¡¡¡¡In
the history of Chinese ceramics, porcelain derived from
pottery and appeared later. In the early years, people
have made splendid achievements in ceramic field especially
in Yellow River and Changjiang River drainage area where
a lot of potteries and pottery fragments in the Neolithic
age were unearthed at historical sites. Some of them were
not only commodities, but also artworks such as ancient
painted pottery and pottery figurine. With the development
of pottery industry, the previous clay-strip forming technique
has been changed to throw clay method, while advanced
side-fired kiln and shaft kiln replaced ground firing.
People at that time also got some experience on how to
control the temperature. The highest firing temperature
had reached 1100¡æ, which was quite close to the firing
temperature between pottery and porcelain. In the early
period of Yin and Shang Dynasty, the appearance of white
pottery whose material was porcelain clay and hard pottery
symbolized the transition from pottery to porcelain.
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£¨Pottery-->Porcelain£©
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Decorative pottery |
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White pottery |
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Painted decoration pottery |
¡¡¡¡The difference between
primitive celadon and pottery is: Primitive celadon was
harder and more durable than pottery. Because of the glaze
applied to the surface of primitive celadon, it usually
had a ringing sound when being knocked. But the measure
of dealing with raw materials and clay was tough to some
degree. The complicated processes such as filtrating, washing,
pugging, mulling and aging were omitted; Moreover, the modeling
was relatively drab due to the poor plasticity and the body
was liable to crack due to its impurity; Besides, the glaze
color was unstable and its thickness was uneven; as a result,
the bareness of the tyre and flowing of glaze sometimes
occur. Then, in Dong Han Dynasty, throw clay method was
applied to make primitive celadon. The shape was regular,
surface smooth and glaze thicker; the combination between
tyre and glaze became compact and scalding rarely occurs.
All the things mentioned above showed that a mature period
for celadon was coming. |
£¨Primitive
celadon-->celadon£©
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Primitive celadon |
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Celadon |
¡¡¡¡In Dong Han Dynasty,
the appearance of mature celadon in Yue kiln was a milestone
in the history of Chinese ceramics. Wei Dynasty, Jin Dynasty,
the South and North Dynasty were just the seedtime. At that
time, celadon played an important role in ceramics, which
was widely fired. In the mean time, a small quality of black
glazed porcelain and white glazed porcelain were discovered.
Because of the unity of different nations and the introduction
of Buddhism, the ceramic style became various during this
period. |
£¨Celadon-->Black
porcelain-->White porcelain£©
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Celadon |
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black glaze |
¡¡¡¡In the latter part of North
Dynasty, white porcelain first appeared in North China.
Iron content embodied in the tyre was controlled and the
difficulty of color generation in iron was overcome. This
laid a foundation for the appearance of ancient painted
porcelain. The successful firing of white porcelain was
another milestone in the history of Chinese ceramics. In
Sui and Tang Dyansty, the Chinese politics, economy, culture
and trade became unprecedentedly prosperous, which promoted
the progress of ceramics industry, the expansion of ceramic
market and later formed the situation of "celadon in
south and white porcelain in north." Celadon was the
main product of South China. Yue kiln was the typical representative
with high artistic value. The tyre was light, thin and compact;
the glaze layer was transparent and exquisite. White porcelain
of Xing kiln in Tang Dynasty was the representative of "North
white". The degree of whiteness in both body and glaze
was good. Its body was compact and usually had a ringing
sound when being knocked. From the late Tang Dynasty, many
famous kilns appeared. |
£¨White porcelain£©
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White glaze |
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White glaze |
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celadon glaze |
¡¡¡¡Song Dynasty was the third prosperous
period of the feudal society. Technology, culture, art and
handicraft were highly developed. The ceramic industry was
flourishing too. Porcelain kilns with regional feature spread
all over the country, which formed the layout of "six
kiln factions" and "five famous kilns". "Six
kiln factions" were Ding kiln faction, Jun kiln faction,
Yaozhou kiln faction, Cizhou kiln faction, Longquan kiln
faction and Jingdezhen kiln faction. "Five famous kilns"
were Guan kiln, Ru kiln, Ge kiln, Ding kiln and Jun kiln.
After the establishment of Guan kilns in Song Dynasty, different
artistic styles were formed in folk kilns. The famous porcelain
city Jingdezhen grew up in Yuan Dynasty, and it was known
for its blue-and-white porcelain, underglazed red porcelain
and egg white porcelain. |
£¨¡°Six kiln factions¡±
and ¡°five famous kilns¡±£© |
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Accidental coloring |
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Greenish white porcelain |
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Inglazed red |
¡¡¡¡In Ming and Qing Dynasty, Chinese porcelain
art took on a brilliant and splendid look after thousands
of years of development. Ancient painted porcelain became
prosperous: such as blue-and-white, wu-cai, dou-cai, plain
tri-color, underglazed san-cai, enamel color, fen-cai and
so on. The painted porcelains in Ming and Qing Dynasty merged
the ceramic art into a whole and gradually became perfect.
Single color glaze were of various kinds: sacrificial red
glaze, sacrificial blue glaze, Lang kiln red glaze, Jiangdou
red glaze, yellow glaze, peacock green glaze and so on.
Besides, new progress has been made in the making of ceramics.
For example, wheel jiggering has replaced bamboo knife jiggering.
Moreover, blowing glaze technology began to be used. From
then on, the quality and quantity of porcelain increased
rapidly. The ceramic industry of Ming and Qing Dynasty reached
the summit and greatly influenced modern Chinese ceramic
industry. |
£¨Decorative porcelain£©
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Dou cai |
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Blue and white |
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Fen cai |
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Jiangdou red |
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