Develpment of Pottery Craft

In the Tang and Song Dynasties, the low-temperature-glazing technique originated in the Han Dynasty had gradually developed into the glazing technique of the Tang tricolor ceramics. Their glaze colors were mostly yellow, green white, and brown. Blue glaze color was rarer and more precious. The polychrome glaze was a great improvement on the monochrome glaze. Judging from the Tan tricolor figurines unearthed from the Tang tombs, their forms and glaze colors both showed a fairly high artistic level. The ceramic horses and ceramic camels were well proportioned, and he forms of their muscles conformed with anatomical results.

The Chinese pottery craft consummated in the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties. The products in his period not only utilized all the experiences in applying blue and white glazes, but also developed the colored painting technology. The blue and white porcelain and the red underglaze porcelain were great inventions of the porcelain craftsmen of Jindezhen. The "pure sweet white porcelain" produced in the reign of Emperor Yongle of the Ming Dynasty eliminated the defects of the past white porcelain in cream of pale blue shades, providing a better condition for later colored painting on porcelain. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there were various color glazes, such as bright red, rainbow red, ruby red, crimson red, azure, sapphire blue, peacock blue, light yellow, fish-roe yellow, eel yellow, eggplant purple, etc. In the reign of Emperor Qianlong, there were as many as fifty seven colors. Gold coating on porcelain initiated in the Yuan Dynasty was developed further in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. In the Qing Dynasty the gold coating method for lacquer ware was adopted for the porcelain ware to create the "gold smearing" and "silver smearing" methods. The forms of porcelain ware in the Ming and Qing Dynasties were very varied and almost all - inclusive.

Apart from the world-famous Jindezhen pottery, China witnesses a host of ceramic reassures: the age long blue glazed porcelain of Longquan in Zhejiang province, the white glaze porcelain of Dehua in Fujian province, the red stoneware of Yixing in Jiangsu province, the thick color-glaze "jun" pottery in Taiwan and Guangdong, the embossed enamelware in Shanxi province, the painted black-glaze porcelain in Hebei and Henan provinces, the incised glaze earthenware of Jieshou in Anhui province, the crimson earthenware of Zibo in Shandong province, the green-glazed earthenware of Tongguan in Hunan province, the hollowed out glaze earthenware and plain earthenware of Congning and Rongchang in Sichan province, and the natural color earthenware of Jianshui in Yunnan province and Transship in Gansu province, all of which have their special styles and properties.

To sum up, Chinese porcelain articles are no only practical vessels, but also possess very high aesthetic value with regard to their forms, coloring and decorative art. They integrate perfectly practicality and aesthetics, technology and art.