General situation of the development of ancient arts and crafts in China

The primitive occurrence of arts and crafts in China can be traced back to the creation of the first labor tool by ancient ancestors. The practical connotation and spiritual connotation condensed in the original tools not only laid the initial form of China arts and crafts, but also laid the status of arts and crafts as the forerunner of China plastic arts.

Stone jade, tooth bones, weaving, sewing, especially pottery-making technology in the Neolithic Age have clearly demonstrated China's creative thinking and design intention of attaching importance to the combination of practicality and aesthetics, and also clearly demonstrated craftsmen's ability to grasp the material properties and manufacturing technology, as well as their understanding and application of the laws of formal beauty.

During the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, China's arts and crafts made epoch-making progress, and their practical and spiritual connotations were further enriched and strengthened. The social consciousness and religious consciousness permeated in the spiritual connotation made the arts and crafts of this period have lofty aesthetic charm. Primitive celadon and lacquerware developed initially, and bronzes and jades made brilliant achievements.

The arts and crafts from the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period to the Qin and Han Dynasties showed the economic strength and ideological development in the early feudal society of China. The rise and exaltation of the spirit of rationalism organically unifies the pursuit of practical utility and real life value with the passionate romantic form of inheriting the primitive cultural tradition, resulting in Gu Zhuo's light and lively, flying and unrestrained, strong and powerful aesthetic characteristics, which are fully manifested in ceramics, lacquerware and silk fabrics.

The political, economic, military, cultural and ideological changes in the Three Kingdoms, the Jin Dynasty and the Southern and Northern Dynasties led to changes in the production mode and value pursuit of arts and crafts. The production center has gradually moved from the north to the south, and the craft creation is more inclined to show the inner personality and mind. During this period, the creative tendency of advocating subjective personality spirit and the aesthetic style of emptiness and quietness profoundly influenced the overall development of China arts and crafts. Celadon, building materials and religious handicrafts made outstanding achievements in this period.

China arts and crafts developed in an all-round way in the early Tang Dynasty, showing a prosperous scene. The technical level and production scale of brocade, printing and dyeing, ceramics, gold and silver wares, lacquerware and woodwork have all surpassed the previous generation. With the development of economy, the exchange of Chinese and foreign cultures and the liberation of people's minds, the arts and crafts in Sui and Tang Dynasties showed the characteristics of grandeur, exquisite decoration and rich morphological characteristics.

The perfect paradigm and realm of China ancient arts and crafts appeared in the Song Dynasty, which was embodied in ceramics. The developed handicraft industry and the cultural atmosphere of attaching importance to literature and reason provide great possibilities for maintaining the harmonious unity between creation and subjective aesthetic ideal, thus forming a generation of elegant, plain and implicit aesthetic style. The arts and crafts of the Song Dynasty fully materialized the cultural spirit and aesthetic consciousness of the Chinese nation, and the creative principles it embodied and revealed still have great practical guiding significance. After the Mongols unified China with their powerful military strength, arts and crafts developed to some extent. Brocade of dyeing and weaving technology, blue and white of ceramic technology and underglaze red are outstanding contributions of this period. Influenced by nomadic culture and martial arts,

The arts and crafts style of Yuan Dynasty tends to be rough, bold and strong. The Ming Dynasty was another prosperous era in the history of China. The germination of capitalist factors and the emergence of new culture and new science promoted the arts and crafts of Ming Dynasty to enter a new stage, and brocade, cotton spinning, ceramics, lacquerware, metalworking, furniture and architectural decoration all developed in an all-round way.

The arts and crafts of Ming Dynasty inherited the aesthetic pursuit since the Song Dynasty, and developed into stylization and perfection, with solemn, simple and solid aesthetic characteristics.

Various categories of ancient arts and crafts in China were more perfect in the Qing Dynasty, and their varieties, exquisite skills and rich techniques far exceeded those of the previous generation, showing a situation of integrating the achievements of various historical periods. Originated from the aesthetic taste of the upper nobility, the concept of "winning by technology" was further strengthened in the arts and crafts production in the Qing Dynasty, resulting in a generation of increasingly elaborate artistic styles. 1840 After the Opium War, the production pattern, product structure, craft idea and artistic style of China arts and crafts all took on a new look. Decline and rebirth, imitation and creation, persistence and differentiation constitute the basic landscape of modern arts and crafts in China. Under the impact of modern industrial civilization, the traditional arts and crafts that inherited the shape of the Qing Dynasty declined rapidly, while the modern arts and crafts that meet the requirements of the new era rose rapidly and flourished. Fresh, concise and vivid modern arts and crafts mark a brand-new cultural form and connotation, which is very different from traditional arts and crafts. The emergence and development of modern arts and crafts have opened up a new field for arts and crafts activities in China and set up a new aesthetic style and value standard.

The history of arts and crafts in China presents two clear development threads.

Folk arts and crafts with practicality as the main body and palace and literati arts and crafts system with appreciation as the main body. As two cultural forms of arts and crafts that grow and develop in different social environments and conditions and represent the interests of different classes, they have different modes of production, organizational structures, functional purposes and aesthetic characteristics. Folk arts and crafts are mainly family handicrafts of natural economy, and the production purpose is mainly to meet the needs of producers themselves. The unity of production and consumption makes the folk arts and crafts products fully embody the basic principle of combining practicality with aesthetics, with simple, vigorous and lively quality. Palace and literati handicrafts are produced in government-run or private handicraft workshops, catering to the needs and interests of nobles and literati. Therefore, they pay attention to the expression of conceptual significance, pursue the value of viewing and playing, and advocate elaborate carving and fancy.

Officialization of production is an important phenomenon of traditional arts and crafts in China. As early as the Western Zhou Dynasty, there appeared a "hundred workers" subordinate to the royal government, while the Han Dynasty established various craft workshops and factories subordinate to the government on the basis of the official system of Zhou and Qin Dynasties. The official handicraft system in Tang and Song Dynasties was complete and thorough, and the official handicraft system was made more systematic and strict by the imperial censor, the establishment department in Ming Dynasty and the weaving bureau in Qing Dynasty. Government-run handicraft institutions are mostly located in central cities or palaces, where materials are occupied free of charge, craftsmen work free of charge, production costs are ignored, and products do not participate in commodity circulation. In this closed economic structure, court arts and crafts have emerged. As an ideal style to reflect the spiritual needs of the ruling class, it influenced and standardized the traditional arts and crafts in feudal China.

China's traditional cultural concept advocates "Tao" of "metaphysics" and despises "utensil" of "metaphysics". Therefore, arts and crafts with the purpose of function have always been regarded as "small moves" and belong to "end suppression". This prejudice obviously inhibits the theoretical construction and leads to the lack of complete and systematic theoretical works on arts and crafts in China. But China's arts and crafts have been developing according to their own ideas and principles. Its personalized appearance undoubtedly depends on the tendentiousness and originality of China's craft thought and creative principle. China seldom recorded his craft thoughts and creative principles in writing, emphasizing the social value and function of craft creation, pursuing the integration of mind and material, advocating the moderation and harmony between nature and man-made, paying attention to the overall organic nature of craft creation activities, and trying to coordinate the relationship among weather, geography, materials, technology and other factors.

China arts and crafts embodies the material civilization and spiritual civilization of the Chinese nation, and has a far-reaching impact on the development of world culture in international trade and cultural exchanges. The ancient Silk Road in China not only spread exquisite silk products to the west, but also spread silkworm eggs and weaving technology to the east. The ceramic road was the link between the East and the West in the Middle Ages. The export of porcelain not only transforms the great inventions of the Chinese nation into the civilized wealth of all mankind and the worldwide production industry, but also affects the lifestyle and cultural concepts of people everywhere. After the middle of the 20th century, China's arts and crafts went to the world in an all-round way, which further promoted international cultural and economic exchanges.