The Identification of Hongwu Blue-and-White Porcelain in the Ming Dynasty

Hongwu (1368-1398 AD), the year of Zhu Yuanzhang, Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, reigned for thirty-one years.The change of any dynasty can only be described as a political change, and as a ceramic style there should be a transitional period.Seen from the objects of Hongwu blue-and-white porcelain discovered in Nanjing, there is a close relationship between Hongwu blue-and-white porcelain and Yuan Dynasty blue-and-white porcelain.

For example, the tomb of Mu Ying in the Hongwu period was discovered in Nanjing.Mu Ying, the adopted son of Zhu Yuanzhang, was an important scholar in the early Ming Dynasty.Mu Ying (1349-1392 AD) unearthed in the tomb, “Xiao He month under the pursuit of Han Xin blue and white flower bottle.”From this plum blossom vase’s embryo glaze, shape, decorative even blue and white hair color, it all has the Yuan Dynasty to the positive type blue and white typical characteristics.The author thinks this piece is the blue-and-white porcelain of Yuan Dynasty, buried in early Ming Dynasty, but some people think it was made in Hongwu period.It can be seen that the identification of porcelain during the transition period, but also to further study and explore.

The early porcelains of Hongwu can’t be considered from the age of tombs, because many tombs were buried together with instruments of the Yuan Dynasty.So pay attention to the following two points in an all-round way:

oneHongwu porcelain was in the period of Yuan and Ming dynasties, so we should not only pay attention to the characteristics of Yuan Dynasty, but also find out the unique style of Ming Dynasty.

diadIt is necessary not only to contact the characteristics of the porcelain in the end of Yuan Dynasty, but also to consider the difference between Yongle porcelain and Yongle porcelain.

The fetal bones of the objects are not as thick as Yuan porcelain, but compared with Yongle and Xuande, they are still thick and thin.People’s kilns are more bulky.Bowl, the mouth of the plate for lip, outside, disk more hard folding waist, foot diameter.

The texture is denser than the Yuan Dynasty.Hongwu foot has a variety of forms, there are usually round vortex-shaped platform foot, high foot, inclined inside-wall outside-inclined ring foot and so on.However, in this period, there appeared a new feature of flat cutting of the sole on the utensils of the bowl, which was inherited by Yongle and Xuande porcelain.

The glaze is blue and white.Fetal color rice gray, individual beige, official kiln porcelain is relatively white and delicate.The general foot brush has the white glaze pulp, the thin place turns yellow, the thick place presents the milky white or the blue color, the luster is not strong.

Hongwu period with domestic blue and white materials more, a few of the Yuan Dynasty’s imports of blue and white materials.Therefore, Hongwu blue and white hair color more gray, a small number of dark brown, this is due to the thickness of the glaze due to turquoise.

A lot of points, such as the word “fu”, pen color deep, the pen light color.Especially the blue-and-white porcelain decoration of the folk kiln, inheriting the tradition of Chinese calligraphy and painting, created the “one stroke” in the early Ming Dynasty.

In the decorative layout of the sparse and elegant.Changes in the Yuan Dynasty blue and white decorative layers too much, the style of elaborate.The Ming Dynasty Hongwu began to change the Yuan Dynasty pattern full, tends to leave many white edge, the pattern is concise, popular in the utensil bowl plate heart makes the theme pattern.

Ornamental kiln pattern pattern is also simple, to the flower pattern mainly, especially more common chamomile pattern, some objects to tangled branches for the theme of chrysanthemum decorative.Except the flower pattern, the cloud dragon grain is slightly more.The blue and white dragon pattern appears five claw, five claw tip join into a circular coil, the cloud grain is the wind belt Ruyi shape, some is the gift flower shape, already did not see Yuan Dynasty tadpole shape.Lines are not used between the lotus petal with lotus grain on the back, and the color is not filled in the petal.Lotus leaf deformation, no rule gourd shape.Peony leaves are slender and irregular.

Hongwu and Yuan Dynasty cloud painting methods are different: Hongwu Qinghua has a Yuan system of the internal positive print, outside the decoration of blue and white methods.The green flower inside of the Ming-Hong-Wu official kiln is imprinted with double Yunlong plates. The shallow sand has fine spiral lines to dig the residual roots. The ochre-red mottled “kiln red” is distributed on the base, and the centrifugal direction of the inner wall of the circle foot is rotated into an inclined plane. The longitudinal section and the bottom surface are obtuse angle.The inner and outer walls are decorated with double cloud dragons, embossed embossed flowers, and painted with blue and white flowers.This kind of product type arrangement, is the Ming Dynasty cloud painting a big characteristic.It has been extended to the Ming Dynasty Zhengde years, to Jiaqing, Wanli before a major change took place.

As for the winding or twining lotus leaf patterns painted by Qinghua, most of them are screw-like, while the common tangled lotus leaf patterns in Yuan Dynasty are gourd-shaped;In addition, the leaf shape of the Yuan Dynasty was larger, big leaves, small florets in Hongwu period.

The edge of the mouth of the utensil is the edge decoration of the foot, and it is common in the Yuan and Ming dynasties.The difference between the two: Yuan Dynasty’s retrorse flexion direction is the same, Hongwu period retrorse for a positive and anti-connected pair.After Shuile basically inherited the form of Hongwu, is also a positive one-on-one connection, this pattern of the distinction, became an important standard to identify the Yuan and Ming porcelain.

So far, has not found the official kiln or the folk kiln blue-and-white porcelain Hongwu money.There is” Daming Hongwu year “money, is Ming Wanli imitation teaching.As for the “China porcelain” on the record, there is a “Hongwu New Year” model of the blue-and-white flower pot pure fake.

At present, there is only one “Hongwu February 27,2007 made of this” with inscriptions on the blue and white porcelain printing pot.

Jianwen (1399-1402) was in power for four years for a very short time, due to years of confrontation between the North and the South, political instability, resulting in the impact of porcelain production, to date, has not been found in the building of cultural relics, or found in the annals of tombs unearthed.Therefore, people sometimes count Jianwen Dynasty in Hongwu Year and Hongwu Dynasty for thirty-five years.As for the porcelain style of this period is the same as the Hongwu Dynasty, or with a new appearance of fire-making, these need new discussion, is still a historical blank.