Chinese Ceramics (Part II) - Life Sentiments origins from Elegance

Part II: Ceramics - Life Sentiments origins from Elegance

The origin of ceramics and porcelain is an important symbol of human civilization, it is also the first time human take advantage of nature to creat a brand new thing in accordance with their own wishes. A thousand years ago, Chinese ancestors had already learned the technology of ceramic production.

As it can be seen from the pottery, our ancestors were made creations in accordance with the spirit of "revere for heaven and earth and desire harvest".

The Majiagou Kiln Culture was first discovered in Majiagou Village, Lintao County, Gansu province, China. Its greatest feature is the pottery industry there was developed very well.

                      Cloth Textured Incense Burner

The above pottery is a cloth textured incense burner produced during the Warring States period, and was unearthed in Xiaoshan, Zhejiang province. As we all known, heart-shaped ornamentations appeared most in weatern artworks, and spices also were special for westerners. However, as early as 2,000 years ago, Chinese ancestors already had such an elegant living atmosphere.

The Tang Tri-colored Pottery was invented in Southern and Northern Dynasties and flourished in the Tang Dynastyy over 1300 years ago, its color is mainly yellow, brown, and green. The Tang Tri-colored Pottery featured with vivid styles and bright colors, all the Tang Tri-colored Pottery unearthed are full of life air.

The Tang Tri-colored Pottery is a low-temperature lead-glazed pottery, different metal oxides were added to the color glaze, then during the calcination process a variety of colors formed, and showing grand splendid artistic charm.

                Musicians on Camel Figurine of Tang dynasty

The Musicians on Camel Figurine of Tang dynasty unearthed from Xi'an Tang dynasty tomb in 1959, its shape is very vivid. There are 7 singing and dancing musicians (6 males and 1 female) on the camel.

Although buried in the ground for over 1,300 years and still dazzling when it was been unearthed.

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* Original archive: Chinese Ceramics (Part II) - Life Sentiments origins from Elegance

Pottery Art with A Long History V – The Tang Tri-Colored Pottery in China (down)

In the tomb of the great right-guard general of the Tang dynasty, a tri-colored pottery shaped in a camel carrying with music figures was unearthed. The camel stands with a perking head, whose whole body is brown yellow, and there are drooping long hairs in the head, neck, from the jaw to the belly, and in the fore parts of forelimbs’ up parts of the camel, it is soft and beautiful. On the back of the camel there is a flat board and on which coved with a blanket, and two figures sit on the flat board with back to back and played the musical instrument, and on the center of the flat board there’s a dancing figure. The tree music figures all have deep eyes, high noses and whiskers, they worn long green lepal clothes and white fur boots, and only the figure in the front wearing a yellow shoulder overcoat. This tall figure of ceramic camel carrying with music and dancing figures is so beautiful and amazing.





The origin places of the Tang tri-colored pottery are Xi’an city and Luoyang city, and Yangzhou city is the connection point between land and sea of the ancient Silk Road. And the main means of transportation on the ancient silk road is camel, so we can image that in the desert, is the camel shared the hard journey with people together, so there’s a sort of intimacy sense between human and camels, its tall body, persistent and burdened expressions moved us much, on whose face, you can even see vast windblown dusts in the ancient silk road.

The Tang tri-colored pottery is the essence of Tang pottery, which had attained its peak in the early and mid times of the Tang Dynasty. After the An Lushan-Shi Siming Rebellion, along with the gradual declination of the Tang Dynasty, and due to the rapid development of porcelain, the production of tri-colored pottery declined gradually too. Although later there appeared with similar styles tri-colored pottery such as "The Liao tri-colored pottery” and "the Kim tri-colored pottery”, but in terms of the quantity and quality of which, as well as the artistic quality, they are all inferior to the Tang tri-colored pottery.

As early as in the early times of Tang Dynasty, the Tang tri-colored pottery were exported abroad and loved by foreign peoples. This kind of multi-colored glaze pottery are famous in the world with its gorgeous colors, its bright and shiny luster, and its elegant, beautiful and exquisite designs, the Tang tri-colored pottery is a brilliant star in antique Chinese pottery.

Pottery Art with A Long History V – The Tang Tri-Colored Pottery in China (up)

The Tang Tri-colored pottery was invented and popular in the Tang dynasty over 1300 years ago, the basic glaze colors of which are yellow, brown and green, and people laterly were customary to call this type of pottery as ”Tang tri-colored pottery".

The Tang Tri-colored pottery is one kind of low-temperature glazed pottery, people add different metal oxides in the pottery glazes and through baking the glaze color tansformed into light yellow, sienna, light green, dark green, sky blue, brown red, eggplant purple and so on, but among them the main colors are yellow, brown and green. With changeful shades in the glaze colors of the Tang tri-colored pottery, which infiltrated mutual and taken on blocky and dripping effect, the Tang tri-colored pottery could display its splendid grand artistic charms.

The Tang tri-colored pottery in the Tang dynasty is treated as a sort of burial objects and used for burying with the dead, because it is crisp and poor in waterproof performance, whose practicality is far less than celadon porcelain and white porcelain that had already appeared in that times. With a round and full body, the characteristics of Tang tri-colored pottery are in accordance with the art features as chubby, bonny and broad in the Tang dynasty.

The category range of Tang tri-colored pottery is wide, and the main species of which there are figures, animals and daily use utensils. With moderate scales and smooth lines, the figures and animals of Tang tri-colored pottery are lifelike and brisk. Among figures of the Tang tri-colored pottery, those warriors have strong muscles and angry eyes and who looks like are ready to taken into a fight; and ladies featured have high buns and broad sleeves, and looks slender and elegant, relax and adagio, also very rich. The most animals in the Tang tri-colored pottery are horses and camels.