The Neolithic pottery sculpture has artistic charm. The art of pottery sculpture in Xia and Shang Dynasties made remarkable progress, and the modeling of daily-use pottery was very excellent in an extremely concise way. After entering the Warring States period, due to the prevalence of thick burial, the main uses of pottery sculptures have changed. It has evolved from an appreciation object to a funerary object, and its varieties are constantly expanding, and its production methods are increasingly rich. Therefore, in the Warring States, Qin and Han Dynasties and even the Tang Dynasty, a unique sculpture art-clay figurine was formed. Pottery figurines are a kind of funerary objects, not living people or animals. The pottery sculpture in Qin dynasty highlighted the lively, cheerful and realistic style. The 7,000 terracotta warriors and horses unearthed from the Mausoleum of the First Qin Dynasty are all truthfully shaped, which fully shows the superb carving skills of pottery sculptures in the Qin Dynasty. The Terracotta Warriors and Horses in the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor are unprecedented in scale, magnificent in momentum and lifelike in image, which has created a precedent for commemorative large-scale sculptures in the history of sculpture in China.
The art of pottery sculpture in Han Dynasty plays an important role in the history of pottery sculpture in China. It has created a new situation in both thought and art. The art of pottery sculpture in the early Han dynasty obviously inherited the artistic style of pottery sculpture in the Qin dynasty, with tall figures, simple attention to detail carving, vivid images and vivid styles. As far as the subject matter is concerned, most of the pottery figurines unearthed underground are military scenes, which reflects the characteristics of the Western Han Dynasty from one side. In the middle and late Western Han Dynasty, various kinds of pottery sculptures reflecting the pursuit of life enjoyment were generally found in tombs. Ceramic sculpture art is brand-new, pays attention to the overall spirit, has a strong sense of integrity, expounds it with the general trend and expresses it in a highly summarized way. The art of pottery sculpture in the Eastern Han Dynasty developed further than before, and the subjects of pottery sculpture were more extensive. It is precisely because of the distinctive realistic style of pottery sculpture in Han Dynasty that it not only has artistic appreciation value, but also has high academic research value, which provides rich physical materials for studying social and economic life and class relations in Han Dynasty. The simple and bold modeling of pottery sculptures in Han Dynasty not only expanded the internal capacity and external connotation of the works, but also showed tenacious strength and exuberant vitality.
The Han Dynasty was in the rising period of feudal society in China, especially Liu Che, the Emperor of the Han Dynasty, took measures to reform the system in politics, economy and military affairs, which consolidated and developed the great unification and autocratic centralization founded by Qin Shihuang, and laid the foundation for the development of China's political system in later generations. With the reunification of the country, the social economy in this period was unprecedentedly prosperous, and the political, economic and cultural exchanges between ethnic groups were closer than before. Zhang Qian made two missions to the Western Regions, which communicated the cultural exchanges between China and the West. The artistic style of pottery sculptures in the Han Dynasty reflects the unprecedented unified and stable political situation and economic climax, and is a concrete reflection of the cultural climax of the Han Dynasty, with magnificent spirit and scenery.
The pottery sculpture of Han Dynasty figures does not seek the vividness of the form and the carving of details, but grasps the charm of the object as a whole, devotes himself to the pursuit of dynamic situation, and skillfully reproduces the inner charm and extraordinary talent of the figures through the simple artistic techniques of Gu Zhuo with a large outline. Animal sculptures in the Han Dynasty also reflect this simple and vigorous artistic style. The complete variety of animal pottery sculptures in the Han Dynasty is also rare in the history of ancient sculpture in China. The complete style and fine structure of architectural facilities in the Han Dynasty in real life are also rare in history, which faithfully recorded the architectural features at that time. Well, stove, lamp, stove, car, ox cart, carriage, boat and other household appliances are all truthfully shaped.
The production of pottery sculptures in Han Dynasty surpassed any period in history in terms of equipment, variety, output and decorative techniques. As far as organic materials are concerned, there are gray pottery, hard pottery and lead glazed pottery. As far as varieties are concerned, only 59 different types of artifacts were unearthed from the Eastern Han Tomb in Zixing, Hunan Province, and each type of artifacts has a variety of different styles; As far as decorative techniques are concerned, there are printing, marking, stacking, dark lines, painting, embossing, hollowing out and so on; In terms of production scale, there were thousands of official kilns near Chang 'an in Han Dynasty. In terms of production quantity, 47 13 pieces of pottery were unearthed from Shaogou Han Tomb in Luoyang. Especially in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, the invention of porcelain was an epoch-making event in the development history of China ceramics. All this is the development and prosperity of pottery and plastic art in Han Dynasty.
Have prepared a good technical foundation. In addition, the social fashion of heavy burial in Han Dynasty is also an important factor to promote the prosperity of pottery and plastic crafts in Han Dynasty. Due to the advocacy of the rulers, the wind of reburial is rampant. The Eastern Han Dynasty also set up an official organization responsible for manufacturing funerary objects, and at the same time stipulated the specifications of ceramic funerary objects used by all walks of life. Although the heavy burial in Han Dynasty led to the waste of social wealth, it also promoted the development of pottery sculpture in Han Dynasty.
The formation of the artistic style of pottery sculpture in Han dynasty was related to the prevailing aesthetic trend of thought at that time. Thinkers in the Han Dynasty believed that "beauty is not sought, but beauty is also sought", and people should seek beauty and possess beauty in the vast external world. This aesthetic trend of thought not only highlights the urgency, determination, confidence and great power of the ruling class to occupy and dominate the vast external world during the rising period of the Han Dynasty, but also makes the whole Han Dynasty art, including pottery sculpture, pay attention to the vast real world. Therefore, all kinds of things, events, scenery and life from history to reality are all concerned and expressed by artists in the Han Dynasty. In the form of artistic expression, aestheticians in the Han Dynasty despised the "exquisite pen" and praised a broad and lofty beauty. In the words of Liu An, a thinker in the Han Dynasty, "painters are ashamed of their hair". Only by grasping the essential characteristics of the object and sketching the outline can we embody and convey the inner spirit of the object and express the author's aesthetic evaluation of objective life. This is also one of the fundamental reasons why the art of Han Dynasty, including pottery sculpture, is vigorous and unrestrained everywhere.
The pottery sculpture in Han Dynasty is not only the crystallization of the development of ancient pottery-making technology in China, but also the product of splendid Chinese culture in the rising period of feudal society in China. Pottery sculptures in Han Dynasty are rooted in the realistic soil, paying attention to reflecting social life, and pursuing simple Gu Zhuo and bold artistic style in artistic style, which makes them shine immortal not only in the long river of pottery development, but also in the torrent of the whole artistic development in China. It not only provides rich and real image data for future generations to study the social life of the Han Dynasty, but also opens up an infinitely broad road for the development of traditional sculpture, painting and other crafts in China. In this sense, the pottery sculptures of the Han Dynasty are worthy of being the treasures of ancient art in China. China ceramics is a great invention of China's ancestors. Pottery appeared in the early Neolithic period about 10 thousand years ago. With the progress of human civilization, the art of "earth and fire" has been enriched, matured and innovated. By the Shang Dynasty more than 3,000 years ago, primitive porcelain appeared. After more than a thousand years of creation and accumulation, in the Eastern Han Dynasty, first of all, Zhejiang porcelain makers "touched the ground and turned gold" to create and burn mature celadon. Since then, different styles and colorful porcelains have emerged in an endless stream, which is beautiful. China ceramics experienced the development process from pottery to porcelain, which kept pace with each other and was regarded as the symbol of China culture.
History of Chinese ceramics
China ceramics is a combination of science and technology, economy, culture and art, a materialized culture, and the sum of spiritual civilization and material civilization of the Chinese nation in the process of manufacturing, using and appreciating ceramics. Ceramic modeling and decorative arts in various historical periods showed the creative wisdom of people at that time; Ceramic objects in different historical periods showed the level of science and technology at that time to a certain extent.
Generally speaking, vessels made of clay are called pottery, and vessels made of porcelain are called porcelain. Ceramics is a general term for pottery, stoneware and porcelain. All objects made of clay with different properties, such as pottery clay and porcelain clay, can be called ceramics after proportioning, molding, drying and baking.
It is generally believed that porcelain can only be called porcelain if it meets the following conditions:
First, the tire material of porcelain must be porcelain clay. The composition of porcelain clay is mainly kaolin, but also feldspar, quartzite and mullite. Low iron content. After high temperature firing, the tire is white, transparent or translucent, and the water absorption of the carcass is less than 1%, or it does not absorb water.
Secondly, the matrix of porcelain must be baked at 1200℃ ~ 1300℃ to have the physical properties of porcelain. The firing temperature varies from place to place with different porcelain clay, so the firing shall prevail.
Third, the glaze applied to the surface of porcelain must be glass glaze fired with porcelain at high temperature.
Fourth, after the porcelain is fired, the matrix must be hard and firm, with a fine structure, and it can make a crisp and pleasant metallic sound when it is knocked.
Ceramics cover a wide range, some are water-resistant and some are acid-resistant. Widely used in construction, chemical industry, electric power, machinery and other industries and daily decoration. In addition, according to the process of ceramic manufacturing, products made of raw materials other than clay are also called ceramics, such as talc ceramics, cermets, capacitor ceramics, magnetic ceramics and so on. Widely used in radio, atomic energy, rockets, semiconductors and other industries.
Structurally, ordinary ceramic products are a complex system composed of crystalline substances, glassy substances and bubbles. The change of these substances in quantity has a certain influence on the properties of ceramics.
The ancestor of ceramics is "silicate", and habits are also "silicate ceramics". Due to the rapid development of modern ceramics, people have done a lot of experiments to improve silicate ceramics, constantly increase the content of alumina in the formula, and add many high-purity synthetic compounds instead of natural raw materials to improve the strength and high temperature resistance of ceramics.
Later, it was found that ceramics can be made without natural raw materials and silicates, and their properties are superior. As a result, the ceramic family, which has always been dominated by silicate, has changed, and a complete, brand-new and non-silicate modern ceramic has appeared.
Accurately speaking, the definition of "ceramics" is that ceramics are natural or synthetic powdery compounds, which are formed by molding and high-temperature sintering, and are polycrystalline solid materials composed of inorganic compounds of metal and nonmetal elements. Both traditional silicate ceramics and modern ceramics are included in this range. The historical process is not a simple event process, but an action process, which is dominated by the ideological process implied in it. Therefore, when we re-examine the development of ancient ceramic art in China, we should not only pay attention to the appearance, but also look for the external appearance containing thoughts, that is, the traces left by the human mind in the past years. Celadon differs from other porcelains in that its glaze color is plain, jade-like and slightly blue. Because the texture, color and faint humanistic atmosphere of celadon itself are in line with the aesthetic feelings of China people, celadon is often beautiful without lines.
Since ancient times, the people of China have paid tribute to cyan. Cyan, in the eyes of our ancestors, means vitality, broadness, integrity and nobility. The appearance of celadon coincides with the spiritual needs of China people to respect Heaven and Buddhism, so the glaze color of porcelain has a green orientation.
The exquisiteness of celadon glaze color is difficult to describe, so the ancients often use rhetorical devices such as borrowing things and metaphors to express it. For example, Lu Guimeng, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, wrote a poem in "The Secret Color is More Porcelain": "The autumn wind opens the kiln in September, winning the blue of a thousand peaks." This is used to describe the beauty of the glaze color of secret color porcelain. This glaze color should be turquoise, just like in a deep mountain canyon, giving people a moist and fresh feeling. This light blue glaze should also include "green onion", "plum green" and "bean green". In addition, people also call the blue-green glaze of your wares "after the rain clears up", and your wares are expensive, which also contains profound and endless charm in this blue-green leisure. This kind of glaze color includes "egg green", "pink green" and "gray green". There are differences between each cyan, but they are all slightly blue. The exquisiteness of celadon glaze color lies not only in the change of temperature, but also in the difference of shade caused by kiln flame, like the sky, mountains and rivers in different seasons, and also like the temperament of China people-subtle, mysterious and smart.
Celadon without decorative patterns can be compared to a quiet fairy. He is often taciturn, but his mind is very subtle, leisurely, elegant and happy. This is a quiet beauty expressed in silence. Such as, Longquan, Yingqing, etc. In the Song Dynasty, all porcelains won with no grain, and thick glaze was usually used as the top, because the thickness of glaze was as thick as water. The deeper the water and the thicker the glaze, the deeper and more mysterious the feeling will be. Obviously, the glaze color of celadon conforms to the aesthetic standards of "natural implication" and "dilution and simplicity" advocated by Taoism.
In addition, when people praise a celadon, they often compare it to jade, such as "the more muddy it is, the more beautiful it is" and "the porcelain is skillfully burned on the floating beam, and the color is better than Qiong Jiu". Porcelain and jade are interlinked, and porcelain pursues moist and bright effect. On the one hand, it is the extension of China's agricultural people's aesthetic view of earth, stone and jade; On the other hand, influenced by the idea that "a gentleman is better than jade", it is the concrete embodiment of the Confucian spirit of valuing ceremony and morality in all aspects of life. As the saying goes, "ice is better than jade, and jade is more virtuous." Therefore, the orientation of porcelain is cyan, which is the aesthetic mainstream from Jin to Song. Although the glaze color of celadon is full of charm, not all celadon follows the principle of "decoration without grain", and the Ge kiln in Song porcelain is famous for opening glaze. Glaze opening is a kind of glaze crack, which is caused by the inconsistent shrinkage coefficient of porcelain glaze after heating. This phenomenon appeared as early as the original celadon, which was initially considered as a defect of kiln transformation. Ge Kiln in Song Dynasty initiated the decorative style of open glaze. Sun Yingzhou said in "Talking about Ge Ru Kiln": "Since the Han and Tang Dynasties, there have been many natural fine chips on the glaze of pottery and porcelain, which are faintly visible. They are all natural slices, and the slices of Geyao are fired by hand. " The grain of Ge Kiln is very particular about the texture. "The small piece is called caviar thread, and the large piece is called cow wool." (Taoya) This pattern is also called "100 pieces of garbage". According to Longquan County Records, "all the kilns in Shengyi Zhang are vegetarian, with broken symbols and broken pieces." Later, this decorative technique was imitated by the official kiln, and official kiln porcelain decorated with open pieces appeared.
The grain and glaze color of ancient kiln furniture are naturally produced with the kiln flame, and they often echo each other and are beautiful. The color changes with the kiln flame, and its elegance and vulgarity also meet each other. Generally speaking, the lines are clear, crisp and tortuous. This kind of celadon with natural patterns is somewhat dignified compared with the simple and elegant Longquan kiln porcelain without decorative patterns. Scholars also like this kind of porcelain very much, so they often use it to make pen containers, inkstones, washing and other things to show elegance. Knife is like a pen, the layout is as clear as a lake, and there is a sense of loss of thick glaze. According to this feature, celadon is non-decorative, and some decorative methods suitable for this glaze color have also been produced. Such as carving, painting, applique, printing, pile carving, carving, stringing and so on. Among them, carving is the most typical. This decorative technique appeared as early as the early Yue Kiln, and developed into two schools with different styles and regional characteristics in the Song Dynasty. The southern school, represented by Longquan kiln, is characterized by dignified and elegant, subtle and delicate knife cutting, thick glaze in the deep part of the knife mark, deep and bright color, while the shallow part of the knife mark is gradually faded, rich in changes and more dynamic in silence. As the saying goes, "There are no birds in the forest." The celadon of Yaozhou Kiln in the North School is different from that of the South School, and its carcass is relatively thick, so it is mainly decorated with profound techniques in carving. That is to say, carving vertically along the outline of the pattern, and the feed is deeper. Outside the pattern, pick out the appropriate open space with a certain slope. After glazing, the convex areas are thin and light in color, and the concave areas are thick and dark in color. However, because the concave-convex contrast of Yaozhou kiln is much stronger than that of Longquan kiln, the level is clearer, the contrast between black and white is more obvious, and it has a sense of relief, giving people a rough, powerful and profound impression.
The description of celadon is very similar to the brushwork in calligraphy and painting. There are many examples of brushwork to describe knife marks, such as ancient inscriptions, Oracle Bone Inscriptions, official scripts and nicks on ancient pottery. Similarly, in the description of celadon in different periods, we can also see the obvious changes in painting brushwork in the same period. For example, after the Six Dynasties, the brushwork of painting combines rigidity with softness, which echoes the description on Yue kiln porcelain in the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties. As the saying goes, "the thin lines on the intaglio are soft, and the inclined knife slope shows wrist splash." In the Song Dynasty, carving technology has reached a wonderful stage.
Excellent celadon decoration not only needs carving time, but also needs commercial layout and reasonable arrangement of the whole decorative surface. In porcelain, due to its three-dimensional characteristics, in the process of decoration, we should not only consider the regularity of decorative structure, but also take into account the interests of the upper, lower, left and right sides.
When we experience the thoughts hidden in concrete porcelain and its development track through our hearts, we can deeply understand that the manufacture of utensils is not only composed of pure technology, but also transcends the boundaries of material facts to survive. The richness of human spirit has just found an intuitive exit and reliable habitat in utensils, and it has also brought traditional content that modern people can rely on in their lives. Both ceramic art and calligraphy art pay equal attention to the expressive force of lines. In terms of artistic features, its connection with ceramic art seems irrelevant at first glance. In fact, there are striking similarities between the two.
First of all, from the aesthetic characteristics of calligraphy art, it is an art that combines practicality with artistry, reproducibility with expressiveness, objectivity with lyricism. It is colorless and brilliant with the picture, silent and harmonious with the music. It comes from the natural image and is far away from it. People turn their spiritual meaning, life perception and aesthetic taste into lines that are vertical or closed, dry or moist, thick or thin, rigid or soft, and reflect people's aesthetic experience through the dry and dark personality factors of these pen and ink lines. In the process of modeling, the author's feelings move with the strokes, and wherever he goes, the pen, whether long or short, as short as a very short point, and the block extending from the point, all become traces of emotional activities. Ancient aestheticians in China had an incisive exposition on this feature of calligraphy. Yang Xiong of the Han Dynasty said in "Fa Yan": Words are also sincere; Books, heart paintings. Cai Yong said in On Pen: Writers are scattered. In the Tang Dynasty, Sun believed that calligraphy art could express the feelings of calligraphy artists, that is, to achieve their feelings and form their joys and sorrows; And Xihe's writing is full of melancholy; And "Painting Praise" is full of surprises; Huang Tingjing writes strangely and nothingness; The same is true of Taishi's prose. Similar to Lanting Jixing, the calmness of thought is superb; I swear in private and feel miserable. The so-called music-related party laugh has been sighed. In the Qing Dynasty, Liu Xizai was even more critical: a writer, a writer, a calligrapher, a scholar, a talent, an ambition and, in short, a human being.
Ceramic artists can understand the characteristics of ceramic art more deeply and completely from this comparison, thus strengthening the expressive force and lyricism of ceramics and creating works with more aesthetic power and value.