A Brief Discussion on the Differences between Blue-and-White Porcelain of the People's Kiln in Yuan Dynasty and Blue-and-white Porcelain of the Official Kiln

Yuan blue-and-white porcelain (also known as Yuan Qing-hua), is the Yuan Dynasty production of blue-and-white porcelain.Blue-and-white porcelain was produced in the Tang Dynasty and flourished in the Yuan Dynasty. The mature blue-and-white porcelain appeared in Jingdezhen in the Yuan Dynasty.The Yuan blue-and-white porcelain changed the traditional porcelain’s implicit and restrained style, pushed the blue-and-white painting art to the peak with its heroic spirit and original artistic spirit, and established the prosperity and long-term lasting of the later generation.

differences in firing characteristics

There are significant differences between the kiln and the official kiln (some documents call it “imperial kiln”).Because the purpose of making the blue-and-white porcelain ware of the folk kiln is different from that of the official kiln, compared with the well-made official kiln, the emphasis of the blue-and-white porcelain ware of the people’s kiln is to face the life and the people.The blue-and-white porcelain in the Yuan Dynasty became the most popular porcelain variety in Jingdezhen, mainly in the production of plain, in the color of soft-based, practical while not losing the beauty.However, compared with the production cost of the blue-and-white porcelain ware of the official kiln, the production process is improved and the craftsman’s choice is superior, the folk kiln is obviously inferior to the official kiln in material quality, craftsmanship and artistic achievement, but it has advantages in “nationalization” and “popularization”.Therefore, the disadvantages of the kiln are mainly reflected in the following aspects: first, overall, craftsmen and craftsmen skills and craft level can not be compared with the official kiln artists;Second, because a large number of developed high-quality clay resources are occupied by the official kiln, it is difficult to find high-quality porcelain clay, glaze as materials.As Zhang Deren said that “all excellent porcelain soil, is included in the” official land “, forbidden to use the kiln”;Third, the sample preparation standard is few, chooses the scale to be large.Compared with the official kiln (including the case of “official tie-in”), the civil blue-and-white porcelain obviously can’t never pursue exquisite, to consider the work and popular taste.In a word, with the support of the private capital, the production of daily-used porcelain is the main goal of the blue-and-white porcelain in the private kilns, and how to take into account the output and quality of the porcelain under the limited manpower, material resources and financial resources is the main goal of the firing.Therefore, the characteristics of the kiln green flower firing show that it takes less time, more finished products and takes into account the quality of art.The market competition environment has created the folk blue-and-white porcelain painting bold, no matter the shape is similar, simple and simple, unrestrained and unrestrained artistic style.At the same time, it not only absorbed the characteristics of Chinese national design, but also incorporated the techniques of Chinese painting.Adopt freehand style to decorate, make use of the varied tonal of rich and weak of cobalt material, obtain the same aesthetic feeling of ink and wash painting.

Fig.1 Chrysanthemum-pattern Dingting-type Connector Furnace (Pingxiang Museum)

Differences in Shape and Decoration Characteristics

On the whole, the shape of the porcelain in the Yuan Dynasty is characterized by thick, solid, magnificent spirit, especially the high-grade fine porcelain, including the right type of blue and white, this feature is particularly obvious.It has to do with the bold nature of the Mongols, and it has to do with exports.The general characteristic of the blue and white flowers on the pattern is not only the decorative form of some Western Asian art, but also the appearance of the traditional Chinese folk pattern, which is very dense in layout, magnificent and warm in style, which is very similar to the pattern and effect of the brocade at that time.The motif of Yuan Qing-hua not only exceeds the black-colored pattern of Cizhou kiln in Song Dynasty in quantity, but also the technique of expression is very skillful and high-level, the picture is exquisite and vivid.

The Ornamental Shape and Decoration Characteristics of the People’s Kiln

In the Yuan Dynasty, the representative shape of the kiln was” supreme positive “.Though named after the Yuan Dynasty and Emperor Zheng, “ZHANG Zheng” is not an official kiln device.Most of zhizheng blue-and-white porcelain is found abroad, and its decoration is a legacy of islamic culture. Scholars generally believe that zhizheng blue-and-white porcelain is the export-oriented porcelain produced by civilian kilns.People’s kiln blue-and-white porcelain shows the characteristics of thick body, rough digs, thick soles, lack of enamel protection, uneven grinding of blue-and-white materials.As far as painting style is concerned, the blue-and-white porcelain of the folk kilns at the end of Yuan Dynasty was characterized by heavy and realistic painting decoration and mainly by the painting methods of hook, collapse, coating and dyeing.Compared with the official kiln decoration, the common decorative blue and white porcelain of the kiln is three-claw, four-claw dragon pattern and the production of coarse objects.As shown in Figure 1, this device is a dais-type joint furnace, shallow plate mouth, filamentous ears, neck, tympanum, three-milky feet, hexagon must seat-type feet, foot space.The neck draws the cirrus pattern, the abdomen draws the fold branch chrysanthemum grain two, the seat girdles the waist to draw the variant pattern, the blue material is black.

Fig.2 Blue and white Yunlong peony animal earcap jar with tangled branches (Gaoan City Museum)

The Characteristics of Ornamental Shape and Decoration of the Official Kiln

In the Yuan Dynasty, the official kiln gathered countless top craftsmen, according to official requirements, to produce the most exquisite porcelain.The porcelain produced by the official kiln has the first-class shape, quality and style, which makes the blue-and-white porcelain of the folk kiln expand continuously and improve the product quality.After the first year of Yan You of Yuan Dynasty, the use of “double-angle and five-claw dragon pattern, Kirin, Luanfeng, White Rabbit, Ganoderma lucidum” was strictly restricted, and the common officials and people could not use it.This kind of decorative patterns can only appear in the official kiln blue-and-white porcelain and “civilian kiln official burning” two specific circumstances.Of course, the official kiln is not only limited to the above-mentioned decorative patterns, the official kiln devices also exist part of the situation without such decorative patterns.The blue-and-white porcelain shape of the official kiln mainly includes dish, bowl, washing, pot, cylinder, hug

Moon bottle, celestial ball bottle, octagonal candlestick, flower pouring and so on.In the decorative technique, the blue-and-white porcelain of the official kiln is beautiful and elegant, rich in subject matter.The tangled clematis, peony, ganoderma lucidum, rose, dragon, phoenix, unicorn, sea beast and so on in the animal pattern have become the characteristic subject matter, the decoration effect is more close to the Chinese ink painting artistic characteristic.As shown in Fig.2, this device is a peony-pattern earlid jar with blue and white Yunlong twined branches. It has several glaze spots on the bottom of the device.The shoulder is covered with plastic animal head ring and double ears.Cover with cotyledons, lotus bud button.The body is painted from top to bottom with imported green material, tapestry, variety cover lotus leaf, cloud dragon, twine Du Dan, money and variant lotus leaf.cover variant

Decorated with lotus-petal and curly grass, the bead has a spiral curve.The eyebrows, eyes, and eyes of the ear of the beast shall be painted with green flowers, and the ring in the mouth shall remain intact.The shape of the instrument is thick, the quality of the fetus is fine, the glaze is bright and smooth, and the blue and white is beautiful.

Since the Song Dynasty, porcelain has been divided into “official kiln” and “civilian kiln”, “official kiln” strictly in accordance with the requirements of the palace production, kiln site, production technology strictly confidential.”Kiln” on the contrary, the production of arbitrary, porcelain is most of the daily life of the people’s supplies, kiln porcelain although rough, but the interest is natural, have a special charm.To sum up, Yuan Dynasty, as a dynasty under the rule of ethnic minorities, the difference between the blue-and-white porcelain of the folk kilns and the blue-and-white porcelain of the official kilns has obvious characteristics of the times.

. ..six Yuan-Qing-Hua plum bottles unearthed in the cellar.