Seeking the history of Chaozhou Porcelain

Porcelain produced in Chaozhou, Guangdong Province, China, and nearby counties and towns. Located on both sides of the Han River in the Chaoshan Plain on the eastern border of Guangdong Province, Chaozhou City has historically been a major producer and exporter of porcelain. On the outskirts of the city is the Feitianyan china clay mine, rich in resources and excellent quality, constituting the basic conditions for the development of Chaozhou porcelain.

The Tang Dynasty, Chaozhou has produced green and white glazed porcelain. Song Dynasty, east of the city of Penjieshan Shuitong kiln production on a larger scale. Ming and Qing dynasties, the main production area in Fengxi, successive colored porcelain exports, to the Kangxi years more scale. 1915, Chaozhou colored porcelain in the Pacific Universal Exposition won the prize. 1950 years later, the scale of production continues to expand, the quality of the rapid improvement. 1986 Chaozhou porcelain were awarded the Chinese Arts and Crafts Hundred Flowers Award Gold Cup Award, the Gold Medal of the Leipzig International Exposition and the Gold Medal of the Bulgarian International Exposition. Chaozhou has become a comprehensive ceramic production area including mining, ceramic production, ceramic machinery manufacturing, ceramic research and teaching.

The porcelain of Chaozhou is pure and delicate, with glaze colors of white, green, shadow green, yellow and sauce. Porcelain products, including daily-use porcelain, artistic furnishings porcelain, architectural and industrial ceramics, which is famous for artistic furnishings porcelain. Porcelain sculpture, through flowers, porcelain flowers are unique high-level artwork in Fengxi Town, Chaozhou City. Porcelain figures, animals, bonsai are skillfully conceived, novel in intention, fine in craftsmanship, generous in shape and graceful in line. These products are exported to Europe, America, Southeast Asia and more than 60 countries and regions.

Craft porcelain is also called fine art porcelain, and there are two kinds of craft porcelain in Chaoshan, one is porcelain sculpture and the other is colored porcelain.

The origin of porcelain sculpture in Chaoshan can be traced back to a very long time. 1976, Jieyang Xinheng unearthed an urn. The jar had a lid and a lotus flower was molded on the top of the lid. The front of the jar has a rectangular open door frame, lintel with peach blossom embossed decoration, the door on both sides of the sculpted warrior attire of the god of the door, wearing helmets and armor, holding an axe and sword, eyes round mouth square, majestic manner. Door frame on both sides of the pot belly pasted a dragon, the dragon back above the twelve zodiac gods, with robes and wattles, bowed and stood, the dragon and the gods are carved in high relief. The foot of the jar is three layers of lotus relief. This urn, "Jieyang cultural relics," said the product of the Southern Dynasties period, the time may be set too early. Foshan, Nanhai, Xinhui and other places have unearthed a lot of the same kind of objects, modeling and decoration, are similar to this bone jar in Jieyang, is the product of the Tang dynasty Foshan kilns. Shaoguan Tang Dynasty Zhang Jiuling tomb unearthed twelve Chinese zodiac figurines of the shape, and this jar twelve Chinese zodiac god statue is also the same. This bone jar, should be the production of the Tang Dynasty. The decoration of this jar has included three types of modern porcelain figurines of Chaoshan: figures, animals and flowers. However, the bone jar for pottery, and not necessarily a local product; really can be counted on the Chaozhou craft porcelain sculpture, the earliest age should be the earliest Penjieshan kiln products.

Song Penjieshan kiln porcelain molding, pinch molding and carving and sticking two types. In addition to the furnace, pots, pots, jars, a class of daily-use vessels, in addition to decorative, as an ornamental porcelain production, there are Western dogs, lions, portraits and statues of Buddha. Now collected in chaozhou museum of a group of song kiln western dog, head big body short, both ears round and hanging, different demeanor. Billet artists pinch, carving both, the technique is very concise and can convey the spirit, modeling skills are quite smart. The museum collection of another Song kiln porcelain sculpture, is named "Ma Gu Xianshou" woman statue. Portrait of a half-kneeling posture, hands holding a jar, robust, full face. The lids and hands are molded in very clean lines, slightly patterned, but accurate and vivid. The folds of the clothes are simple and natural. From these masterpieces, the craftsmanship of Chaozhou kiln porcelain sculpture in the Song Dynasty is not low.

However, the Song Dynasty Chaozhou kiln porcelain molding craft, and since the late Qing Dynasty Chaozhou porcelain molding craft, and there is no inheritance relationship. With the abandonment of the kilns at Penjieshan in the Yuan Dynasty, and the decline of overseas trade and Buddhist beliefs in the Ming Dynasty, porcelain sculpture was nearly extinct in Chaoshan. It was revived during the Tongzhi period of the Qing Dynasty. But at that time, Chaozhou porcelain sculpture, mainly Buddha and small animal toys, and the use of mold production, with a strong commercial color, the level of craftsmanship is not high. Until after the liberation, under the cultivation of the People's Government, the porcelain sculpture of Chaoshan, represented by Fengxi in Chaozhou, was really revived, and a group of porcelain sculpture artists appeared and formed their own style. Fengxi porcelain sculpture, to the figure of a lady and stacking through the carving of flower baskets, applique through the carving of vases is the most distinctive.

Fengxi porcelain fine texture, white color, suitable for shaping the female figure. Artists take advantage of this feature, carefully designed, deliberately carved, shaped by the ladies figure delicate and graceful, bright and smooth lines, glaze glistening elegant, with a rich local style Fengxi ladies figure porcelain sculpture, light and delicate, reflecting a feminine beauty, a kind of beauty. Is it also in a certain point of view, reflecting the character of modern Chaoshan culture?

The stacked plastic through-carved flower baskets and appliquéd through-carved vases are actually just one type. It absorbed other folk arts and crafts of Chaoshan, such as wood carving and stone carving, to make a vase or basket, and then stacked and pasted with decorative clay to make porcelain flowers and fired. Maple Creek stacking through the carved flower baskets, in 1979 the production of large-scale works "spring color long in the big flower basket" as a masterpiece. This work is 1.2 meters high, 80 cm in diameter, exquisite and transparent through the carving of the basket, stacked more than 600 colorful blooming porcelain flowers, petals as thin as paper, the core as thin as silk, light colors, such as the spring color is pleasant. 1982, the basket was sent to Germany for the exhibition. Visitors marveled at the ingenuity of this work, called it "never wither flowers". Now, as a representative work of local craftsmanship, "Spring Colors Grow in Big Flower Basket" is displayed in the Guangdong Hall of the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

Colored porcelain refers to the decoration of porcelain with colored paint, and there are forms of overglaze, underglaze and pastel. Chaoshan colored porcelain for tableware, tea these daily use of porcelain decoration, but more can reflect its characteristics, or vases, wall hangings, screens, a class of high-grade furnishings porcelain production.

Chaoshan colored porcelain is difficult to clearly determine the time of production, can only roughly say that this is the Qing Dynasty to develop a craft. Ming Dynasty Jiajing years to the early Qing Dynasty, Chaoshan porcelain kiln production is basically a bowl, plate and other daily use of blue and white porcelain. Folk artists copied the Chinese ink painting techniques, with a brush dipped in blue and white color, painting flowers, landscapes, figures, birds and animals on the porcelain blanks, inscriptions and poems, with brocade, chrysanthemum petals, twining branches of flowers and other patterns. The production of blue and white porcelain, for the development of colored porcelain technology has accumulated the necessary skills and experience. To the middle of the Qing Dynasty, Chaozhou porcelain artists began to produce colored porcelain. Chaozhou colored porcelain introduced the Jiangxi Jingdezhen three-color, five-color, pastel and Guangzhou's cumulative gold color and other techniques, and from other local folk crafts to absorb nutrients, and gradually formed their own fresh and bright features.

Chaoshan colored porcelain according to the different forms of painting, can be divided into poetry and painting, open light, full color and gold in four major types of flowers. Poetry painting style, is in the white porcelain on one side of the surface of the painting, and in the opposite side of the other inscription of poetry. Poetry and paintings, reflecting each other. Open light style that is the main part of the vessel type empty out a fly inch or more white porcelain surface, white porcelain surface using sub character shape, fruit-shaped, flower-shaped, bottle-shaped, fish-shaped, book-shaped or fan-shaped shape, known as the open light. Open light porcelain surface, painted with calligraphy and painting, its periphery, with different colors of jindi decoration or patterned lace backing. Full color is mostly used for the decoration of large vases. It is characterized by an even, full composition, painted on the bottle blanks full color, no matter from which angle, can be viewed. Jin Di Wanhua in the center of the porcelain painted on the main pattern, pattern around the full accompanied by decorations, and then filled with gold, the entire surface of the porcelain completely covered. Jin Di Wanhua with bright colors, opulent, well-proportioned composition and the main and secondary artistic characteristics.

Toward the end of the Qing Dynasty, Chaozhou colored porcelain industry develops faster, Fucheng and Fengxi a **** there are more than 20 colored porcelain workshop, practitioners have more than 300 people. Chaozhou colored porcelain process is fully mature, it is close to the wide color, but also has its own characteristics, Nanyang merchants in the order of Chinese porcelain, it is called "Chao color", to show that there is a difference with the wide color. During this period, Chao Cai masters and masterpieces also appeared. Xuantong two years (1909), chao cai artist liao jiqiu creation "birds towards the phoenix" plate, XuYunQiu, XieZiTing creation of figure plate bowl, held in nanjing, nanyang persuasion will be praised. 80 s, chao shan color porcelain technology to a higher level, the works of the award-winning. The most proud of them, there are Chaozhou City, Guangdong Province, the Institute of colored porcelain factory collective production of "gold peony flowers and birds three hundred pieces of the ball vase". This piece of work using Chao color outlining, washing and dyeing, color filling techniques and glaze gold technology, the second firing and become. The neck and foot of the vase are decorated with full-color floral motifs, and the body of the vase is depicted in brushstrokes with eight blossoming peonies, with green leaves and red flowers, and on the branches of the blossoms, the white-headed bird is lifelike. The edges of the flowers and leaves are piled up with gold lines. The whole vase is so harmoniously combined with elegance and richness, faraway simplicity and brilliance, pleasing to the eye and rich in strong local characteristics and high artistic appreciation value. In the 1986 Leipzig World Spring Fair, this Chaozhou colored porcelain masterpiece won the Gold Medal.