Is the tri-color craft of Tang Dynasty lost?

The firing technology of tri-color in Tang Dynasty has been lost, but modern craftsmen have gradually restored this traditional handicraft production method through continuous exploration and practice.

The origin of tri-colored pottery in Tang Dynasty can be traced back to lead glazed pottery in Han Dynasty. During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, pottery workers knew that if a large amount of lead was mixed into the glaze, the fired pottery would be bright and moist, because lead had a low melting point and played a role in helping the melting in the glaze.

Once copper, iron and other metal elements are mixed into the glaze, the glaze can be green and brown. However, this kind of painted pottery was rarely fired at that time, and some of them were mainly found in funerary wares.

Later, this technology developed slowly. In the Tang Dynasty, with the prosperity of social economy and the improvement of ceramic technology, especially the prevalence of thick burial, low-temperature lead glazed pottery appeared the famous Tang Sancai.

What are the three colors of Tang Sancai?

Tang Sancai is actually a kind of low-temperature glazed pottery with rich colors, mainly yellow, green, white, brown, blue and black. Tang tricolor has other colors to choose from, such as red, blue and white. These colors can be obtained by using different pigments and firing conditions. The firing technology of tri-color in Tang Dynasty has been lost, but modern craftsmen have gradually restored this traditional handicraft production method through continuous exploration and practice.

Yellow is made of loess or yellow mud, which will turn bright yellow at high temperature. Green is obtained by using compounds of copper or chromium. After the ceramic tire is coated with green pigment, it will form emerald green after high temperature firing. Cyan, on the other hand, is made of a compound of cobalt or nickel, which forms a dark blue or cyan after high-temperature firing.

Tang Sancai is a kind of multicolor low-temperature glazed pottery, which uses fine mud as raw material and lead oxide as cosolvent to reduce the melting temperature of glaze. In the firing process, metal oxides containing copper, iron, cobalt and other elements are used as colorants to melt into lead glaze, forming glaze colors of yellow, green, blue, white, purple and brown.

However, many objects are mainly yellow, green and white, and even some objects have only one or two of the above colors, which are collectively called "three colors of Tang Dynasty". Therefore, the three colors of the Tang Dynasty are not limited to three colors, and more than two colors of the same object are called the three colors of the Tang Dynasty.