During the Three Kingdoms and the Jin Dynasty, the ceramic industry in the south of the Yangtze River developed rapidly, and Yue kiln, Ou kiln, Wu kiln and Deqing kiln appeared in Xiaoshan, Shangyu and Yuyao of Zhejiang Province. Xiangyin kiln in Hunan; Qingyang Palace Kiln and Guyi Kiln in Sichuan; Famous kiln sites such as Luohu Kiln in Jiangxi pay attention to quality, and the products are finely processed, which can be compared with gold and silver and become the daily necessities of famous families at that time. During the Eastern Jin and Southern Dynasties, kiln sites in Jiangxi, Sichuan and Fujian developed greatly. However, there are obvious signs of decline in porcelain kilns in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. The number of porcelain kilns is reduced, the decoration is simplified, and the firing is slightly rough. This situation continued until the early Tang Dynasty.
Relatively speaking, the production of porcelain in northern China is a little later. The turmoil of this era has caused serious damage to the Central Plains. (Before this, Guanzhong and Zhongyuan were the political, cultural and economic centers of China. The decline of the ceramic industry is inevitable, and the appearance of the ceramic industry has been dragged to the Northern Dynasties. However, a unique and far-reaching ceramic variety appeared in this period, that is, white porcelain.
In China, real porcelain appeared in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Its green body is made of composite materials such as kaolin or porcelain stone, and it is fired at a high temperature of 1200- 1300 degrees Celsius. The matrix is required to be hard, dense, thin and non-absorbent. A layer of glaze is applied to the outside of the carcass, and the glaze surface should be smooth, flat and not fall off. There are abundant raw material resources and fuel resources in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, so the pottery industry in this area has developed rapidly and many kiln sites have appeared. The origin of porcelain, commonly known as "kiln mouth", was gradually learned by archaeologists according to ancient literature records or field excavation. Through field investigation and excavation, some main kiln mouths in this period were basically clarified. For example, Yue Kiln, called "Yuezhou Kiln" in the text, was founded in the Eastern Han Dynasty and declined in the Northern Song Dynasty, and was basically distributed in Ningbo, Yuyao, Shaoxing, Xiaoshan, Zhejiang and other places. Its main feature is that the fetal quality is fine and blue-gray; Enamel is bright and moist, with jade texture, dark green glaze, pure color, and close combination of blank and glaze. Lu Guimeng, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, once wrote a poem praising "The autumn wind in September exposed the kiln, winning the green color of a thousand peaks". Ou kiln, in Wenzhou area. It is characterized by white gray tires, thin glaze layer, light blue glaze color, high transparency, small cracks and easy to fall off. Another example is Hongzhou Kiln in Jiangxi, Yue Zhouyao Kiln in Hunan, Yixing Kiln in Jiangsu and so on. Porcelain in this period has replaced some pottery, bronzes and lacquerware and become one of the most important daily utensils in people's daily life. It is widely used in restaurants, furniture, school stationery, funerals and so on.
China people's habit of drinking tea originated in Sichuan in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, and the wind of drinking tea in the Eastern Han Dynasty spread to the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, which quickly spread and became the fashion of the royal family in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. According to ancient records, the way of drinking tea at that time was very different from today's, and some vessels with different shapes were needed, which was in great demand. After textual research and textual research, the chicken-headed pot at that time had a unique shape and was a tea set, which no longer existed after Sui and Tang Dynasties.
Porcelain barn cans appeared in the Western Jin Dynasty of the Three Kingdoms. Used as a funerary object, it is also called "Soul Bottle" or "God Pavilion", which was developed from the five-couplet jar in the Eastern Han Dynasty. During this period, barns and cans were exquisitely made and piled up, and people, birds and animals, pavilions and pavilions were readily available. Food has always been regarded as the most important substance in life, so since the Qin and Han Dynasties, food has been buried with the dead for them to enjoy in the underworld. At the same time, the funerary objects also contain a set of food processing tools and cookers to reflect the importance of eating.
During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, a large number of temples, Buddha grottoes and monks and nuns were built in Shengxing. Decorations with Buddhist colors and meanings can be seen everywhere. For example, iconic patterns such as flying sky and lotus flowers are used in architectural decoration. Reflected in ceramics, the most representative is the "Lotus Statue".
Ceramics are also widely used in stationery, such as pen containers, water bowls and inkstones. The function of the water bowl is only to hold water and ink, but its shapes are very rich, such as frog shape, bird shape, rabbit shape and cow shape. The widespread use of ceramic stationery is related to advocating reading and advocating Confucianism during this period.
The decorative features of this period are obvious, especially the Yue Kiln in the Western Jin Dynasty in the Three Kingdoms. There are often patterns showing life scenes on utensils, which are exquisite and lifelike, truly reflecting the social features of that period, and also providing evidence for modern people to study architecture, music, dance, religion, animal husbandry and other topics. Some daily necessities, such as candlesticks, oil lamps and water bowls, boldly used exaggerated and deformed animal images, which reflected the aesthetic consciousness of the society at that time in many ways and enriched people's spiritual life.
Blue is a characteristic glaze in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and it is the representative of celadon system, which complements the white porcelain in the northern region. In addition, brown is often used to break a single green glaze and make it more lively. This decoration method is simple, easy to operate, wide in application and good in effect, so it is widely used. Writing on the surface of brown objects is another feature of brown decoration. This decorative technique became Sheng Xing in the late Tang and Five Dynasties, and its font form provided reliable information for calligraphy research.
Nowadays, most of the Yue Kiln Jin porcelains are superior in technology, high in glaze color, mellow in texture and very tasteful. Due to the technological level at that time, the glaze color of the ceramics produced varied greatly, and some of them were green, yellow or gray, which was closely related to the glaze composition and firing flame. Although today's technical force is more powerful, today's imitations are often monotonous and lifeless, losing the charm of the ancients. Enamel modulation is also an important factor. Celadon glaze was originally a mixture of porcelain stone and plant ash. Porcelain stones with poor weathering generally contain a lot of flux and are often used as glazes. The function of plant ash is to introduce CaO component and interact with porcelain stone at high temperature to form calcareous glaze.
Since the appearance of celadon in the last years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, it has gone through the Three Kingdoms, the Jin Dynasty and the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and its glaze quality has been improved to varying degrees. However, due to the wide distribution of porcelain stone raw materials and different content of raw materials, the glaze color and texture of porcelain in this period were quite different.
Due to less wars and relatively stable social order in the vast areas in the south, a large number of people in the Central Plains went south, including many ceramic technicians. However, the northern region is in a state of depression, the ceramic industry is not as developed as the Han Dynasty, and the use of kilns is rarely improved. Round steamed bread kilns are still used. In the south, porcelain kilns have made great progress, and the structure of dragon kilns has been further improved. The length of the kiln bed is more than ten meters. In order to solve the problems of large indoor pumping force and too fast flame speed, the "fire wall" was invented during this period, which can adjust the pumping force and temperature in the kiln more effectively. According to the test, the porcelains of this period were all fired under weak reducing flame, and the sintering degree was good, and the sintering temperature could reach about 1300 degrees, which reached the quality level of modern porcelains, which was undoubtedly inseparable from the improvement of the structure and sintering process of Longyao.