Appreciation of Blue and White Porcelain in Xuande Period of Ming Dynasty

Blue-and-white porcelain in Xuande period of Ming Dynasty is famous for its simple and elegant shape, crystal clear glaze color and colorful decorative patterns, and its firing quantity is unprecedented. According to Ming Hui Dian, in the eighth year of Xuande (1433), the imperial court gave Jingdezhen the task of firing 443,500 pieces of dragon and phoenix porcelain at one time. Among them, blue and white porcelain is the majority, which shows that its firing scale and quantity are large. Products not only meet the daily needs of the court, but also are widely sold overseas as commodities, and given as gifts to foreign tributes, which have become the witness of cultural exchanges between the East and the West.

Among them, blue-and-white porcelain in folk kilns is mostly concise, slightly inferior to that in official kilns in strength and quality, with moist glaze color, unrestrained painting, loose brushwork, delicate artistic conception of picture composition, full of folk life and lively and interesting.

In the Qing Dynasty's Notes on Nanyao, it was written that Xuande blue-and-white porcelain was "a kind of Xuande, extremely elegant and simple, with thick and light material, dark ink, blue and white, and rust". Wang Shixing in Ming Dynasty wrote in Guangzhiyi: "Xuande and Chenghua kilns are the best in this dynasty. The blue and white kiln is the best, and the kiln is colorful. " In the Ming Dynasty, Zhang's "Qing Mi Cang" recorded that "I made a kiln in the Xuanmiao Temple, and the material was thin and thick, with faint orange peel lines. The person who breaks the blood line of eels is the enemy of Guan Kiln and Ru Kiln. That is, dark flowers, red flowers and blue and white flowers are all ancient and masterpieces of a generation. " During the Qianlong period of Qing Dynasty, Zhu Yan's Tao Shuo talked about Xuande Kiln. According to this, Xuande kiln is extremely prosperous, with fine materials selection, sample preparation, painting tools and inscriptions.

Blue-and-white porcelain of Xuande Imperial Kiln occupies a very important position in the development history of China ceramics, which reflects the society, economy, culture, art and ideas at that time. As palace porcelain and exquisite works of art, it has unique artistic charm, which has a lot to do with the perfection of the system and the maturity of technology at that time. His works have always been respected by later generations and are a model of blue and white porcelain technology.

Xuande blue and white carcass is thicker than Yongle, with fine, fine, white and hard fetal quality. Plum bottles, large plates and large cans are mostly plain white with fine sand bottom, with smooth hands and red spots on their feet. Small and medium-sized devices are glazed bottoms.

The glaze is thick and moist, soft but not dazzling, with blue in white, commonly known as "bright blue glaze". The glaze is not smooth, like orange peel, commonly known as "orange peel glaze", and there are few glazes. If you look at it under a high magnification magnifying glass, the glaze is covered with large and small bubbles, and even small bubbles rub against large bubbles. Almost all porcelain wares in Xuande Dynasty had this kind of glaze.

The matrix of folk kiln is made of porcelain stone and kaolin, which is white and has a good degree of porcelain. Compared with Yongle folk kiln, the carcass is thinner. The color is mostly light egg blue, the enamel is full and bright, and there are bubbles and orange peel brown eyes on the glaze.

There are two kinds of blue and white materials, imported and domestic, with imported Suma green material as the main material. During the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, Wang Shimao's book "Peeping into the Sky" recorded: "My court was located in Jingdezhen, Fuliang County, and burned in the inner hall of Yongle Xuande. So far, it is expensive. At that time, it was sweet and white, with hydrazone eyes and decorated with Ma Su Li Qing. " Lu Tao in Jingdezhen in the Qing Dynasty was also mentioned. When drawing decorative patterns, there are both single use and mixed use, and it is often decided which cobalt material to use to draw that part of decorative patterns according to the different decorative patterns. In drawing, domestic materials are often used to draw lines lightly and imported materials are used to render.

Ma Su Liqing, an imported green material, has a particularly high iron content and a particularly low manganese content, so it is called "high iron and low manganese" material. Ma Su Li Qing hair color is deep and rich, and it can burn gem-like color in a good fire atmosphere. High iron content tends to make the hair color appear dark blue, and dark brown crystal spots will be formed where the pigment condenses thick. In a certain light, there are tin light colors and triangular crystals, and the glaze is uneven by hand. If the glaze layer here is thin, it will be dry and dull; Domestic cobalt material is blue with gray color, without dark brown rust crystal spots; Another kind of hair color is elegant, dizzy and elegant; After mixing imported and domestic pigments, the hair color is bright, dense and elegant, which has the characteristics of two kinds of cobalt materials.

Xuande blue and white styles are rich and varied. Such as bottles, cans, cans, bowls, plates, basins, washing, cylinders and so on.

In particular, the ornamentation wins, and the ornamentation is very regular and never leaves the sideline. Brushes are divided into real pens and sketch renderings. Real pens are mostly thin lines, and sketch renderings are mostly thick lines and patterns. Smooth lines, clear lines and a sense of unity. The decorative pattern is rough and random, with no outline, commonly known as "one-by-one painting".

Decorative materials range from flowers, birds, fish and insects to landscapes. In pattern painting, a small pen is used to render and fill colors. Because the pen is small and the dipping material is limited, it needs to be dipped repeatedly, leaving many dark strokes on the decoration. Its composition has reached generalization, exaggeration and choice, which has enhanced its decoration. In addition, the decoration of Xuande blue and white also combines the methods of impression and carving. Throughout the blue and white decoration in Xuande, the materials are extensive, the composition is novel, the decoration techniques are rich, the painting is magnificent and the artistic appeal is strong.

The main patterns are boughs and boughs, including boughs peony, boughs lotus, boughs chrysanthemum, boughs ganoderma lucidum, boughs morning glory, loose bamboo regret, precious flowers, gardenia, ganoderma lucidum, lily, lotus, camellia, loquat, day lily, lotus algae and bamboo plantain. The most common is the combination of camellia, chrysanthemum, peony and lotus. And often several kinds of flowers are used alternately and repeatedly. Stranded lotus is also very common in Xuande blue and white porcelain, mostly with bilateral lotus petals. The picture is very smooth, the lines are rough, free and lively, and the layout of the picture is flexible and changeable according to the type of the device, which shows the superb decorative art and skillful painting skills at that time.

Xuande's blue and white paintings were once said to be full of money, and all porcelain plates were full of money without exception. Others are written on the mouth edge, ear, neck, bowl heart, sole, stream and abdomen according to the different shapes of the objects. In the early days, it was a four-character seal script, and others mostly wrote regular script. There are six-character models and four-character models. The six-character model includes "the year system of Daming Xuande", the double-circle and double-line regular script model, the six-character horizontal model and the six-character vertical model. Four fonts include double-line and double-circle regular script, four-character horizontal script, four-character vertical script and four-character seal script. Mainly, the blue-and-white double-round six-character double-line regular script in the center of the artifacts is mostly "Daming Xuande Year System", and the four-character "Zao" and "Xuande Year System" are less used. Most folk kiln wares are written in "Fu", "Shou" and Sanskrit.

Blue and white double-circle six-character double-line books are placed at the bottom of bottles, cans, bowls, washing, pots, plates and other utensils. Six-character banners are written on jars, jars, bird food jars, string ovens, pie plates, Gao Zuwan and other utensils. The six-character vertical body is generally written on the incense burner, the middle of the bowl and the handle of the pot. Four characters are generally written on the shoulders of bowls, Gao Zubei bottoms and plum bottles. Gao Zuwan's style is generally in the heart of the bowl, mostly double-circle six-character. The plates are glazed books and sand books, engraved on the shoulders, sides or under the hem.

The structure and layout of Xuande's blue-and-white brush strokes are very regular, the distance between words and the thickness of brush strokes are moderate, imitating the brush strokes of Jin and Tang Dynasties and having the charm of Yan calligraphy. Strong brushwork, neat handwriting, dignified structure, clear font, rich and concise. Mr. Sun Yingzhou, an expert in ancient ceramics, summed up his understanding of Xuande's style and wrote a song saying: "Xuande's style is perfect, with dark yin and yang, and four pairs of single gardens of flowers, especially in Jin and Tang Dynasties." The word "big" in regular script is short and long. There is no horizontal word "virtue" and "heart", which is an ancient style writing method in Han tablet. The left and right parts of "virtue" are closely related and seem to be out of harmony. The horizontal edge of the word "Yi" in the word "Zhi" does not exceed the word "Dao", and the tick of the fourth stroke of the word "Yi" is not connected with the left of the fifth stroke. There are few seal scripts written, and the double circles often have shades. The six-character part has different sizes, the font is clear and round, and the pen head and tail are pointed. There is a horizontal line on the heart of the word "De". The left side of the word "Xuan" is a little more than the horizontal line, and the right side hangs down. The horizontal line of the word "one" below the word "zhi" is shorter.

Written by Liu Sheng of Ji Bolun International Solicitation Office.