local flavor in the lively and unrestrained style.

The underglaze blue and white porcelain and underglaze red porcelain of the Yuan Dynasty are very distinctive.In the Ming Dynasty, with the development of agriculture and handicrafts, the glaze color, pattern and shape of ceramic crafts were greatly improved compared with Song and Yuan. , colorful utensils (blue and white plus color, bucket color, filling color, multicolored) are like spring flowers after rain, blooming in full bloom.Since the Ming Dynasty explicitly banned the use of five-color wares, especially dragon and phoenix wares, blue-and-white porcelain was loved by the working people for its beauty, ease of manufacture, and durability. Therefore, most folk kilns in the Ming Dynasty mainly fired blue-and-white porcelain.Some famous kilns, such as Jingdezhen in Jiangxi Province, Longquan in Zhejiang Province, and Dehua in Fujian Province, produced blue and white porcelain for civilian use. The quality of the body is fine and the green material is light and elegant, and its exquisiteness is not inferior to that of official kilns. The decoration of blue and white porcelain for civilian use in the Ming Dynasty is based on a wide range of materials, with a hearty style, full of the fun of life and the spirit of fitness.The blue-and-white porcelain in the early Ming Dynasty was mostly decorated with flowers (peony, folded lotus, deformed chrysanthemum, etc.), character stories (such as the Three Kingdoms, Sui and Tang Dynasties), fairy mountain pavilions, etc. , with less form.After the mid-term, as Chinese porcelain was put into domestic and foreign markets in large quantities, the decorative style of civil blue and white porcelain became more and more lively, eclectic and full of pioneering spirit.In the blue and white porcelain patterns of the late Ming Dynasty, in addition to a large number of flowers, plants, trees, rocks, birds and animals, dragonflies, cicadas, cats and shrimps, daily utensils, and Han and Hui characters are widely used for decoration, and even poems and freehand landscapes are also used in paintings. "The brush has its origin, and the painting has its origin", which makes the decoration of folk porcelain in the Ming Dynasty richer than that of the previous generation, and can better reflect the content of all aspects of social life.In addition to the above-mentioned themes, there are also many auspicious patterns on folk porcelain in the late Ming Dynasty that use homonyms to borrow characters to unite animals and plants or symbolize auspiciousness with animals and plants, such as the homonym of fish ("Auspicious and more than"), and the homonym of bat ("Fu" "Five Blessings Hold Longevity"), celebrate with the homonym of chime ("universal celebration"), use pomegranate to symbolize many children, and use mandarin ducks to express love, etc.Most of these materials come from the folks, reflecting the desire of people of all walks of life to pray for a better life. Another great achievement of the folk ceramics industry in the Ming Dynasty was the prosperity of purple sand pottery.Zisha pottery is a hard pottery product made of purple sand clay.The exterior of this pottery product is not glazed, but its appearance is simple and elegant, and the surface becomes smoother as it is used, which is full of national characteristics.Zisha pottery tea has the characteristics of not losing the taste when brewing tea, not easy to go rancid in hot summer, resistant to cold and heat, and good rapid change performance, so it is loved by people.The firing of purple sand pottery actually started in the Song Dynasty, and its location was in Dingshu Town, Yixing, Jiangsu Province. However, the firing technology did not develop to a mature stage until Ming Zhengde (1506-1521 A.D.).Legend has it that Gongchun, the earliest craftsman of Zisha pottery, worked as a house boy in a big bureaucrat's house in the county when he was young. Later, he learned pottery making from the monks of Jinsha Temple.The pottery pots he made are fine in clay and ingenious in shape. The spouts and handles are mostly in the shape of melon and fruit tree roots and bamboo joints, which were very cherished by the contemporaries.After Gongchun, the famous craftsmen Dong Han, Zhao Liang, Yuan Chang, Shi Peng, Shi Dabin, Li Zhongfang, Xu Youquan, Li Maolin and other pottery-making techniques made new developments.They either take the shapes of melons, fruits, birds and animals in nature, or imitate the shapes of Yi wares in the Qin and Han Dynasties. The novel shapes and rich colors make Yixing Zisha pottery famous all over the world.It's just that purple clay wares are mostly loved by literati and refined scholars, and there are not many popular among the people. Working people can only use some pots and pans. The Qing Dynasty was the peak of the development of ancient Chinese porcelain. Compared with the Ming Dynasty, there were many improvements and innovations in craftsmanship and varieties.Qing porcelain was particularly focused on the colorful "doucai" (drawing the outline of the pattern with underglaze green material, and then filling the pattern with a variety of overglaze color materials, which was called filling in the Ming Dynasty), "Fancai" (first in the pattern Put lead powder on the bottom, and then apply five colors according to the thickness of the decoration, also known as soft color), and because the restrictions on folk kilns in the Qing Dynasty were not as strict as those in the Ming Dynasty, regardless of the official kilns and the folk kilns, they all mainly fired colored porcelain. The difference between them is only Because of the exquisite workmanship and the luxurious and simple decoration style, blue and white porcelain has taken a backseat. Most of the folk porcelains in the Qing Dynasty belonged to bowls, plates, bottles and jars, which emphasized practicality and generosity rather than weird shapes.The decorative themes of folk porcelain in the Qing Dynasty, in addition to people's favorite pictures of babies playing and the birthday celebration of the Eight Immortals, there are also pictures of opera stories (such as "Water Margin", "Stories"), pictures of farming and weaving, etc. that reflect history and folk customs, flowers, plants and bamboos. Trees, melons, fruits and vegetables, landscapes, trees and rocks, birds and beasts and various auspicious patterns are also refurbished, and even the contents of ethnic minorities and Western women and children can also be used as porcelain decorations.These all reflect the preferences and wishes of the common people, and reflect the new concepts brought to people by the cultural development and exchanges between China and foreign countries in the Qing Dynasty.Through it, we can understand a side of civil society life in the Qing Dynasty.