Introducing China's Tile Dang of the Han and Tang Dynasties

The White Tiger Tile among the Four Gods

The Han Dynasty was the heyday of Tile Dang craft development. During this period, the wadangs were finely crafted, and newly appeared wadangs decorated with seal scripts, which were mostly in small seal script, harmoniously organized and well-proportioned, and well laid out, showing the simple and thick artistic style of the Han Dynasty. Most of the texts are auspicious phrases for praying for good luck, and their artistic appreciation can be comparable to that of delicate seals

The wadangs of the Han Dynasty are best decorated with animals, and in addition to the four gods of the perfect modeling of the green dragon, the white tiger, the vermilion sparrow, and the Xuanwu, the rabbits, deer, oxen, and horses are also of many varieties.

The wadang decorations of the Han Dynasty were more refined. Wang Mang period of the green dragon, white tiger, zhu sparrow, xuanwu four god wuadang, shape and god, strength extraordinary, is the masterpiece of this period. There are a variety of animals, plants and other patterns, such as tortoise, mosquito pattern, leopard pattern, crane pattern, rabbit pattern, flower and leaf pattern, etc., the Han dynasty wadang, in order to text wadang the largest number of features in the form of zoning demarcation, the center of the nipple with the joint bead, to the inscription arrangement of a fixed pattern, in this range for the top and bottom of the left and right of the change. The number of characters is variable, the longest can be more than ten characters, such as "a thousand years", "long happiness", "ten thousand lifetimes", "eternal blessings", etc., the font has a small seal script, bird and insect seal script, clerical script, true script, etc., the layout of the sparsely and densely, the use of bold strokes, becoming a unique and charming collection of Chinese ceramic products.

The wadangs of the Han Dynasty inherited from the Qin Dynasty and before are of two shapes: semi-circular and circular. Semi-circular wadang popular in the early Han Dynasty, round wadang shape changes are: the early Han Dynasty and the Qin Dynasty wadang style is similar to the characteristics of the more obvious after Emperor Wu. The production realized with the mold will tile surface printed, and then attached to the tile cylinder blank, so generally is the tile surface becomes larger, the back of the light flat, no cut marks and corners, wadang side wheel is wider and flat, the texture is obviously better than the Qin tile. The pottery color is gray or light gray.

Western Han Dynasty plain tiles are rare, seen mostly decorated tiles and text tiles, its decorative tiles can also be divided into two categories of image painting and pattern painting, a wide variety of images, according to the "Shaanxi Jinshi Zhi" records there are dozens of lin and phoenix, mythical animal, Feihong, double fish, rabbit, toad, etc., the composition of the ingenious, ingenious. It is worth noting that, with the Qin image tiles taken from real life is different, the Han Dynasty tiles image is taken from reality and after a high degree of artistic exaggeration beyond the real life of the rare birds and animals, through the rich imagination, clever ideas, delicate and not cumbersome line outlining, will be the Han Dynasty, simple and thick, go with the unrestrained, majestic style of art is expressed to its fullest, extremely rich in Romanticism.

Types of Han Dynasty Tile

Cloud Pattern Tile

Based on the differentiation of tile decoration, it is basically divided into three major categories: image pattern tiles, pattern tiles and text tiles.

◆Image Pattern Wadang

Representative Works:

Dragon Pattern Wadang Unearthed at the site of Chang'an City in the Western Han Dynasty. It has a diameter of 19.5 centimeters, with wide sides, and a dragon with long beard, teeth and claws on its face, and its body is decorated with fine scale armor.

Toad and rabbit Wadang 18 centimeters in diameter, the main gear-shaped side wheel. When the face of the main pattern is the toad and the jade hare, the toad round eyes bulging belly, behind the short tail, limbs flexed for jumping, the jade hare bulging eyes, long ears, cocked tail, for the air leaping, lined with trailing grass pattern, cover a folklore in the moon palace in the image of the toad, the jade hare.

The four god pattern tile by each decorated with the green dragon, white tiger, Zhu Bird, Xuan Wu pattern of the four kinds of tiles composed of, divided in the east, Xi, south, north of the different directions of the temple on top of the cabinet, the Han Chang'an city ruins have been unearthed.

◆Patterned Wadang

Representative works:

Cloud Pattern Wadang Cloud Pattern Wadang is the largest number of Wadang in the Western Han Dynasty. Its pattern is characterized by round knobs in the center of the face, or decorated with triangular, rhombus, compartmentalized reticulation, nipple pattern, leaf pattern, petal pattern and so on. Cloud pattern occupies a large area in the center of the main part of the face, pattern changes are very complex and diverse. According to the main changes in the main pattern of cloud pattern, it is roughly divided into the categories of rolled cloud pattern Wadang, ram's horn-shaped cloud pattern Wadang, etc.

◆Word Wadang

Word Wadang was the most characteristic of the era in the Han Dynasty, occupying a prominent position, rich in content, extremely ornate words, the content of the auspicious words of praise and prayer, such as "longevity without limits" "Changle Weiyang" "Changsheng Weiyang" "Fuchang Weiyang" "Thousands of years" "prolonged life" "and Hua Wuji", etc., but also the palace, mausoleum, cangyu, private homes, such as "Changling Dongdang" "Changling Xidang " "Mound" and so on. The vast majority of the text Wadang is in Yangwen, the number of characters ranging from one to dozens.

Representative works: Wei word Wadang, a lot of heirlooms, mostly from the site of Han Chang'an City. On the face of a "Wei" character, usually occupy the face. Some of the "Wei" word is smaller, there is a week outside the word net pattern. Some of the face or painted vermilion color, or painted chalk. For example, in shaanxi chunhua county liang wudi village ganquan palace site, 15 cm in diameter, the side wheel width 1.2 cm, when the face of the official script "wei", from the excavation site, should belong to the han ganquan palace guards used in the office of the tiles.

The text tile is the mainstream of the Han Dynasty, the richness of its content, needless to say, its high value of calligraphy is more literati and ink users throughout the generations. Calligraphy and painting have the same origin, and calligraphy is a unique art and aesthetic object in China. It has already been transformed into the beauty of lines, and the curved and straight movement and spatial construction of lines are more free and diversified than the abstract geometric patterns of painted pottery, which manifests and expresses all kinds of gestures, emotions, and the momentum of the power of the meaning, and finally forms the unique art of lines in China.

Artistic Characteristics

Shanglin Wadang of the Han Jingdi Period

Wadang of the Han Dynasty combined painting, relief carving, arts and crafts, and calligraphy, and with its unique art forms and decorative techniques, it became a very characteristic art category in the treasure house of ancient Chinese art, and has been exerting its unceasing artistic charm for thousands of years.

◆The beauty of the materials used in the decoration of Wadang

The materials used in the decoration of Wadang in the Han Dynasty were very rich, and the materials used in the decoration of Wadang almost included the heaven, the underground, the mythological world and every part of the life on earth. From the fantasy beast taotie, dragon and phoenix, the four gods totem, to the natural world of all kinds of birds and beasts, flowers, plants and trees, houses, people, clouds, and a variety of abstract geometric lines, composed of patterns and text to express a variety of ideological concepts and emotions, etc., depicting a dragon and phoenix dance, deer and tigers, birds and fishes, auspicious clouds, no miscellany, extremely rich and full of extraordinary vitality and exuberance of the life force of the The world is unusually lively and full of energy and vitality. With the unique sensitivity of art, it accommodates the various contents of politics, economy, culture and thought, and religious fantasies of social life in the extremely limited space.

◆Modeling beauty of decorative wadang

The art of wadang is also a kind of modeling art, in addition to the modeling of the volume of wadang itself, the heavier is the modeling of the decoration. Ancient Chinese wadang is generally semi-circular and round, arc is a dynamic and rhythmic beauty modeling, as the background and reflection of the pattern modeling, can highlight the whole picture of the static in the dynamic, square and round combination of echo and unity, to enhance the artistic image of the overall beauty of the image.

The romantic color of Han Dynasty art is well implemented in the shape of Wadang, and it is blended into it. It is with a large amount of action, highly exaggerated form posture, quite wild dynamic shape a flying flow and simple and lovely art image. Such as the four gods winged tiger, toad and jade rabbit pattern tile, completely thick lines, thick outline of the big hand, do not do any detail of the direct depiction, the length of the ratio, straight lines, angles, square and so prominent, the lack of softness, it looks so clumsy and old-fashioned, posture does not match the common sense. But all this adds to their strength, the beauty of momentum, constitute the Han Dynasty art style of ancient simplicity, simple but not vulgar, exaggerated but not decorated, decorated but not false. That kind of vigorous life, that kind of naive and wild atmosphere, that kind of confident power to conquer the world, rather than saying more presents the spirit of the Chinese nation as a whole.

◆The structural beauty of Wadang decoration

The Wadang is an architectural accessory that is both practical and decorative. This determines that the Wadang must realize its decorative nature in the most eye-catching and prominent compositional form as much as possible in the limited area of the roof and gable end of a considerable height, and then under the heavy limitation of looking up and looking away. Ancient Wadang decoration whether it is the central axis symmetrical structure, radial circular structure or any flexibility structure, but trying to make the theme prominent, balanced structure, and take into account the decorative effect of the maximum play, at this point is broken craftsmanship.

Central axis symmetrical structure: most of the wadang decoration is about symmetry. This symmetrical structure is a traditional feature of classical Chinese art.

Radial Circular Spinning Structure: Patterned wadang mainly adopt this structure, with the center of the circle as the center, extending radial lines in all directions, such as the sun pattern.

Arbitrary structure: animal images tattoos are mainly this arbitrary structure, the picture stretching free, unconventional. All of them have a main body ornamentation full width.

◆The Artistry of Text Wadang

Wadang text is mostly in seal script, but also rare in clerical script, in the circle of this particular range, to round on the potential to promote the long line short. The characters are not squared. The decorative art effect of seal script calligraphy is fully utilized. According to statistics, there are as many as 120 variations of seal script on Wadang, which can be described as marvelous and spectacular. The beauty of seal script is based on the lines and shapes evolved from the hieroglyphic basis, that is, they are suitable for the curvature and straightness, the vertical and horizontal fit,, the knotting is free, and the layout is complete. Wadang Calligraphy is the use of limited space to fully reflect the beauty of this, to achieve the same artistic effect with the seal.

In addition, wadang text there are a small number of variations of the use of fine arts such as bird and insect seal script, such as the "Yongsui Jiafu" wadang, Xiuli Yin mat, Thuja Cangmao, especially peculiar.

Wadang was first made in the middle and late Western Zhou Dynasty, is a common relics of ancient Chinese architectural sites, is to understand the scale of the building, the nature of the process of physical information. Wadang art said goodbye to the splendor since the Warring States, Qin and Han Dynasties, and formed a small peak of development in the Tang Dynasty, which was relatively prosperous in politics, economy and culture. During the Tang Dynasty, the influence of Buddhism was further expanded, increasingly integrated with mainstream Chinese culture, and honored by the royal family. Lotus is a sacred relic of Buddhism, the lotus flower as the original form of art was widely used, Daming Palace site over the years unearthed tiles to the lotus pattern tiles, a small number of even beads pattern tiles.

The six tiles displayed in the exhibition hall of the site are taken from the scope of the Daming Palace site, of which five are lotus pattern tiles, one with a pearl pattern tiles.

Lotus pattern tiles first appeared in the North and South Dynasties period, to the Tang Dynasty, the development of this pattern is quite mature. Its composition is divided into threefold: the inner symbolizes the stamen, there are lotus-shaped, pearl-shaped, concentric circles, persimmon-shaped, etc.; the middle layer is the lotus petals, for the theme of ornamentation, can be divided into compound petals and single petals; the outer layer of ornamentation, there are two kinds of protruding pattern and even the pearl pattern.

Tang Dynasty tiles have been unearthed in other places, with the most unearthed in Luoyang. The dimensions and sizes of the Tang Dynasty tiles unearthed in Luoyang are roughly as follows: 9.1 to 18.5 centimeters in diameter, 0.7 to 2.8 centimeters in width, and 0.9 to 2.8 centimeters in thickness. The six Daming Palace tiles are roughly 9.4 to 18 centimeters in diameter, 1.1 to 2.8 centimeters in width, and 1.3 to 1.9 centimeters in thickness. From these data, the Daming Palace site unearthed tiles can be typical of the Tang Dynasty tiles.

In the 6 tiles, several kinds of tiles, such as Baozhu-style double-petal lotus pattern, lotus-style double-petal lotus pattern, persimmon-style single-petal lotus pattern, and Lianzhu pattern, were also unearthed in Luoyang. And concentric circles type compound lotus pattern and the treasure pearl type single lotus pattern of these two wadang in other places have not yet seen, two wadang are taken from the site of the Hall of Containing Yuan.

Hanyuan Hall is the first hall in the Palace of Daming, according to records: "containing the name of the Yuan Jian, "Yi Qiankun" said, said: containing the macro-glossy, and said: Yuan Hengli Ching, including all the elephants to be honored." Emperor Gaozong in Longshuo two years (662 years) in April moved into the Palace of Daming (at this time known as Penglai Palace), two months later for the Palace of Daming doors, halls, pavilions named. At this time, many halls in the Palace of Daming Palace obviously can not meet the requirements of Emperor Gaozong and Empress Wu of the Palace of various grand events, the Palace is not representative of the majesty of the Tang Dynasty and the strong hall, containing the Hall of the Yuan is built in this context.

Hanyuan Hall was built in Longshuo two years, completed in April of the following year, which lasted one year. After a field survey, the south slope of Longshou Plateau was selected, and the court ordered tens of thousands of craftsmen to be mobilized for the construction. According to Li Hua "Hall of Containment" in the description: "Ordered to levy the craftsmen of the Pan Shi, under the Jing Yang material, manipulating the axe to carry catties of 10,000 people. Wade through the moraine and gravel and climbed Cuiwei, choose a dry in a thousand trees, gauge large and strong in the Qiao Mei. Sound Can Can in the green clouds, if the God Pei and upside down." Finally built this "and look up, Qian dragon head and open phoenix wings; back and look, precarious tree upside and extract the end of the clouds" of the majestic hall. This hall has been as a symbol of the power of the Tang Dynasty, is held on the winter solstice, New Year's Day of the pilgrimage and enthronement, enthronement ceremony and other important ceremonies place, used until the end of the Tang Dynasty.

As a landmark building within the Palace of Daming, the Hall of Containing Yuan was constructed in a period of relative political stability, economic and cultural development of the rise of the building materials are different from other, higher specification level, the site of the excavation of the exquisite tiles, when the Tang Dynasty tiles of the finest.

These two from the site of the wadang, lotus petals full, vivid, compared with several others, more beautifully decorated, more detailed workmanship, when the construction of the Hall of Containing the Yuan special production.

These two tiles were taken from the same place.