A Brief Introduction to Blue-and-White Porcelain and its Blue-and-White Bowl in Xuande, Daming

Blue-and-white porcelain is a rare product of China’s ceramic baking technology, but today the small-scale will be around the blue-and-white porcelain introduced, and we talk about the development of blue-and-white porcelain, the characteristics of the past dynasties and their decorations.

When it comes to blue and white, the first thing we think about is Jay Chou’s” blue and white porcelain, “a line that reads,” The sky is blue and the rain is blue, and I’m waiting for you. “But in fact the sky blue is the color of your kiln, and blue-and-white porcelain was originally derived from the three-colored basket from the Tang Dynasty.Then someone will ask, blue-and-white porcelain is blue, why called blue-and-white porcelain?In fact, the blue-and-white porcelain hair color is blue in the roasting process of chemical changes, color is green after the firing of the intuitive perception.No more nonsense to say, next, small to come and talk about the history of blue-and-white porcelain and its historical characteristics.

Blue-and-white porcelain first appeared in the Tang Dynasty, the original reason was because after the Anshi Rebellion, the Tang Dynasty gradually weakened, and other porcelain developed too fast, the production of the three-colored porcelain in the Tang Dynasty also gradually declined, and because of the subversion of the chaos of the dynasty at that time, the three-colored Tang gradually disappeared in people’s eyes, And so did its skill.Later generations want to recreate the Tang tricolor, so in the Huangye kiln with three colors of raw materials fired, but the yin is wrong, because of various reasons lead to the burning of porcelain is not three colors, but blue-and-white porcelain, blue-and-white porcelain at that time is characterized by white porcelain, cobalt blue under the glaze, firing temperature of 1300 degrees Celsius.At that time, people found that this kind of porcelain is no less than three-colored Tang, or after hundreds or even thousands of times of burning, can not burn three-colored porcelain, it will be seen as the continuation of the three-colored Tang porcelain.

The early blue-and-white porcelain did not develop smoothly, but declined.In 1957,13 pieces of blue-and-white bowl fragments were unearthed in Jinsha Taji, Longquan County, Zhejiang Province.The tower has the absolute chronology of the Northern Song Dynasty “Taiping Xingguo 2 years” (977 years);In the other place, in 1970, a piece of scraps from the belly of a blue-and-white bowl was unearthed in the tower of Huanchui Tower in Shaoxing City, Zhejiang Province.These fragments of the fetal quality of some of the thicker, and some of the finer.The embellishment has the chrysanthemum pattern, the circle pattern, the chord pattern, the line pattern and so on.Blue-and-white hair color before the more dense, black, but did not find with the Tang Dynasty blue-and-white porcelain has a continuation of the relationship.And the blue-and-white porcelain is maturing in the Yuan Dynasty in Jingdezhen.

The blue-and-white porcelain of the Yuan Dynasty was very mature and exquisite, whether it was made from formula or pattern.In the decorative features are full composition, multi-level without disorder.Stroke of a stroke is the main method of writing, smooth and powerful;The sketching and rendering is robust and serene.The subject of the decoration has characters, animals, plants, poetry and so on.The characters are Gaoshi (four love pictures), historical figures, and so on;Animals have dragon and phoenix, Kirin, mandarin duck, fish and so on;Common plants are peony, lotus, orchid, pine bamboo plum, ganoderma lucidum, flowers and leaves, melon and fruit;Poetry is rare.

By the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the blue-and-white porcelain had gone from prosperity to decline.In the Ming Yongle and Xuande period is a peak of blue-and-white porcelain development, at that time is well-known for exquisite production;Qing Kangxi with “colorful blue-and-white” blue-and-white porcelain to the peak;After Emperor Qianlong of Qing Dynasty, because of the development of Pink-colored porcelain, it gradually declined, although it was in late Qing Dynasty (Guangxu) at one time, finally it could not continue the prosperity of Kangxi Dynasty.Generally speaking, this period of official kiln equipment production rigorous, exquisite;The kiln apparatus is random, free and easy, the picture is freehand.Starting from the late Ming Dynasty, the blue-and-white painting gradually absorbed some elements of Chinese painting techniques.The picture below shows a group of Daming Xuande’s blue-and-white dishes.

This group of blue-and-white porcelain, open, inclined abdomen, circle foot, the shape is simple and unrestrained, the embryo glaze is firm and moist, the appearance is old and natural, there are all kinds of immortals and Xiangyun around the plate, the bottom of the tribe has a year to know Daming Xuande, marking its casting years.The shape is neat, dignified and sedate, the body is fine, the glaze is bright and smooth, the brushwork is exquisite, the painting is neat, the blue and white hair color is elegant, the composition is complicated and orderly, the level is clear, the beauty is handsome, the charm is smooth.