Porcelain can be said to be the symbol of China. Do you know when porcelain was produced?

The predecessor of porcelain is primitive celadon, which is the product of the transition from pottery to porcelain. The earliest primitive celadon in China was found at the Fenglongshan Cultural Site in Xixia County, about 4200 years ago. There are pots and bowls. Primitive celadon is widely distributed in China, and is found in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, the Yangtze River and the southern region.

The real porcelain in China appeared in the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 23-220). First, it began to appear in the southern part of Zhejiang Province. Porcelain kiln sites and celadon in the late Eastern Han Dynasty were discovered in Shangpu Xiaoxiantan, Shangyu County, Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province. Porcelain bricks are fine in texture, glossy in glaze and closely combined with fetal glaze. It can be seen from the micrograph that there is no residual time under the glaze of celadon fragments. This kind of glaze has got rid of the primitiveness of primitive celadon in appearance and microstructure. Reach the standard of real porcelain.

After the Eastern Han Dynasty, the production of southern celadon such as Zhejiang Yueyao was always in a leading position in the Three Kingdoms, the Jin Dynasty and the Southern and Northern Dynasties (AD 220-58 1). Shaoxing, Yuhang, Xing Wu and other places also have kilns, forming a unique kiln system. The so-called kiln system means that a famous kiln and some kilns nearby or in other provinces all produce one or more products of the same type. These kilns form a kiln system and are named after the main and most influential kilns. Zhejiang is the earliest area where kiln system was formed in China, which may be related to the fact that it is the birthplace of China porcelain and the porcelain-making industry is particularly developed.

Yue kiln produced celadon and black porcelain, and celadon and brown-dotted porcelain were also produced in the late Western Jin Dynasty, that is, brown dots were added to the main parts of the utensils to break the monochrome style of celadon.

The tire quality of the Three Kingdoms Yue Kiln is hard, delicate and light gray. The glaze juice is pure, mainly light cyan, and yellow or cyan is rare; There are bowls, plates, pots, basins, washbasins, bowls, boxes, plates, ear cups, incense burners, spittoons, pots, pickle jars and other daily-use porcelain. New products such as flat pot, chicken pot, candlestick, evil spirits and so on appeared in the Western Jin Dynasty. Buddhism prevailed in the Southern Dynasties, and porcelain was mostly decorated with lotus petals or lotus flowers. During the hundreds of years from the Three Kingdoms to the unification of Sui Dynasty, the porcelain production represented by Yue Kiln has made great progress. It has many varieties and novel styles, and has penetrated into all fields of life. Become an electrical appliance that people can't live without for a moment.

In addition, there are famous kiln sites in the south, such as Wuzhou kiln, Xiangyin kiln and Fengcheng kiln.

The appearance of northern porcelain was later than that of the south, and it developed in the last hundred years from the late Northern Wei Dynasty to the unification of Sui Dynasty (AD 58 1-6 18). There are bowls, plates, cups, cans, pots, bottles, boxes and so on. Celadon of the Northern Dynasties. Most of them are daily necessities, and there are few furnishings. Lotus petal jar is a typical product of the Northern Dynasties. It is divided into three series, four series, six series and square series, round series and strip series, all of which are piled up from shoulder to abdomen into fat lotus petals, ranging from six to eight petals, with a circle of feet at the bottom. The artifacts that best represent the production level of celadon in the north are four lotus statues unearthed from Feng Tomb in Jingxian County, Hebei Province. Its largest piece is about 70 cm high, and it is decorated with flying patterns, treasure patterns, animal faces and dragon patterns from the mouth to the shoulders. There are six series of shoulders, with six layers of plastic under the shoulders and lotus petals covered on them.

Although the production of northern porcelain was hundreds of years later than that of the south, once the production of celadon was mastered, the production technology and craft level were quickly improved, and combined with the humanistic characteristics of the north, white porcelain appeared. White porcelain is developed from celadon, and the only difference between them lies in the difference of iron content in the tire and glaze. When the iron content of porcelain clay is low, the tire is white, and when the iron content is high, the tire color is dark gray, light gray or dark gray. As far as the development of porcelain itself is concerned, it is from single glazed porcelain to colored porcelain. Whether it is brown green, white and black flowers, blue and white, underglaze red, or fighting colors, multicolored, famille rose and enamel, white is used as a foil to show the gorgeous and wonderful colors. Therefore, the appearance of white porcelain has a far-reaching impact on the development of porcelain. By the Tang Dynasty, the pattern of "southern blue and northern white" had been formed.