[Knowledge] knowledge of blue and white porcelain

The original blue-and-white porcelain appeared in the Tang and Song dynasties, and the mature blue-and-white porcelain appeared in the Hutian kiln in Jingdezhen in Yuan Dynasty.Qing Hua became the mainstream of porcelain in Ming Dynasty.The period of Qing Kangxi reached its peak.During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the varieties of blue and white, malachite green glaze blue, bean green glaze blue, red green, yellow ground blue and goose glaze blue and white were also created.

I. Origin of Ancient Ceramic Inscriptions

China is an ancient country of ceramics. Ten thousand years ago, the ancestors of China had made and used pottery creatively.In the Neolithic Age, the famous Yangshao culture, Majiayao culture, Dawenkou culture, Liangzhu culture, and so on, produced red pottery, grey pottery, white pottery, black pottery and painted pottery, painted pottery.After the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, many pottery not only had fine decorative works of art, but also left a large number of written symbols, the earliest inscriptions appeared.For example, the characters on the pottery pieces unearthed in Sanxingdui are still unknown.

With the appearance of bronze ware, it is more common to engrave inscriptions on Ding-Yi ritual vessels.Then appeared “Ming” this narrative style, “Ming” inscribed on the bronze ware, to express praise and warning of the meaning, but also appeared the word “fu-zhi”.Calligraphy is written on Ding Yi.If be refined, the paragraph is Yin character recessed, the knowledge is Yang character protruding.In short, the figure of knowledge is the ancient objects on the text.If the use of bronze was limited to the monarch and the aristocrat, then the appearance of the original celadon made up for the shortage of bronze raw materials and smelting technology, and the production and use of celadon began to move to all levels of society.Celadon imitating bronze ware also left a lot of inscriptions, deeply reflecting the social reality at that time.From the Han, Wei and Six Dynasties to the Tang and Song Dynasties, the firing of porcelain formed the situation of “from the north to the south”, the appearance of underglaze color, the increase of porcelain production, decoration and style knowledge are also more colorful.Especially in the Yuan, Ming, Qing era, the emergence and mass production of blue-and-white porcelain in the history of world ceramics is an epoch-making change.White ground blue and white flower elegant, painting calligraphy melt into a furnace, reflecting the Chinese national style and style, painting content, inscriptions are more flowers bloom, by all levels of people at home and abroad love.This paper focuses on the inscriptions on blue and white porcelain.

2. The function of the inscriptions on ceramics

The inscription appeared on ceramics, initially a simple symbol, which gradually evolved into an account of the time, place, or number of the object, the last name of the craftsman, etc.Later, the inscriptions are more abundant, as a symbol of the annals, palaces, offices, halls, workshops and so on, so that more and more words, auspicious words, famous poems and songs, and even the whole article are inscribed on ceramic.Chinese, minority and foreign languages appeared successively on ceramics.In some folk kiln products, also appeared the oldest advertising.Some pieces of knowledge not only as a ceramic appendage, but also as a text composition of a decoration, but also as a pattern instead of text recognition, more decorative effect.This also for different times, different utensils, different kiln mouth ceramic products put on different brand, among which inscriptions are the most important brand.In archeology, the inscription on ceramics is an important basis for dating, an important reference for understanding different times, different socio-economic forms, as well as politics, culture, art, craftsmanship, folk customs and so on.Today is also an important part of our study of the history of material civilization in China.As far as the appreciation of ceramics itself is concerned, inscriptions are one of the important basis for the identification of ancient ceramic age, kiln entrance and the identification of authenticity.The experts and scholars have identified the ancient ceramics by combining the contents of different pieces of inscriptions, calligraphy, lettering and calligraphy, and the characteristics of firing technology, embryo glaze and decorative patterns.Therefore, the inscriptions on ancient ceramics are not only valued by archaeologists and historians, but also by ancient ceramic connoisseurs, collectors and calligraphers.

III. Content and Classification of Glyph

The inscriptions on ancient ceramics have a long history and a great deal of complexity. This paper focuses on the inscriptions on ancient ceramics in Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties.According to the contents of the inscription on the porcelain and the current information, it is divided into more than 10 categories, such as chronicle, parish, palace, royal house, name, auspicious words, verse, pattern, offering, advertisement, sustenance and imitation printing, etc. And discuss it in different categories.

(1) Memorandum for the Year

The year-old inscription is the symbolic inscription that indicates the time of the porcelain burning, and is an important basis for ancient porcelain dating in archaeology and cultural relics appraisal.It can be subdivided into four identification methods:

1. The Emperor’s Annuity.Special to the emperor year as the annals of the inscription, the Yuan Dynasty “Zhiyuan” blue and white money for the early annals.After the “Yongle year”, “Daming Xuande year”, “Zhengde year”, “Daqing Kangxi year”, “Tongzhi year” and other years of green money appeared in large numbers.The porcelain was fired within a few years or decades of the reign of the dynasty and the ruling emperor.

2. The years of dryness and dryness.With the characteristic ten words of China’s Tiangan “Jia Yi Ping Ding Wu Gu Geng Xin Ren Gui” and the 12 characters of Di Zhi “Zi Chou Yin Chen Si Wu” two overlapping,60 years a “Jia Zi”, the cycle of the beginning of the annals, to mark the time of porcelain production.This method can pinpoint the porcelain-making time to which year in history.Such as” B-year “,” Da-qing C-day year “and so on.

3. The years of the dynasty.This kind of chronicle only writes the dynasty, does not write the emperor year number, such as” Daming year creation “,” Daqing year “and so on, the time span is larger.This kind of inscription is written on the porcelain of the people’s kilns, and the kiln workers only know what dynasty they were in, and do not know the situation of changing the dynasty, do not know what emperor “die” or accede to the throne, simply write only the chronicles of the dynasty, generally will not be wrong.

4. Casual annual payments.This year is not intended to mark the time when the porcelain was made, but to indicate the time for private customization, worship before the Buddha, and inscriptions on poems and poems.Such as” Sui Zhen Bing Zi Ke Zhi “,” Wanli Ding ugly year of creation “,” Emperor Qianlong twenty-eighth year of the Qing Dynasty Qi Li “and so on.

(2) Inscription on the Temporal Ramadan

Parish money for ancient dignitaries, intellectuals in their own homes in the hall, the name of the book set burning porcelain on the inscription.This kind of inscription is a basis for textual research on the owner’s identity of porcelain.From the data learned a few days ago, after the Ming Jiajing, in the private kiln blue-and-white porcelain utensils appear to burn the porcelain.Such as the pine and cypress grass hall in the Ming Dynasty, Zhilan Room, Qingluo Hall, Cong Juzhai, Yu Xiangzhai, Bai Yuzhai, Bo Guzhai and so on.The Tang and Ramadan money of the Qing Dynasty was more popular.The appearance of the nameplate of Tang Zhai not only has the people kiln green flower, also has the official kiln green flower.The more famous such as Zhonghe Tang, Ji Qing Tang, Shen De Tang, Reversing Hall, Baihua Zhai, Yulan Zhai, Rong Ya Zhai, Da Ya Zhai, Tian Lu Shuzhai, Xing Lin Xuan, Caiyun Xuan, Shui Yun Ju, Zhu Shi Ju, Wenshan Pavilion, Yuncangge, Gu Xiang Book House, Shuyuan House, Wenshi Mountain House, Jiuwan Songs, Miao Xiang Hall, Zui Wen Yuan, Listen to Songlu, Hanging Moon Villa, Baifu Tower, Dongluo Garden and so on.

(3) Inscription on the Palace Room

Most of the official kilns or official kiln, for the royal palace and royal gardens fired on the blue and white porcelain special articles on the money.Such as Qinghua inscription “Yanghetang”, “Tan Ning Tang”, for the Yuanmingyuan Yanghetang, Tan Ning Tang furnishings: “Tihe Temple”, “Chu Xiu Palace”, “Changchun Palace”, “Le Shoutang”, “Hua Zitang”, etc. are the palace of the Qing Dynasty palace under the name of special porcelain inscriptions.

(4) The Royal Manifesto

Inscriptions for the porcelain that the palace’s specialized agencies and the royal nobles ordered to burn in the kiln.Among them there are official kilns as well as civilian kilns.This inscription appeared in the Song and Yuan dynasties, such as the “Shangyao Bureau”, “Shangshi Bureau” and “Wuwang House” of Dingyao in the Song Dynasty.Yuan Dynasty’s” Chieftain “and so on.By the Ming and Qing dynasties, Wang Fu ordered to burn furnishings porcelain, daily-used porcelain more of the wind.On the bottom of the instrument, cobalt blue script is used to write “x fu jia ji”, “x fu shang ji”, “x fu chuan ji”, “x fu ju ji”, “x fu ji ji”, and so on.

(5) Inscription on a person’s name

This kind of nameplate may divide into: Ceramic workshop host, pottery worker name;Names of the officials who oversaw the work;Name of the contractor.The third kind of notaries are mostly used in combination with other forms, such as why they are offered by people, and why they are provided by people.After Ming and Qing Dynasties, more names appeared in the first two categories.Such as Zhengde “He Yuqing Zao”, “Chen Shougui Zao” Jiajing, the Qing Dynasty “Tang Meijing system” and so on.The appearance of such inscriptions preserved the surnames of the craftsmen and the potters who burned the porcelain.This had two functions at that time: one was to compete for the porcelain industry, to write one’s own name to keep one’s brand from being counterfeit;The second reflects the quality of the ancient porcelain production responsibility system.

(6) Inscription on the Ode to Gil-yan

The Guyan Ode on ceramics is rich in content and has a long history.It is widely used in blue-and-white porcelain in Ming and Qing Dynasties.With auspicious and beautiful words, writing on the objects, is not only a prayer for happiness, but also a display of calligraphy and porcelain decoration.For example, there are common “blessing”, “longevity”, “joy”, “expensive”, “treasure”, “Ji” and other words;There are “beautiful things”,” play with jade “,” good “,” elegant play “,” ford “and other double-word;The most is four words of auspicious words money, such as: “golden jade full hall”, “world peace”, “long life and wealth”, “Changchun Tongqing”, “three yuan and the first”, “million fu you with”, “Guotai people”, “fushan Shouhai”, “good luck,” and so on.In addition, there are six-character sentences, eight-character sentences and other multi-character sentences of auspicious words.

(7) Inscriptions on Poems and Poems

As a kind of decoration, Tang poetry, Song Ci, Yuan Opera and famous Ci Fu are written on porcelain, which allows people to appreciate both poetry and calligraphy.This kind of inscription was often used to decorate the porcelain of the Changsha kiln in Tang Dynasty and Cizhou kiln in Song and Yuan Dynasties.There were new developments in Ming and Qing Dynasties. Poems and sentences were often used as inscriptions on the landscape and characters of green flowers, flowers and birds, which made poetry, calligraphy and painting more beautiful and artistic.Such as blue and white flowers and birds painting a piece of autumn leaves, Lingshi, on the title “a leaf to autumn meaning”, “a leaf fall, the world all autumn” and so on, green and green landscape decorative title to “both sides of the green hills opposite, a single sail to the sun”, Lady figure embellishment on the title with “a ride red dust concubine smile, no one knows is lychee to come”, high enough cup on the title “a hundred years of life in the drunk, counting to thirty-six thousand” and so on.There are some blue-and-white brush holder and other porcelain, on the side of writing long ci Fu.Such as Zhuge Liang’s Book of Explanation, Su Shi’s” The Poetry of the Red Wall “, Wang Xizhi’s” Preface to the Lanting”, Tao Yuanming’s” Return to the Ci “and so on.

(8) Inscription on the design

The inscription on the design, also known as the banknote, mark and pattern, is widely written on the base of the blue-and-white objects in the folk kilns from late Ming to Qing Dynasty.This non-text pattern as a sign, there are two functions: one for this kind of porcelain production workshop unique logo, other do not copy;Second, it has played a certain role in decoration, for more consumers love, therefore, a better market.The form can be divided into the following:

1. Expense on deposit.The original decorative patterns with the Han seal and the characteristics of the Yuan people’s embellishment.This kind of decoration is square or similar diamond, has the frame, the interior divides several parts by the line, respectively by the different arc, the straight line composition, except at that time workshop interior person, some present people already very difficult to infer its connotation and the moral.

2. Simple flower-and-bird design.Most of them are painted with plant leaf, peach, begonia, ganoderma lucidum, banana leaf, orchid, animal wind, crane, heron, rabbit, chi, turtle, etc.

3. Religious allegorical embellishment.This kind of logo is to Taoist and Buddhist landmarks, common objects, mascots as content, simple drawing out, let a person at a glance.Such as taoist signs have eight map, tai chi map, such as eight immortal hand-held items such as banana fan, sword, gourd, yin and yang board, basket, fishing drum, bamboo flute, lotus.Buddhist markers such as eight auspicious and miscellaneous items, such as wheel, snail, cover, Baolian, umbrella, jar, fish, dish, Fang Sheng, rhinoceros horn, coral, bell, etc.

4. Embellish with the beautiful meaning of good luck and good luck.In this respect, there are cultural relics Bo Gu, pen ingot Ruyi, Ming Feng in the bamboo, Gu Ding fumigation furnace, flower frame bonsai, calligraphy and painting, silver ingot double money, bat cloud head, and so on.

5. Signs and variants of seal and calligraphy similar to words and non-characters.

(9) Dedication of Inscription

Inscription is an inscription on a temple as an offering device for religious believers to bless the gods and give alms to the Taoist temple.This offering for burning things, on which the inscription Song Dynasty, after the Yuan popular.The inscription generally includes the name of the god, the name and address of the almsgiver, the time of almsgiving, and the purpose of offering.Such as in the “Guanyin Master before”, “Sakyamuni Buddha before”, “King Guan” and Taoist “Jinlu Dian” and so on.Most of the offerings are incense burner, vase, candlestick, etc.The more famous typical offering is the inscription on the earbottle of Qinghua Yunlong in the 11 years from Yuan to Zheng: “Shuncheng County, Xinzhou Road, Yushan County, Jingtang north of urban and rural areas. Feng Sheng’s disciple Zhang Wenjin paid for the vase of Xishe incense burner, praying for the peace of the Taiwan family and the children.” Eleventh year to the April fine worship, star source ancestral hall Hu Jing a marshal beat arch “.”The names, places of origin, villages, alms and number of alms, alms year, worship temples and gods very auspicious.

(10) Inscription on advertising terms

This is the propaganda written by the owner of the porcelain workshop to promote the sale of his products.The Tang Dynasty Changsha kiln porcelain products began to appear, generally marked as” Zhang Jia “,” He Jia “,” Wu Jia “,” Du Jia flower pillow “and other surnames mark, there are also written advertising words:” Ding Dagang make a bottle big good “,” Zheng Jia Xiaokou, the world’s first “, There is also a price tag for the purpose of the “price book.”In the Ming Dynasty, blue and white porcelain kiln, unexpectedly “this bowl is good” advertising words.

(11) Insignia imitated by seal

In Ming and Qing Dynasties, there appeared seal-like inscription on the porcelain base.”Kangxi Imperial System” four-character square, thick inside thin double-box, the font is Founder Song type.By the time of Yongzheng, there appeared four-character “Yongzheng year” and six-character “Daqing Yongzheng year”, which formed the form of imitation seal cutting and seal, but no border font was iron thread seal.After Qianlong, this style of seal cutting more form, and more without borders.Some of the neat calligraphy, some of the more sloppy, the more grass when the copy.As for the people’s kilns, even more grass.Jiaqing and Daoguang both have this kind of handwritten seal style.The appearance of this style of seal-cutting has nothing to do with the prosperity of the literati’s calligraphy, painting and seal-cutting at that time.Its characteristics and role is very obvious, that is, not only as a symbol of the year of the dynasty, but also played a very good role in calligraphy decoration.

(12) Forgetting the Inscription

The pseudo-trust money is also called reposing money and copying money. It is the inscription money of the former dynasty written on the utensils of the later dynasty, among which the most common one is the chronicle money of the Qinghua imitation in Jingdezhen.Since the Ming Dynasty, there have been more and more forgeries, which have become more and more serious.There are two kinds of cases of false deposit: one is an official imitating an official.The nobility of the palace thought of the old love, send good old hearts.In Qing Dynasty, Jingdezhen official kiln was carefully copied from the previous dynasty to use it as a display or reward, not for the purpose of profiteering.So to this kind of inscription called reposing money also has not tasted.Second, the people imitated the official or the people imitated the people.People’s kiln a large number of copies of the previous dynasty’s kilns and kilns, and the collection of antiques on the social style of the rising, the purpose is to increase its economic value, to sell a good price.This kind of deposit is a fake, so it can be called a bogus deposit.A hypocrite is a hypocrite.The large number of false deposit or deposit inscription has caused some confusion in the field of ceramics, which has brought great trouble to the collection and identification of porcelain, and has created opportunities for the swindlers.Of course, on the porcelain of the people’s kilns, the fake items, the font is not standard, easy to identify, and official porcelain, not only from the type of utensils, craft, decorative, and inscriptions are vivid, it is difficult to identify.If the ancients copied the inscription of the former dynasty or by pen, modern imitations of the inscription on the text can be adopted high-tech means, but also to fake the truth.

4. Type of the written form of the name slip

Blue-and-white porcelain inscription is the most colorful text form, generally can be divided into Chinese fonts, minority languages, foreign languages three types.

(1) Inscription in Chinese characters.

In the blue-and-white porcelain on the Chinese inscriptions on the main position, this is because the porcelain is China’s invention, blue-and-white porcelain is known as China’s” national porcelain “, and most of it is produced in Jingdezhen, Jingdezhen is Yuan, Ming, Qingguan kiln site.The writing form of Chinese characters on porcelain has various styles, but it is still dominated by real, grass, li and zhuan.

1. The name of the true book.Real books are also called regular books.During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the regular script was the main body of porcelain, especially the official edition, which required solemnity and magnanimity.In the Qing Dynasty, the style of Chinese characters was in the style of Song Dynasty.

2. Inscription in cursive form.Compared with the real book, cursive in the form of expression more vivid, pen and ink, more artistic.In the late Yuan and early Ming Dynasty, the blue-and-white porcelain bowl heart is often written in grass to “blessing”, “longevity”, “Lu” and other auspicious words.Qing Dynasty landscape, flowers and birds, figure paintings, some with grass inscriptions, these cursive style for calligraphy appreciation.

3. Annotations of official script.In the early Ming Dynasty, people’s kilns on the blue-and-white porcelain, began to use official calligraphy inscriptions inscriptions, there are “fu”, “lu”, “shou” and other words.The Qing Dynasty also used official script into porcelain money.

4. The name of the seal.Blue and white porcelain seal book on the use of the beginning of Ming Yongle, in the press of the heart of the hand cup book to “Yongle year” four-character seal book.Later there are Xuande, Hongzhi, Wanli and other seal characters used to write the annals: in the Qing Dynasty, Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong, Jiaqing, Daoguang, Tongzhi, there are all seal calligraphy into the inscription.

5. Variant text.A small number of regional characters, because of the small scope of application, this kind of text, more people do not know.

(2) the inscription on the written language of the minority nationalities.

Since China is a multi-ethnic country and has a history of ethnic minorities entering the Central Plains, it is not surprising that the inscriptions on porcelain are left with minority languages.On the blue-and-white porcelain, according to the data available, there are the following:

1. Bathbavin.Bathba Wen, a phonetic script created by the Tibetan alphabet by the Tibetan monasteries Bathba, was appointed by the Yuan emperor Kublai Lik, and was promulgated in the sixth year (1296) and only used in official letters.Chinese characters are still used in society because they are hard to remember, difficult to spell, immature and difficult to express ideas.So Bathbaven was not widely used, and after the death of the Yuan Dynasty, it was not used.Inscriptions on porcelain are even rarer.Only used in the Yuan Longquan pattern, a small number of blue-and-white porcelain outside the bottom of the writing Bassiba text, for decoration.

2. Mongolian.Mongolian characters written on blue-and-white porcelain during the Yuan Dynasty and Ming and Qing Dynasties.

3. Full text.In 1644, after the reign of Shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty, the three dynasties of Kang Yongqian became the heyday, which was also the last glory of the feudal society.In order to consolidate the rule, the Chinese people, so has been using Chinese characters, Manchu in official documents and the use of Chinese.Therefore, the inscription on the ceramics is still mainly in Chinese, Manchu and occasionally for it.Green flowers on the use of full-text inscription, most of the Manchu aristocracy to burn, so very rare.It is the lack of information that makes it so valuable.

4. Tibetan.The Tibetan version of the inscription on the blue-and-white porcelain contains Buddhist scriptures, six-character real words, etc.Most of them are related to religion and temples.As a reward for the imperial palace of Tibet, the official kiln porcelain, written in Tibetan.

(3) Annotations in Foreign Languages

Since the Yuan Dynasty, due to the prosperity of the land-based Silk Road and the sea-based ceramic road, foreign businessmen have made orders to burn porcelain in China, or because of the increasing overseas trade of Chinese merchant ships, the situation of writing foreign languages on blue-and-white porcelain has increased gradually in order to meet the needs of foreign countries.

1. The inscription on the Arabic (Persian).Since the early Ming Dynasty, Chinese Hui merchants to the Arab (Persian) region to do business, Arab merchants to the mainland trade, porcelain is a commodity export.Porcelain, especially blue-and-white porcelain inscriptions written in Arabic, is popular in accordance with the needs of Arab peoples and religions.Among them the blue-and-white porcelain of the year of Zhengde, inscribes the Koran, the porcelainous porcelain is more typical.

2. Blue Chavin.Lanchaven is an ancient Indian script, Sanskrit is based on its creation, the Ming Dynasty Qinghua on the book, the Qing Dynasty also has a few official kiln instruments on the writing of Lanchavin.

3. Sanskrit.Sanskrit is the writing of scriptures or incantations by Buddhism.The Ming and Qing emperors believed in Buddhism, so they reflected on the blue-and-white porcelain.

4. Annotations in other languages.During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, with the increase of material and cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries, in order to meet the needs of European market, or according to the requirements of customers, the inscription on blue-and-white porcelain to write some Western languages also increased.These export porcelain are found less in China, mainly for foreign museums and private collections.

5. Decoration of the Inscription

The inscriptions on ceramics, first written symbols, then single words, double words, are depicted on the outside wall of objects, relatively simple, no need for decoration.Along with the increase of porcelain type, the improvement of craft level, the promotion of aesthetic interest, the popularization of calligraphy art, there are also decorative beautification of ceramic inscription.

(1) The inscription is written in the pattern

Calligraphy and painting in one, such as Ming Yongle hand cup, bowl heart is the lion Hydrangea, “Yongle year” four small characters will be written on the Hydrangea.”Daming Xuande year” some of the six-character words on the wall of the flower decorative gap above, as part of the decoration, more decorative effect.

(2) Double-loop or single-loop decoration

Since the early Ming Dynasty, blue-and-white porcelain has been written in the heart or foot of objects.Annals of the official kiln multi-purpose double circle, some of the single circle of the kiln.This kind of decoration is the most standard and common until the end of the Qing Dynasty.

(3) Square Frames Decoration

Since the beginning of the formation of the chronicle, the appearance of square-frame decoration.The six-character motto of the regular script “Daming Cheng Hua” is arranged in two lines, each with three characters, surrounded by two lines, like a seal, with square and rectangle.The decoration lasted until the end of the Qing Dynasty.In particular, Yongzheng imitation into the type, more use of this format.

(4) Decoration of writing

In the Ming Dynasty, such as Chenghua, Hongzhi, Zhengde, Wanli, etc. on the blue-and-white porcelain, the heart of the bowl or the base of the inscriptions or auspicious words around, commonly used Sanskrit or Arabic religious classics of the true language around, known as the “Sanskrit stick word.”This may have something to do with the Buddhist and Islamic customs of reciting sutras before meals.It is practical and has decorative effect.

(5) Other Decorations of the Glyph

1. Writing auspicious phrases such as” Longevity without borders”, “Three Yuan” and “No.1″ in the blue-and-white decoration.

2. Write the inscription in the form of ancient money.

3. Surrounding the inscription with reprint, lotus petal, twining pattern, etc.

Use branches to weave into words, such as pine trees into words such as” Shou “.

5. Embrace the inscription with floral embellishment, etc.