Porcelain—Calling Card of Chinese Culture

Porcelain—Calling Card of Chinese Culture Porcelain—Calling Card of Chinese Culture In English, the country and "porcelain" share the same name--"China". This proves that Europeans have long known of China’s relationship to porcelain. Porcelain found its way to Europe in the 15th century, occupying an important position in the exchanges between China and other countries. The Keisel Randy Museum in Germany houses a blue-and-white bowl dating back to the Ming Dynasty. Porcelain garnered(收集 )a good reputation for China for its sophistication and elegance, and played an important role in the wave of the European idealization of China during the 17th and 18th centuries. In the rococo(洛可可式)style popular in Europe of that time, one could sense, from time to time, the influence of "Chinese vogue(时髦)" represented by China's styles of porcelain and gardens. Porcelain is of great significance in the history of Chinese civilization. Pottery was the predecessor(前任) of porcelain, while glazed(上釉的)pottery was the basis for the emergence of porcelain. Around the first century, porcelain production first emerged in China, and by the Song Dynasty it had become mature. Song-Dynasty porcelain represented the acme (顶峰)of Chinese porcelain technique. Five famous kilns (窑),the Jun, Ding, Guan, Ge and Ru, were all creative and original in their respective products, and their porcelain ware has been intimated by later generations throughout the ages. In the Yuan Dynasty, Jingdezhen became the center of the Chinese porcelain industry. Chinese porcelain is cherished for its serene(宁静的)color, crystal paste, graceful designs, and ingenious forms--a quest of generations of craftspeople. Bronzeware, pottery and porcelain are all popular with the Chinese people, though their styles vary widely. Pottery is simple and unsophisiticated, while bronzeware suggests solemnity(庄严), but porcelain is the most exquisite and elegant. Porcelain can be regarded as the calling card of Chinese culture. This calling card represents the crystallization(结晶)of Chinese culture and the embodiment of the aesthetic and pursuits of the Chinese people. Nature's Craft Anyone familiar with Chinese porcelain knows that the surface of some porcelain ware is covered with irregular cracks. The cracks occured during kilning due to flawed workmanship, but as time went on crackleware became a craze(时尚) during the Song Dynasty, and was passed down to today. Crackleware today is one of the typical Chinese porcelain styles. Chinese people love crackleware because they love nature's unique craft. Porcelain is an artificial art, but what it most defines is nothing more than artificiality. Any man -made crackles would be mechanical and unnatural and betray a certain artifice(欺骗), definitely no match for naturally crafted crackles. The Taipei "Palace Museum" has a piece of crackleware produced in the Ge Kiln of the Yuan Dynasty. it is an incense(香) burner with fish-shaped handles. Thin and fine crackles on the cream-colored glaze are evocative of a tree leaf, with arteries and veins stretching, intertwined freely and vibrantly in it. Pure Blue-and-white Porcelain Blue-and-white porcelain is a typical artifact of porcelain in China. Among the porcelain exported during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, 80 percent was blue-and-white. Chinese-made blue-and-white porcelain ware emerged long before the Tang Dynasty, but it was not until the Yuan Dynasty that this type of porcelain came to be produced in quantity, with the attendant masterpieces. The Ming Dynasty witnessed the maturity of the art, and a large number of valuable pieces were produced in this period. Jingdezhen, a small town that created the enchanting blue-and-white porcelain of the Yuan Dynasty, became its porcelain- producing center; and in the subsequent Ming Dynasty, the imperial kilns were established here. Blue-and-white porcelain is now the most representative of Chinese porcelain. To produce blue-and-white porcelain, cobalt(钴)oxide (氧化物) is requisite. it is employed to draw on the white roughcast (毛坯)before glaze is applied. After kilning at a high temperature, the roughcast turns into blue-and-white porcelain, since cobalt oxide turns blue with heat. The white surface with blue patterns and a shiny sheen (光泽) of graze produces a pure, elegant and transparent effect. In the Taipei ―Palace Museum‖, there is a bowl with branch-and-flower pattern, produced in the Xuande reign (1426-1435) of the Ming Dynasty. Its shape demonstrates a primitive simplicity, while its fine texture is white with a touch of blue. In a well-balanced composition, the flowers are vividly drawn with soft and serene lines, while the blue intermingles (混合) with the white, producing a harmonious, effervescent (欢腾的) effect. The Taipei ―Palace Museum‖ houses another piece of blue-and-white porcelain ware—a plate with a flowers-of-four-seasons design, also made in the Xuande reign of the Ming Dynasty. The interior of the plate feathers 13 flowers, including chrysanthemum, lotus, gardenia (栀子花), pomegranate (石榴), Chinese herbaceous (草本的) peony, hibiscus (木槿), and camellia; while its exterior is decorated with several flowers. In the center of the plate sits the lotus—the divine flower of Buddhism and commonly used motif (主题) in Chinese porcelain. The white plate looks crystal clear, and although the designs are complicated, the pure white color and the graceful blue match each other, to produce an elegant, sophisticated effect. Blue-and-white porcelain occupies a prominent position in the Chinese porcelain industry, for it accords well with the culture and aesthetic spirit Chinese people have long pursued—of simplicity, unaffectedness and ease. Chinese people believe that ultimate beauty is simple and natural; anything that is affected and over-polished runs contradictory to this philosophy. As representative of Chinese porcelain, blue-and-white porcelain displays a world of conciseness and elegance, serenity and purity. Blue and white form a single-color painting, which may appear monotonous but this is the exact feature of blue-and-white porcelain, free of excessive decoration or exaggeration. Blue-and-white porcelain also seeks an effect of transparency, which was achieved in the products made in the official kilns of the Yuan and Ming dynasties. These products boast a thin, transparent white paste set off by blue designs, which are clean and clear and convey a sense of loftiness and unearthliness. A Subtle and Reserved World Most Chinese porcelain ware embodies the characteristics of Confucian aesthetics. In its pursuit of gentleness and refinement one senses the aesthetic propensities (倾向) of Confucianism; through its implicit and reserved artistic style one discovers the reserved nature of Confucian aesthetics. The Song Dynasty was a renaissance period for Confucianism, and also a period of maturity in porcelain production. This was much more than a simple coincidence. The increased popularity of Confucianism advanced the remarkable development of song-dynasty porcelain craftspeople. The tradition of Song-dynasty porcelain—emphasizing internal beauty—has been observed by generation after generation, and its reserved style has made the art of Chinese porcelain thought-provoking while pleasing to the eye. Another representative of a reserved style is underglaze red porcelain, one of the two types of porcelain developed to its maturity in Jingdezhen during the Yuan Dynasty. Difficult to produce, underglaze red is not as popular as blue-and-white porcelain, though it displays a high artistic taste. A precious undergraze red vase, produced during the Hongwu reign (1368-1398) of the Ming Dynasty, is now housed in the Taipei ―palace museum‖. Its design is drawn in underglaze red, and at the lower section is a circular design of lotus petals. Palm trees, rocks and groves of bamboo, drawn on the belly of the vase, produce a graceful landscape painting with profound allusions. Shape and Imagery Porcelain is a comprehensive art, and form is as important to a good piece of porcelain as it is to a fine piece of sculpture. For porcelain ware of artistic value, an intriguing shape can capture instant attention from viewers. Among Chinese porcelain, there is a type of white porcelain decorated with floral patterns of the same color, which suggests a feeling of relief sculpture. The most famous white porcelain was produced in the Ding Kiln of the Song Dynasty, which exerted a great influence on later white porcelain products. A small white porcelain container produced during the Qing Dynasty’s Daoguang reign (1821-1850) is such a piece in the white series, From the exterior, it looks no different from an ordinary container for holding go (a board game) pieces, but on the interior are relief-like flowers with five-color petals concisely and elegantly outlined. It must have been a great delight to enjoy this exquisitely made artwork while playing go! Chinese porcelain also pursues painting effects. Porcelain ware usually contains images from landscapes as well as bird-and –flower paintings. Most porcelain craftspeople were also adept (擅 长的) at painting. For Ming-and Qing-dynasty porcelain ware, elegance in shape, intriguing use of color, fine texture, and vivid images all set off each other, adding great splendor to the art. Under the influence of European painting, at the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, Chinese porcelain began to incorporate European artistic techniques into its design, such as though the use of light and shadow, to make the whole design vivid with three-dimensional effects. A fine example is the famille-rose (粉彩) porcelain that was popular in the Qing Dynasty. Famille-rose, also referred to as ―soft-color‖, was so named as to differentiate it from the application of color without shading changes. The famille-rose vase with nine-peach design, a Qing-dynasty work now housed in the Beijing Palace Museum, employs the famille-rose method, instead of the traditional repetitively used five colors. It pays attention to changing color shades as well as light and shadow, producing vivid, three-dimensional effects with a strong realistic flavor.