Blue and white porcelain culture, blue and white is also called white ground blue and white porcelain. It uses cobalt ore containing cobalt oxide as raw material, depicts patterns on the ceramic body, then covers it with a layer of transparent glaze, and undergoes a high-temperature reduction flame fired. Cobalt material turns blue after being fired. It has the characteristics of strong tinting power, bright color, high firing rate and stable color. Integrate painting and calligraphy skillfully. Ancient porcelain painters cleverly conceived and expressed it on porcelain, sublimating it into an image of decorative beauty. During the Wanli and Tianqi years, the pictures of Ganoderma lucidum supporting "longevity" and Ganoderma lucidum supporting "happiness", and even the calligraphy "longevity" written directly on porcelain without a backing object, seem full and fluent, giving people artistic enjoyment. Blue and white porcelain was an invention of Jingdezhen porcelain workers during the Yuan Dynasty. Firing was already very mature at that time. By the Ming Dynasty, Jingdezhen blue and white porcelain was even more famous for its fine glaze, rich blue and white flowers, and diverse shapes. The achievements in blue and white porcelain firing during the Tang, Yong, and Qian years of the Qing Dynasty were even more remarkable.
The cultural value of blue and white porcelain is mainly reflected from two points:
1. The aesthetic value of blue and white porcelain
The phoenix in the fire seems to be the most profound and richest porcelain. Chinese traditional painting with national characteristics. It combines traditional Chinese painting with exquisite porcelain, and its artistic value is obviously greatly improved. On the varied and beautiful shapes of Jingdezhen art porcelain, carefully designed elegant Chinese paintings are drawn on the surface of the white porcelain body. The contrast between blue and red is gorgeous, and the texture of the jade cover and the beauty of the glaze are all combined into one vessel. Baptized by the unruly art of fire. It's like a phoenix in the fire! This kind of ingenious art treasure was extremely rare at the beginning of its creation in the Yuan Dynasty. It could only be collected and enjoyed by emperors and other nobles, or "gifted" to friendly countries as a national treasure.
An artistic reproduction of the picturesque Jiangnan scenery. Jingdezhen is surrounded by mountains in the remnants of Huangshan Mountain, between Huangshan Mountain, Lushan Mountain, Jiuhua Mountain, Boyang Lake, Yangtze River, and Xin'an River. It has beautiful mountains and rivers, birds singing and fragrant flowers, and has a typical picturesque Jiangnan scenery. . Under the long-term influence of this beautiful natural environment, art masters of all ages have imitated nature and created various paintings. This plays a natural role in improving the artistic value of the blue and white underglaze red picture.
Humanities gather together and masters emerge in large numbers. Jiangxi is known as a land of outstanding people. It is located at the beginning of Wu and the end of Chu. It has the traditional advantages of Chu culture and Wuyue culture. It is also located at the hub of cultural exchanges between the north and south of the Yangtze River, forming a unique Gan culture. Among the eight great writers of the Tang and Song Dynasties, Jiangxi accounted for three of them: Wang Anshi, Ouyang Xiu, and Zeng Gong. Linchuan is the hometown of talented people and has maintained and developed its traditional advantages for thousands of years. The paintings and calligraphy of Zhu Da, a native of Nanchang Badashan, are unique and beautiful, and have had a profound influence on Jingdezhen ceramic art. Jingdezhen is adjacent to Huizhou, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, which are developed areas for culture and art. Jingdezhen began to contribute porcelain to the imperial court in the Song and Yuan Dynasties. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the imperial court sent pottery supervisors to set up royal kilns to bake imperial porcelain and state porcelain, and hired painters from all over the world to perfect the beauty of the paintings. Under the influence of these advanced cultures from generation to generation, Jingdezhen art masters have been passed down from generation to generation. In modern times, there are the Eight Friends of Zhushan. Their paintings and porcelain paintings are treasures handed down from generation to generation. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, Jingdezhen Ceramics Institute has been established, with a ceramic art major, changing the thousands of years of tradition of master-apprentice teaching skills, and cultivating a large number of ceramic art talents using modern scientific methods. On the basis of inheriting excellent traditional culture, they create new works full of the flavor of the times. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, Jingdezhen's fine art masters have become famous. Bi Yuanming, Wang Xiliang, Zhang Songmao, Zhou Guozhen, Qin Xilin, etc., each has its own characteristics. With so many masters of ceramic art passed down from generation to generation, it is natural to draw exquisite blue and white underglaze red art porcelain.
Blue and white art porcelain is a harmonious unity of elegance and beauty. It is like a peony, with green leaves and red flowers, graceful and luxurious, and a beautiful and fragrant country. Its tonal proportions have wide variability, either thick or light, or realistic and freehand, all of which are profound and ingenious. Blue and white underglaze red art porcelain has a wide range of adaptability to the shape of porcelain. The shapes of artistic porcelain are mostly bottles, and their shapes are endlessly varied, generally divided into different sizes, heights, widths and thins. For the same shape, the straight lines and curves above and below are alternately used. Among them, there is a plum vase with a small mouth, a short collar, plump shoulders and a tall and straight bottom, decorated with blue and white underglaze red paintings, which complement each other and are thought-provoking. Its beauty is like a handsome girl, which can transcend the boundaries of time and space. It has been loved by people at home and abroad for thousands of years. In modern times, quivers and various exaggerated shapes, even incomplete and beautiful shapes, decorated with blue and white underglaze red pictures are all full of fun.
2. The charm that transcends time and space
Since the creation of blue and white underglaze red artistic porcelain in the Yuan Dynasty, through the Ming, Qing and even modern times, in the 657 years of development, generations of Artists have worked hard to explore, and from the initial stage the glaze color was not pure enough, and the shapes and patterns were relatively simple, it has developed to the glaze color is pure, and the shapes and patterns are becoming increasingly colorful. It is precisely because of the continuous development and improvement of this artistic porcelain variety that it has become more and more appreciated by Chinese and foreign people over time.
The characteristics of underglaze red ware in the Yuan Dynasty are: the decoration is relatively simple and there are few decorative themes; copper is easy to volatilize at high temperatures, there is no light color, only a relatively thick color scale, and the decorative lines are often blurred ; Copper color materials are very sensitive during the firing process. If the atmosphere in the kiln chamber changes slightly, the expected effect cannot be achieved. In the Yuan Dynasty, there were very few underglaze red vessels that were pure red.
The blue and white porcelain of the Yuan Dynasty is represented by a group of four blue and white porcelain discovered in Jiangxi Province in 1979.
Among them are 2 figurines, 1 tower-type jar with four-spirit lids, and 1 pavilion-type barn. The last two artifacts are dated to the Wuyin year of the Yuan Dynasty. The lid of the jar is piled with green dragons and white tigers as ears, the belly is piled with redbirds and black basalts, and a circle of deformed lotus petals is decorated near the bottom of the belly. The lines are blue and white, the protruding parts are painted with underglaze red, and the neck and shoulders have the inscription "from the Great Yuan Dynasty to the sixth month of Wuyin in the Yuan Dynasty, when Renyinji built Liu Ambassador's residence for the Ling family". The barn is shaped like an archway and is made of two reeds. There are figures on both the upper and lower floors. The protruding parts are glazed with red underglaze, and a blue and white epitaph is written behind the warehouse. This should be a barn-style tombstone. According to the epitaph, the owner of the tomb, Ling, was born in 30 BC and died in 4 AD. Therefore, these four blue and white underglaze red vessels were all made in 1388 AD.
Blue and white flowers of the Ming Dynasty. "Eight Notes of Zunsheng" says: "The red fish target cup was made in the Xuande year, with a western ruby ????as the end, and the shape of a fish was drawn. It was burned out from the bone, and the treasure light was raised. It was bright red and dazzling. If it is purple and black, the fire will fail, and it seems to be a little inferior. "Exactly." This Xuande underglaze red three-fish goblet is in the collection of the Shanghai Museum.
The production during the Kangxi and Yongzheng periods improved on the level of the Ming Dynasty. The Kangxi period was basically able to control the effect of hair color, and its copper-red color effect was generally relatively stable, with the same light red color as the successful works of the Xuande period. The ones from the Yongzheng period were even brighter in color and had a high yield. At home and abroad, there are blue and white wares of the "Zhonghetang" style in the 10th, 11th and 12th years of Kangxi's reign. Pavilions, tree trunks and flowers are often painted with blue and white, and the two tones are relatively light. Kangxi blue and white wares have a double dragon pattern that combines blue and white dragons with dragons, as well as flowers that match blue and white with underglaze red. Patterns, and the so-called underglaze three colors that combine blue and white, underglaze red and bean green glaze colors, advance the porcelain making process of underglaze painting a step further.
The Yongzheng period became more sophisticated. Tang Ying described the important porcelain production during the Yongzheng period in "The Ceramic Monument".
During the Republic of China, after long-term wars, production was severely damaged. Jingdezhen's porcelain industry declined severely, and various artistic porcelains also showed serious decline. Slippery slope.
Since the founding of New China, Jingdezhen’s porcelain industry has experienced rapid recovery and development. Especially since the reform and opening up, the porcelain industry has entered a new period of development. With the increase in international trade and the improvement of domestic people's lives, the demand for artistic porcelain in both the international and domestic markets is increasing day by day, and blue and white porcelain has entered a new period of prosperity. Its exquisite works of art can be collected by the country, purchased and appreciated by foreign businessmen or high-income earners, and general works of art can beautify the lives of the people.
A new leap forward in manufacturing technology. Under the new situation of the market economy, the use of traditional wood-fired kilns to fire blue and white porcelain can no longer meet the needs of the market. What's more, Jingdezhen only retains a few wood-fired kilns, and there are fewer and fewer experienced kiln-firing masters. The new situation puts forward New technical requirements. Professor Zhao Dafeng from Jingdezhen Ceramics Institute and others formed a scientific research team. With the approval of the Ministry of Light Industry, they studied the formula of color glaze prepared using modern testing methods, and used gas kilns instead of wood kilns to fire blue and white porcelain. After several years of repeated trials and a large amount of test data, success was finally achieved. Its quality fully meets the standards of wood kiln firing, and the firing based on experience is replaced by instrument monitoring based on modern science and technology, so that the product quality is stable and the authenticity rate is high. In this way, modern process equipment is provided for the small batch production of this precious artistic porcelain.