Regional characteristics of ceramic culture

Ceramic art has been born for thousands of years. As a cultural phenomenon, it is a comprehensive reflection of geographical environment, social life and history and culture. In its growth and development, it inevitably has the characteristics of the times and regions. In different geographical environments, people have formed different lifestyles, customs and historical and cultural accumulations, thus giving birth to diverse aesthetic views. This is the regionality of art. In the history of ceramics, due to traffic restrictions, relatively fixed materials and limited exchange of ideas, very distinctive regional characteristics such as "South Blue and North White" have been formed. However, with the rapid development of contemporary science and technology and the promotion of globalization, great changes have taken place in contemporary ceramic art, and the regional performance is therefore different.

1 the regional causes of ceramic art

There are many factors that form the regional characteristics of ceramic art, which can be summarized as follows:

First, different natural conditions in different places have formed differences in ceramic materials, which is an important factor affecting the regionality of ceramic art.

There are many "material" factors that affect the regional characteristics of ceramic art, such as topography and natural conditions. For creative arts, pottery has the greatest influence on the natural resources related to ceramics. The regional characteristics of each ceramic producing area are bound to be related to the unique ceramic raw material resources. Jingdezhen is recognized as the porcelain capital in the world. Because of its delicate texture and white color, it is a typical feature of Jingdezhen ceramics. The body of Jingdezhen ceramics is made of locally produced porcelain clay and kaolin. "Gaoling, out of Gaoling Mountain in Dongxiang County, Fuliang County, dug deep pit soil, which is as quality as clam powder and the pigment is white." The formula of Jingdezhen clay contains very few coloring elements such as iron, and the color is white. In addition, the addition of kaolin reduces the deformation of the product, which can be fired into a neat and meticulous shape, laying a material foundation for the development of Jingdezhen ceramic painting. In addition, glaze ash is an important reason for the formation of Jingdezhen porcelain traditional style "blue and white". Glazed stone is produced in Qianhukeng, Longkengwu and other places in Macangshan, Dongxiang, Fuliang. "If there is a blue-black border, if it is sprinkled with sugar, it will be like white jade. If it flashes like Venus, it will be the best." (Zhu Yan: "Tao Shuo" Volume III) After the glazed colored stones are calcined, they are simmered with the local wolf firewood and burned into glaze ash. Adding tungsten sand ash into glaze ash increases the content of alkali metal oxides, especially oxides of iron, manganese and phosphorus, which are sintered in reducing atmosphere [1] to produce white glaze and blue glaze color. Smooth, delicate and white ceramic materials have contributed to the rapid development of Jingdezhen ceramic painting and the brilliant artistic achievements of Jingdezhen ceramics.

Dehua porcelain sculpture and Foshan Shiwan pottery sculpture, both famous for their ceramic sculptures, present completely different styles. Dehua porcelain sculpture is made of porcelain clay, which contains high content of silica and potassium oxide and low content of impurities such as iron and titanium. Therefore, there is more glass after firing, and it looks like the porcelain body is dense and has excellent light transmittance, such as frost and snow. Therefore, most Dehua porcelain sculptures don't use colored glaze, and they win with simple sculpture beauty and texture beauty of glaze. Dehua ceramic glaze is moist and fat-like, so it has the reputation of "ivory white", "lard white" and "goose down white", which is unique in China white porcelain system. Porcelain carvings, Dehua figures, smooth tires, white as jade. The Guanyin she burned is extraordinary, showing a gentle and feminine charm. Shiwan doll in Foshan, Guangdong Province is made of local clay, which contains many impurities and sandy components, and its texture is rough and dark. Compared with porcelain clay, it lacks the whiteness, delicacy and warmth of porcelain clay, but it exudes the original rough, natural and simple charm of Gu Zhuo. [2] For the performance of clay sculpture, Liu Chuan, a famous ceramist in Shiwan, concluded that it is "suitable for expressing some vigorous and muscular themes, such as bony immortals, Tie Guai Li, martial arts figures, arhats, etc." [3]. Different sculpture materials determine the different artistic characteristics of Dehua and Shiwan. In the long-term practice, ceramists have realized and developed the advantages of ceramic materials, and finally formed unique regional characteristics.

Second, social and cultural factors.

Among the factors that form the regionality of ceramic art, social culture is a deep-seated intangible factor, which determines the spiritual content of ceramic art. The social culture that affects the regionality includes social organization structure, customs, religious beliefs, history and so on. And it is the driving force to promote the development of ceramic art. Jingdezhen's ceramics have developed a ceramic pattern dominated by blue and white, underglaze and underglaze colors, which integrates poetry, calligraphy, painting and printing, and contains a strong literati atmosphere. The reason is not only the influence of material characteristics, but also the development history of local ceramics. Jingdezhen successfully fired blue-and-white porcelain of the Yuan Dynasty, which is elegant and beautiful, with rich expressive force, with figures, landscapes, flowers and birds, and even operas, folk customs and novels as the theme. In the Kangxi period, in order to show the rich layers and positive side of blue and white, pigments were divided into five types: head thickness, positive thickness, secondary thickness, positive thickness and shadow thickness. According to the needs of the picture, different shades can be dyed, even within one stroke, so as to achieve the effect of "five colors of ink" with different shades in painting. [4] It has the flavor of China ink painting. Jingdezhen developed from blue and white in the Yuan Dynasty to pastel in the late Qing Dynasty, and it can be said that it has reached a very skilled level in porcelain making technology, especially pastel painting, which has formed many programs; The close relationship between porcelain painting and contemporary painting art has also continued to this day. [5] At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, the "Xin 'an Painting School" represented by Cheng Men, Jin Pinqing and Wang Shaowei dabbled in pale crimson color. Around the 1930s, Wang Qi and other "Eight Friends of Zhushan" practiced ceramic art and integrated the aesthetic purport of literati painting into ceramic art creation, which deepened the connection between Jingdezhen ceramic art and traditional cultures such as poetry, calligraphy, painting and printing, and made ceramic art have a profound cultural heritage.

In the Ming Dynasty, Jingdezhen became the center of porcelain industry, undertaking the firing task of imperial kiln factory, and was in the official kiln system for a long time, which also had a vital impact on the artistic characteristics of Jingdezhen ceramics. Fine matrix, clean enamel and regular production all reflect the ultimate pursuit of ceramics by the ruling class. The shapes and ornamentation of utensils also reflect the will of the ruling class and form a certain style. The decorative theme of ceramic art should realize the artistic function of "enlightening and helping others", such as Romance of the Three Kingdoms and showing loyalty to the monarch. Auspicious patterns for praying for Naji, such as "Happiness from now on" and "Kirin to send a child", are the themes to express the elegant taste of literati, such as "Three Friends in Cold Years". In addition, in order to meet the needs of the ruling class to believe in Buddhism and Taoism, religious themes are also an important part of ceramic decoration themes, such as "Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea". These themes have been handed down from generation to generation and become the traditional characteristics of Jingdezhen ceramics.

Shiwan pottery, which is famous for its pottery sculpture, is developed from tile-ridged dolls, which are building components on the roof. The demand for temples and ancestral halls has promoted the development of pottery sculptures in Shiwan. Shiwan Kiln is a folk kiln and an important part of China folk ceramics. Its creation bears a deep imprint of folk life and is closely related to the life and culture of local people. The pottery sculpture with the theme of "fishing and plowing" reflecting the real life of the people is the most typical representative theme in Shiwan pottery. Animals such as flowers, birds, fish and insects are also sculpture objects in Shiwan pottery sculpture. The formation of the characteristics of pottery sculpture is also closely related to other art forms in Lingnan area, such as Cantonese opera, Foshan paper-cutting, wood carving, Lingnan painting, woodblock New Year pictures, and Foshan "autumn colors". The figure sculptures of "Shiwan Doll" are mostly based on Cantonese opera stories. Some drama plots, even the costumes and movements of the characters in the play are the inspiration for the creation of Shiwan pottery sculptures, which fully reflects the influence of Lingnan culture on Shiwan pottery sculptures. Compared with the "noble" theme in Jingdezhen, the theme of Shiwan pottery is more secular. Ordinary daily life behaviors, such as scratching, picking nose, swatting mosquitoes and digging ears, are all manifested in Shiwan pottery, showing the strong market characteristics of Shiwan pottery.

As a part of social culture, the development of ceramic art inevitably reflects the influence of regional social culture. For example, Jingdezhen ceramics, which has long been influenced by the official kiln system, pursues exquisiteness and elegance, which is in sharp contrast with the typical folk characteristics of Shiwan ceramics, which is the result of the deep social and cultural influence behind ceramic art.

Third, the factors of skill inheritance.

From ancient times to the present, the inheritance of arts and crafts in the field of arts and crafts relies on the way of "father-son inheritance and mentoring inheritance", and the field of ceramics is no exception. A ceramic work of art has to go through complicated procedures from clay production to commercial ceramic products. The ancients said that "it takes 70 second-hand to make a finished product", which reflects the complexity of the process and cannot be done by one's own efforts. There is a fine division of labor in the field of ceramic art. Through decades of efforts, ceramic artists have given full play to certain skills and passed them down from generation to generation. The inheritance of skills ensures the continuity of ceramic art, and also contributes to the formation of regional characteristics of ceramic art. In the process of learning from teachers, ancient disciples not only followed the master's techniques, but also repeated the master's creative themes, which were passed down from generation to generation and gradually formed a style. The stylized techniques and themes are familiar and recognized by people in this area, and eventually form local artistic characteristics.

For example, Shiwan pottery sculpture has a typical feature, which is the "fetal bone" technique. The so-called "fetal bone" is the treatment of the face and exposed skin of the characters with the true color of fetal mud. The technique of "fetal bone" has been passed down from generation to generation since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and has gradually improved and developed into the regional characteristics of Shiwan pottery. In the Ming Dynasty, most figures were glazed. At that time, little attention was paid to the description of facial fine lines, so the face was also glazed, or white glaze, or black glaze, or chopped green onion glaze, [6] but the glaze color often weakened the three-dimensional sense and texture description of the face. After the Ming and Qing Dynasties, with the attention of ceramic art to details, fetal bone technology gradually developed. This technique is not decorated with glaze, which not only maximizes the texture of clay sculpture, but also highlights the shape and details. "Fetal bone" technology is also used in animal sculpture. In the Qing Dynasty, two ceramic masters, Huang Bing and Huang Guzhen, borrowed the meticulous feathering technique of Chinese painting and applied it to the main sculpture. Instead of using a brush, they cut off the moving feathers and created the fetal hair technique of Shiwan animal sculpture [7]. The hair shaped by this technique is a little, very textured. This technique has been widely spread by Shiwan pottery artists, and famous works such as cows, ducks, quails, fetal dogs and eagles have appeared, which has become a major feature of Shiwan pottery products. (Original Author: Wu Bin) 2 Regional Status and Analysis of Contemporary Ceramic Art

In the 1970s and 1980s, with the west wind spreading eastward, western modern and contemporary art influenced some China ceramists. Their ceramic creation practices the idea of western ceramic art and no longer inherits the blood of local culture. There are two relatively independent camps in the field of contemporary ceramic art, traditional ceramic art and modern ceramic art, and the "National Ceramic Art Design Innovation Appraisal" is obviously divided into two categories. These two kinds of pottery have different creative purposes. Although traditional ceramic art is divorced from practicality, the economic profit is still the driving force to support the creation and production of traditional ceramic art, while modern ceramic art, which flaunts pure art, has a greater ideal: the appearance rate of exhibitions or the favor of collectors. The inheritance and development of the two types of pottery are different, that is, traditional pottery sticks to tradition, while modern pottery lacks regional and national characteristics.

After thousands of years of development, traditional ceramic art has accumulated excellent skills and classic patterns, forming a style. The techniques and forms of traditional ceramic art that have been preserved now are not the result of individual efforts of a certain ceramist, but the result of the inheritance of traditional ceramists from generation to generation, and the crystallization of collective wisdom for thousands of years. In the creation of traditional pottery, techniques and forms are often similar to historical forms. Zhang commented on this phenomenon in the article Tradition is Like Running Water. "This is a common phenomenon of folk art and a common feature of traditional art in China." Stylization is a manifestation of cultural maturity, representing the highest level of cultural development, and also a symbol of the unique identity of this culture, but stylization often produces self-sufficiency and conservative inertia. After industrial production, industrial production replaced the traditional handicraft industry and became the main source of daily necessities for people. The regionality of art includes both space and time, and it is not a static concept. With the passage of time, its connotation will inevitably change and update. With the change of regional natural conditions and human environment, the regionality of ceramic art will inevitably be presented to people with a new look, which is usually a gradual and unnoticed way in agricultural society. However, since industrial production, China society has changed the slow development process of agricultural society that lasted for thousands of years, and quickly entered the industrial society from a self-sufficient agricultural economy. It seems that the traditional ceramic art in China has not adapted to the sudden change of social production mode, nor has it changed significantly because of the change of people's lifestyle. Traditional ceramic art creation largely repeats the styles or themes of the Qing Dynasty and before, and lacks innovation to keep up with the times.

The popularization of the western concept of modern ceramic art has promoted the emergence and development of modern ceramic art in China. At one time, various styles and schools of western art were transplanted to the field of ceramic art, and contemporary ceramic art as an art form was included in the selection scope of the national art exhibition. The ceramic art exhibition recognized the "legal status" of contemporary ceramic art as a pure art, and modern ceramic art was developing towards the goal of western modern ceramic art, losing its national characteristics, let alone its regional characteristics. Although in recent years, due to the promotion of China's national strength and world status, the awakening of national self-awareness and the enhancement of self-confidence, the return and revival of the nationality of ceramic art will become a trend in the future, on the whole, the westernization trend in the field of contemporary ceramic art is still quite serious. Throughout the field of contemporary ceramic art, the regional characteristics of ceramic works reveal the differences of ceramic materials more, lose the deeper spiritual connotation of regional characteristics, and the nationality and regionality of ceramic art decline.

3 Conclusion

With the development of science and technology and communication, people's living environment has changed from closed to open, and the flow of people and the exchange of ideas have become the norm. At the same time, the range of people with the same living habits and cultures is also expanding, and people's lives are gradually homogenized. There is no significant difference in the society within a hundred miles, one city and one province in Fiona Fang, and the spatial scope of the region gradually points to the country and the nation. From this point of view, the narrow regional characteristics of ceramic art in China will gradually decline with the expansion of regional space. The appearance of modern ceramic art is the result of the influence of cultural globalization on ceramic art, and globalization is the background that cannot be ignored in discussing the regionality of contemporary ceramic art in China. Under the new economic and cultural background, the regional characteristics of ceramic art will inevitably change. We can neither be too conservative and refuse to communicate with foreign cultures, nor fully absorb or even give up the accumulation of traditional culture and the publicity of national spirit. Zhang said, "Tradition is flowing water, not frozen ice." For traditional ceramic art, it is necessary to adapt to the changes of the times, not to regard tradition as a solidified stylized form, but to activate tradition and let traditional art keep pace with the times. For modern ceramic art, we should find the roots of tradition and take root in national and regional life, so as to gain the recognition of national identity and join the torrent of national art.