There is this description in Episode 13 of "Marco's World": "Marco looked around under the warm light. The room was about two meters high and five or six square meters wide. The overall In the Japanese-style Zen room design, there is a tatami, short-legged mahogany bay window coffee table, a handle pot, a pair of inverted blue and white hand cups, a copper cloud chime, a chime mallet, and a small copper cloisonné enamel lotus incense burner. There are a few sticks of ambergris incense in the shape of lotus seeds embedded in it, and there is nothing else. Inside this secret room, Marco only feels warm as spring, and there is a faint fragrance of flowers... …

The porcelain I want to introduce to you today comes from the famous antique Yongle blue and white hand cup. Although the hand cup was not created during the Yongle period, its shape is the most popular and popular. One of the recognized varieties, known as "steady happiness"

The first thing people who have used the imitation Yongle hand cup is the heavy warmth because of its thick porcelain body that conducts heat. The delay feeling is just right. The filling in the hand is also perfect. Some people even analyze and praise it from the perspective of ergonomics.

So what is this Yongle blue and white hand cup like? What about the magical existence? Let me analyze its mysteries one by one:

First of all, it can be known from its year that it was made during the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty, and Emperor Yongle Ming Chengzu Zhu Digeng. Everyone knows that he launched the Jingnan Campaign to expel his nephew Emperor Jianwen and usurp the throne. He was 42 years old when he became emperor and reigned for twenty-two years (42 years old - 64 years old).

He ordered the great scholar Xie Jin to compile the "Yongle Dadian", and sent Zheng He to make several voyages to the West, conquering Mongolia in the north and Ping An in the south. He made the Ming Dynasty's national prestige spread far and wide, moved the capital to Beijing, and established Dongchang...

Among the many preferences of Emperor Yongle, ceramics naturally had a place, so the appearance of the Yongle blue and white hand cup became a matter of course. In addition, people in the Ming Dynasty liked to drink fried green bud tea, which was the only tea utensil at that time. There are blue and white porcelain pressed hand cups that are shiny and clean and match the green tea best.

After understanding the era of creation and firing, we will start to explain the patterns and glazes before doing so to give you an overall impression. , I quote below one of the descriptions of the blue and white hand cup on the website of the Palace Museum:

Blue and white hand cup (flower center), Yongle, Ming Dynasty, height 4.9 cm, diameter 9.2 cm, full diameter 3.9 cm.

The cup is shaped like a small bowl, with a slightly curved mouth, a rounded base, and a round foot. There is a sunflower in the center of the cup and the four characters "Yongle Year" in blue and white seal script. Model. The lower edge of the outer wall is painted with plum blossoms and the belly is painted with a lotus pattern.

The pressed hand cup is a new type of porcelain cup created by the Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Factory in the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty. This cup is exquisitely crafted and has a simple and honest shape. The blue and white color is deep green.

The characteristics of the hand-pressed cup are that the carcass is thick, the center of gravity is at the lower part of the cup, and the rim of the mouth is slightly outward. When the cup is held in the hand, it presses against the tiger's mouth of the hand, giving people a pleasant feeling. It feels heavy on the hand, so it is known as the "hand-pressing cup".

The Ming Dynasty Yongle blue and white hand-pressed cup is an object among Ming Dynasty porcelains that can be mutually confirmed with documentary records and has important research value.

Gu Yingtai of the Ming Dynasty specifically mentioned this kind of cup in his book "Museum Essentials": "If I made a pressed hand cup in the Yongle year, it would have a flat mouth, bent waist, and slippery bottom with sandy feet. There are two double figures in the center. The lion rolls the ball, and the inside of the ball is written in six or four characters written in Yongle Year of the Ming Dynasty. It is as thin as a grain of rice, which is the top grade; the one with a mandarin duck heart is the second best; the one with the flower heart is the second best. It is very old and the price is very high."

Among the collections of the Palace Museum, there are Yongle blue and white hand cups with the year mark on the inside and a flower center with the year mark on the inside. There is also a cup with a pattern of mandarin ducks and lotus in the center, which was imitated during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty. According to the information currently available, only 4 of this kind of high-quality hand-pressed cups with Yongle year stamps are collected in the Palace Museum.

Let’s analyze them one by one first, and finally look at the remaining items.

Episode 33 of "Marco's World" has this description: "...At this time, your ankles suddenly seemed to be grabbed by something and dragged you to the bottom of the sea. You suddenly felt Tide-like substances came from all directions, ears, eyes, nose, mouth, from the palace, Shang, Jiao, Zheng, Yu, mixed with the Suma Liqing on the hand cup, accompanied by the fragrant fragrance of flowers and plants. The warmth of the skin is filled with substances mixed with oolong tea woven with cloisonné enamel... These things with different properties have merged under the distortion of time and space, blocking all your perceptions..."

The Suma Liqing here is the raw material for drawing blue and white porcelain patterns - cobalt oxide material (cobalt earth mineral), which is the underglaze color of the Yongle blue and white hand cup we are going to learn about today.

The underglaze patterns of blue and white porcelain are drawn and decorated with cobalt oxide materials as colorants. They are generally divided into domestic blue and white materials with high manganese content and low iron content and those with low manganese content and high iron content. Imported blue and white materials.

The domestically produced blue and white materials mainly include: Zhuming material, Zhejiang material, Shi Ziqing, Pingpingqing (Pitang Qing), etc.

Domestic material resources are relatively abundant. The main producing areas are Ganzhou, Shanggao, Leping, Shangrao, etc. in Jiangxi. Zhejiang, Guangdong, Yunnan, Fujian, Guangxi, etc. all have rich cobalt soil minerals.

The imported materials are mainly Suma Liqing (also called Su material) and Huiqing material (originally produced in what is now Xinjiang) from ancient Persia.

Everyone is familiar with blue and white porcelain. Although Jay Chou's "Blue and White Porcelain" was born out of Ru Kiln, it actually increased the popularity of blue and white by dozens of percentage points.

Blue and white porcelain, also known as "white ground blue and white porcelain", originated in the Tang and Song Dynasties and flourished in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties. People often compare blue and white porcelain to green clothes on the stage. It is elegant, noble, graceful and graceful, and is very similar to Chinese ink paintings. Blue and white porcelain appeared in the Tang Dynasty, but it was just a fragment and did not form a large scale. It was not until the late Song Dynasty that it achieved rapid development due to the abundance of raw materials.

After history entered the Yuan Dynasty, the world-famous Yuan blue and white came into being.

The so-called Yuan blue and white refers to the blue and white porcelain fired in the Yuan Dynasty. The emergence of this kind of porcelain set off a porcelain revolution in the Yuan Dynasty, which broke the history that porcelain could only be monochromatic. The two colors of blue and white are more than lustrous. The charm of Yuan blue and white has swept all over the world at all times and in modern times. The world regards it as China's "national porcelain".

The Yuan blue and white Guiguzi goes down the mountain was sold for 14 million pounds at the "Chinese Ceramics, Fine Crafts and Exported Crafts" auction held by Christie's in London on July 12, 2005, and the price after adding commission was 15.688 million pounds. , equivalent to approximately RMB 230 million, setting a world auction record for Chinese art at that time.

This jar is decorated with blue and white patterns painted with imported cobalt materials. The neck is decorated with water ripples; the shoulders are decorated with twining peonies; the abdomen is decorated with the theme of "Guiguzi goes down the mountain"; the lower part is decorated with deformed lotus. The petal pattern is painted with four layers of Chen Bao.

Among the Yuan blue and white pigments, Suma Liqing (or translated as Suboni Qing) is the most beautiful. Sumaliqing is a mineral cobalt material unique to ancient Persia. (One is said to be produced in the Samara region of present-day Iraq, and the other is said to be produced in the mountains of Ghamosa Village, 400 kilometers south of Tehran, Iran.) Unfortunately, this material is too rare and precious. Since the Yuan Dynasty It disappeared from the Zhizheng year to the Xuande year of the Ming Dynasty.

Such a rare pigment was naturally regarded as a treasure by the producers and dignitaries at that time, and was specially used to depict blue and white porcelain of different sizes in official kilns.

Due to the different conditions of the producers at that time, there was a problem of more or less sumacin content in the pigments. That is to say, some utensils are thicker if they are used more; some utensils are lighter if they are used less; or domestic materials are mixed with sumac green materials, which may be thicker or lighter. This is why the colors of Yuan blue and white porcelain are varied and almost None for the same reason.

? There are three types of blue and white hair colors: rich, elegant, and blue-gray.

Rich and gorgeous

Rich and gorgeous is made from imported suma and green materials. The Yuan blue and white flowers in the official kiln all use imported suma and green materials, and the suma and green materials have one The characteristic is that it is high in iron and low in manganese, and the blue and white are deep blue with a hint of purple, and the blue is slightly green.

Elegance

Elegance is the result of the mixed use of imported materials and domestic materials.

Blue gray

Some blue and white have black spots and are darker after being burned. It is the representative of blue-gray color.

The main component of "Suma Liqing" used in the Yuan Dynasty was cobalt oxide and a small amount of iron oxide. Under the action of high temperature, the iron oxides in "Subonizan" will aggregate with each other in the silicate liquid state, forming dark crystal spots. Observed under a microscope, there are mostly irregular sauce-brown spots sinking under the glaze.

The vast majority of modern imitations simply add iron oxide powder to domestic blue and white products. Under the action of high temperature, these iron oxides will quickly float to the surface of the glaze to form crystals. Most of them appear as slag-like spots when observed under a microscope.

According to statistics, there are currently no more than 300 pieces of Yuan blue and white porcelain in the world. Among them, there are 23 pieces of Yuan blue and white porcelain in the Gao'an City Museum in Jiangxi Province, accounting for almost 1/10 of the number of Yuan blue and white porcelain in the world. Ranked first in the country. < /p>

Unfortunately, the Yuan blue and white porcelain in Topkapi Palace is not on display to the outside world. Only guests with high status can be allowed to visit these rare treasures. For example, Mr. Ma Weidu was invited to observe these Yuan blue and white flowers up close in 2010. Later, Mr. Ma Weidu published a book to share what he saw and heard.

The second place where Yuan blue and white porcelain exists is the National Museum of Iran, which has 32 pieces of Yuan blue and white porcelain.

Yuan blue and white phoenix and auspicious animal pierced pattern four-series flat square kettle collected by the National Museum of Iran

These rare and famous treasures were transported to all over the world through the Silk Road. Of course, many utensils They were all ordered to be burned by the Islamic royal nobles of the Yuan Dynasty, and the hereditary inheritance of these royal families is relatively orderly, so we are lucky enough to see this beautiful treasure from more than 800 years ago.

Blue and white is an underglaze color, and its firing temperature is generally around 1200°C to 1250°C to achieve the desired effect. Therefore, the colorant of the underglaze color needs sufficient fire resistance to adapt to high-temperature calcination. Modern industrial production of underglaze colored wares often requires a high temperature of 1400°C.

As the saying goes, "Look at colors from a distance and see flowers from up close." The role of color in applied art is very crucial.

The first thing to praise blue and white porcelain is the beauty of color. But what’s interesting is that white and blue are not the most attractive colors in Chinese culture. They were even hated colors.

Look at white first. Although white also symbolizes purity and cleanliness, in the folk of the Central Plains, white is associated with funerals, such as "plain carriages and white horses", and white is the color of filial piety. Bai also means humble. Common people are also called "baiyi", and scholars who have not entered the official career are called "baiding" and "white-clothed poor people".

Look at cyan again. "Green" symbolizes spring and vitality in Han culture and is an auspicious color; however, "green" as a clothing color also has the meaning of poverty and humbleness, such as "green shirt", "green robe", "green robe" and so on.

Therefore, decorating utensils with blue and white to form the aesthetic style of blue and white is not the result of the natural growth of Han culture, but the crystallization of cultural blending. There is no doubt that the rise of blue and white porcelain is closely related to grassland culture. This is another reason why the blue and white flowers of the Yuan Dynasty were so popular.

The earliest use of cobalt can be traced back to around 2000 BC. It is known that it was used as a blue colorant in West Asia at that time. However, in archaeological excavations in China, a small number of Warring States (475-221 BC) glass beads and glassware have traces of cobalt blue melting to achieve a color effect. It is estimated that they are most likely from West Asia, unlike China. Things made from soil.

Except for glass craftsmanship, blue-glazed ceramics had not been seen in China before the Tang Dynasty. However, the smooth and prosperous Silk Road in the Tang Dynasty allowed cobalt to be introduced into China, and it was used as one of the glazes for ceramic firing. Together with other copper-green glazes and iron-brown glazes with high lead content at that time, it was used as a low-temperature pottery (?950 The decorative glaze on the pottery (fired at -1165°C) makes the finished glaze color more radiant and colorful, and the glaze surface is covered with tiny openings, thus creating the world-famous three-color pottery.

The people of the Song Dynasty advocated minimalist aesthetics, and the glaze of Song porcelain emphasized warmth and simplicity, pursuing tranquility and embodying simplicity and elegance. However, this caused the development of cobalt blue materials in ceramics to stagnate.

Of course, this does not represent the height of the Song Dynasty in the history of porcelain, and the five famous kilns we most often talk about now are Ru, Ge, Guan, Jun, and Ding, all of which were kiln mouths established in the Song Dynasty. Chai kiln was also a famous kiln in the Song Dynasty.

Until the Yuan Dynasty, because the blue and white of blue and white coincided with the Mongolian people's totem belief in the blue wolf and white deer - as blue as the blue sky, and white as a symbol of purity and goodness, blue and white flourished since then, and created The first peak in the history of ceramics.

The cobalt material used in the Yuan Dynasty came from Persia. It was called Suma Liqing or Subo mud green in ancient times. It contains high iron content and is rich in dispersion. After firing, the blue and white has a rust-like black color on the glaze. Brown spots, the spots are sunken into the body, the color is rich and green, and the visual effect is extremely vivid.

In addition, Suma Liqing was also introduced to China through Zheng He’s fleet during the Yongle (1403-1425) and Xuande (1426-1435) years. At that time, the strict regulations of the imperial kiln factory Under his supervision, the Yong and Xuan blue and white flowers were of deep color, like sapphire blue. Later dynasties even honored him as Guigao, and had the reputation of "creating something unprecedented in ancient times and initiating a generation of wonders".

The blue and white porcelain that was strongly promoted by the Mongolian and Yuan regime was not lost due to the change of dynasties. After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, blue and white porcelain not only did not disappear, but became more and more colorful.

In the Yuan Dynasty, blue and white porcelain was mainly supplied to the rulers of the northern grassland peoples and to meet the needs of overseas trade. Since the Ming Dynasty, the love for the beauty of blue and white has become a common pursuit of people. After the Ming Dynasty, private kilns in Jingdezhen produced large quantities of blue and white porcelain for daily use. The fans of these blue and white porcelain were the people of the Central Plains.

Compared with imported cobalt materials, domestic cobalt materials were valued due to several maritime bans during the Hongwu period (1368-1369). However, this cobalt material contains high manganese content, is light in color, and has uneven hair color.

During the Chenghua (1465-1487) and Zhengde (1506-1521) periods, Pingpingqing or Pitangqing produced in Leping, Jiangxi was used as the main source of blue and white glazes. Because Pingpingqing is more refined and has less impurities, the fired blue and white has a uniform, light and elegant tone, stable color, and the feeling of clouds covering the fog.

In addition to Leping, Jiangxi also produces a cobalt material called Shi Ziqing. Its hair color is darker, and it is mostly used for firing blue and white flowers in folk kilns. However, during the Jiajing and Wanli years, Huiqing from Central Asia, Xinjiang and Yunnan was difficult to use alone, so it had to be mixed with domestic Shi Ziqing. The mixing ratio was also regulated, and there were also upper and middle greens. If the ratio of Huiqing is higher than Shi Ziqing, the blue and white hair color will be purple and gorgeous; otherwise, it will be slightly gray-blue.

After the blue and white reached the Ming Dynasty, it reached its peak again during the Kangxi period (1662-1722). At that time, "Zhejiang materials" produced in Shaoxing, Jinhua and Quzhou, Zhejiang were mainly used, and the decorative expression technique was painted using the water-splitting method. As a result, the finished product was emerald blue and translucent, with clear layers and a rich three-dimensional effect.

We need to pay more attention to the subtle changes in the blue and white hair color of each dynasty. After careful observation and comparison, we can enhance our understanding of the styles of each dynasty and our appreciation of the connotation of aesthetic interest.

Episode 27 of "Marco's World" has this description: "...your statement is correct to a certain extent. For example, Heraclitus's famous saying "No one can make two decisions" Stepping into the same river for the first time. "The key to this philosophical question is how you define "the same river."

"After Liu Jia finished speaking, he carefully placed the tea cup in front of him upside down on the low table, then took Marco's hand cup of the same style, and connected the two cups with the mouth facing up.

“Look, this is like a time cone in Minkovsky’s four-dimensional space-time. These two hand-pressed cups represent the past and the future respectively..." Liu Jia made another pair of hand-pressed cups in the same way. Two sets of tea cups with their bases superimposed were placed side by side on the table. "This pair represents respectively The conscious world and the material world." Liu Jia paused deliberately to see that Marco was concentrating on it and had no intention of asking questions..."

The blue and white hand cup is a very important prop in "Marco's World" 1

Now that the beginning is over, let’s continue to look at the other two Yongle blue and white hand cups from the Palace Museum to complete the closed loop of this analysis.

Blue and white hand cup (lion ball center), Yongle, Ming Dynasty, height 5.2 cm, diameter 9.3 cm, foot diameter 3.9 cm.

The cup has a round mouth, a plump bottom and a rounded foot. Blue and white decoration inside and outside. The single circle in the center of the cup is decorated with double patterns of lions playing with balls, and the ball is decorated with the four characters "Yongle Year System" in blue and white seal script. The lower edge of the outer wall is painted with a plum pattern, the belly is painted with a lotus pattern, and the outer wall of the circle is painted with a curly grass pattern. The patterns are separated by nine blue and white string lines.

This cup is exquisitely made and has a simple and honest shape. The decoration arrangement is clear in priority, the decoration inside the cup is simple, and the decoration on the outer wall is composed of soft lines, with two continuous branches and flower patterns. The blue and white color is deep emerald. The work has high artistic value and research value, and can be called a unique and precious artifact from the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty.

The name of the Yongle pressed hand cup is clearly legible in small fonts. The arrangement on the picture is very clever. The inscriptions and patterns are integrated together. The inscriptions are not just for the sake of writing, but combined with the decoration of the porcelain, which not only informs the age of the utensils, but also makes people happy. The lion rolling the embroidered ball is a folk dance that expresses auspiciousness. This theme is painted on the inside of the cup, and the four characters "Yongle Year System" are written inside the ball. This ingenious arrangement fully reflects the elegant art of Jingdezhen ceramic craftsmen. training.

Blue and white hand cup with entwining lotus pattern, Yongle Ming Dynasty, height 5.4 cm, diameter 9.1 cm, foot diameter 3.9 cm. Formerly collected by the Qing Palace.

The reason why this kind of small bowl with a skimmed mouth and deep belly is called a "pressing hand cup" is because it is moderate in size and has a thin carcass at the mouth edge. The fetal bones gradually become thicker along the mouth edge. In the hand, the slightly outward rim of the mouth matches the relaxed tiger's mouth, and the center of gravity of the cup moves downward, making it securely placed, hence the name "pressing hand cup".

When it comes to blue and white porcelain from the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty, the most praised one is the blue and white lotus pattern pressed hand cup. It is the only blue and white porcelain from the Yongle official kiln that has been handed down and unearthed so far. It is an artifact of the same style and can be mutually corroborated with the Ming Dynasty documentary records.

Well, I can only take some time off from my busy schedule to update the surrounding analysis, but it also creates a breathing space for new friends. After all, the previous analysis already has hundreds of thousands of words. Hahaha, it should be enough for you to watch for a while. See you later and bye.