Chinese ceramics

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Chrysanthemum styled porcelain vase with three colors from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD) at the National Museum of China

Chinese ceramics is a form of fine art developed since the dynastic periods. China has always been richly endowed with the raw materials needed for making ceramics. The first types were made about 11,000 years ago, during the Palaeolithic era. Chinese Ceramics range from construction materials such as bricks and tiles to hand-built pottery vessels fired in bonfires or kilns to the sophisticated porcelain wares made for the imperial court.

[edit] Introduction

[edit] Terminology

The Chinese term for porcelain (Chinese: 瓷, cí) covers a wide range of high-fired ceramics, some of which may not be recognized as porcelain by Western definitions. Porcelain is usually green-fired or once-fired, which means that the body and the glaze are fired together. After the body of a piece is formed and finished it is dried, coated with a glaze, dried again and fired. In the high temperature of the kiln the body and the glaze are fused together to become a unit. Chinese enamelled wares are also produced in this way, except enamels are added after the first high-temperature firing. The pieces are then fired again in a second round via a smaller, lower-temperature kiln.

[edit] Categories

A qingbai porcelain vase, bowl, and model of a granary with transparent blue-toned glaze, from the period of the Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD).

The Chinese tradition recognises only two primary categories of ceramics, high-fired [cí 瓷] and low-fired [táo 匋] ^[1]. The oldest Chinese dictionaries define porcelain [cí 瓷] as "fine, compact pottery" [táo 匋] ^[2]. In the West the property of translucence is often regarded as a defining feature of porcelain, but this is not the case in China, where any thick or opaque piece that rings with a reasonably clear note on being struck would be regarded as porcelain [cí 瓷] ^[2].

Chinese ceramic wares are also classified as being either northern or southern. Present-day China comprises two separate and geologically different land masses, brought together by the action of continental drift and forming a junction that lies between the Yellow river and the Yangtze river. The contrasting geology of the north and south led to differences in the raw materials available for making ceramics.

[edit] Materials

Chinese porcelain is mainly made by the following two materials or a combination of the two. Both rocks derive from the weathering and decomposition of granitic rocks.

• China clay / (Gaoling) - composed largely of the clay mineral kaolinite.
• Pottery stone - are micaceous or feldspar rocks. Historically they were also known as petunse.^[3].

[edit] History

[edit] Defining ceramics

Ming presentation porcelain, from the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644).

In the context of Chinese ceramics the term porcelain lacks a universally accepted definition. This in turn has led to confusion about when the first Chinese porcelain was made. Claims have been made for the late Eastern Han period (100 to 200 AD), the Three Kingdoms period (220 to 280 AD), the Six Dynasties period (220 to 589 AD), and the Tang Dynasty (618 to 906 AD).

[edit] Early wares

Fragments of pottery vessels dating from around the year 9000 BC found at the Xianrendong (Spirit Cave) site, Wannian County, in the province of Jiangxi represent some of the earliest known Chinese ceramics. The wares were hand-made by coiling and fired in bonfires. Decorations include impressed cord marks, and features produced by stamping and by piercing.

The Xianrendong site was occupied from about 9000 BC to about 4000 BC. During this period two types of pottery were made. The first consisted of coarse-bodied wares possibly intended for everyday use. The second being finer, thinner-bodied wares possibly intended for ritual use or special occasions. There is archaeological evidence suggesting that both types of wares were produced at the same time at some point.

[edit] Han dynasty

Some experts believe the first true porcelain was made in the province of Zhejiang during the Eastern Han period. Chinese experts emphasize the presence of a significant proportion of porcelain-building minerals (china clay, porcelain stone or a combination of both) as an important factor in defining porcelain. Shards recovered from archaeological Eastern Han kiln sites estimated firing temperature ranged from 1260 to 1300°C^[4]. As far back as 1000 BC, the so-called "Porcelaneous wares" or "proto-porcelain wares" were made using at least some kaolin fired at high temperatures. The dividing the line between the two and true porcelain wares is not a clear one.

[edit] Sui and Tang dynasty

A Song Dynasty porcelain bottle with iron pigment over transparent colorless glaze, 11th century.

During the Sui and Tang periods (581 to 907) a wide range of ceramics, low-fired and high-fired, were produced. These included the well-known Tang lead-glazed sancai (three-colour) wares, the high-firing, lime-glazed Yue celadon wares and low-fired wares from Changsha. In northern China, high-fired, translucent porcelains were made at kilns in the provinces of Henan and Hebei.

One of the first mentions of porcelain by a foreigner was made by an Arabian traveler during the Tang Dynasty who recorded that:

The Arabs were aware of the materials necessary to create glass ware, and he was certain it was not the usual glass material.

[edit] Song and Yuan dynasty

The city of Jingdezhen (also Jingde Zhen) has been a central place of production since the early Han Dynasty. In 1004 Jingde established the city as the main production hub for Imperial porcelain. During the Song and Yuan dynasties, porcelain made in the city and other southern China kiln sites used crushed and refined porcelain stones alone.

[edit] Qing dynasty

Two letters written by Père Francois Xavier d'Entrecolles, a Jesuit missionary and industrial spy who lived and worked in Jingdezhen in the early eighteenth century, described in detail manufacturing of porcelain in the city, see: ^[6]. In his first letter dating 1712, d'Entrecolles described the way in which porcelain stones were crushed, refined and formed into little white bricks, known in Chinese as petuntse. He then went on to describe the refining of china clay kaolin along with the developmental stages of glazing and firing. He explained his motives:

In 1743, during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor, Tang Ying, the imperial supervisor in the city produced a memoir entitled "Twenty illustrations of the manufacture of porcelain." Unfortunately, the original illustrations have been lost, but the text of the memoir is still accessible^[7].

Jingdezhen became the main production centre for large-scale porcelain exports to Europe starting with the reign of the Wanli emperor from 1572 to 1620. By this time china clay and porcelain stone were mixed in about equal proportions. China clay produced wares of great strength when added to the body layer. Whiteness became a much sought after property, especially when combined to form blue-and-white wares. Porcelain stone was used with lower temperature of 1250°C in the region. Compared to those mixed with china clay, which required 1350°C. The large southern egg-shaped kiln varied greatly in temperature. Near the firebox it was hot. Near the chimney, at the opposite end of the kiln, it was cooler.

[edit] Chinese porcelain wares

Tang Dynasty (618–907) sancai horse at the Shanghai Museum

[edit] Tang Sancai burial wares

Main article: Sancai

Sancai means three-colours. However, the colours of the glazes used to decorate the wares of the Tang dynasty were not limited to three in number. In the West, Tang sancai wares were sometimes referred to as egg-and-spinach by dealers for the use of green, yellow and white. Though the latter of the two colours might be more properly described as amber and off-white / cream.

Sancai wares were northern wares made using white and buff-firing secondary kaolins and fire clays ^[8]. At kiln sites located at Tongchuan, Neiqui county in Hebei and Gongxian in Henan ^[8], the clays used for burial wares were similar to those used by Tang potters. The burial wares were fired at a lower temperature than contemporaneous whitewares. Burial wares, such as the well-known representations of camels and horses, were cast in sections, in moulds with the parts luted together using clay slip. In some cases, a degree of individuality was imparted to the assembled figurines by hand-carving.

Song Dynasty Jian tea bowl at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

[edit] Jian tea wares

Jian blackwares, mainly comprising tea wares, were made at kilns located in Jianyang of Fujian province. They reached the peak of their popularity during the Song dynasty. The wares were made using locally-won, iron-rich clays and fired in an oxidising atmosphere at temperatures in the region of 1300°C. The glaze was made using clay similar to that used for forming the body, except fluxed with wood-ash. At high temperatures the molten glaze separate to produce a pattern called hare's fur. When Jian wares were set tilted for firing, drips run down the side, creating evidence of liquid glaze pooling.

The hare's fur Jian tea bowl illustrated in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York was made during the Song dynasty (960 to 1279 AD) and exhibits the typical pooling, or thickening, of the glaze near the bottom. The hare's fur patterning in the glaze of this bowl resulted from the random effect of phase separation during early cooling in the kiln and is unique to this bowl. No two bowls have identical patterning. The bowl also has a dark brown iron-foot which is typical of this style. It would have been fired, probably with several thousand other other pieces, each in its own stackable saggar, in a single-firing in a large dragon kiln. One such kiln, built on the side of a steep hill, was almost 150 metres in length, though most Jian dragon kilns were fewer than 100 metres in length.

An 11th century resident of Fujian wrote:

Jian tea wares of the Song dynasty were greatly appreciated and copied in Japan, where they were known as tenmoku wares. Phase separation in the iron-rich glazes of Chinese blackwares was also used to produce the well-known oil-spot, teadust and partridge-feather glaze effects.

Song Dynasty qingbai bowl

[edit] Qingbai wares

Qingbai wares (also called yingqing^[9]) were made at Jingdezhen and at many other southern kilns from the time of the Northern Song Dynasty until they were eclipsed in the 14th century by underglaze-decorated blue and white wares. Qingbai in Chinese literally means "clear blue-white". The qingbai glaze is a porcelain glaze, so-called because it was made using porcelain stone. The qingbai glaze is clear, but contains iron in small amounts. When applied over a white porcelain body the glaze produces a greenish-blue colour that gives the glaze its name. Some have incised or moulded decorations.

The Song dynasty qingbai bowl illustrated was likely made at the Jingdezhen village of Hutian, which was also the site of the Imperial kilns established in the year 1004. The bowl has incised decoration, possibly representing clouds or the reflection of clouds in the water. The body is white, translucent and has the texture of very-fine sugar, indicating that it was made using crushed and refined porcelain stone instead of porcelain stone and china clay. The glaze and the body of the bowl would have been fired together, in a saggar, possibly in a large wood-burning dragon-kiln or climbing-kiln, typical of southern kilns in the period.

Though many Song and Yuan qingbai bowls were fired upside down in special segmented saggars, a technique first developed at the Ding kilns in Hebei province. The rims of such wares were left unglazed but were often bound with bands of silver, copper or lead.

One remarkable example of qingbai porcelain is the so-called Fonthill Vase, described in a guide for Fonthill Abbey published in 1823

The vase was made at Jingdezhen, probably around the year 1300 and was sent as a present to Pope Benedict XII by one of the last Yuan emperors of China, in 1338. The mounts referred to in the 1823 description were of enamelled silver-gilt and were added to the vase in Europe in 1381. An 18th century water colour of the vase complete with its mounts exists, but the mounts themselves were removed and lost in the 19th century. The vase is now in the National Museum of Ireland. It is often held that qingbai wares were not subject to the higher standards and regulations of the other porcelain wares, since they were made for everyday use. They were mass-produced, and received little attention from scholars and antiquarians. The Fonthill Vase, given by a Chinese emperor to a pope, might appear to cast at least some doubt on this view.

[edit] Blue and white wares

Statue of Guan Yin, Ming Dynasty (Shanghai Museum)

Tripod Early 17th Century, Nantoyōsō Collection, Japan

[edit] Blanc de Chine

Main article: Blanc de Chine

Blanc de Chine is a type of white porcelain made at Dehua in the Fujian province. It has been produced from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) to the present day. Large quantities arrived in Europe as Chinese Export Porcelain in the early 18th century and it was copied at Meissen and elsewhere.

The area along the Fujian coast was traditionally one of the main ceramic exporting centers. Over one-hundred and eighty kiln sites have been identified extending in historical range from the Song period to present.

From the Ming period porcelain objects were manufactured that achieved a fusion of glaze and body traditionally referred to as "ivory white" and "milk white." The special characteristic of Dehua porcelain is the very small amount of iron oxide in it, allowing it to be fired in an oxidising atmosphere to a warm white or pale ivory color. (Wood, 2007)

The porcelain body is not very plastic but vessel forms have been made from it. Donnelly, (1969, pp.xi-xii) lists the following types of product: figures, boxes, vases and jars, cups and bowls, fishes, lamps, cup-stands, censers and flowerpots, animals, brush holders, wine and teapots, Buddhist and Taoist figures, secular figures and puppets. There was a large output of figures, especially religious figures, e.g. Guanyin, Maitreya, Lohan and Ta-mo figures.

The numerous Dehua porcelain factories today make figures and tableware in modern styles. During the Cultural Revolution “Dehua artisans applied their very best skills to produce immaculate statuettes of the Great Leader and the heroes of the revolution. Portraits of the stars of the new proletarian opera in their most famous roles were produced on a truly massive scale.” (Ayers and Bingling, 2002) Mao figures later fell out of favor but have been revived for foreign collectors.

Notable artists in blanc de Chine, such as the late Ming period He Chaozong, signed their creations with their seals. Wares include crisply modeled figures, cups, bowls and joss stick-holders.

Many of the best examples of blanc de Chine are found in Japan where the white variety was termed hakugorai or "Korean white", a term often found in tea ceremony circles. The British Museum in London has a large number of blanc de Chine pieces, having received as a gift in 1980 the entire collection of P.J.Donnelly. (Harrison-Hall, 2001)

[edit] Fakes and reproductions

Kangxi reign mark on a piece of late nineteenth century blue and white porcelain.

Italian pottery of the mid-15th century shows heavy influences from Chinese ceramics. A Sancai ("Three colors") plate (left), and a Ming-type blue-and-white vase (right), made in Northern Italy, mid-15th century. Musée du Louvre.

Chinese potters have a long tradition of borrowing design and decorative features from earlier wares. Whilst ceramics with features thus borrowed might sometimes pose problems of provenance, they would not generally be regarded as either reproductions or fakes. However, fakes and reproductions have also been made at many times during the long history of Chinese ceramics and continue to be made today in ever-increasing numbers.

• Reproductions of Song dynasty Longquan celadon wares were made at Jingdezhen in the early 18th century, but outright fakes were also made using special clay that were artificially aged by boiling in meat broth, refiring and storage in sewers. Père d'Entrecolles records that by this means the wares could be passed off as being hundreds of years old^[6].

• At Jingdezhen the two remaining wood fired, egg-shaped kilns produce convincing reproductions of earlier wares. At Zhejiang province good reproductions of Song Longquan celedon wares continue to be made in large, side-stoked dragon kilns.^{[citation needed]}

• Before World War II, the English potter Bernard Leach found what he took to be genuine Song dynasty cizhou rice-bowls being sold for very little money on the dock of a Chinese port and was surprised to learn that they were in fact newly made.^{[citation needed]}

• In modern times the market for Song dynasty Jian tea-bowls has been severely depressed by the appearance in large numbers of modern fakes good enough to deceive even expert collectors. It is reported that some of these fakes show evidence of having had genuine Song dynasty iron-foot bases grafted onto newly made bodies.^{[citation needed]}

• In the late 19th century fakes of Kangxi period famille noire wares were made that were convincing enough to deceive the experts of the day. Many such pieces may still be seen in museums today, as may pieces of genuine Kangxi porcelain decorated in the late nineteenth century with famille noire enamels. A body of modern expert opinion holds that porcelain decorated with famille noire enamels was not made at all during the Kangxi period, though this view is disputed ^[10].

• A fashion for Kangxi period (1662 to 1722) blue and white wares grew to large proportions in Europe during the later years of the 19th century and triggered the production at Jingdezhen of large quantities of porcelain wares that strike a resemblance to ceramics of earlier periods. Such blue and white wares were not fakes or even convincing reproductions, even though some pieces carried four-character Kangxi reign-marks that continue to cause confusion to this day. Kangxi reign-marks in the form shown in the illustration occur only on wares made towards the end of the 19th century or later, without exception.

[edit] Authentication

The most widely-known test is the thermoluminescence test, or TL test, which is used on some types of ceramic to estimate, roughly, the date of last firing. The TL test is carried out on small samples of porcelain drilled or cut from the body of a piece, which can be risky and disfiguring. For this reason, the test is rarely used for dating finely-potted, high-fired ceramics. TL testing cannot be used at all on some types of porcelain items, particularly high-fired porcelain.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Gallery

[edit] Early wares

Water jar from the Neolithic period, Yangshao culture (ca. 5000 - 3000 BC)	Painted jar of the Majiayao culture, Late Neolithic period (3300 - 2200 BC)	Black pottery goblet of the Late Neolithic period from the Longshan culture, dated (ca. 2500 - 2000 BC)	Large grey mug, Henan Longshan culture, Late Neolithic period (ca. 2500 - 2000 BC)
Earthenware vase, Eastern Zhou, 4th-3rd century BC. British Museum.	Ceramic sculptures with polychrome, from the 2nd century BC, Han Dynasty.	An earthenware goose pourer with lacquerware paint designs, Western Han, late 3rd century BC to early 1st century AD	Terra cotta serving ladies from the Northern Wei Dynasty, 4th to 6th centuries

[edit] Tang (618 to 906 AD)

Sancai glazed earthenware tomb figurine from the 7th-8th century	A sancai glazed pottery horse from the 7th-8th century	9th century sandstone porcelain dish with four lobes and fish design	A Western on a Bactrian Camel, a sancai glazed figurine from the Tang Dynasty
A rounded ceramic plate with "three colors" glaze and floral design, 8th-9th century.	A rounded ceramic plate with "three colors" glaze, 8th century.	A ceramic offering plate with "three colors" glaze, decorated with a bird and trees, 8th century.	A ceramic offering plate with six eaves and "three colors" glaze, 8th century.

[edit] Song (960 to 1279 AD)

Ru ware stand for a wine cup, made for the imperial court. Victoria and Albert Museum, London.	A porcelain teapot in Qingbai Style, from Jingdezhen.	Funerary vase and cover, green-glazed stoneware. Longquan, Zhejiang province, Northern Song dynasty. 10th or 11th century C.E.	A Longquan celadon vase from the Song Dynasty
A fu dog statue, celadon, 11th-12th century.	A celadon bowl, 10th-11th century.	Longquan celadon wares, 13th century.	A celadon plate, 10th-11th century.

[edit] Yuan (1279 to 1368 AD)

A celadon shoulder pot from the late Yuan Dynasty, displaying artwork of peaches, lotuses, peonies, willows, and palms.	Qingbai porcelain vase, 14th century.	A Jin or Yuan dynasty stoneware dish, 13th-14th century.	Longquan celadon, 13th-14th century.
Longquan celadon bowl with a dragon	Celadon dish with a flower design

[edit] Ming (1368 to 1644 AD)

A Ming Dynasty blue-and-white procelain dish with depiction of a dragon	Guanyin (Goddess of Mercy) with children, statuette made of Dehua porcelain ware	A Ming Dynasty porcelain bowl with flower designs	A bodhisattva manjusri sitting atop a beast, by He Chaozong
Ming Dynasty porcelain dish with design of tree branches, leaves, and a floral border design	Porcelain vase from the reign of the Jiajing Emperor (1521–1567).	Porcelain plate from 1634, during the Chongzhen Emperor (1627–1644)	Porcelain vase from the reign of the Jiajing Emperor (1521–1567).

[edit] Qing (1644 to 1912 AD)

Qing style at Stanford Museum	A porcelain plate in the famille-rose-style	Kangxi transitional porcelain, 1644-1680.	Kangxi transitional porcelain, 1644-1680.
Porcelain plate from the reign of the Kangxi Emperor (1661–1722)	Porcelain vase from the reign of the Kangxi Emperor (1661–1722)	Porcelain figure of a European man on horseback.	Porcelain plate from the reign of the Qianlong Emperor (1735–1796)

[edit] Republic and People's Republic (1912, to date)

Decorating porcelain at modern-day Jingdezhen.

[edit] See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Chinese porcelain

• Chinese art
• Blanc-de-Chine (the white wares of Dehua).
• Canton porcelain (Jingdezhen porcelain decorated at Canton for export to the West).
• Chinese export porcelain (Chinese porcelain made for export to the West).
• Dehua porcelain factories (the factories at Dehua).
• Famille jaune, noire, rose, verte (enamelled wares of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries).
• Kraak porcelain (blue and white export wares in the Dutch taste).
• Longquan Celadon (the celadon wares of Longquan county).
• Swatow ware (wares exported through the port of Swatow).
• Yixing clay (the red stonewares of Yixing).
• Tiger Cave Kiln (site of much of Southern Song official celadon ware)
• Shiwan Ware

[edit] References

[edit] Bibilography

• Ayers, J. and Bingling, Y., (2002) Blanc de Chine: Divine Images in Porcelain, China Institute, New York
• Ayers, J and Kerr, R., (2000), Blanc de Chine Porcelain from Dehua, Art Media Resources Ltd.
• Donnelly, P.J. (1969), Blanc de Chine, Faber and Faber, London
• Harrison-Hall, J. (2001), Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, British Museum, London
• Kerr, Rose and Wood, Nigel (2004). Science and Civilisation in China, Volume 5, Part XII: Ceramic Technology. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-83833-9.
• Kotz, Suzanne (ed.) (1989) Imperial Taste. Chinese Ceramics from the Percival David Foundation. Chronicle Books, San Francisco. ISBN 0-87701-612-7.
• Moujian, S., (1986) An Encyclopedia of Chinese Art, p. 292.
• Wood, N. (2007), Chinese Glazes: Their Chemistry, Origins and Re-creation, A & C Black, London, and University of Pennsylvania Press, USA