A Brief History of Arts and Crafts in China

The history of arts and crafts in China presents two clear development threads: the folk arts and crafts with practicality as the main body and the palace literati arts and crafts system with appreciation as the main body. As two cultural forms of arts and crafts that have grown up 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 principles of practicality and aesthetics, with simple, vigorous and lively qualities. Palace and literati handicrafts are produced in government-run or private handicraft workshops to cater to the needs and interests of nobles and literati, so they pay attention to expressing conceptual implications and pursuing ornamental and playful values, and advocate meticulous carving.

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" belonging to the royal government. On the basis of the official system of Zhou and Qin Dynasties, various workshops and factories subordinate to the government of major general were established in Han Dynasty. The supervision of Shaofu in Tang and Song Dynasties showed that the official handicraft system was complete and thorough, and the imperial supervision in Ming Dynasty and the establishment of weaving bureau in Qing Dynasty made the official handicraft system more systematic and strict. Most official handicraft institutions are located in central cities or palaces, where materials are occupied free of charge, craftsmen work free of charge, and products do not participate in commodity circulation. In this closed economic structure, the court arts and crafts came into being, which, as an ideal style to reflect the spiritual needs of the ruling class, influenced and standardized the traditional arts and crafts of China in the feudal period.

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 "carving small skills" and belong to "suppressing the end". This prejudice obviously inhibits the construction of theory, resulting in the lack of complete and systematic theoretical works on arts and crafts in China. China's arts and crafts have always developed according to their own ideas and principles. Undoubtedly, their individual characteristics depend on the tendentiousness and originality of China's arts and crafts thoughts and creative principles. China's arts and crafts thoughts and creative principles, which are few words, emphasize the social value and function of arts and crafts, pursue the integration of mind and material, advocate the moderate harmony between nature and labor, pay attention to the overall organic nature of arts and crafts activities, and strive to coordinate the relationship between time, geography, materials, technology and other factors.

Ming dynasty arts and crafts

First, the overall style and characteristics of arts and crafts in the Ming Dynasty, the most distinctive arts and crafts varieties, and groundbreaking achievements.

The Ming Dynasty is the mature period of the development of the national style of arts and crafts in China. There was a retro style in the early Ming Dynasty, learning from the Tang and Song Dynasties, but influenced by the Yuan Dynasty. Its style is different from the exquisiteness of the Song Dynasty and the boldness of the Yuan Dynasty, but simple and honest, with furniture as a typical representative, which is worth learning.

In addition, the prosperity of literati painting in Ming dynasty is helpful to enrich the theme of arts and crafts in Ming dynasty and improve their skills. Scholar-officials participated in the guidance, design and production of arts and crafts, and summarized many theoretical works. Some methods, production principles and experience summary are of great guiding significance to future generations.

The arts and crafts of the Ming Dynasty are closely combined with the life of the secular people, showing a free, healthy and lively spirit and a strong flavor of life. Folk decorative patterns absorb a large number of auspicious symbols in traditional folk customs.

Second, ceramics

Jingdezhen porcelain in Ming Dynasty stood out as the "porcelain capital". Jingdezhen porcelain can be divided into the following four types according to the process:

1, underglaze color: Ming underglaze colors mainly include underglaze red and underglaze blue and white.

Blue and white: there are three stages: early, middle and late.

In the early days, Yongle and Xuande were the representatives. In the middle stage, Chenghua Blue and White is the representative. Later, Jiajing and Wanli were the representatives.

2. Glaze color: single color, red-green color, tri-color color and multi-color on glaze. Plain tricolor is a special variety of tricolor, mainly composed of yellow, green and purple glazes. There is no red and the pigment is elegant, so it is called "plain tricolor".

3, fighting color: also known as teasing color, refers to the overglaze color and underglaze color to make a color painting. Chenghua Doucai is the perfect combination of underglaze blue and white and underglaze multicolor.

4. Colored glaze

White porcelain. Represented by Yongle sweet white porcelain. In addition to some plain faces, sweet white porcelain is decorated with flowers and prints.

Red glaze. Yongle red glaze is the best firing method. Named "Dahong", Xuande also created a variety of cowpea red.

Blue glaze. Also known as Qing Ji or Blue Sacrifice.

Yellow glaze

Green glaze

Third, the development of embroidery in Ming Dynasty and the contribution of Gu embroidery.

In the Ming Dynasty, there were two kinds of embroidery, South Embroidery and North Embroidery, mainly practical embroidery, and South Embroidery represented by Gu Embroidery was the most famous. Gu, a scholar in Ming Dynasty, is famous for embroidery from generation to generation. The most famous is her daughter-in-law, Han Ximeng, whose embroidery is called "Hanyuan embroidery" in the north. The Collection of Song and Yuan Dynasties in the Palace Museum is her masterpiece.

Gu embroidery is characterized by imitating ancient names with embroidery manuscripts, combining silk theory with painting theory, inheriting the fine tradition of painting and embroidery techniques since the Song Dynasty, which has a great influence on the development of painting and embroidery in Jiangnan area in Qing Dynasty.

Four, the Ming dynasty metalworking representative cloisonne and Xuande furnace.

Cloisonne is a composite process of enamel technology and metal technology, and its official scientific name should be copper tire cloisonne enamel. People think that at first there was only blue or blue glaze as the background color during the Jingtai period, so it was called "cloisonne". Blue doesn't mean blue. The manufacturing process includes tire making, thread clamping, welding, bluing, polishing and gold plating.

Xuande furnace is a bronze vessel used by the royal family in the Ming Dynasty for offering sacrifices to ancestral temples and displaying and appreciating them.

Five, Ming furniture production characteristics and style.

The Ming Dynasty was the golden age for the development of classical furniture in China. Hardwood, especially Huang Huali and mahogany, is the most common. Structurally, small buildings are spliced and tenons and mortises are used. Modeling pays attention to the rationality and diversity of functions, which not only conforms to the physiological characteristics of human body, but also has elegant beauty, integrating artistry and practicality. Ming-style furniture is rarely painted or decorated too much, which highlights the texture of wood and embodies the beauty of materials, forming a fresh, elegant, lively and concise style. Furniture with this feature is called "Ming style furniture". Ming dynasty furniture can be summarized by four words: "simple, thick, refined and elegant". The charm of Ming-style furniture lies not only in its beauty of modeling, workmanship and decoration, but also in its strong national spirit and oriental charm.

6. Bamboo carving in Ming Dynasty

In the Ming Dynasty, bamboo carving techniques rose, with Jiangnan as its prosperity, including bamboo root carving and bamboo slice carving, with Jinling and Jiading as its representative schools.

Jinling School was founded by Pu Zhongqian.

The founder of Jiading School is Zhu He. Together with his son and grandson, he is called "Jiading Zhu San".

Well, that's all I know. You can refer to it and hope to help you.