An Appreciation of Blue-and-white Porcelain of the Yuxi Kiln in the Museum of Yuxi City

summary of contentsYuxi kiln blue-and-white porcelain ware belongs to Yunnan blue-glaze blue-and-white porcelain system.In the late Yuan and early Ming Dynasty, when the ceramic culture of the Central Plains flourished, Yunnan, which is located in the border area, was also deeply influenced by Jingdezhen porcelain-making technology, and produced unique blue-and-white porcelain with two representative kilns, the Yushi kiln and the Jianshui kiln.In the Qing Dynasty, the Yuxi kiln stopped burning, water kiln burning purple sand pottery, later known as the construction of water pottery.Yuxi Kiln is the only Yunnan blue-and-white porcelain kiln discovered so far. Its blue-and-white porcelain style is simple and simple, with a wide range of decorative subjects, with distinctive folk characteristics, and a unique artistic charm, similar to the style of Jingdezhen kiln in the late Yuan and early Ming Dynasties. It occupies an important position in the history of Chinese ceramics and fine arts.

The blue-and-white porcelain of Yuxi Kiln in Yuan and Ming Dynasties is the highest level of Yunnan blue-and-white porcelain at that time, which includes pot, dish, dish, pot, bowl, cup, bottle, etc. Its decorative content and expression techniques and Jingdezhen such as the same, to life in the common things as the object of description, handicraft craftsmen on the porcelain hand-painted into a piece of thought-provoking works of art, reflecting the Yuxi kiln blue-and-white porcelain decoration characteristics, This article chooses some fine products from them and introduces the decorative patterns and decorations.

1. Decoration and Decoration

1. Plant lines

The main decoration in the pot shoulder, abdomen, shin, blue and white hair rich color, rich level and three-dimensional sense, through the precise layout to show the rich picture of lotus, peony, chrysanthemum, banana leaf, blue, pine and bamboo, etc.

Blue peony lotus leaf pattern can (Fig.1), straight mouth straight neck, big shoulder drum belly, bottom, flat, glaze white gray, blue-green tone gray.The body of the jar is divided into four areas by chords. The shoulders are decorated with double lotus lines, the upper abdomen is decorated with day lily lines, the middle abdomen is decorated with peony lines, and the shin is decorated with lotus cover water swirls.The composition is dense, the painting technique is simple and vivid, the pattern is natural, the double-string lines are exquisite and delicate, the peony lines are delicate and delicate, the lotus-covered lines are elegant and firm, the day lily and water vortex lines are very dense, and the lotus-raised lines are wide and stretched.Peony petals and branches and leaves basic use a point painting method, in some parts to accentuate the brush power, repeat color, highlighting the layer of peony and lotus and three-dimensional sense, the whole thing looks instrument type thick rough, tone unity, decoration is appropriate, quite Yuan Dynasty porcelain style and flavor.

Fig.1 Lotus-petal pattern can with green peony

Blue-and-white Chichihu Noodle Covers (Fig.2), Chichihu Noodle Covers, Lotus Leaves Covers, Lip Neck, Bevel Shoulder Tympanum, Glaze Blue Medium Grey Yellow, Cover Double Chord and Flowers, Lip Neck, Neck with Vertical Line and Skew Line, Shoulder with Banana Leaves, Shoulder, The abdomen is divided into three areas with double chords, decorated with daisy, plum and bamboo leaf, jar cover and upper abdomen plastic animal lines.The whole blue-and-white color elegant, chi tiger new shape vivid image, blue-and-white hair color rich;In addition to the cover, the whole device was painted with white drawing, only partial coloring, like an elegant ink and wash painting.

Fig.2 Plastic flower pattern jar with green flowers and Qihu nuptial cover.

Blue and white round flower folding plate (Fig.3), skimming mouth, folding waist, circle flat, glaze blue and yellow, dish heart concave, draw a round flower, mouth edge and disc heart draw double chord pattern, inside and outside, draw eight flowers separately, the whole shape is simple, small and unique, the group flower blue and white flower color has thick and weak gradual change effect, It’s very three-dimensional.

Figure 3. Green Blossom Pocket Disc

Figure 5. Blue and white figure twining flower pattern jar

Green flower paste eight immortal figure can (Fig.6), lips straight neck, instruments, glaze green yellow, animal button, lotus leaf cover edge, cover, shoulder are separated by chords, cover decorated with twine flowers and banana leaf lines, neck decoration back lines, upper abdomen decoration lady in the yard bridge play, watch pine, blue and other scenery, The middle abdomen is painted with moiré patterns, the lower abdomen is decorated with tangled branches and peony patterns, the shin is decorated with lotus patterns, the theme is decorated with motif patterns, and the figure of eight immortals is painted with vivid and beautiful patterns, and the figure of eight immortals symbolizes happiness and luck.

Fig.6 Blue and White Paste of Eight Immortals

Blue and white phoenix in flower pattern jade pot spring bottle (Fig.9), the shape beautiful, skimming mouth, thin bunch neck, shoulder, drum, foot, glaze blue yellow, painted banana leaf lines and straight lines at the neck, simple water wave and stone lines at the shoulders, the abdomen painted phoenix in flowers, the bottom of the painted lotus on the back. The layout of the whole device is reasonable, the pen style is vivid, the lines are beautiful, the blue and white color is suitable, and there is a strong artistic sense.

Figure 9. Blue and white phoenix in flower pattern jade pot, spring vase

Blue fish algal pattern plate (Fig.10), the mouth, arc abdomen, circle foot, glaze green ash, the mouth with blue flowers left white way to draw deformation lotus leaf pattern, the center of the disk painted water grass and duckweed, two fish play in algae, simple and smooth, blue and white color has a three-dimensional sense, fish, fish, The depiction of algae is lively and interesting, full of spirituality.

Fig.10 Algal Plate

II. Characteristics of Decoration

1. Age and Regional Style

During the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, the counties in the Yuxi area were the key areas to be farmed at that time. A large number of Han, Hui, and Mongolian troops entered the area, not only adding new ethnic elements, promoting the exchange and development of ethnic groups, but also bringing advanced culture and production technology. Yuxi kiln is developed on the basis of the basic stability of the society.At that time, Yunnan, because of its complicated geographical environment, ethnic factors and cultural atmosphere, made the Han Buddhism, Southern Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism can stand here, do not affect each other, their respective development, so the decoration style of Yunnan blue and white porcelain also shows the characteristics of regionalization and pluralism. The decoration technique basically inherits Jingdezhen blue-and-white porcelain decoration style, the content is rich and colorful, pays attention to the drawing, is full of the vivid life interest and the native flavor.This batch of blue-and-white porcelain, except a few blue-and-white hair color heavy, most of the blue-and-white show light color, using a lot of point painting techniques, color can show a deep, light, thick, light multi-level, both exquisite decoration sense, and with the effect of drawing flowers, giving people a fresh and elegant feeling, As a typical characteristic of Yunnan blue-and-white flowers in Yuan and Ming Dynasties, because cobalt materials were collected from local areas and were not refined, the blue-and-white hair color was black, gray and slightly faint, unlike Jingdezhen blue-and-white porcelain.

2. The subject matter is wide and the content is rich

Yuxi Kiln draw lessons from and learn from Jingdezhen blue-and-white porcelain decoration techniques, its content and Jingdezhen the same, with a distinctive folk national color, mainly describes people like to hear the plant, animals, characters, words, auspicious patterns, and so on, and people pursue auspicious meaning of the aesthetic fashion.The porcelain covers most of the decorative patterns of Yunnan blue-and-white porcelain in the Yuan and Ming dynasties, including plants, characters and animals. In addition, there are some auspicious patterns and decorative patterns with prominent themes, fresh and bright, far-reaching artistic conception, and many auspicious meanings.Among them, the number of plant patterns is the most, animal patterns, figure patterns is the second, plant patterns have lotus, peony, chrysanthemum, blue, plum, pine and bamboo patterns, lotus and lotus leaf patterns are more common in use, the lotus and lotus leaf decorative on the body, lotus valves appear in parallel. Many sets of drawing water vortex lines and Ruyi cloud lines in lotus petal;The lotus petal is divided into lotus petal and covering lotus petal. The lotus petal is painted more on the shin of the object, and the lotus petal is painted more on the shoulder.In addition to the plant lines, the figures of women and high, animal patterns of phoenix birds, lions, fish and painting techniques are similar to Jingdezhen kiln, reflecting the folk life form, aesthetic taste and spiritual pursuit, Only painting techniques more show Yunnan’s local folk style, rough rate random, simple and naive.

3. Use of Plastic Decoration

Paste plastic, mostly used in pot cover and abdomen, there are figure shape, animal shape, flower shape and so on, which make the decoration separate from the flat effect of painting, add three-dimensional sense and vivid sense to porcelain, and play a prominent theme effect.The application of plasticizing technique in this batch of porcelain ware is not common, which makes the few pieces of plastic-pasting porcelain especially precious.

4. Use of Light Decoration

This batch of porcelain open light decoration technique mainly applies in the pot abdomen, the utensil usually has 4 open light to 8 open light, opens the light form to have the diamond, the petal shape and so on, opens the light internal common character story, the landscape scenery and the flower animal and so on main body decoration, has the prominent theme effect.

5. Art Connotation

These blue-and-white porcelain utensils are solemn, elegant, well-decorated, colorful, showing not gorgeous, gorgeous decorative characteristics, but a combination of practical and technical, firing technology is simple and clumsy, the main function is to meet the needs of the daily life of the people, is an ancient, traditional, Popular art emits an air of simplicity that comes from and is higher than life.From the porcelain modelling and the decoration, shows the people to the fine life yearning and the love, to the death and the burial extremely attaches importance and the extremely solemn, marks the Yuan Ming period Yuxi, Yunnan south to cremation, to the deceased person’s solemn attention and the cordial blessing.It conveys the Chinese traditional Confucian thought, reflects the profound Buddhist spirit, reflects the aesthetic tendency of the folk customs, and displays the numerous and complicated human states.To understand the connotation of a blue-and-white porcelain decorative pattern, we can not only understand the technical performance of the craftsman of Yuxi Kiln at that time, but also understand the idea, religion, custom and aesthetic interest, the times and beliefs, culture and ideal of the society at that time.