What is the historical position and function of modern arts and crafts?

In order to meet their material and spiritual needs, the people of China have used various materials and technologies to create artificial creations under different historical conditions. It is an important part of China's national plastic arts, which not only embodies the general essential characteristics of arts and crafts, but also maintains the unity of practicality and aesthetics in connotation and form, and also shows the distinctive personality of China's national culture itself. China arts and crafts, with its long history, unique style, superb skills and various forms, have written a chapter full of wisdom and spiritual light for the whole history of human cultural creation.

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 of 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 militaristic nomadic culture, arts and crafts of yuan dynasty's style tends to be rough, bold and vigorous. 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.

With the development of history, modern China arts and crafts have entered a new stage. Although the traditional craft has lost its original mainstream position, it still inherits the excellent tradition of the past and maintains the consistent aesthetic characteristics of China's craft creation. Modern arts and crafts developed on the basis of industrial civilization constantly reflect the material and spiritual needs of people in the new era in terms of connotation and form, and establish a brand-new aesthetic style and style. Simple, concise, lively and convenient modern arts and crafts not only constitute the modern living environment around people, but also constantly influence and change people's inner spiritual world.