Discuss the basic features of the decorative patterns of Chinese primitive colored pottery and its aesthetic significance.

Answer: Chinese Neolithic pottery is of great significance to the life of primitive man, which on the one hand meets the practical needs of mankind, and on the other hand the perfect combination of modeling and ornamentation satisfies mankind's pursuit of aesthetics.

(1) The types of decorative patterns of primitive colored pottery mainly include animal and plant patterns, figure patterns and geometric patterns. ①Animal and plant patterns. Painted pottery decorative patterns early to animal patterns predominate, plant decorative patterns are rare, the reason is that the first people in the beginning of life to hunt for a living, and no agriculture. Animal decorative patterns to the Yangshao culture in the half-slope type of fish as a representative, whether it is the early to the realism of the main single fish decoration, or later gradually into the imagery of the multi-body fish decoration, in general, are more focused on the details of the carving. ②Figure Patterns. Figure decoration shows the ancestors' knowledge of self, through the conquest of nature, to achieve self-transcendence. For example, the dancing pattern colored pottery basin unearthed in Majiayao, Qinghai, the pattern of every five people in a group, hand in hand, face in the same direction, hair bun on the head, every outer line of the human buttocks can be regarded as a dance movement. It shows the importance of primitive people to reproduction, the reproduction of life, the pleasure of conquest, and the worship of religion and witchcraft. ③ Geometric Patterns. Geometric patterns are mostly composed of dots and lines, which are depicted on the artifacts with different thicknesses, lengths and crosses according to the aesthetic laws of primitive people. Early geometric pattern of the basic composition of the ring band pattern, generally for the triangle and other individual patterns side by side or two consecutive forms. The subsequent emergence of diagonal lines broke this monolithic composition, and the later evolution of folding lines also injected new vitality into the pattern. This type of stylistic feature was strengthened during the Majiayao type period.

(2) The aesthetic characteristics of the primitive colored pottery decorative patterns are mainly manifested in two aspects: abstract beauty and imagery. ① Abstract beauty features. Abstract geometric patterns occupy a large proportion of the painted pottery patterns, these abstract geometric on the surface does not have specific meaning and content, directly or indirectly conveys some kind of information and emotions. It expresses strong thoughts and feelings with points, lines, surfaces or extreme exaggeration and deformation, giving people unlimited associations and a sense of aesthetic aftertaste. ② Imagery beauty features. Imagery is a very complex connotation of the aesthetic category, in short, it is through the objective object to refer to, reflect a certain concept, thought, emotion and other rational content. Primitive pottery decorative patterns in the imagery modeling is the forefathers in the feeling of nature, a mysterious and special feeling infiltrated into their consciousness, the illusion of the illusory object through the art of modeling means.