Look at different periods, the characteristics of Qing Kangxi blue and white porcelain (full version)!

Palace Museum, Qingqing Kangxi blue and white, dragon pattern vase

The blue-and-white porcelain is a blue-colored underglaze porcelain that is painted with cobalt oxide as a colorant and then coated with transparent glaze and fired at high temperatures (about 1200 degrees Celsius to 1300 degrees Celsius).Since the Yuan Dynasty, it has been the mainstream of porcelain firing, so a large number of bowls, plates, pots and other household porcelain, is in the form of blue-and-white porcelain fired out.

As a result of the addition of new materials kaolin blue-and-white porcelain tire, compared with the Song and Yuan Dynasty porcelain porcelain to be white and delicate, and blue and white two tones are also a new look.Compared with later porcelain varieties such as multicolored and powder enamel, the harmful ingredients in underglaze color materials are not easily precipitated, and blue-and-white porcelain can be said to be cleaner and harmless.

Blue-and-white porcelain has many advantages, and because of its bright, elegant, quiet and harmonious characteristics from the inside and outside, it has also won the appreciation and preference of scholars and officials, and has been loved by the public.

Palace Museum, Qing Dynasty, Kangxi, blue and white, with white and white patterns, Baba teapot

The background of Kangxi blue-and-white porcelain

In 1644, the Qing Dynasty established the capital of Beijing.With the initial social, economic and political stability of the Shunzhi period in the early Qing Dynasty, the social productive forces and people’s lives were restored and developed to different degrees by the time of Kangxi.As the longest-serving emperor in Chinese history, Emperor Kangxi studied and introduced a great deal of Western advanced technology while absorbed in Chinese culture, and made brilliant achievements in all fields.

In the production and burning of porcelain, the Qing government first announced in the second year of Shunzhi: “Except for directly governing the province of craftsmen, the price of Beijing craftsmen is exempted.” The system of craftsmen’s books since the Ming Dynasty was abolished.Then in the second year of Kangxi, “Banshang price silver, into a whip collection.” This series of reform of the system, to some extent, to reduce farmers and craftsmen in the feudal relationship of personal attachment to the shackles, promote the ceramic industry’s long-term development.However, due to the main origin of porcelain in Jiangxi Province, has been in the Nanming anti-Qing activities of the most frequent areas, coupled with the Kangxi 13 years (1674) Pingsanfan war, ceramic production suffered a certain extent of destruction.Until Kangxi 19 years (1680) Jingdezhen first restored the Imperial Artistry Factory, ceramic production has gradually been on the right track, and then carried out a certain amount of palace official kiln porcelain placed in the best location in the kiln fired, that is, the so-called “official burning.”The implementation of this way of firing, so that the civilian kiln firing technology has developed.On the other hand, kiln porcelain also plays an important role.Kangxi kiln porcelain mainly with blue-and-white porcelain, compared with the official kiln porcelain, although the overall quality inferior to the official kiln, but in the art performance, it is not restricted by the form, and brave to explore, bold creation will be practical and ornamental integration, blooming vigorous vitality.Although there are various restrictions on the manufacture of porcelain in the official kilns, due to the financial resources and prestige of the court, excellent craftsmen are often gathered up and, with the participation of literati and officials, display their ideals of beauty and create works of beauty.As recorded in “History of Qing Dynasty” volume 5O 5: “Participate in the modern style, from the new idea, ready with ingenuity, painted characters, landscape, flowers and birds each extremely win, and into, its exquisite than the Ming Dynasty kiln.”

Palace Museum, Qingqing Kangxi blue and white chicken, peony pattern, phoenix tail.

The porcelain made during the reign of Kangxi is of the highest variety, the largest quantity, the most widely spread, and the most famous in China and abroad.

In the late 17th century, for example, the German king Augustus, who was particularly fond of Chinese porcelain, bought about 20,000 pieces of Chinese porcelain and numbered them for storage.That wasn’t enough. He was determined to emulate China’s burning of porcelain, which required special earth that Germany didn’t have, and ordered him to look around and to design samples.Kongfu paid off, and ultimately fired successfully.The now-famous German Maison porcelain was developed by the German national leader, who loved Chinese porcelain.In particular, the foreign king preferred the kongxi blue-and-white porcelain, which he used to trade a regiment of his army for a group of kongxi blue-and-white porcelain from the qing dynasty to austrian territory.This group of porcelain remains in Germany; it consists of two jars, two jars and one zun.”I’ve seen these relics before, and they’re really very beautiful,” said Geng Baochang, a porcelain connoisseur.

Palace Museum, Qingqing, Kangxi, Qinghua landscape figure, painted pot.

At this time the production of porcelain, as mentioned above, is still mainly blue-and-white porcelain, artistic achievement reached a certain height, this point can also be found from the ancient literature basis.For example: “hard color, Qinghua to Kangxi as the polar track”, (excerpt from “Yin Liuzhai said porcelain” in the “said color fourth” section).Chen Liu, a man from the Qing Dynasty, said in his book “Tao Ya”: “The green flowers of Yong (Zheng) and Qian (Long) did not catch Kang (Xi) kilns. However, the green flowers and the young people of Kang (Xi) were not as beautiful as those of Ming (Ming), but they could walk alone in this dynasty.” We can understand according to the view in “history of chinese ceramics”, that is: from the point of view of thick and beautiful, whether Kangxi Qinghua is not all ming dynasty Qinghua, can also be studied again, but Kangxi Qinghua can” walk the original dynasty alone “.Therefore, the blue-and-white porcelain of the Kangxi period has an extremely important historical position in the development history of China’s ceramics. It has a pure embryo glaze, green hair, a variety of shapes, beautiful patterns and long-known, this is the Qing Dynasty history of blue-and-white porcelain can not be compared with it.In this way, since the end of the Qing Dynasty, there has been a wave of admiring Kangxi blue-and-white porcelain.

Palace Museum Zang Qing Kang Xi Yuan Qing Hua Shuanglong opera pearl pattern three-legged incense burner

Characteristics, Materials, Colors and Stages of Kangxi Blue-and-White Porcelain

According to the different features and features of Kangxi blue-and-white porcelain, the development process is divided into three periods: early, middle and late.

Palace Museum Tibet Qing Kang Xi 23 years blue and white cloud dragon pattern incense burner

The early period was from the first year of Kangxi to the 19th year of Kangxi (1662-1680). At this time, the Qinghua porcelain of Kangxi was still in the transitional period from the end of Ming Dynasty to the beginning of Qing Dynasty.In the middle period, from 19 years of Kangxi to 40 years of Kangxi (1680-1701), the production technology of blue-and-white porcelain was improved, whether it was from the fetal quality, glaze, hair color, decorative style; or from the tool type, all had a long-term development, reached a new era peak.The famous Kangxi multicolored blue and white flowers are the product of this period.Late refers to the period from forty years of Kangxi to the end of Kangxi Dynasty (1701-1722). This period has changed with the development of time, which affected later generations, especially the style of the blue-and-white porcelain in Yongzheng.

The following will be based on the characteristics of the tire, glaze, foot, hair color, decorative, modeling, style and knowledge of blue and white porcelain in Kangxi period.

Palace Museum, Tibet Kangxi 10 years blue and white fairy pattern incense burner bottom

1. Characteristics of Tire Glaze

Generally speaking, Kangxi blue and white porcelain is famous for its thick body, fine and hard texture and thin glaze.Its embryo glaze is fine, the union is tight.This is different from the later blue-and-white porcelain.

Kangxi early blue-and-white porcelain, thick body thick and coarse rate, rich and green glaze surface, shrinkage glaze and black small brown eyes.Most of them are often coated with a layer of paste glaze, the bottom foot treatment is rough, and stick to fine sand, or not smooth phenomenon, some of the surface of the body is still obviously retained on the porcelain of the late Ming Dynasty porcelain radial jump marks, the individual objects of the two sides of the foot wall oblique pointed shape, And the diameter of the circle is large, many such as bottle, touch, pot, pan and cutters large porcelain, such as the bottom of the cylinder as a step-shaped, straight corner fold, commonly known as” two-story table “or” step bottom. “Double circle foot is also popular in this period, the large market in the kiln is more, the official kiln with the dragon fold along the washing, printing box and other artifacts are more.These objects have the characteristics that the inner ring is shorter than the outer one, that the two circles of the feet have no glaze and the tire is exposed, and that the circle is quite thick and wide.The base of the blue-and-white porcelain of the Kangxi official kiln is not very delicate in the early period of Kangxi.

Palace Museum, Qingqing Kangxi blue and white, Bogu pattern box.

In the middle period of Kangxi, the blue-and-white porcelain ware has developed to a certain extent in the aspect of body body, and the craftsmanship is more exquisite.With the further improvement of the firing temperature in the porcelain kiln, the body of the fired porcelain is thin and white and delicate, that is, the “glutinous rice” tire, which is often said by the ancients of antiquities.If you use a magnifying glass to observe the middle period of Kangxi blue and white porcelain fragments of the exposed area, you can see that the body thickness moderate, repair the tire workers.Therefore, the quality of blue-and-white porcelain during this period has been improved as a whole.The glaze of the object is also changed from initial green with black brown eyes to white and smooth, thus making the blue and white flowers more quiet and beautiful.The body of the porcelain of official kiln is also clean and hard, rare impurity “glutinous rice tyre”, its body is thin and uniform, repair tire is neat and careful.The general porcelain glaze surface has the powder white and the pulp white two kinds of colors commonly, the powder white glaze surface appears the loose slightly, and has the fine crushing to open the slice.In addition, we can see a bright white and blue glaze, but not many.By the middle of Kangxi period, the phenomenon of “two-story table” on the bottom of early porcelain continued to exist, and the cutting of the sole was similar to that of early porcelain, except that the foot diameter was slightly smaller than that of early porcelain.The base of most objects is clean and smooth, the treatment is excellent, and the foot is round and smooth. This is the base of the loach which is commonly said in Kangxi blue-and-white porcelain.But the base of this period is not as round as the foot of the later period especially Yongzheng blue-and-white porcelain.

Palace Museum Zang Qing Kang Xi blue-and-white glaze in the red landscape poem at the bottom of the plate (double circles)

As a result of the development of porcelain manufacturing technology, porcelain needed to be made of earth-ceramics more refined, the purification of raw materials has also been developed to a certain extent.As a result, the body of the body is more delicate, hard and pure, so the content of iron impurities in the body is greatly reduced, and the phenomenon of “flint red” is rarely seen.In addition, the mid-Kangxi blue-and-white porcelain with a tight combination of the tire and glaze, the overall glaze color of the same.This period appeared with the washing fine pulp to make the porcelain tyre, commonly known as” the pulp tyre “, its characteristic is the texture fine, the hand is partial light, makes the article to be mostly the printing box, the water pot and so on small piece implement.

Palace Museum, Qing Dynasty, Kangxi plasma tyre, blue-and-white landscape covered cylinder.

By the late Kangxi period, with the development of the society and the stability and improvement of the people’s lives, the demand for porcelain at home and abroad increased greatly, resulting in a large increase in the output of porcelain, porcelain burning on the basis of fully inheriting the medium-term Kangxi, and continuous rapid development, The body of the kiln ware is thin and thick, but it tends to be thinner, and the degree of porcelain is good.The glaze color mostly is fine and moist blue white and pink white, but mainly by the powder white, the embryo glaze union is tight, presents a kind of cleans through the hard feeling.At this time the body of the porcelain of the official kiln becomes thinner, the embryo quality is more hard, the glaze also becomes more clean and moist, from the middle of that pink white to white gradually transition.The glaze appears a kind of hard bright blue color, the luster is natural and soft, and the early glaze color gives the person to the blue in the mixing, the tonal gray dark feeling compares, the late green appears green, gives the person fresh bright feeling, the artifact embryo glaze union is also more compact, The porcelain was produced to reveal a jade-like texture.The base of the later stage of Kangxi blue-and-white porcelain is generally cut flat, and the cutting is neat, the turning point of the second floor is not as stiff as before, and shows the feeling of mellow and delicate.

Kangxi “two-story station” foot

Thus it can be seen that the changes of the tread, glaze and substrates in these three periods tend to progress and develop, and the single white glaze runs through the third period.

2. Material and color characteristics

During the reign of Kangxi in Qing Dynasty, Jingdezhen porcelain-making artists accumulated experience through years of hard work, thus gradually mastered the use of a variety of categories, different shades of blue color, dyed out of the depth of other blue color scale changes, from a stroke can also be glimpsed in its distinct color rhyme. To make the objects depicted as clear and clear, there has always been a “five-color blue and white” reputation.In addition to the use of high-quality blue material factors, its unique performance in the successful use of water separation techniques, which originated in China’s traditional ink painting in the five-color ink, so that a blue material can be divided into a thick head, two thick and other different shades of the same color, It can be adjusted and used according to the different needs of the picture.It is worth mentioning here that craftsmen’s division of labor, the Qing Dynasty potter Tang Ying in the “Tao Yetu said” this book recorded the painting of blue and white porcelain division of labor: “Painters learn not to dye, dyers learn not to learn to dye. So one hand, regardless of its heart also. The artist and the dyer gather together in one room in order to form a uniform work. To such as the edge of the blue band, out of the bad hand of the whirlwind, to read the secretary, on the work of the money; write zodiac for the above, archaize to see what can be refined, this blue and white is different from the colorful also. “True,” Correct division of labour plays an important role in improving the efficiency of labor production.

Palace Museum, Qingqing Kangxi blue and white flowers, pine and crane pattern tin

The history of the blue and white materials used in the Qing Dynasty was not clearly recorded. About the book was written in the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty, “Nanyao Notes”, which recorded the green materials used at that time in addition to the Zhejiang and Jiangxi materials already used in the Ming Dynasty, and said: “This dynasty, Guangdong and Guangxi are available, but not fire-resistant, painting color into the furnace is black.” Because of this, the book came to the conclusion that: “Therefore, the total Zhejiang material for the top.” “Guangxu year asked the book Qianlong year” Quanzhou Fu Ma Xiang Hall Records” about digging wells to get green materials in the records: “Wanqing, Jinmen ancient lake Qionglin excavated the wellhead, Jiangxi Jingdezhen and Dehua, Ningde kiln needs.” Most scholars think: “This kind of materials from Jiangxi, Guangdong and Guangxi, and from Jinmen, Fujian, are probably only used on coarse blue-and-white porcelain.”

Palace Museum, Qingqing Kangxi Blue and White Flower, Ice and Plum pattern, Kaiguang unique animal jar.

In the early years of Qianlong, Tang Ying put forward in his book “Tao Ye Tu Shuo”: “Porcelain, blue and white need green big glaze, by the green material, out of Zhejiang Shaoxing, Jinhua two houses belong to the mountains…. The Jiangxi, Guangdong mountain producers, color thin not fire-resistant, can draw rough.” Therefore, some scholars believe: “The beautiful Kangxi kiln blue and white porcelain should also be used in this kind of Zhejiang materials.” 3, but also some scholars believe that Kangxi period blue and white porcelain, “The use of blue and white raw materials is Yunnan pearl materials.” Ancient ceramic connoisseur Mr. Geng Baochang thought it is pearl materials and Zhejiang materials, combined, All of the above for your reference.As for the coloring effect, Kangxi’s early blue-and-white porcelain, its hair color is gray and dark blue, there is a turbid feeling.In the middle period, hair color from gray to green, thick and light, to achieve the so-called “ink” in traditional painting, “blue and white,” known as the late blue and white hair color becomes light, giving people a fresh, bright and hard feeling, but also poor quality, The phenomenon of multi-color unstable and halo-scattered occurs.Among them, the most characteristic in the middle and late period, especially in the middle period, is the typical hair color of Kangxi blue-and-white porcelain.

Palace Museum, Qingqing, Kangxi, Qinghua, the story of the red brush baton bottle.

3. Features and drawing methods

In the early years of Kangxi, the society was not stable because it was still in the early period of the dynasty’s replacement. The change of current situation led to the change of people’s psychology and the search for certain sustenance.Therefore, in the early period of Kangxi porcelain in addition to living utensils outside the sacrificial vessels accounted for the majority, such as incense burner.The incense burner abdomen draws the lotus pattern many, the body under the implement is decorated with two blue-and-white edge line, or has opens the sharp inside book year money in front of the tap.Others, such as cave stone flowers, also with Shunzhi or late Ming style and treatment of similar, to the simple rate of extensive, natural flow-oriented.Er Ru

The words” Fu “and” Shou “and the auspicious patterns widely loved by the people also began to appear, the decoration of happy paintings tangled branches loose, but the wall of the instrument full of poetry is not seen.The early painting method generally has simple and smooth, full of life breath of the single-line flat painting method, but also has the painter delicate, thin and rigid flexible lines and caused by the shawl method.

Palace Museum, hidden Qing Dynasty Kangxi blue flower glaze, red inside with piano, visit friends, garlic bottle.

In the middle period of Kangxi, the traditional fine painting method was adopted in the painting of decorative patterns to convey the spirit.The landscape does the axe to split wrinkle more, and participates in with the perspective principle, has made the picture and the color cooperates to achieve from the language to narrate a certain realm, extremely harmonious unification.The features in the decorative features of the animal, ice plum, sycamore plantain, bogu, female drama and characters and other stories.In addition, in the wall, especially the pen-holder on the whole article, such as” Tengtu preface “,” before and after the Red Wall Fu “, and so on, also began to appear.

By the late Kangxi period, the decorative techniques of blue-and-white porcelain were similar to those of the previous ones, but the patterns tended to develop locally, and the landscape characters were reduced to a certain extent.And along with the social stability, the common people’s state of mind also tends to be peaceful, on the picture appeared such as” the plow weave picture “,” the fisherman’s joy “and so on pattern.

Palace Museum, Qingqing Kangxi blue and white, dragon pattern bottle bottom

4. The characteristics of style and knowledge

The porcelain at the end of the original period when the Ming Dynasty Yongle years, although some of the porcelain in the Song Dynasty to see the base of the “grand view”, “politics and” the name of the year, it should be its origin.

In the early period of Kangxi, the imperial court was afraid that the porcelain would be damaged and abandoned in the waste land with the name of the year of this dynasty.As a result, there are few people with this year’s money.However, the name of the hall, the name of Ramadan and the deposit of flowers are very popular, and the objects painted on the outer bottom can also be seen, but the sacrificial vessels in the outer wall can occasionally see the annals.Those who write the most are those who write the year before the dynasty.

In the 19th year of Kangxi, the official kiln of Qing Dynasty was founded, and it also entered the middle period of the development of Kangxi blue-and-white porcelain.At the same time also began to write a large number of the year, for the six-character “Daqing Kangxi year.”The four-character “Kangxi year” of the blue and white regular script, the average book in the bottom and the heart, which can be seen in a single circle, double circles; no circle, two sides frame, double long square frame, concave carving, relief carving, regular script, cursive, six characters three lines, six characters two lines, four words two lines, and so on, but also see the free chapter, double circles no words, The name of the Tang Dynasty, Ji language, such as the painting of autumn leaves, group cranes and other banknotes, as well as completely no money.

The payment for painting at the bottom of Kangxi blue and white porcelain