Overview of the development of painted pottery decorative patterns

Painted pottery is an outstanding craft creation of primitive society in China. Painted pottery is found in Hougang, Anyang, Henan, western Henan (Yangshao Village, Qinwangzhai and Guangwu County, Mianchi County), the upper reaches of Huaihe River, Jinnan (Yin Xi Village, Xiaxian County, Jingcun Village, Wanquan County and Fenshui River Basin), Weihe River Basin, Taohe River Basin, Hebei, Liaoning, Inner Mongolia and the Great Wall of Xinjiang. Recently, it has also been found in Jingshan and Tianmen, Hubei. Among them, the earliest and most representative site was Yangshao Village. The Neolithic culture of Yangshao Village and other sites with the same nature is called "Yangshao culture". Painted pottery is an important relic of Yangshao culture, but it also appears in other cultural sites. The completeness and richness of all the village sites discovered in Xi 'an banpo village in recent years are unprecedented, providing a complete picture of people's life in this cultural era.

Yangshao culture can be traced back to 5000 BC to 3000 BC. It is one of the important cultures created by China ancestors. According to the discovery of these sites, we can know that people have settled down for a long time and engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry. Besides pottery, handicrafts, weaving and sewing have become very common. Bows and arrows have developed in weapons and may have been exchanged.

Painted pottery of Yangshao culture in Neolithic Age was found in Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan and other places in the Central Plains, but it can also be divided into different periods in the morning and evening, and few painted pottery with complete shape was found. Complete and rich discoveries are mainly made in Gansu and Qinghai. Yangshao culture in Gansu can be divided into three types: Majiayao type represented by Majiayao site in Lintao County, Gansu Province, Banshan type represented by Guangtong Banshan site in Gansu Province, and Machang type represented by Machangyan site in Ledu County, Qinghai Province. Inheriting Yangshao culture, there are painted pottery in the cultural relics of Xindian, Gansu, but it has degenerated.

The raw material of painted pottery is ordinary loess (without calcium and potassium), plus fine sand and magnesium-containing stone powder, but the production process is very excellent. The clay may have been carefully washed. Hand-made, partially trimmed with slow wheels, and polished pottery surface. The kiln fire temperature is above 1000 degrees Celsius, and it may have been equipped with a blast furnace. The iron content in clay is very high, above 10%, so the pottery turns yellow or red after firing. Natural ochre, red soil or manganese soil are mostly used as raw materials for painting and decoration. Some vessels are also painted with red or white pottery clothes.

The complete specimen of painted pottery of Yangshao culture belongs to intermediate type. The representative forms of intermediate painted pottery are large-opening cans and closed cans (with or without necks). Pots and cans are wider than height and smaller at the bottom. The outline of the whole organ is a soft curve without a flat bottom, so it gives the impression that the abdomen is extremely bulging, thick and short.

Mid-levels painted pottery pot is an outstanding work in ancient crafts. Each part of the painted pottery jar has a certain proportion in modeling, such as the ratio of height to width and the ratio of belly diameter to bottom diameter, which is helpful to form a soft and beautiful outer contour. It is one of the most successful and unique shapes in the history of arts and crafts in China. Decoration varies from place to place. The composition of geometric decorative patterns, regardless of density, combines the change of shape. This is the beginning of an important traditional arts and crafts technology in China. Geometric decorative patterns have the most vivid wave arc effect. The patterns are virtual and real, and black and white set each other off as "pun patterns". This is the traditional effective organization method of China model.

The shape and decoration of painted pottery can also be considered as retaining some characteristics of weaving technology. The geometric patterns on painted pottery have tried to be explained by religion, which is difficult to prove so far. Painted pottery unearthed from Anbanpo tomb in Xi 'an has a face and fish-shaped pattern, which is simple and powerful, but its meaning is still unclear.

In Yangshao culture, a half-humanoid ceramic lid was found, and there was a serpentine braid on the back of the head. From the fantasy and mythical style of modeling, we can know that it has religious significance, but the specific content is still unknown.

The images of clay yellow pottery, red pottery lamb, dog, duck, goose, turtle, fish and other birds found together with painted pottery in Shijiahe, Tianmen, Hubei Province are all made by kneading, which are simple and unique.

The production of painted pottery in Racecourse is relatively rough, and symbolic animal modeling appears for the first time in the decoration. This symbolic animal shape, even human form, also appears on the coarser painted pottery in Xindian. These symbolic images represent the simple ability to understand reality.