Micro-lecture Hall | Dry Goods: A Brief Discussion on the Related Characteristics of Kangxi Blue-and-White Porcelain and Its Stage

Qing Kang Xi Qing Hua ZhaoJun out of the map of flowers

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.As” Qing Dynasty History Draft “volume 505 records as follows:” Participate in the stock of the present style, move from the new idea, prepare various ingenious, painted characters, landscape, flowers and birds each extremely win, and into, its exquisite than the Ming Dynasty kiln. ”

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.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 of the Qing Dynasty, said in his book “Tao Ya”: “The blue and white flowers of Yong (Zheng) and Qian (Long) did not catch Kang (Xi) kilns. However, the blue and white and the young of Kang (Xi) were not as beautiful as those of Ming (Ming), but they were also able to walk on their own.” It has a very important historical position in the development history of China’s ceramics. It is not compared with the blue-and-white porcelain in the Qing Dynasty.In this way, since the end of the Qing Dynasty, there has been a wave of admiring Kangxi blue-and-white porcelain.

Blue and white pheasant peony pattern phoenix tail

early stageIt is from the first year of Kangxi to the 19th year of Kangxi (1662-1680). At this time, the Qinghua porcelain of Kangxi is still in the transition period from the end of Ming Dynasty to the beginning of Qing Dynasty.

medium termKangxi 19 years to Kangxi 40 years (1680-1701), at this time blue and white porcelain production technology has improved, whether from the fetal quality, glaze, hair color, decorative style;Or from the tool-type, have a long-term development, reached a new era peak.The famous Kangxi multicolored blue and white flowers are the product of this period.

late stageRefers to Kangxi forty years to the end of Kangxi Dynasty (1701-1722), this period of blue-and-white porcelain with the development of the corresponding changes, thus affecting later generations, especially in Yongzheng years of the style of blue-and-white porcelain.

blue-and-white vase with dragon pattern

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 bottles, glasses, cans, plates and cutters (large pieces of porcelain, such as cylinder) as the bottom of the step-like, straight 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 there is no glaze between the two circles, and that the inner circle is quite broad and thick.The base of the blue-and-white porcelain of the Kangxi official kiln is not very delicate in the early period of Kangxi.

Blue and white landscape figure picture phoenix tail

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.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.

blue-and-white jug

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.

here it islate Kangxi periodWith the development of society and the stability and improvement of people’s lives, the demand for porcelain at home and abroad has increased greatly, resulting in a huge increase in the output of porcelain, and the burning of porcelain, on the basis of fully inheriting the medium period of Kangxi, has continued to develop rapidly.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.The body of the porcelain of official kiln becomes thinner, the quality of the body is more hard, glaze also becomes more clean and moist, transition gradually from the pink white of medium period to white.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.

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. Painters and dyers gather in a separate room for the purpose of unifying. To the extent that there is a blue band at the edge of the line and a bad hand at the wheel, the calligrapher will pay for the work; to write the zodiac, the archetypal works are more accurate, and the blue and white flowers are different from the colorful ones. ” Correct division of labour plays an important role in improving the efficiency of labor production.

Blue-and-white landscape figure-covered jar

The blue material used on the blue-and-white porcelain of the Kangxi Dynasty is not clearly recorded in the history booksAbout the book was written in The Notes of the Southern Kiln in the Yongzheng Period of the Qing DynastyIn addition to the Ming Dynasty has been used in Zhejiang materials, Jiangxi materials“In this dynasty, Guangdong and Guangxi were also available, but they were not fire-resistant and the paint was black when it was put into the furnace,” he said. The book concluded, “Therefore, Zhejiang was the best material.” “Guangxu year of the Qianlong period of the book” Quanzhou Fu Ma Xiang Hall Records” about digging the well to get green materials in the record: “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.”

part of blue-and-white landscape figure cover pot

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 Shaoxing, Zhejiang, Jinhua two houses belong to the mountains…. Its Jiangxi, Guangdong mountain producers, color thin not fire-resistant, but can draw rough.” Therefore, some scholars believe: “The beautiful Kangxi kiln blue and white porcelain should also be used in this kind of Zhejiang material.” But also some scholars believe that Kangxi period blue and white porcelain, “The use of blue and white raw materials is Yunnan pearl material.” Ancient ceramic connoisseur Mr. Geng Baochang considered it is pearl material and Zhejiang materials, and mix, 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, Most of the color instability, and have the phenomenon of halo.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.

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.And such as” blessing “and” longevity “characters and for the people’s widely loved auspicious patterns also began to appear, objects decorated with happy paintings tangled branches, 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 made of the shawl method.

Qing Kangxi Qinghua Wan “longevity”

In the middle period of Kangxi, the traditional fine painting method was adopted in the painting of decorative patterns to convey the spirit.Mountains and rivers do more than crack, and with the principle of perspective, so that the picture and color to achieve a difficult from the language to describe a certain realm, extremely harmonious and unified.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 instrument wall, especially the pen-holder on the whole article, such as” Teng Wangge Preface “,” before and after the Red Wall Fu “, and so on, also began to appear.

Qingkang Xi Qinghua character story poetry pen

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.

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.

Qing Kang Xi imitation into a green flower tuan phoenix cup

In the 19 th year of Kangxi, the official kiln of Qing Dynasty was founded, and it also enteredThe 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 Qinghua Book, both in the bottom and in the heart of the book, which can be seen in a single circle, two circles;No circle, two sides frame, double long square frame, concave carving, relief carving, regular script, cursive script, six characters three lines, six characters two lines, four characters two lines, and so on, also see the free chapter, double circles no words, Tang name, auspicious language, painting such as autumn leaves, regimental crane, such as the flower of the drawing, as well as completely no money.

Qing Kang Xi Qing Hua Zhu Zhu Zhu Long grain cover pot

By the end of the Kangxi period, there was a great variety of figures in the blue and white porcelain, except for those with the original ageIn addition, in addition to the annals, auspicious language and a large number of names, Yakuji money appeared at the bottom of the artifacts.Famous such as” Kangxi Xinhai peace church system “and so on.Graphics are also available to gamblers.