Pottery is made from mud (clay) that is molded and dried and then burned by fire, a crystallization of mud and fire. Our ancestors have a long history of understanding clay, as early as in the life of primitive society, our ancestors were inseparable from clay everywhere, they found that after being wet with water, clay has viscosity and plasticity, and after drying it becomes hard. The use and understanding of fire is also a very long history, about 2.05 million to 700,000 years ago in the era of the Yuanmou people, began to use fire. During their long primitive life, the ancestors found that sun-dried mud became stronger, harder and waterproof after being burned by fire, and pottery was created. The invention of pottery, it opened a new page of human beings to utilize nature, transform nature, and fight with nature, has great historical significance, and is a milestone in the history of the development of human production.
From the point of view of the archaeological materials known to date, the pottery in the masterpieces of the Late Paleolithic more than 10,000 years ago, gray pottery, more than 8,000 years ago, the red ceramic of the Magishan culture, more than 7,000 years of Yangshao culture, colored pottery, more than 6,000 years of the Dawenkou, "eggshell black pottery", more than 4,000 years of Shang Dynasty, white ceramics, more than 3,000 years of the Xishao culture, and more than 3,000 years of the Shang Dynasty, the pottery is the first of its kind. White pottery of the Shang Dynasty of more than 4,000 years, hard pottery of the Western Zhou Dynasty of more than 3,000 years, as well as the Terracotta Warriors of the Qin Dynasty, the glazed pottery of the Han Dynasty, and the Tang Three Colors of the Tang Dynasty. To the Song Dynasty, the rapid development of porcelain production, pottery industry tends to decline, but some special varieties of pottery still has a unique charm, such as the Song, Liao three-color ware and the Ming and Qing so far Zisha pots, glaze, French flowers and Guangdong Shiwan pottery sculpture, etc., are distinctive, much appreciated.
But pottery is always a low-grade product in the primary stage of civilization, and its own defects doomed it to be gradually eliminated by history.
Porcelain is a great invention of ancient China, in the long years of history, hard-working and wise Chinese forefathers point of soil into gold, wrote a glorious chapter, for human civilization has made great contributions. Hen has a reputation for ancient Chinese porcelain, has become the world's major museums in the pearl, but also will become more and more widely in China and around the world experts and scholars of the object of study, and by the majority of collectors and ceramic enthusiasts cherish.
The invention and development of Chinese porcelain is a process of gradual development from low to high, from primitive to mature. As early as 3,000 years ago in the Shang Dynasty, China has appeared primitive celadon, and then after more than 1,000 years of development, to the Eastern Han Dynasty finally got rid of the primitive porcelain state, burned mature celadon, which is an important milestone in the history of the development of China's ceramics.
After the Three Kingdoms, the two Jin dynasties, the North and South Dynasties and the Sui Dynasty **** 330 years of development, to the Tang Dynasty China's political stability and economic prosperity. Social progress has promoted the development of porcelain industry, such as the northern Xing kiln white porcelain "like silver like snow", the southern Yue kiln celadon "like jade like ice". The formation of "northern white and southern blue" of the two kiln system. At the same time, the Tang Dynasty also fired a snowflake glaze, textured tire glaze and underglaze colored porcelain and applique decoration varieties.
Song dynasty is the unprecedented development of China's porcelain period, appeared a hundred flowers, a hundred flowers, porcelain kilns all over the north and south, the famous kilns, a wide range of categories, in addition to the green and white porcelain system, black glaze, white glaze and painted porcelain have risen. World-famous Ru, official, brother, fixed, five kilns of the products of the world's treasures. There are Yaozhou kiln, Hutian kiln, Longquan kiln, Jian kiln, Jizhou kiln, Magnetic kiln and other products are also unique style, each leading the way, showing a thriving good situation, is the first peak in the history of China's ceramic development.
The Yuan Dynasty in Jingdezhen set up a "floating Liang porcelain bureau" in charge of the kiln, invented the porcelain stone and kaolin binary formula, firing a large porcelain, and successfully fired the typical Yuan blue and red glaze and Shufu ceramics, etc., especially the success of the Yuan blue and white firing, in the history of Chinese ceramics with epoch-making significance. The main kilns in the north and south left after the war in the Song and Jin Dynasties still continue to produce, including Longquan kiln than the Song Dynasty, more expanded, of which the plum green porcelain is the Yuan Dynasty Longquan kiln's best work. There is also "gold wire" of the yuan gaochen, should be imitation of the product of the song official kiln, is also the world of precious.
Ming dynasty from Hongwu 35 years in jingdezhen set up "imperial kiln factory", more than 200 years to burn a lot of high, fine, sharp products, such as yongxuan blue and copper red glaze, chenghua doucai, wanli five-color, etc. are the world's treasures. The existence of the imperial kiln factory also led to the further development of the kilns. Jingdezhen's blue and white porcelain, colored porcelain, monochrome glaze and other varieties of flowers, colorful, colorful, become the center of the country's porcelain production. There are also Fujian Dehua white porcelain products are very fine.
The development of porcelain in the Qing Dynasty Kang, Yong, Qian three generations reached its peak, reached the highest level in history, is the second peak in the history of Chinese ceramic development. Jingdezhen porcelain industry unprecedented, to maintain the status of China's porcelain capital. Kangxi not only restored the Ming dynasty Yongle, Xuande dynasty since all the fine features, but also created a lot of new varieties, and burned bright color Jishuo, thick and thin, layered blue and white. Lang kiln also restored the lost 200 years of high-temperature copper-red glaze firing technology, Lang kiln red, tank bean red unique. There are sky orchid, sprinkled orchid, bean green, yellow, imitation of the fixed, peacock green, purple and gold glaze are successful, in addition to the Kangxi created enameled porcelain is also known around the world.
Yongzheng dynasty, although only 13 years, but the porcelain craft have reached the point of excellence, Yongzheng pastel is very delicate, and the so-called "national ceramics" blue and white each other than the beauty of the new varieties.
The Qianlong dynasty of monochrome glaze, blue, glaze red, enamel, pastel and other varieties in the inheritance of the former on the basis of the new, there are extremely sophisticated products and innovative varieties.
The Qianlong period is a turning point in China's porcelain industry flourished and declined, to the Jiaqing after the porcelain art took a sharp turn for the worse. Especially in the Daoguang period of the Opium Wars, so that China has been reduced to semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, the national strength of the exhaustion of the porcelain industry in a drought, until the Guangxu a little bit of a return to the light, but in 1911 the outbreak of the 1911 Xinhai Revolution, the Qing Dynasty ended in life. Up to thousands of years of ancient Chinese ceramics development history, and to the end of the curtain.
Looking at the history of China's thousands of years of ancient ceramics, although it is to decline and end, but it left behind this precious and rich heritage, will always radiate a brilliant light.
2
China is one of the world's several ancient civilizations with a long history, and has made many significant contributions to the progress and development of human society. The achievements made in ceramic technology and art are of particular importance. In China, the production of ceramic technology can be traced back to the era of 4500 BC to 2500 BC, it can be said that an important part of the history of the development of the Chinese nation is the history of the development of ceramics, the Chinese in science and technology and the pursuit of the pursuit of beauty and molding, in many ways are reflected through ceramic production, and the formation of the era of the very typical technical and artistic characteristics.
Earlier than a thousand years before Europe mastered the technology of porcelain production, China has been able to produce quite exquisite porcelain. From the history of China's ceramic development, generally the term "ceramics" is divided into two, for the pottery and porcelain two categories. Usually the body is not dense sintered clay and porcelain stoneware, whether colored or white, collectively referred to as pottery. Among them, the higher firing temperature, the better sintered part of the sub-called "hard pottery", the glazed one is called "glazed pottery". Relatively speaking, after high-temperature firing, the degree of sintering of the body is more dense, glaze quality of clay or porcelain stoneware is called "porcelain". The development of traditional Chinese ceramics, has experienced a fairly long historical period, a variety of special techniques, so the classification of traditional Chinese ceramics in addition to consider the technical hard indicators, but also need to take into account the traditional customary classification methods, combined with the ancient and modern changes in scientific and technological understanding, in order to more effectively reach a classification conclusion.
From the legendary Yellow Emperor Yao and Shun to the Xia Dynasty (about 21st century B.C. - 16th century B.C.), it is the colored pottery to mark its development. Among them, there are the more typical Yangshao culture, as well as in Gansu found a little later Majiayao and Qijia culture, etc., after the liberation of the prehistoric site in Xi'an half slope unearthed a large number of beautifully produced colored pottery, breathtaking. According to legend, Yao passed the world to Shun, who passed it on to Xia Yu, who passed it on to his son, starting the so-called "family world". The Xia dynasty was passed on to Jie, who was tyrannical and unruly, so Shang Tang put him down and made himself emperor, so the world was won by conquests, starting with Tang. Shang ruled the world for more than 600 years (around 16th century BC - 11th century BC) until King Zhou. He was then conquered by King Wu, who committed suicide, and the world came under the Zhou Dynasty. The Zhou Dynasty ruled roughly from the 11th century BC to 221 BC, with de facto effective rule ending in 771 BC. The period from 475 BC to 221 BC is known as the Warring States Period. By 221 BC, the Qin Dynasty had risen to power, and the great unification of China had begun, but the Qin Dynasty lasted only until 206 BC, when it was replaced by the Han Dynasty. During these thousands of years, in addition to daily dining utensils, the ritual objects used in sacrifices were also greatly developed.
During the Han Dynasty, which lasted from 206 B.C. to 220 A.D., artists and craftsmen were no longer working with materials such as jade and metal, and ceramics were more precisely emphasized. During this period, firing techniques were developed, harder glazed pottery became common, and the word "porcelain" began to appear in Chinese characters. At the same time, through the Xinjiang, Persia to Syria through the commercial routes, China and the Roman Empire began to interact, prompting cultural exchanges between the East and the West, from this period of ceramics can also be seen in the beginnings of foreign influence. Buddhism was also introduced to China at this time.
Six Dynasties period (220 AD - 581 years), the rapid emergence of Buddhist art on ceramics also had a corresponding impact on this season's work on the modeling left obvious traces. The Sui dynasty seized power in 581 A.D., ending the long division between north and south, but it ruled only until 618 A.D. when it was replaced by the Tang.
The Tang Dynasty (618 A.D. to 970 A.D.) is categorized as one of the great periods in the history of Chinese art. The technological improvements in ceramics were enormous, and many varieties of fine porcelain appeared in abundance, and even by today's technical standards of appreciation, they are considered to be of truly high quality. The end of the Tang Dynasty chaos, heroes rise, followed by a dynasty to fight for the situation, that is, the Five Dynasties, this situation lasted until 960 AD. Years of war but a new breed of ceramics - Chai kiln porcelain, the texture of the excellent is widely celebrated, but the heirloom is extremely rare.
The ceramics industry flourished during the Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD) and began to export to Europe and the South Seas. To Jun, Ru, official, Gao, as represented by the many famous kilns with their own characteristics in all parts of the country, the product in the color varieties are becoming more and more rich. Due to the invasion of the (Liao) Khitan and (Jin) Jurchen tribes in the northeast, the Song rulers were forced to move south, and were later destroyed by the Mongols. With the establishment of the Yuan Dynasty in 1280 A.D. and the emergence of the Jufu kilns, Jingdezhen began to become the center of China's ceramics industry, and its reputation spread around the world. The white porcelain produced in Jingdezhen contrasted with the blue underglaze decoration, and blue and white porcelain has been a favorite culture in all subsequent periods of history.
The Ming dynasty ruled from 1368 until 1644. During this period, Jingdezhen's ceramic manufacturing industry was the absolute best in the world, occupying a prominent position in terms of craftsmanship and artistic level, especially the blue and white porcelain reached the peak of excellence. In addition, the Dehua Kiln in Fujian, the Longquan Kiln in Zhejiang, and the Magnetic Kiln in Hebei were also renowned for their quality ceramics in their own distinctive styles. With the death of the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty by suicide, Li Zicheng led a peasant uprising into Beijing in 1644 AD. From Wu Sangui called the Manchu army to enter the Qing Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty in 1911, the Qing Dynasty ruled for more than two hundred years. Among them, Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong three generations is considered to be the entire Qing dynasty under the rule of the ceramic industry's most brilliant period, technology more complex products have appeared, a variety of color glazes and glazes unusually rich. To the late Qing dynasty, the government corruption, national decline, people's poverty, China's ceramic manufacturing industry increasingly degraded.
After the establishment of the Republic of China, around the establishment of a number of ceramic research institutions, but the product in addition to inherit the previous generation, is a simple copy of some foreign designs, no development can be said. At the beginning of the Republic of China, the warlord Yuan Shikai attempted to restore the imperial system, had made a number of special "Hong Xian" years of recognition of the porcelain, this batch of porcelain in the technology can not be said to be not fine, to pastel-based, old style. As a result of frequent civil wars, foreign invasions, people are not happy, the entire ceramic industry is also a total defeat, until the establishment of new China, did not appear to make the world's attention to the product.
3
From ancient times to the present, although the world's peoples of the appreciation of beauty is very different, but, in some way or another, can get to the enjoyment of beauty. As far back as more than nine thousand years ago, Chinese ancestors, while engaging in fishing, hunting and agricultural production activities, not only began to be able to the most primitive construction activities, and with the invention and use of fire, and in the long-term labor practice of transforming nature, accompanied by countless times of time and success of the experience, began to manufacture and use pottery, which has become one of the artistic creations of the ancient culture of China, and unveiled the history of human development in the "Neolithic Age" in the history of human development. Although the forms and styles of pottery have undergone diverse changes due to the differences of the times, regions or nationalities, and due to the various influences of other conditions, and each of them has produced a lot of characteristics, they all express their own spirit of the times, which is firstly manifested in the Neolithic Age in the shape of the vessel with the sense of ornamentation and texture of the pottery. In the middle of the Neolithic period, the greatest achievement of China's pottery industry was the art of colored pottery, and the cultures of various regions influenced each other, exchanged with each other, or inherited and developed, and then the long history of China has formed a **** with the same colorful art styles. Beauty comes from life, the potter is from the point of view of the performance of life, allegorical, indirect expression of human thought and feelings, or directly depicted the real-life customs and styles. After the Yangshao culture with colored pottery as culture, another type of cultural remains of Longshan culture centered in Shandong appeared. The outstanding achievement of the pottery industry in this period is the art of black pottery. Longshan culture gray pottery surface, do not seek unhelpful decoration. Depending on the body of the black body to win, it is "black" shiny for the best realm, the body is sometimes slightly embellished with concave-convex XuanZhuangJin or skeleton holes and shaping the combination of firing, reflecting a simple rustic beauty. Entering the Shang Dynasty, white pottery imitating the patterns and shapes of bronze wares of the same period appeared, and at that time, it was a more luxurious craft than bronze wares, and the shapes of the wares were almost all ceremonial wares. Especially rich in features are wave-like thunder pattern, hooked thunder pattern and a kind of weird humanoid cloud thunder pattern. It is a rare art and craft in human culture. Shang and Zhou period of pottery production technology did not make significant progress, artistry is not much development, from the Warring States period, China entered a long feudal society. The production of hollow bricks was an important creation of the potters of the Warring States period. As China is a multi-ethnic country, the land is vast, and ceramic supplies vary greatly from place to place due to geographic location or other factors, from the texture point of view, China's southeastern sea along the coast of the Baiyue region, prevalent gray pottery, printed hard pottery and primitive pottery, while the other regions of the clay gray pottery, sandwiched ceramics, followed by the main. In daily-use pottery, it is mainly clay gray pottery. The clay of gray pottery contains certain sand grains, the firing temperature is high, and the pottery is hard, mostly in gray or black-gray color. At the same time, printed hard pottery was commonly used in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and in Guangdong and Guangxi in the Pearl River Basin. However, due to the rough texture of printed hard pottery, it is not suitable for eating utensils, so most of them are containers. "Six Kings Bi, Four Seas One". The Qin and Han Dynasties were also an important period in the history of China's ceramic development. Qin Dynasty terracotta figurines with its perfect art form, vivid and realistic demeanor, profoundly revealing the inner world of various characters, not only shows the long tradition of realism in my sculpture art and China's ancient ceramics level of high, and also for the world to show the Chinese nation's deep and majestic national style. In the painting style, the Han dynasty painted pottery changed the Warring States painted pottery flowing vivid, warm and unrestrained style, and turned to advocate heavy and elegant charm. The picture covered the sky, rich and brilliant colors. To the Tang Dynasty economic prosperity and development, long-term political stability and high national will, all aspects of the Tang Dynasty is unprecedented prosperity and improve the ceramic art can best express the weather of the Tang is the Tang three-color glazed pottery. Three-color pottery figurines and three-color pottery, is the manufacture of its artistic record of the era and the Tang people's interest in life style painting.
From ancient times to the present day, although the world's peoples have a very different appreciation of beauty, but, in one way or another, they can all get to the enjoyment of beauty. As far back as more than nine thousand years ago, Chinese ancestors, while engaging in fishing, hunting and agricultural production activities, not only began the most primitive construction activities, but also with the invention and use of fire, and in the long-term labor practice of transforming nature, accompanied by countless times of time and success of the experience, began to manufacture and use pottery, which has become one of the artistic creations of the ancient culture of China, and unveiled the history of human development of the "Neolithic Age" in the history of human development. Although the forms and styles of pottery have undergone diverse changes due to the differences of the times, regions or nationalities, and due to the various influences of other conditions, and each of them has produced a lot of characteristics, they all express their own spirit of the times, which is firstly manifested in the Neolithic Age in the shape of the vessel with the sense of ornamentation and texture of the pottery. In the middle of the Neolithic period, the greatest achievement of China's pottery industry was the art of colored pottery, and the cultures of various regions influenced each other, exchanged with each other, or inherited and developed, and then formed a *** with the same colorful and varied artistic style in the course of the long history of China. Beauty comes from life, the potter is from the point of view of the performance of life, allegorical, indirect expression of human thought and feelings, or directly depicted the real-life customs and styles. After the Yangshao culture with colored pottery as culture, another type of cultural remains of Longshan culture centered in Shandong appeared. The outstanding achievement of the pottery industry in this period is the art of black pottery. Longshan culture gray pottery surface, do not seek unhelpful decoration. All depends on the body of the black body itself to win, it is "all black" shiny for the best realm, the body is sometimes slightly embellished with concave and convex pattern or skeletonization and shaping of holes in combination with the firing, reflecting a simple and simple beauty. Entering the Shang Dynasty, white pottery imitating the patterns and shapes of bronze wares of the same period appeared, and at that time, it was a more luxurious craft than bronze wares, and the shapes of the wares were almost all ceremonial wares. Especially rich in features are wave-like thunder pattern, hooked thunder pattern and a kind of weird humanoid cloud thunder pattern. It is a rare art and craft in human culture. Shang and Zhou period of pottery production technology did not make significant progress, artistry is not much development, from the Warring States period, China entered a long feudal society. The production of hollow bricks was an important creation of the potters of the Warring States period. As China is a multi-ethnic country, the land is vast, and ceramic supplies vary greatly from place to place due to geographic location or other factors, from the texture point of view, China's southeastern sea along the coast of the Baiyue region, prevalent gray pottery, printed hard pottery and primitive pottery, while the other regions of the clay gray pottery, sandwiched ceramics, followed by the main. In daily-use pottery, it is mainly clay gray pottery. The clay of gray pottery contains certain sand grains, the firing temperature is high, and the pottery is hard, mostly in gray or black-gray color. At the same time, printed hard pottery was commonly used in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and in Guangdong and Guangxi in the Pearl River Basin. However, due to the rough texture of printed hard pottery, it is not suitable for eating utensils, so most of them are containers. "Six Kings Bi, Four Seas One". The Qin and Han Dynasties were also an important period in the history of China's ceramic development. Qin Dynasty terracotta figurines with its perfect art form, vivid and realistic demeanor, profoundly revealing the inner world of various characters, not only shows the long tradition of realism in my sculpture art and China's ancient ceramics level of high, and also for the world to show the Chinese nation's deep and majestic national style. In the painting style, the Han dynasty painted pottery changed the Warring States painted pottery flowing vivid, warm and unrestrained style, and turned to advocate heavy and elegant charm. The picture covered the sky, rich and brilliant colors. To the Tang Dynasty economic prosperity and development, long-term political stability and high national will, all aspects of the Tang Dynasty are unprecedented prosperity and improve the ceramic art can best express the weather of the Tang is the Tang three-color glazed pottery. Three-color terracotta figurines and three-color pottery, is the manufacture of its artistic record of the era and the Tang people's interest in life style painting.