Special Exhibition of Shanghai Museum-Blue and White Porcelain Exhibition in Yuan Dynasty

Yuan blue and white porcelain reviews

With the development of trade at home and abroad in the Yuan Dynasty, China’s porcelain industry has made greater progress than that of the Song Dynasty, and Jingdezhen kiln successfully fired blue-and-white porcelain.The common appearance and maturity of blue and white porcelain, production and marketing prosperity, Yuan Jiang Qi, “Tao Ji Lue” (the only book on Jingdezhen porcelain industry in the Yuan Dynasty) described: “kiln fire is not only to stop, business to sell, and on the choice of Yan, known as picking kiln. Transaction, the teeth of the owner. “The carrier enters the river, the bearer holds the voucher, and the sub-item is used as a means of financing, which is not a child.”

Yuan blue-and-white porcelain to Jingdezhen as a representative, the production of exquisite and rarely handed down to the world, so very precious, according to the time is roughly divided into three stages: Yanyou period, to the positive period and the end of the Yuan period, which is the best to “Zhengzheng”.

Yuan blue-and-white porcelain has opened up a new era of transition from plain porcelain to colored porcelain. It is a wonderful flower in the history of Chinese ceramics. It also made Jingdezhen the center of the medieval world’s porcelain industry.

matrix of primary blue-and-white porcelain

Jingdezhen porcelain materials have a gradual process.During the Tang and Five Dynasties, the porcelain tyre was composed of a single porcelain stone. Since the late Song Dynasty and the early Yuan Dynasty, the binary formula of porcelain stone mixed with kaolin was invented, and some of the raw materials were 20% kaolin.The binary formula can increase the content of AL2O3 in the ceramic tire, which can reduce the deformation of the ceramic tyre at high temperature, ensure the manufacture of large-scale objects, raise the firing temperature and increase the degree of porcelain.On this basis, Jingdezhen burned a huge blue-and-white apparatus, with a large plate nearly 60 cm in diameter and a large bottle up to 70 cm in diameter.

The “binary formula” of porcelain clay and kaolin was used in the production of blue-and-white porcelain in Yuan Dynasty.There are two main types of foetus: one is imported blue-and-white porcelain, the fetus is white, slightly gray, heavy-handed, dense and hard;Another kind of domestic turquoise, fetal bone gray, body feel light.At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, some blue-and-white small organs were yellow, rough, and made of domestic green material.

From the bottom of the metamaterials or the section of the remains, it can be observed that the fetal color is not white enough, the fetal quality is coarser and there are small pores (or sand eyes).Yuan blue-and-white porcelain, although the composition of alumina added in the tire, increased the firing temperature, but the degree of porcelain is not as fine as the Qing Dynasty porcelain body.When Yuan porcelain is made, the tire mud is not refined enough, most of the body of the object is not covered with glaze, and the so-called sand bottom is formed after firing.The edge of sand bottom often appears to stick sand or iron spots, a small number of objects because of the inclusion of iron in the soil, in the body exposed to red iron oxide, commonly known as” flint red “.Bowl, high-foot cup and other small pieces of utensils generally do not see kiln red, large cans, large bottles and other large pieces of utensils inside the cover although the tire, but do not see kiln red.There are also some plates on the bottom of the relatively light iron-red sand, artisans deliberately painted, and with the rotation of the spiral mark.

In Yuan Dynasty, Jingdezhen bottles, cans and other types of equipment, using segmented tire making, and then use of tire mud bonded to form, bonding device table.

Often protuberant, give people a sense of injustice, outside wall joint mark after grinding, but the inner wall connection mark is still clearly visible, the inside of the neck of the object slightly added cutting, the inner wall is not repaired, so in the bottom of the device, abdomen, mouth and other places fetal body joint mark performance is obvious.The general device of the foot edge is irregular, there is a bending phenomenon, which shows that the Yuan Dynasty tire is not careful to repair the billet, so it appears that the molding process is rough.But small utensils also have exquisite person, fetal quality appears white fine.Chopped foot treatment method common foot end of the base of the external wall oblique cutting a knife, large body foot width and thickness for the feet, deep and shallow digging feet.The circle of objects is not very neat, curved.At the bottom of the machine, the spiral cutting marks can be seen. The bottom of the big bottle and the big pot are roughened and roughened. The cutting marks of the disk and bowl are thin and dense.The bottom and inside and outside of the ring foot are bonded with kiln sand, some of which have been melted into the glaze.The tall feet of the tall cup are joined with the body of the cup with mud, where yellow or paste can be seen at the junction of the mud squeeze, the end of the cup to the foot of different thickness circle.The cap of the sub-clasp sleeve structure is formed with the sub-buckle and the device cover, and the joint mark can be clearly seen on the cover.The bottom body of the bowl is thick, the foot is exposed, the center is slightly protuberant, commonly known as” umbilical “shape, is actually the mark of drawing.In order to prevent the bottom from falling, a round cake or circle made of fireclay should be placed in the center of the bottom of the large ware, which is formed from the point.Most of the bottom of the large pot wide circle foot, irregular, some of the bottom center has a shallow thread trace.Generally large pieces of material thick body, but moderate weight, such as overweight or ultra-thin are worth considering.

glaze layer of primary blue-and-white porcelain

The use of the two-component formula of the Yuan-Qing-Hua tread increases the firing temperature so that the glaze formula can be changed accordingly.

Jingdezhen porcelain glaze has always been made from glaze fruit mixed with glaze ash. The glaze fruit is a kind of ceramic stone with relatively shallow weathering. The main component is limestone.In the Tang and Song Dynasties, the glaze fruit was mixed with glaze ash before Jingdezhen porcelain.Glazed fruit is a kind of shallow weathered porcelain stone. The main components are silica and aluminum trioxide. The main components of glaze ash are limestone.In Yuan Dynasty, the content of glaze fruit was increased and the content of glaze ash was reduced. Thus, the aluminum trioxide of glaze layer was increased and calcium oxide was decreased, which changed the state of glaze, made the thickness of glaze layer can be increased, and the luster of glaze surface was soft.The glaze layer of some specimens was observed with a high magnifying glass. Large bubbles were scattered in the dense mist-like bubbles, and there was no medium bubble transition.This is not the case with blue-white glaze and pivot glaze at the same time.The blue-and-white porcelain glaze in early Ming Dynasty also showed bubbles, but the distribution of big, medium and small bubbles was different from that of Yuan-Qing-hua.Some objects have orange peel or brown eyes on the glaze surface.

It was found that the content of calcium oxide in the glaze of Yuan Dynasty decreased from 15% to 8% ~ 9%, and the content of potassium and sodium increased from 3% to 6%.The change of composition increases the firing temperature of glaze and the concentration of glaze.Due to the different firing temperature, the glaze color also correspondingly changed.

There are three kinds of glaze of Yuan-Qing-hua:

(1) Shadow Blue Glaze

Also known as blue and white glaze, in the early and mid-Yuan Dynasty on the use of blue and white materials with home-made.The blue-white glaze of the late Yuan Dynasty is a derivative of the shadow blue-white glaze, which is different from the shadow blue-white glaze of the early and middle Yuan Dynasty.The glaze surface is grayish or yellowing, the glaze layer luster is stronger, or is the matte light, besides the firing technology lack, also and the glaze layer in the glaze gray proportion is higher related.Yuan Dynasty blue and white porcelain with blue and white glaze, transparent, the surface of the tread can be seen fine skin layer, glaze is not smooth, touch with the hand has a bumpy feeling.The body of the body of the body of the body of the body of the body of the body of the body of the body of the body of the body of the body of the body of the body of the body of the body of the body of the body of the body of the body of the body of the body of the body of the body of the body of the body of the light blue, warm in the light blue, except the circle of the water is green, often show light teeth yellow, sometimes show opacity, its color, its color, its color will show with the change with the humidity in the change with the humidity in the humidity in the humidity in the air in the humidity in the air, the change of the humidity, the air, the change of the humidity, the change of the air, the change of the change of the change of the change of the change of theYuan blue vase, can type, oblique light through the tire glaze will show a little irregular rice-white silk stripes, also known as glaze decoration.There is no air bubble on the green flower under the primary glaze. When the temperature is high, the embryo glaze appears to be dry, but sometimes there is a slight sweating phenomenon.The color development of the primary glaze seems to be active.

(2) White Glaze

From the mid-14th century until the beginning of the year began to use imported green materials.The glaze is white and green, the glaze is bright and bright, the glaze is clear and moist, the glaze is clear and clear, the glaze is clear and blue, and the glaze is bright and often has a flicker feeling, the foot circle glaze surface shows light water green.With the right transparency, brightness and color, can better foil the performance of the blue and white.

(3) White glaze

At the end of Yuan Dynasty, the green flowers began to be used, the glaze was milky, and the hand-scratched finger marks were often left in the outer circle of these utensils.With the exception of jade jug spring vase, the base is generally glaze-free.Glazes of varying size and shape on the bottom of the tire.There is a circle of wide and narrow glaze mark near the bottom of the high foot cup.Mui bottle, such as thin body type bottle inside mouth along the bottom of the natural fetus.The inner wall of the big pot is glazed by hanging glaze.The inside of the cover is plain, light earthy yellow, with fine glaze spots.The glaze surface of the Yuan-Qing-Hua apparatus is basically flat, and the glaze surface of the large-scale cutters is slightly raised at the bonding place of the body, the glaze of the mouth is thick and uneven, and the glaze is beige on the thin part.From the residual organ, the neck of the bottle below the inside of the body without glaze, bottle, can of the bottom or high-foot cup, bowl of the foot of common pieces of glaze spots, each of the glaze spots around or foot edge and shrink glaze are presented with a light-colored flint red edge line.There is a burr phenomenon at the edge of the mouth of the object (i. e., a small bubble breaks).Some of the surface of the glaze shrinkage phenomenon, not serious, belonging to a few phenomena.Glaze feel warm such as jade, light feeling soft do not pierce eyes, if too bright or have stronger bright point, it is worth considering.

blue-and-white porcelain of Yuan Dynasty

In general, it is divided into two tones, one is grayish blue, the other is dark blue and the other is more showy.Traditional concept, the color of blue for domestic materials, blue color for imported materials.Imported green material for large, medium or small-sized Yuan Qing Hua, domestic cobalt materials only used for medium and small-sized devices.

(1) Imported cobalt materials

Imported cobalt material, that is, Su Ma Li Qing, Yuan Dynasty imported cobalt material ingredients are low manganese, high iron, sulfur and arsenic, no copper and nickel, and the Tang and Song Qing Hua, Ming Qing Hua blue and white ingredients are different, the painted blue and white decorative color of deep, and with purple-brown or black-brown bright spots, Some black-and-brown spots show “tin”.”Tin” is a natural luster in dark brown spots, and has a concave-convex feeling, is due to blue and white raw materials in the high temperature firing process and glaze melting when the changes in the atmosphere of the kiln.”Tin” also appears in modern imitations of the flower, but the observation of the imitation “tin” as if a silver-gray film applied to the blue-and-black spots, some of the more dense spots, a sense of rigidity.

In addition, the cyan has the following characteristics:

1. Bright indigo, slightly purple with varying degrees, some very elegant violet.

2. It has thick and light color order, the outline line is deeper, and the color-filling green material is lighter.There are blue-black or blue-brown spots on the accumulation of green material, underglaze concave and matte.

3. The green material is fine and even, and the edge of the line faints slightly.Some have a thick color, there is radial flow, see blue-black crystal or crystal line, it is due to the coarse green particles.Yongle in the early Ming Dynasty, Xuande Qinghua also have similar phenomenon.

(2) Domestic green materials

The blue-and-white materials used in Yuanqinghua are of high manganese and high aluminum, which are different from the imported materials at the same time. The blue-and-white patterns described here are blue-gray or blue-black. If contain manganese when high, blue and white decorative color for blue in slightly red, underglaze concave and matte.

Whether domestic materials or imported materials, the overall picture blue-and-white decorative color by the influence of kiln temperature has varying depth of change, but with a magnifying glass to observe, give a clear and deep feeling.Look at the blue and white color, it is” live “, in the rich place there is a fresh” flow-like “.

The Shape of Yuan Blue-and-White Porcelain

Yuan blue-and-white porcelain shape unique.From the production process, at this time appeared a thick body of huge body, such as large cans, large bottles, large plates, large bowls, and so on.But there are also fine works, such as the thin body of the high-foot bowl, high-foot cup, Yi, disk and so on.In Yuan society, the blue-and-white porcelain has not become the necessity of the court or people’s daily life, except for wine utensils, bright ware, the main products are export, so the shape of the blue-and-white porcelain has certain particularity, the reason is to meet the needs of users of different regions and different living habits.Big cans, large bottles, large plates, and large bowls are large food utensils specially produced to adapt to the habit of sitting on the ground and eating together in large numbers of Muslims in Islamic countries.And Yuan production of small utensils such as small cans, small bottles, small pots are sold to the Philippines.According to the archaeological data, many small pieces of blue-and-white porcelain were made to meet the needs of burial in Southeast Asia.In addition to export, the Yuanqinghua producers in order to conform to the social customs of the Yuan Dynasty also produced small and medium-sized bottles, furnaces, Bishan, high-foot bowls, connector, and so on.In general, it can be combined into five broad categories.

Canister: Large can, including three types of high, low, and eight-sided, with a cover usually up to 60 cm or more.Small pot, including four-series square mouth, double-line melon rhombus, double-line bulging mouth, shoulder and abdomen double-series lip mouth, body height is generally 7 ~ 8 cm;And a drum-covered can.The octagon is the original innovation.

Bottle: There are plum bottle, jade pot spring bottle, garlic bottle, animal ear bottle, halberd ear bottle, and other four-series flat bottle with rich characteristics of the times and tower cap bottle, among which plum bottle, jade pot spring bottle more often.Plum bottle with a cap, inside a tube-shaped mouth, with the bottle firmly covered.

Pot class: There are three kinds in the description, they are Fengliu pot, pear-shaped pot, holding pot, all of them are exquisite.

Bowl: roughly two kinds, one is high-foot bowl (open, mouth), one is large bowl, diameter up to 40 cm above.The tall foot cup body is smaller, the height is only 10 centimeters or so, also has the target cup name.Large bowl diameter is generally above 30 cm.

Disk class: there are large market (diameter 45 cm above), medium plate (aperture is about 30 cm generally), small plate (aperture 15 cm or so).Folding along the flower mouth is common.

In addition, there are tripod, water pot, incense burner, guanyin and so on, which to high-foot cup, jade pot spring bottle, pot, plum bottle and market five models for the most.

In short, the shape of the Yuan blue and white porcelain has both grand and magnificent big tools, but also beautiful and clever small tools, no matter what type of tools are beautiful shape, simple and dignified.

. ..the embellishment of Yuan blue and white porcelain.

Jingdezhen Pottery workers in Yuan Dynasty further innovated on the basis of inheriting the achievements of porcelain making in Tang and Song dynasties, which made up for the lack of rough craftsmanship and made Yuan Qing Hua more exquisite.

techniques of decoration

With the combination of various techniques such as engraving, printing, porcelain plastic, relief and so on, the art effect of blue and white is brought into full play in painting.In decoration, craftsmen use different techniques in combination with different types of instruments, some use two, three methods to cooperate or several methods concentrated in one, rough and powerful cut lines, printing lines round and durable, the effect of relief strong stereoscopic.In addition, it should be noted that the Yuan blue and white decorative painting methods to flat, combined with hook, crack, dot, dyeing techniques, strong lines, showing the Yuan Dynasty craftsmen superb painting skills.

method of composition

It can be roughly divided into two types: plump and sparse.

Full type of decoration, whether round, cutlery, the whole instrument is covered by blue and white decorative, some of the body is covered with blue and white decorative decoration up to 8 layers, in order to highlight the magnificent feeling of the Yuan blue and white.Another form of full-flower decoration is through the body to roll branches or sea lines for the ground, prominent white patterns or on the ground lines on the diamond curve to open the light, open the light to draw a theme of the decoration.This kind of plump design method is mostly embodied on octagonal device, which seems complicated, but in fact it is arranged in order, and has strong aesthetic effect and age style.

Shulang form of decoration, no matter the circle, cut the blue and white patterns are composed of individual patterns, decorative screen sparse, lively and natural.For example, the blue-and-white dragon-shaped jade pot of the Toyo Ceramics Museum in Osaka City, Japan, draws a dragon-coiled body, the picture is simple, giving the dragon a sense of freedom in the infinite space, and the visual effect is excellent.Another kind of Shu Lang pattern decoration is realistic or freehand porcelain painting, the picture is more open.There are a number of folk supplies and funerals of the blue and white decoration is more simple and bold, with lines quickly painted patterns, can be said to be a one-shot, unique.

There are several kinds of standard in the decoration of the Yuan Dynasty, thus forming the characteristics of the decoration of the Yuan Dynasty:

1, deformation lotus petal pattern, commonly known as” eight big yards”, whether round, cut often 8 lotus petals for decoration belt, in each petal and painting a variety of patterns, there are flowers, clouds, flames, miscellaneous treasures, and so on.Lotus petal painting style is more obvious in the Yuan Dynasty, with a thick line and a thin line parallel to outline lines, each petal is not connected, leaving a certain gap.

2. In Yuan Dynasty, flowers were mostly lotus and peony, followed by chrysanthemum.The flower and leaf forms of these three flowers are fixed, and the leaves of the peony flower are plump, pointed and braided.Lotus flower leaves have gourd-shaped leaves with double wings.The leaves of the chrysanthemum flower are pentadactylous.All three flowers are naturally white-edged without filling in color.

3. Gardenia is a unique flower in the garland, five-petaled florets, leaflike twigs and flowers are used for border decoration.Experts have demonstrated that the flower is an alias mushroom flower, which is said to be a favorite flower of Buddha.

4. Most of the outer walls and bottles of blue and white plates, pot shoulders decorated with tangled lotus patterns, the outer wall of the lotus for six more see.

5, The bottle, the pot shoulder often has the blue and white cloud head pattern, is called “the cloud shoulder”.The cloud head pattern is decorated with sea horse, sea lotus, fold branch flower, Lin Lin and so on, also known as the vertical cloud pattern, is a very special decoration on the Yuanqing flower, rare in other times.6. A bicontinuous pattern consisting of spray and sea water, in which the sea water pattern is depicted with fine lines, the sea wave pattern consists of thick and solid lines, which forms the distinctive sea water pattern of the Yuan Dynasty.

7. The banana leaf is often used as a decorative band between the edges or between the patterns, and the line of the banana leaf is painted with thick lines and the vein of the leaf is painted with thin lines.

theme of decorative patterns

(1) Main decoration

In the main decoration, the plants are: peony pattern, lotus pattern, chrysanthemum pattern, pine and bamboo plum pattern, moon and plum pattern and so on.In addition to the above main flowers, in the combination of the pattern also appear morning glory, camellia, crabapple flowers, rose flowers, date flowers and day lily, ganoderma lucidum, plantain or bamboo stone grapes, fruits, insects and other images.Animals have: dragon pattern, phoenix pattern, Kirin pattern, fish pattern, mandarin duck lying lotus pattern, peacock pattern, deer pattern, seahorse pattern and so on.Among them the Yuan Dynasty dragon pattern is very characteristic, the body is elongated such as snake, the head is flat long shape, double horn, open mouth teeth, slender neck, four legs thin thin, tendon concave and convex, claw three fingers, four fingers or five fingers, separate strong, elbow hair, tail bristles are all in flame shape.

The characters in Yuan Qing Hua are ingenious, combined with drama, the plot of famous historical characters is transplanted into the porcelain picture, showing a new artistic realm, with a strong appeal, which is unmatched in other times.

People’s stories are painted on larger objects, such as jars, plum bottles, jade jugs, spring bottles, and so on.Canister cover, plum bottle abdominal diameter is relatively thick, large area of painting, mostly used to show the grand scene of the subject.The picture is placed in the main part of the middle part of the object, which gives a strong impact force.Yuhu spring bottle neck shoulder, slender, ptosis, the general choice of few characters, small scene painting, such as the need to show the large scene, often with the whole painting.

The main subjects are General Meng Tian, Zhou Yafu Xiliu Camp, Wenji Gui Han, Zhaojun out, Xiao He chasing Han Xin, three friends, the savior, Tao Yuanming love chrysanthemum and so on.The blue-and-white porcelain painted with this kind of patterns is delicate in texture, white and even in glaze, and the cobalt oxide used for coloring is pure regardless of whether it is made in China or imported from Su Niebo.The painter’s skill as a painter is superb.At the same time, there are very few porcelain kilns with these conditions, which is also the reason why there are few blue-and-white porcelain tools in the story. If so, most of them were from Jingdezhen kiln, which was the highest in the art of porcelain.In addition, the decorative patterns of Yuan Dynasty porcelain and Buddhist art have been combined, Lianban, Lotus, Zanbao and so on almost become the decorative content of Yuan Qinghua porcelain, indicating the impact of Buddhist art on arts and crafts.[4]

(2) Auxiliary Decoration

There are many kinds of auxiliary decorative patterns of Yuan-Qing-Hua, such as realistic content or geometric pattern.After the Ming Dynasty, most of the blue-and-white porcelain decorations follow the Yuan painting method, but see a slight variation.This difference is more obvious on the auxiliary lines, which is an important evidence for the identification of the Yuanqing flower.

1. Waves

The wavy lines on the flower are applied to the edge of the large market, the isolation between the inside of the plate and the bottom of the flower pattern.The large plate with wavy edges is generally rhombus.

Waves are composed of waves and ripples.The waves on the flower with weight changes in the rough line outline, shape such as” Buddha hand “, such as palm leaves and such as ginger buds, called ginger sprouts sea water.The ripples are drawn, radiated, or swirled in extremely fine lines, the latter as a human fingerprint.There is white space between the waves to increase the sense of space.Some wavy lines have simple pen-and-ink flowers.

The embossed floral embossing belt is partly lined with ripples as an extension of adjacent wavy lines.

In early Ming Dynasty, the waves of blue flowers were simplified, and the lines of waves were hollow with thin lines, some of which were painted with small circles to show the spray.The ripples are thick and sparse, stacked and turbulent.Fingerprint-like swirls have disappeared.

2. Variant lotus petals

Lotus petal is divided into realistic and abstract properties, the latter is a variety of lotus petal, which is very widely used.Variegated lotus petals embellished on the neck and shin of bottles and pots.Each valve is independent and consists of two frames of outer thickness and inner thickness.Inside frame fine line a piece of hook into, outside frame double hook after filling color or coarse line drawing.Two strokes of thick line are drawn from the middle.The lotus flap folds in the shoulder.The inner frame line and the lotus-leaf inner decoration are connected with the pen.Lotus petal filled with various treasures (flame, beads and so on), flowers (mainly lotus) or cloud head, cloud head under a circle.

Variety lotus petal outer frame borrowed from each other at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, shoulder slightly round and soft, lotus petal inside the pattern is simple, have precious phase flower, swirl pattern and so on.

3. Ripple

The retracting of the Yuan and Qing flowers originated from the thunder and cloud patterns of the bronze ware.Monomer drawing, starting from the upper left counter-clockwise pen, from the outside to the inside is generally stacked two frames, also see a single frame.There are deformable lines, strokes are simplified and incomplete.

In the early Ming Dynasty, there were two sets of blue-and-white retractions, which were connected by strokes and borrowed from a side line.Another way of drawing early Ming is to complete the entire ribbon, draw from the outside and then reverse drawing, starting the second unit.

4. Grass Rolls

Each unit of the curly grass on the Yuanqing flower is drawn independently, one positive and the other negative.There are also two on one or two on the other.No central trough curve, first draw a central trough curve, in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, there is no central wave valley curve scroll.

5. Money pattern

The money on the Yuan Qing flower is decorated at the edge of the plate and the bottle mouth, etc., there are decorative belt of whole money composition, also have the ribbon of half money cross composition.The money pattern takes the outer circle inner square as the basic shape, has various changes.Some of the square wear in the pattern of the diamond, each side of the diamond added a little, such as the diamond lace painting.

6. Diamond

The rhomboid ribbon on a flower is drawn along the rim of the plate or as the interval between the jars of the jar.Round-mouthed large plate section decorated with diamond lace edge.Each monomer consists of two diamond-shaped sets, some of which are filled with blue.The inner diamond center and the four sides each have a point.

7. Banana Leaves

The banana leaf pattern on the Yuan-Qing flower comes from the pattern of the bronze ware of Shang and Zhou dynasties, which is decorated with the bottle neck and the lower abdomen.The middle stem of the leaf is drawn to the tip of the leaf.The edge of the leaf is lined with thin lines and filled with color.The veins of the leaf are outlined.There are two kinds of painting: single-layer and front-back double-layer.

In the early Ming banana leaf pattern, the stem is drawn to the tip of the leaf with two thin lines, not filled with color, and the middle stem of Yongle leaves is no longer than the tip of the leaf.The leaves are as fine as the bones of a fish.The edge of the leaf is serrated, and the outline is thickened with a double pen.General for the front and back double-layer painting.

8. Ruyi Yuntou

The Ruyi cloud head on the Yuanqing flower is drawn from three lines with thick sides and thin middle. The second, third and fourth orders are all available.Cloud head interior decoration dense plump, there are small flower lines, sea lines, and so on, some on the bottom of this painting animal lines.

There are several decorative methods for the head of Ruyi Cloud of Yuanqing Flower:

(1) The head of a cloud which is fixed on the upper part of the object is pendant (to be called the shoulder of the cloud) and the head of the cloud which is decorated on the lower part of the thing is stretched out.It usually consists of 3,4 or 6 cloud heads.

(2) For a week, the head of the cloud extends to the center of the pan, and the head is not connected, which is composed of 6 third-order heads.

(3) The “opening light” consists of two heads of clouds butting or four heads joining each other, the former being used for the belly of the bottle and the latter being used for the center of the disk.

Ruyi cloud in the early Ming Dynasty outside the head of the thick inside and out of the double-drawn line.The heads of the clouds are connected in simple arcs rather than in opposite directions.The head of a cloud shrinks or varies in size.The head of a cloud is painted with a simple pattern, or folded branches of flowers or veins or fill with color.

In the early Ming Dynasty, the blue and white flower also had the decoration method of single cloud head.

In addition to the above-mentioned patterns, the auxiliary patterns of the Yuanqing also fish scale, moire, vortex, triangle belt patterns and other forms.[9]

The General Knowledge of Yuan Blue-and-White Porcelain

Very few of them have brought money with them. A pair of blue-and-white elephant-ear bottles from the Great Vide Art Foundation of England (1351) have been collected for 11 years, with a total of 5 lines of 62 words written in useful blue-and-white: “Xinzhou Road, Yushan County, Shuncheng County, Jingtang Church in the town of the religious disciples Zhang Wenjin, a pair of incense vases, pray for the family Qing Ji, children peace. As of April 11, remember. Xingyuan ancestral hall, a marshal Hu Jingyi make a confession.” This is specially written on the supply of the support style, The name and specific age of the donor are of great reference significance in identifying the age of the object.It is the year number of the Emperor Shundi at the end of Yuan Dynasty. This pair of bottles should be the representative work of the late Yuan Dynasty blue and white porcelain.

Also on the list are the blue-and-white-glazed red pagoda-covered cans and the green-glazed red-covered barn with the inscription “After the month of May to the month of May”.The year of Wu Yin was followed by the first four years of Yuan Dynasty, that is,1338 AD.

Blue material straight book “to be seven years” five-character regular edition of the blue and white glaze pot,” to seven years” should be AD 1347.The green flower twined ganoderma lucidum grain jar in the inscription “Wu Zi year” was made in 1348 AD for the first eight years.To the eleventh year (1351) inscriptions on the blue-and-white cloud dragon pattern elephant ear bottle a pair.

Pingxiang Museum in Jiangxi Province, the collection of the Yuan Qinghua double-phoenix pattern high-foot cup, cup inner book a blue-and-white “fu” word.From Yuan Dynasty to Ming and Qing Dynasties, this kind of auspicious language has been widely used in the blue-and-white porcelain of folk kilns.

In addition, there are some blue-and-white porcelain in the bottom or in the Chinese calligraphy of a book or two, some in the heart of the bowl inscriptions inscriptions in the blue-and-white.In 1980, a blue-and-white cursive book with high cup bottom was unearthed in Gaoan County, Jiangxi Province. “Life is always drunk for a hundred years, and there are thirty-six thousand pieces of” poems, poetic and unrestrained, which accords with the character of the nomadic people of Yuan Dynasty.

Finally, we should mention the Chinese Yuan-qing-hua ware hidden in the Artbiel Temple of Iran.Some of these objects are written or drilled into Arabic at the bottom or the shin. According to experts, the Arabic language is the name of the King Abbas of Iran or the dedication of the Abbas title, as well as Tibetan symbols.Abbas, the 16th century king of Iran, dedicated the Chinese Yuan Qing Hua to the temple collection, can be seen in the Islamic country’s worship of Yuan Qing Hua.But through the analysis of Iranian experts confirmed that the Yuan Qinghua artifacts on the seal-style version of the Persian, inferred to be signature, may be a craftsman’s own work of the name.[4]

Official kilns and civilian kilns of Yuan blue-and-white porcelain

The official kilns and the folk kilns in the blue-and-white porcelain of Yuan Dynasty can only be distinguished from the decoration.The reason is that the Yuan Dynasty Yanyou year began to clear “double-angle five-claw dragon pattern” and “Kirin, Luanfeng, White Rabbit, Ganoderma lucidum,” and other officials, rich can not use.As a result, all the blue-and-white utensils with forbidden patterns are also official kilns produced by the people’s kilns, but there must be a considerable part of the original blue-and-white porcelain that does not paint these patterns.And the three-claw, four-claw dragon pattern in the Yuan Qing Hua and the production of the relatively coarse objects are basically officials, household used in the kiln products.

The Identifying Key Points of Yuan Blue and White Porcelain

To identify a piece of blue-and-white porcelain to master the following points:

(1) Viewpoint Form

The shape of the vessel, such as the bottle, can, should be carefully looked at its mouth, neck, shoulder, abdomen, sole, to see if there are the characteristics of the shape of the device, but also to identify the body weight of the device-shaped body, the overall analysis of the shape of the organ.Yuan Dynasty bottles, jars and so on, the general shape of the fetal body is relatively thick, the fetal quality is hard.

(2) Look at the glaze color

Yuan blue-and-white porcelain glaze in the micro-brilliant blue, bright, but there are also blue-and-white or partial blue and white porcelain.In the middle and early Yuan Dynasty (Yanyou period), blue-and-white glaze of blue-and-white porcelain, such as blue-and-white glaze, touch the glazed surface like glutinous rice sense, sometimes the glaze color shows a matte wood color, a recent blue-blue gray, a distant yellow-brown, see the blue-and-white glaze on the thin white dots, A few of the body glaze can be seen fine skin layer, oblique light to see through the embryo glaze slightly irregular lines of the glaze lines, from the year of the white glaze, pivot glaze and egg white glaze of the blue-and-white porcelain, the color of the embryo is mostly white, micro-flash blue, for the white glaze containing green, The appearance of a transparent glass texture.

(3) Look at the blue and white flowers

Yuan blue-and-white porcelain hair color instability, blue-and-white color faint, green material is divided into two: a strong green color is green and bright, thick place has black rust, commonly known as” black fault “, strong touch when the green-flower glaze is uneven feeling, This is the import of the use of “clay green” materials unique to the color effect;The other is home-made materials, home-made blue and white hair color blue and gray, some color blue and blue or blue and blue hair color in the flash gray.Yanyou period blue and white hair color of the peony lines deep in the fetal bones are cloud blocks, as lurking in the fetal bones, showing a three-dimensional sense of flash.Blue and white flowers float and glaze close, scattered blue and white flowers are explosive shape, on the surface of blue and white glaze there are thick black silk and small points, blue and white decoration close to glaze, micro concave shape, which is also the basic point to identify Jingdezhen Yuan blue and white porcelain.

(4) Look at the patterns and decorations

The decoration of the blue-and-white porcelain in Yuan Dynasty can be divided into two types.The first kind is the import material painting decoration, has the composition full density, the level rich, the painting neat characteristic.”If the pattern of the large market is composed of three to five layers of dense patterns, and the patterns of the bottles and jars are composed of three to eight layers of patterns, and the patterns of the patterns are of the coordination of the guests and the coordination of the guests, and the complexity of the features of the patterns are abundant and varied, with characters and stories, twining flowers, fish algae, lotus pond, double phoenix flowers,” The flower pattern has the characteristics of large flowers and large leaves, among which the leaves of the twined lotus are painted as gourd, the edges of the peony are painted as white beads, the auxiliary varieties of lotus have many spacing, and the frame is decorated with blue flowers.Another kind of blue-and-white painting with domestic materials, the pattern has the features of smooth and unrestrained, the composition of the pattern is relatively simple, the painting is relatively rough, with a variety of flower patterns for many see.

(5) Look at the inner wall

Blue and white porcelain bottle, pot wall more than non-glazing, the inner wall is sand tire, the body is generally made by the use of segmented adhesive, so the belly and the bottom of the device often have obvious tire joint marks.Mui bottle and shoulder joint more than repair the fetus, so have rough feeling.The inner wall of the tire is mostly raised about 1 ~ 2 mm of different fetal scar, thickness and size irregularity, hand touch has a mellow and delicate texture.The inner wall of the bottle is light yellow, and the inner wall of the bottle is clear. The upper part of the abdomen is treated without repair. The lower part of the abdomen is covered with spiral marks. The inner wall of the bottle is clear.Strong light oblique look inside the thin sand eyes out of the star, shine out, also known as yin-yang light point.

(6) Foot inspection

In Yuan Dynasty, blue-and-white porcelain bottle, the bottom of the tank is more concave foot-shaped, foot-wide thick, a small number of foot-inclined slant shape, digging foot has shallow and deep, mostly shallow foot.The circle of the bowl-plate is more inclined to the outside, but both the cutter and the circle have a more regular and irregular feeling.Bottle, can such as some foot bottom sand tire apparent tie sense, but also some fetal quality slightly loose sense, small sand eyes and black paste hemp point clearly visible, some of the foot surface micro protuberance show chicken heart-shaped.Bottle, pot foot more than spiral marks, showing flint red and ochre red, some of the ring bottom and small small stone on the bottom of the foot is clearly visible, stick thin size block not a black glaze marks, and there is natural explosion.

(7) Color and Bubble

It is also very important to develop the color of the blue and white flower. The outer circle of the jar and the bottle are usually thick with water green, and there is also a blue color of duck’s egg. The glaze surface of the body is usually blue, light blue, or yellow brown.The blue-and-white porcelain bottles and pots of the early Yuan Dynasty showed obvious color, which showed different colors of glaze with the change of air dryness, humidity, temperature and season.The blue-and-white glaze of early Yuan Dynasty (Yanhu period), such as vase and pot, sometimes appeared weak sweating phenomenon on the glaze, generally for hot weather season, and the blue-white glaze and the blue-and-white glaze of early Yuan Dynasty are mostly without air bubbles.The blue-and-white porcelain, white glaze and egg-white glaze will have bubbles, but there will be size and size of two kinds of bubbles, many small bubbles, Yuan blue-and-white porcelain glaze surface appears dry and transparent.[11]

Edit the imitation characteristics of the Yuan blue-and-white porcelain

It is really difficult to identify high-imitation products, when necessary, we should use modern high-tech means to identify, but in general imitation, as long as master the knowledge of ancient ceramics process, we can make a clear judgment.The following is a list of common problems with substitutes. Any one of the following features must be a modern copy.

(1) the porcelain tyre is too white, too fine or too dense

The fetal quality of the blue-and-white porcelain produced by Jingdezhen in Yuan Dynasty is similar to that of the Qing-white porcelain in Song Dynasty, except that the content of alumina is about 1.5% higher than that of the latter.During the processing of the raw materials of the blue-and-white porcelain in Yuan Dynasty, the others were all hand-operated except for the use of water-duping in rough processing.Compared with the modern materials produced by the ball mill and the vacuum machine along the line, there are obvious differences in fineness and density.In order to reduce the cost of low-and middle-grade imitation products, use mechanical processing raw materials production, the fetal quality is either too white, too thin or too dense.

(2) Those who have oxidized rust coated or sprayed by hand at the exposed position of the foot

In the society, it was generally believed that “flint red” was found in the exposed parts of the blue-and-white porcelain in Yuan Dynasty, which was regarded as the standard of identification.In fact, the “flint red” phenomenon only existed in some of the Yuan Dynasty blue-and-white porcelain, there are a considerable number of authentic ancient without the “flint red” phenomenon.A large number of experiments prove that “flint red” phenomenon should have two basic conditions, one is that there is a certain amount of free iron in the body, and the other is that the body contains enough water when entering the kiln.Only in this way, in the initial stage of furnace fire heating, with the rapid evaporation of moisture in the body, the free iron will be brought to the surface of the body to form a “flint red”.Generally speaking, the first condition belongs to internal cause, which is universal in Yuan Dynasty. The second condition is external cause, which is not necessary before firing.Some objects have been “thoroughly dried” before being fired, and even the “cake pad” used in the kiln has no moisture content.If so, the surface of the burning object rarely appears” flint red “phenomenon.Because the body of low-grade imitations does not contain free iron, the imitator uses the method of coating or spraying oxide rust to fake, in fact is to cover up the obvious, it and the real “flint red” and “paste rice bottom” have obvious differences.

(3) Smooth and unvarnished inner wall

Most of the objects in the Yuan Dynasty were made by hand-drawn blank or off-blank forming technology, and the inner wall of bottles, cans and other objects often ran down the obvious fingerprint and spiral lines.Fingerprints and swirls are low-grade imitations produced by modern grouting molding processes if no fingerprints are found on the inner wall of the object.We look closely at the inside of this kind of objects against the foot of the circle will also find a concave “grouting seal.”If it is an object with two ears, its ears are often hollow grouting from, in its hiding place under the air vent.Grouting technology was introduced into China from Europe after the mid-Republic of China, and it was widely used in the production of craft porcelain after 1950 ‘s.

(4) Those whose inner wall has a cutting mark on the blank

Anyone who knows Jingdezhen ceramic manufacturing process knows that there are two kinds of knives used to repair billet, one is called “blade knife”, which is used to trim the inner wall of the object;One kind is called “plate knife”, is used to trim the external wall and the foot circle of the object.The appearance of the sword has a history of more than 2,000 years, while the sword was only found in the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty.In other words, the porcelain before Kangxi only repair the outer wall, not the inner wall, after the mid-period of Kangxi porcelain began to trim the inner wall.Some imitators don’t understand this, they just make it according to the illustrations and often paint the inside wall.

(5) those with uniform and fine linear knife marks

Before the Ming Dynasty, the blanks were made by smithy stone on the basis of the blacksmith’s forging and forming.After the Industrial Revolution in Europe, steel files were introduced into our country.The ceramic craftsmen of Jingdezhen soon found that the cutters made of steel files were superior to those made by grinding.The edge of a steel file cutter is serrated.Use it to repair the blank, save labor and durable.Thus, this method of machining cutters was popularized in the Qing Dynasty during the reign of Kangxi, and has spread to the present day.At the same time, Jingdezhen ceramic craftsmen also invented various shapes of knife.The porcelain billet, which is trimmed with this tool, has a uniform and fine line of knife marks.

(6) Overglaze and White

As the saying goes, “the clothes are right to the bone.””Clothing” here refers to porcelain glaze, “bone” refers to porcelain tyres.The enamel of the blue-and-white porcelain of Yuan Dynasty was all blue and white, especially the early products were basically the same as that of the blue-and-white porcelain of Song Dynasty.The color of this transparent glaze is often related to the quality of the fetus, in the process of burning, the iron elements in the tire will be in the action of high temperature diffusion of the glaze, plus the reduction atmosphere in the kiln, resulting in a bright blue-white glaze.Most of the imitation tyres are not rich in iron, and the glaze looks green.

(7) The glaze is smooth, smooth or thin

There is a direct relationship between the flatness of porcelain glaze and the method of glazing application.As the Yuan Dynasty blue-and-white porcelain is dipped in glaze, poured glaze and brush glaze technology, it seems that the enamel is plump and thick, but lack of flatness.In particular, the use of glaze and brush glazing process of large objects, glaze often left “tear” and “brush mark” phenomenon.After Qing Dynasty, Jingdezhen generally used blowing glaze to apply glaze. The flatness of glaze surface was greatly improved. Modern electric air compressor was used instead of artificial blown glaze, which greatly improved production efficiency.The glaze surface is too smooth, smooth and thin, all are modern blown glaze products.

(8) The iron in the blue and white flowers floats on the glaze table

In ancient times, it was used as a natural mineral material. The main component was cobalt oxide with a small amount of iron oxide.Iron and cobalt blend and distribute evenly.The iron oxide in “Suberazem” aggregates with each other in the silicate liquid, forming dark spots.They generally do not float to the surface of the glaze, forming a so-called crystal, under the microscope, most of the brown spots appear irregular paste under the glaze.Most modern imitations simply add iron oxide powder to the production of domestic blue and white flowers and do not burn at high temperature, so it is impossible for iron oxide to fuse evenly in cobalt oxide. Under the action of high temperature, these iron oxide will float quickly to the surface of glaze to form crystal.Slag-like spots were observed under microscope.

(9) Those whose green flowers are too dark or bright in color

In addition to the low content of iron, the content of manganese is obviously higher than that of the latter 60 ~ 300 times.If can’t remove the manganese in the domestic green material effectively, just add iron, the color of blue and white will appear gray and dark.If cobalt oxide is directly used in the chemical industry as a blue material (commonly known as” blue “), its color will appear too bright.

(10) Those who have a flaw in the painted decoration

The observation of embellishment is the basis of identification.Generally speaking, the imitation of the embellishment and genuine are very close, otherwise can not be called “imitation”, often need to be carefully observed before it is possible to find flaws.

(11) objects that do not conform to the characteristics of the age or process

There are two kinds of situations here.One is that counterfeiters pursue novelty, so that collectors can’t figure it out, as the saying goes: rare things are expensive.In case it is the latest white “superlatives”, can pick up a big” leak “.The other is the imitator’s kungfu is not enough, often is to have the intention but the strength is insufficient, consciously or not consciously made to walk away.

(12) the edge of the mouth and the line of the foot circle of an object which is stiff or too regular

The plasticity of porcelain-making raw materials made by modern machinery is generally not as good as those prepared by hand in Yuan Dynasty.As far as ceramic forming technology is concerned, modern Jingdezhen popular saying is: three-point drawing, seven-point cutting.That is to say, the shape of the object is mainly repaired by a repairman’s knife.On the contrary, the Yuan Dynasty technology is seven-point drawing, three-point trimming, some people think it is a technical problem, in fact, it is not, mainly because the plasticity of modern clay has been much worse than before.Because the clay can be pulled very thin, so the upper and inner parts of the artifacts do not need to be repaired at all, but to the lower part and circle the foot of a simple trim.Therefore, the original objects of the mouth and neck are smooth lines, the appearance of round, do not fall knife marks.Modern copy of the drawing is very thick, not only to repair the upper half, and even repair the inner wall, therefore, the line is hard, regular more than enough, a lot of knife marks.

(13) the ratio of the volume to the weight of an object is obviously superior

The object is too light or too heavy all indicate to have a problem, too light person often uses” grouting “to form a craft.The wall made by hand-drawn billet is thin and thick.The former is as thick as up and down. If the edge of the object is thin and suitable, the lower part will appear thin, generally and inperceptible, only through weight.Overweight is often due to poor plasticity of the clay.The poor plasticity of clay will bring difficulty to the forming of billet, thin, non-standard shape, thick weight and exceed the standard.Is the imitation of wall thickness and genuine type, it will appear to be heavier than the genuine, because the imitation of fetal quality is generally higher than the true density.

(14) if the molding process does not conform to the characteristics of the times

The “grouting” mentioned above is only one of the forming processes.Once there was a blue-and-white card case, is to use the board made of glued, Jingdezhen called “inlay.”Collector only according to the blue and white decoration that it is the real Yuan Dynasty.If this is true, it is a national treasure-class treasures.Unfortunately, the Yuan Dynasty did not have this kind of molding technology, only to the Qing Dynasty Jingdezhen use of “inlay” technology.

(15) if the characteristics of the cushion firing process are not consistent

At present, petroleum liquefaction gas kiln is widely used in Jingdezhen to make porcelain.In order to prevent the attachment of the object to the silicon carbide shed board, sprinkle quartz sand or alumina powder between the two.Careful observation of the object’s foot ring, if the above two materials stick to and very solid, must be a modern imitation.Not only the Yuan, Ming and Qing porcelain is the same.In ancient times, quartz sand and alumina powder were not used as bedding materials at all.

(16) those who appear to have obvious traces of old work

If you want to make imitations go through the market, you can’t do without the “old” craft.There are essential differences between the old traces of human work and the old natural appearance of ancient ceramics.

(17) those who use X-ray fluorescence detection and exceed the standard of the index elements

As time goes by, the brightness of ceramic glaze will gradually decrease, which is due to the “devitrification” of enamel itself.In order to reduce the brightness of imitated glaze, adding zinc, zirconium and titanium oxides to the glaze is one of the common methods for modern imitators.The content of various elements in tire and glaze can be detected by X-ray fluorescence analysis.If one of the above elements exceeds the standard, it is a modern imitation.

(18) Using spectral analysis, the enamel aging coefficient is less than 0.10

The enamel itself will produce the phenomenon of “devitrification” over time, which is also called aging.Aging coefficient below 0.10 must be modern imitation.