A bit of history...
In Chinese ceramics history, pottery appeared first then porcelain appeared. Porcelain derived from pottery.
Chinese ancient pottery industry has splendid, unique accomplishment. A lot of potteries and pottery fragments were unearthed in the sites of the Neolithic age, at Yellow River drainage area and Changjiang River drainage area. Many of them are not only commodities, but also artworks such as decorated pottery and pottery figurine. With the development of pottery industry, clay-strip building method developed into throw clay method, advanced side-fired kiln and shaft kiln replaced ground firing. People at that time also got some experience of temperature control and atmosphere control. The highest firing temperature of the time had reached 1100o, which was very close to the critical temperature between pottery and porcelain. In the early Yin and Shang Dynasty, white pottery whose material was porcelain clay and hard pottery whose firing temperature was 1200o appeared, thus started the transition from pottery to porcelain.
The difference between primitive celadon and pottery is: Primitive celadon was harder and more durable than pottery; Glaze was applied to the primitive celadon surface; Primitive celadon had a ringing sound when knocked. But the material management and body preparation were course in some degree; The complicated processes such as filtration, washing, pugging mullering, aging were omitted; The modeling was relatively drab due to the bad plasticity; The body was liable to crack due to its impurity; The glaze color was unstable and its thickness was uneven; Body bareness and glaze flow sometimes occur. Throw clay method was applied to making primitive celadon in the Eastern Han Dynasty. The vessel shape was regular, the vessel surface was smooth, the glaze became thicker, the combination between body and glaze became compact. Scalding rarely occurs. All of above show that the mature celadon period was coming.
The appearance of mature celadon of Yue kiln in Eastern Han Dynasty is a milestone in Chinese ceramics history. Wei Dynasty, Jin Dynasty, the South and North Dynasty are the seedtime of Chinese ceramics history. At that time, celadon was the leading ceramics, which was widely fired. In the mean time, a small quality of black glazed porcelain and white glazed porcelain were discovered. In this period, the society was turbulent,
truce less. With the unite of nation and the introduction of Buddhism, the ceramic art style became various.
In the late North Dynasty, white porcelain first appeared in the North China. Iron content in body was controlled and color generation interference of iron was conquered. This laid a foundation for the appearance of decorative porcelain. The successful firing of white porcelain is a new milestone of Chinese ceramic history. In Sui and Tand Dyansty, the Chinese ancient politics, economy, culture and trade became all-time prosperous, which promoted the progress of ceramics industry and the expansion of ceramics market and formed the situation of “South celadon and north white”. Celadon was the main product of South China. Yue kiln was the typical representative with very high artistic accomplishment. The porcelain body was light, thin and compact; the glaze layer was transparent and exquisite. White porcelain of Xing kiln in Tang Dynasty was the representative of “North white”. The white degree of both body and glaze were very high. The porcelain body was compact and had a ringing sound when knocked. From the late Tang Dynasty and Five Dynasties, many famous kilns appeared.
Song Dynasty is the third prosperous period of Chinese feudal society. Technology, culture, art and handicraft were highly developed. The ceramic industry was flourishing too. Porcelain kilns with vivid region feature spread all of the country, which formed the situation of “six kiln factions” and “five famous kilns”. “Six kiln factions” were Ding kiln faction, Jun kiln faction, Yaozhou kiln faction, Cizhou kiln faction, Longquan kiln faction and Jingdezhen kiln faction. “Five famous kilns” were Guan kiln, Ru kiln, Ge kiln, Ding kiln and Jun kiln. After the establishment of Guan kilns system in Song Dynasty, Guan kilns formed the different artistic style from folk kilns. The porcelain capital Jingdezhen grew up in Yuan Dynasty, and it was very famous for blue-and-white porcelain, underglazed red porcelain and egg white porcelain.
After thousands of years of development, in Ming and Qing Dynasty, Chinese porcelain art took on a brilliant, splendid look. Decorative porcelain became prosperous: blue-and-white, wu-cai, dou-cai, plain tri-color, underglazed san-cai, enamele color, fen-cai and so on. Full of artistic charm, the decorative porcelains of Ming and Qing Dynasty were the soul of porcelain art. The firing of painted porcelain attained to perfection. Single color glaze had various kinds: sacrificial red glaze, sacrificial blue glaze, Lang kiln red glaze, Jiangdou red glaze, yellow glaze, peacock green glaze and so on. The porcelain making technology also had new progress: wheel jiggering replaced bamboo knife jiggering. Moreover, blowing glaze technology began to be used. From then on, the quality and quantity of porcelain enhanced rapidly. Being the peak of Chinese ceramics history, the ceramics industry of Ming and Qing Dynasty had a great influence upon modern Chinese ceramics industry.
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