The History and Application of Ceramics

From ancient times to the present, although the world's peoples have a very different appreciation of beauty, but, in one way or another, can get to the enjoyment of beauty.

As far back as more than nine thousand years ago, the Chinese ancestors engaged in fishing and hunting, agricultural production activities, not only began the most primitive construction activities, and with the invention and use of fire, in the transformation of nature in the long term labor practices, accompanied by countless time and success of the experience, began to manufacture and use of ceramics to become China's ancient

culture

one of the artistic creations, and unveiled the history of human development, ceramics.

And the "Neolithic Era" of human development was inaugurated.

Although the forms and styles of pottery have varied due to differences in time, region or nationality, and due to the influence of other conditions, and each of them has produced a lot of characteristics, they all express their own spirit of the times, which was first expressed in the Neolithic in the shape of the pottery and the sense of ornamentation and texture.

The greatest achievement of China's pottery industry in the middle of the Neolithic period was the art of colored pottery, and the cultures of various regions influenced each other, exchanged, or inherited and developed, and then formed a *** with the same colorful artistic style in the long history of China.

Beauty comes from life, the potter is from the perspective of the performance of life, allegorical, indirect expression of human thought and feelings, or a direct depiction of the real life of the customs and style.

After the Yangshao culture, which was cultured with colored pottery, another type of cultural remains of the Longshan culture, centered in Shandong, appeared.

The outstanding achievement of the pottery industry in this period was the art of black pottery.

Longshan culture gray pottery surface, do not seek unhelpful Chong decoration.

All depends on the body of the black to win, it is "black" shiny for the best realm, the body is sometimes slightly embellished with concave-convex XuanZhuangJin or skeletonization and shaping of the combination of firing, reflecting a simple and simple beauty.

Into the Shang Dynasty, imitating the same period of bronze pattern and shape of the white pottery appeared, at that time it is more luxurious than the bronze craft, the shape of almost all ceremonial objects.

Particularly rich in features is the wave-shaped thunder pattern, hooked thunder pattern and a strange human cloud thunder pattern.

It is a rare art and craft in human culture.

There was no significant progress in pottery production during the Shang and Zhou periods, and there was not much development of artistry, and from the Warring States period onwards, China entered a long feudal society.

The production of hollow bricks was an important creation of the potters of the Warring States period.

As China is a multi-ethnic country, the land is vast, and ceramic supplies vary greatly from place to place due to geographic location or other factors, from the texture point of view, China's southeastern coast of the sea along the Baiyue region, the prevalence of gray ceramics, printed hard pottery and primitive pottery, while other areas are mainly clay gray pottery, sandwiched pottery followed.

Among the daily-use pottery, clay gray pottery is predominant.

The clay of gray pottery contains certain sand particles, the firing temperature is high, the pottery is hard, and it is mostly gray or dark gray.

Meanwhile, printed hard pottery was commonly used in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and in Guangdong and Guangxi in the Pearl River Basin.

However, due to the rough texture of the printed hard pottery, it is not suitable for eating utensils, so most of them are containers.

"Six Kings Bi, Four Seas One".

The Qin and Han periods are also an important period in the history of China's ceramic development.

The pottery figurines of the Qin Dynasty with its perfect art form, vivid and realistic demeanor, profoundly revealing the inner world of various characters, not only shows the long tradition of realism in my sculpture art and the high level of ceramics in our country's ancient times, and also demonstrates for the world the deep and majestic national style of the Chinese nation.

In terms of painting style, the Han Dynasty painted pottery changed the Warring States painted pottery flow of vivid, enthusiastic and unrestrained style, and turned to advocate the condensed elegant charm.

The picture covered the sky, rich and brilliant colors.

By the Tang Dynasty economic prosperity and development, long-term political stability and high national will, all aspects of the Tang Dynasty are unprecedented prosperity and improve the ceramic art can best express the weather of the Tang Dynasty is the Tang Three-color glazed pottery.

Three-color pottery figurines and three-color pottery, is the manufacture of its artistic record of the era and the Tang people's interest in life style painting.

History of Ceramics in China

Ceramic Culture during the Xia, Shang, and Zhou Dynasties

Pottery shards and pots excavated from the ruins of Yinxu in the Shang Dynasty include many styles, including gray, black, red, colored, and white pottery, as well as glazed hard pottery, and the decoration, symbols, and scripts on these pots are closely related to the oracle bone inscriptions and the blue wares of the Yin and Shang Dynasties.

The high cost of greenware could only be enjoyed by the aristocracy, and pottery could only be used for various kinds of living vessels of the general public.

Therefore, it can be understood that the Shang Dynasty pottery production process has also been the general development of hard pottery with glaze has appeared in this period, the glaze green and brownish-yellow, the tire is relatively hard, grayish-white.

Pottery at this time has not been limited to containers, a wider range of applications, can be roughly divided into daily necessities, construction, burial, sacrificial rites.

The imperial court also attached great importance to the production of pottery.

Ceramic culture of the Qin and Han Dynasties

Qin and Han - Ancient buildings were made of wood, which is not easy to survive for a long time, so some of the great buildings, such as the Afang Palace of the Qin Dynasty and the Weiyang Palace of the Han Dynasty, could not be preserved in their entirety, but relics of tiles and bricks can still be found in the remaining ruins, which provide a small glimpse of the scale of the ancient buildings.

The ceramic culture of the Sui and Tang dynasties

589 years in CE, Yang Jian usurped the Northern Zhou and Southern Chen, unified the Central Plains, and changed the country's name to Sui, Sui dynasty is short, but in the porcelain firing, but there is a new breakthrough, not only in celadon firing, white porcelain is also a good development, and at this time in the decorative techniques have also been innovated, such as in the object in addition to the clay pieces - applique, is an example. -Applique, is an example.

Ceramic culture in the Tang Dynasty

By the time of the Tang Dynasty, porcelain production could be metamorphosed to the realm of maturity, and crossed into the real era of porcelain.

Because the difference between ceramics and porcelain is that it is white and hard or translucent, and the biggest key is the temperature of the fire.

Although the Han Dynasty porcelain, but the temperature is not high, fragile texture can only be regarded as the original porcelain, and the development of the Tang Dynasty, not only the development of glaze drug maturity, firing temperature can reach more than 1,000 degrees Celsius, so we say that the Tang Dynasty is the real era of porcelain.

The most famous kiln in the Tang dynasty for the Yue kiln and Xing kiln.

Ceramic culture during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period

This period is more famous for the Chai Kiln of Emperor Shizong of the latter Zhou Dynasty, which was mainly celestial blue, and Emperor Shizong commented that "after the rain, the clouds broke, and the color of the same for the future," so it was known as "after the rain, the color of the green".

The Tao Road records that the kiln is "as green as the sky, as bright as a mirror, as thin as paper, and as loud as a chime", which gives a slight idea of how beautifully it was made.

During the Five Dynasties, the Yue kilns became the imperial vessels of the Qian family of the King of Wu-Yue, and were not available to the common people, hence the name "secret kiln", which is a term used to describe the manufacture of celadon.

The ceramic culture of the Song Dynasty - a collection of porcelain

Zhao Kuangyin seized power in the latter part of the Zhou Dynasty and established the Song Dynasty with Kaifeng as its capital, which is known as the Northern Song Dynasty in history.

During the Song Dynasty, ceramics were at their peak, and the "Song Porcelain" was famous worldwide.

Ding Kiln, Ru Kiln, Guan Kiln, Ge Kiln, Jun Kiln for the five famous kilns, the shape of the beautiful, elegant and dignified, not only surpassed the achievements of predecessors, even if the latter imitation can rarely match.

Yuan Dynasty ceramic culture

Yuan Dynasty into the Central Plains for ninety-one years, the porcelain industry than the Song Dynasty for the decline, however, there are new developments in this period, such as the rise of blue and red glaze, a large number of popular colored porcelain, white porcelain has become the mainstream of porcelain, glaze white and blue, led to the subsequent development of porcelain in the Ming and Qing dynasties, to get a very high level of achievement.

Ming Dynasty ceramic culture

China's pottery development to the Ming Dynasty and entered a new journey, before the Ming Dynasty porcelain to celadon, and after the Ming Dynasty to white porcelain, especially blue and white porcelain, especially blue and white porcelain into the Ming Dynasty's main products, and Jingdezhen became the main kiln, the largest scale, has been extended to the Ming and Qing Dynasties for five or six hundred years without decline, described the scene as "daytime white smoke covering the sky, red flames at night, and the main products. The kiln was the largest of its kind in Jingdezhen, and it continued to flourish for five or six hundred years during the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Yongle Xuande period for the early blue and white porcelain, although less than the sweet white, off the exquisite, but due to the use of Su mud Bo green cobalt material input, so that this period of blue and white color; the artist's artistic training is very high, the use of the green material of the scattering of the halo, for the end of the bone floral penmanship, resulting in the ink of the fun; some use different thickness on the line, resulting in a lively change, appearing to be more vivid and powerful.

Since the Yuan Dynasty, the import of Islam also brought rich patterns, coupled with the use of Chinese painting, the layout of the contents of a clear and bright, feel his majestic simplicity.

Chenghua, Zhengde for the middle of the blue and white porcelain, at this time, Su mud Boqing has been used up, switching to equal green, color pale than the richness of the Suqing, and no loose halo ink effect, so in addition towards adding color or detailed expression of the development of the painting techniques to strive for refinement, fine drawings and even dyeing, coupled with the thin tire of the white porcelain, to achieve the goal of sophistication.

Jiajing, Wanli years for the late blue and white porcelain, back to the use of green, to the Jiajing kilns to bring prosperity, color and strong.

At this time, the production of large, and by the Dutch ship to Europe.

The famous Wanli period of five-color, doucai, became the basis for the development of later generations of colored porcelain, and even Japan's Ivory ancient porcelain is based on the development of this period of doucai, "Wanli color" has become famous in history.

At the same time, there are red and yellow color, blue and yellow flowers, red and blue flowers, yellow and blue flowers, five colors, red and so on all kinds of color magnet and the previous generation of kilns, the pattern is more varied, increase many.

Starting in the Ming Dynasty, kiln sites tend to concentrate in Jingdezhen, whether official kilns or kilns are biased towards painted porcelain, Song porcelain before the monochrome glaze is the main one, and after the Ming Dynasty into the world of colorful paintings, ceramic tires tend to be thin, fine, white request, remember the style in the blank body also from now on, the age of the hall, the name of the people have, so that the study of the evidence to have a more accurate identification.

Ceramic culture in the Qing Dynasty

Chinese porcelain in the Qing Dynasty can be said to be the peak.

Thousands of years of experience, coupled with the natural raw materials of Jingdezhen, the management of the pottery officer, the early years of the Qing Dynasty, Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong three generations, due to political stability, economic prosperity, the emperor attached importance to the achievements of porcelain is also very outstanding, the emperor's hobby and advocate, so that the early Qing Dynasty porcelain production technology is highly skilled, decorated with fine and gorgeous, the achievements of the extraordinary, is the long history of the Chinese ceramics the most bright and brilliant.

Qing Dynasty ceramic production, in addition to the official kilns in Jingdezhen as the center, all over the kilns are extremely prosperous and prosperous, and get a lot of achievements, especially the gradual advancement of the Western wind, ceramics export, Western raw materials and technology imported by foreign influences to make the ceramics industry is more rich and colorful, but also because of the mass production and imitation into the wind, the painting of the pursuit of fine and delicate, although there are amazing works, but less creative and flow in the artisanal spirit.

Fujian Province, Dehua white porcelain, white and transparent, the production of Buddha is quite famous.

In the middle of the Qing Dynasty, the development of export ceramics, Guangcai, brilliant.

Classification of Ceramics

? Ceramics according to its use of clay, feldspar, silica and other raw materials and with different proportions, can be divided into semi-porcelain, hard pottery, porcelain, hard porcelain and other types.

Others are limestone pottery with limestone instead of feldspar, dolomite pottery with dolomite instead of feldspar, ash porcelain with ashes instead of feldspar, and so on.

? Generally speaking, the firing methods can be divided into two kinds: one is initially at a temperature of 700 to 800 ℃ for plain firing, plain firing and then glazed, and then fired at a temperature of 1100 to 1300 ℃; the other way is to be fired at a high temperature of 1100 to 1250 ℃, and then glazed and then fired at a temperature of 900 to 1000 ℃.

? Porcelain glazed and then painted and decorated method is called glaze color (700 ~ 800 ℃) glaze before painting method is called underglaze color (1000 ~ 1300 ℃).

? China's ceramic decoration is colorful, rich in national style and artistic characteristics.

If the artistic characteristics and methods of expression in accordance with the classification, it can be summarized into five categories.

Ceramic decoration

Sculpture class color glaze class Over-glaze painting class Under-glaze painting class Precious metal class

Carved flowers, picking flowers, stacked flowers, openwork, relief, shaping crystalline glaze, crackle glaze, sand glaze, glaze, glaze, glaze, glaze billet Ancient color, new glaze, pastel, broad color; printing, spraying, brushing, applique blue, color, glazed black and red, applique, bright gold, frosted gold, corrosive gold, Gold, polished gold, etched gold, gold, decal

? If the value of its use to be divided, it can be divided into art ceramic decorative method and daily ceramic decorative method of two kinds, these two kinds of decoration in the use of specific methods, there is no strict difference, but their respective decorative effect, but there is a very obvious difference.

Methods Art Ceramic Decoration Method Daily Ceramic Decoration Method

Technological requirements Complex Simple

Technical difficulty High Low

Decorative effect Thousands of different shapes, unpredictable, and some products are regarded as rare and precious Easy to control, high degree of standardization and standardization of product specifications, the requirements of the fast update

Products and market demand for the same effect of products, less, less market demand, generally have a very significant difference. Few, the market demand is low, generally as a display of works of art The effect of the same products to meet the needs of the market, the demand is high, is a necessity of people's daily lives

Identification of ancient ceramics

Identification of ancient ceramics, the traditional method refers to the eyes, ears, hands to observe, analyze in order to make accurate judgments on the firing age of the ceramics, kiln, the quality of ceramics, the age of the category.

People involved in ceramic collection for the first time, to learn and understand the basics of the history of ceramic development, in order to identify the ancient ceramic ware.

China has thousands of years of history of ceramic manufacturing, ceramic artifacts handed down through the ages as vast as a sea of ceramics, ceramics in each period of time in the soil, glaze, vessel type, decoration, craftsmanship, color and so on have different characteristics and styles.

As long as we study hard, serious practice, the first ceramics carefully scrutinized, carefully identify, we can know the true and false, less fooled.

Ceramics is the art of fire and clay, the elements of ceramic ware is the tire bone, vessel type, glaze, decoration, color, craftsmanship and so on.

All kinds of ceramics respectively have its invention of the period of creation and burning, clay, ware changes and glaze, decoration, color, technology reform and innovation have its success and popularization period.

The creation of the firing period is the upper limit of its era.

A piece of ancient ceramics in the glaze, shape, decoration, color, technology and so on, one of the upper limit of the latest age, is the upper limit of the ceramic generation, this is a principle that can not be violated.

Identification based on:

1, tire bone.

With the crushing, panning, sintering technology continues to improve, the quality of the tire bone also continues to improve.

Early tire soil is not crushed, elution is not clean, the sintering temperature is only about 800 degrees, so the tire soil has more impurities, loose, high water absorption, poor strength.

Shang to the middle of the Eastern Han Dynasty pottery industry began the first leap, the emergence of primitive porcelain, firing temperature is about 1,000 degrees, water absorption and strength between pottery and porcelain.

Late Eastern Han Dynasty to the invention of porcelain in the North and South Dynasties, firing temperature is about 1200 degrees.

In the Yuan Dynasty, Jingdezhen began to commonly use the "binary formula" of china stone and kaolin, which further increased the firing temperature of porcelain, and also reduced the deformation of porcelain in the firing process.

We should be good at identifying ceramics according to the sintering degree of Tongshun bone to determine the age.

At the same time, it is also important to note the phenomenon of various places in situ to take the earth for the tire and remote areas of miscellaneous kiln technology lagging behind.

2, vessel type.

Since the invention of mankind's pottery to date, all kinds of ware according to the needs of people's lives in various eras, production and social group aesthetic changes and continuous change and development.

If we can know all the changes in the various types of vessels of the various dynasties, we will be able to win the identification

From the Shang, Zhou, Qin and Han dynasties, a single type of vessel development to the current plum vase, vase, punch vase, vase, the ball of the sky vase, the elephant ear vase, the Yuhu Chun vase, the willow leaf vase, the phoenix-tailed vase, the bottle, such as the turn of the heart.

Each type of bottle had a dynasty in which it was first created, and the body, spout, and limb lines changed from period to period.

Some of the changes are obvious, others subtle.

By becoming well versed in these patterns of evolution, you will be able to accurately identify the authenticity of a bottle and accurately date it.

3, glaze color.

Since the Shang and Zhou glazed primitive porcelain and Qin and Han monochrome glaze invention, color glaze development to today there are more than 100 kinds of color glaze, each color glaze has its date of birth and age.

We should be familiar with the invention of each glaze color dynasties, focusing on the epoch-making several glazes, such as low-temperature copper glaze green, copper red, cobalt blue, high-temperature green glaze, green glaze, blue, blue, blue, yellow glaze, black glaze, brown glaze, tea glaze, and so on, and to be familiar with the evolution of the development of various glazes.

Such as: from the evolution of blue snowflake blue, sprinkled blue, etc., from the evolution of red jewel red, Lang kiln red, cowpea red, etc..

A variety of color glaze will derive new glaze colors, a variety of color glaze called as a result of oral tradition, folk call is more mixed, we have to consult more information, and then according to its bones, type, technology, luster to determine its age.

The quality of ceramic art identification

General consumers for the identification of fine art ceramic art due to the lack of professional knowledge of the face of a certain degree of difficulty, however, the use of the following methods, may be able to identify ceramic art with some help.

1 appearance must be novel, unique, elegant color, glaze, smooth feel of the apparatus, focus on the artistic and decorative basis, but also focus on practicality.

2 Above look down, from inside to outside, look for deformation, distortion, lack of glaze, sticky glaze, bump off the porcelain and scar phenomenon.

Put the ceramics on the counter, see if it is smooth, there is no warping phenomenon; have a mouth with a cover of the items, be sure to try to see if the mouth and cover is appropriate.

The same specifications, model products should be the same size, thickness.

3 porcelain on the counter, on the ground or with a hand, gently play a few times, the sound is crisp, loud, indicating good quality, strong, such as sound abnormalities, it shows that there are cracks, internal injuries or broken phenomena.

Such as large pieces of ceramic products, but also in different parts of the sound.

4 with handles, mouth relief ceramic art, such as vases on both sides of the "ear", etc., are secondary molding, that is, glued to the main body.

Therefore, these parts should be carefully observed with or without gaps, lack of glaze phenomenon, there is no sense of separation, should pay attention to smooth and smooth natural transition, no traces of bonding.

5 ceramics on the pattern or carving on the pattern should be complete, unified, clear, firm, outlined decorative gold, silver line, should be the same thickness, bright and beautiful, such as handkerchiefs rubbed vigorously can not be wiped away.

Monochrome products should be uniform in color and consistency.

6 For sets of ceramic ware, we should look at the shape of the parts, patterns, colors are consistent, coordinated, matching.

Most of the formal products are printed on the bottom or on the box with the trademark, origin or factory name.

At the same time, we also need to see whether the packaging is complete, strong, in order to carry, transportation.

China has a long history of producing ceramics, a wide variety of ceramics, North and South ceramics have their own characteristics, black ceramics, alabaster ceramics and antique ceramics are quite distinctive.

In short, strong artistry, beautiful modeling, smooth lines, unique style, the production of a small number of products, usually has a high appreciation and collection value.