A Seminar Report of the “Craftsmanship of Clay and Fire: Ancient Ceramics of Henan Province”

Craftsmanship of Clay and Fire: Ancient Ceramics of Henan Province

On the afternoon of June 5, Sun Xinmin, President of the Chinese Society of Ancient Ceramics and former president of Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Heritage and Archaeology, was invited to deliver his seminar entitled “Clay and Fire Craftsmanship: Ancient Ceramics of Henan Province” at the Zhengzhou Library, which was the third report of the series of public seminars for the “100 Years of Archaeology in the Central Plains”.

A Scene of the Seminar

President Sun Xinmin first introduced the six stages of development of ancient Chinese ceramics, namely, pottery, primitive ceramics, the unique celadon, “celadon wares in the south and white porcelain wares in the north”, colored ceramics, and “Jingdezhen’s unification of the porcelain”. He pointed out, in this part, that although many ancient civilizations mastered pottery technology, only China is the first and the only one to make the transition from pottery to ceramics. China’s ancient ceramic culture in the world has a unique charm and even the English name “China” refers to both the country and the porcelain. According to the data of the cultural relic census over the past years, 318 ancient porcelain kiln sites in 25 cities and counties was found in Henan Province, ranking first in the number of ancient porcelain kiln sites in various provinces and regions of the country. Among them, the Gongyi Kiln Site, the Baofeng Qingliang Temple Ru Kiln Site and other 12 kiln sites are included in the Key Historical and Cultural Sites Under National-Level Protection, Baofeng Qingliang Temple Ru Kiln Site and Yuzhou Shenhou Jun Kiln Site were selected as the “Top 10 Archaeological Discoveries” of 2000 and 2001.

These kiln sites are mainly located in the shallow hills of the eastern foothills of the Taihang Mountains in northern Henan Province and the Funiu mountainous areas in western Henan Province, all of which have the basic conditions for firing ceramics: (1) they are close to the rivers, which makes it easy to fetch water and export the wares out of the kiln sites; (2) they are rich in kaolinite and glaze, which means the abundance in raw materials; (3) they are rich in raw coal and forests, which means abundance in the supply of fuels. In the following part of the seminar, he introduced the development of ancient pottery and ceramics in Henan Province from the prehistoric period. The pottery wares found at the Lijiagou Site in Xinmi City were between 11,000 and 9,700 years ago, which was one of the earliest pottery in northern China. These pottery wares were all coiled (stacked) or handmade and molded, with simple shapes, featuring thick walls and loose textures, and were generally fired at temperatures of 700°C or less, probably made in flat-ground piles. Handmade red pottery represented by Peiligang Culture (7000-8500 years ago) had obvious progress in craftsmanship and technology, where the firing temperature was raised to 900-960℃, the surface of the wares was polished, and fence patterns, nail patterns, and other decorations appeared there. The Yangshao Culture (7000-5000 years ago) was characterized by colored pottery, with fusible clay as the raw material for pottery making and the addition of charred grass and wood blocks, crushed grain shells, and a variety of sand grains; the molding method emerged and slow and fast wheel trimming method was used; the surface of the wares was engraved or fingerprinted with a variety of decorations, and pottery clothing and colored painting were widely applied; the types of wares increased significantly, and there were cooking wares, dining wares, storage wares, net sinkers and spinning wheels, etc. All these characteristics indicate that pottery wares began to be applied from living to production. The Longshan Culture (5000-4000 years ago) saw a marked change in pottery style, with the dominating characteristic of finely worked and surface-polished grey pottery. At the same time, a small number of beautifully crafted black and white clay pottery was produced, as well as eggshell-thick pottery wares.

The earliest primitive ceramics was found at the Erlitou Site in Yanshi District, Luoyang City, representing ancient ceramics in Henan Province had entered a new stage. The primitive ceramics were developed on the basis of printed hard pottery process, and inherited its molding and decorative methods. The glazing method is relatively primitive, by brushing or dipping glaze. Henan Province is the place in the northern China where the most Shang and Zhou primitive ceramics were unearthed, but no kiln were found. Primitive ceramics were used until the Qin and Han Dynasties.

The Eastern Han Dynasty, Wei Jin and the Northern and Southern Dynasties were the period when celadons were in the dominating period. The mature wares, which were considered the earliest in the world, were first produced at the Xiaoxiantan Kiln Site in Shangyu County, Zhejiang Province in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. At this stage, the celadon wares were found less in Henan Province, mainly unearthed in the Gao Tomb of Cao Cao, the Mausoleum of Emperor Xuanwu of the Northern Wei Dynasty and other emperors’ mausoleums. At this stage, low-temperature lead-glazed ceramics were common in Henan Province, which could be traced to the middle of the Western Han Dynasty, and were massively produced in Shaanxi Province and Henan Province in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Generally speaking, they were mainly used as funeral vessels at that time, and the types of the vessels were mostly boxes, barns, stoves, pots, wells, mills, pestles, fowls, livestock pen, and pavilions, and so on. During the Northern Dynasties period, on the basis of the monochrome glaze in the Han Dynasties, some wares were successfully produced with white ground and green color, yellow ground and green color and the later yellow, brown and green glaze colors providing technical conditions for the production of Tang Sancai, or the Tang Dynasty Ceramics. The earliest ancient ceramic kiln sitediscovered in Henan Province are the Baihe Kiln in Gongyi and the Xiangzhou Kiln in Anyang, dating from about the Northern Dynasties. In 2005-2007, excavations at the Baihe Kiln Site revealed a celadon kiln in the Northern Wei Dynasty and unearthed a large number of celadon wares, which confirmed the origin of the celadon wares used by the royal family in the Northern Wei Dynasty. Also, for the first time, the site unearthed early white porcelain, providing valuable physical evidence for the study of the origin of China’s white porcelain and its evolution. It was not until the Sui Dynasty that the production of white porcelain reached maturity. In the Tang Dynasty, the Xing Kiln, the Gong Kiln and the Ding Kiln were the representatives that produced white porcelain and they made breakthroughs to end the domination of celadon wares and formed the situation of “celadon wares in the south and white porcelain wares in the north”, which also laid solid foundation for the subsequent colored glaze pattern and painted glaze pattern. Among the famous wares, the celadon wares and the white porcelain wares produced at the Xiangzhou Kiln in Anyang in the Sui Dynasty and the white porcelain wares and opaque white porcelain wares produced at the Gongyi Kiln were among the most delicate. The Gongyi Kiln also invented the Tang Blue and White Porcelain, which was considered the “hometown” of Tang Sancai. Tang Sancai belongs to the low-temperature glazed pottery system, which is a new variety of ceramic handicrafts in the Tang Dynasty. It uses kaolin as the body paste. After 1100 ℃ high temperature plain firing, and then with copper, iron, aluminum, manganese and other elements added to the lead glaze as the catalysts, applied to the body through plain firing, and then after 900 ℃ of low-temperature secondary firing. Tang Sancai has yellow, ochre, green, blue, white, brown and other colors, because most of the wares were applied the three colors —— yellow, green, white as the main tone, which became the reason for the customary name, “Tang sancai”.

Along with the white porcelain wares, which were famous throughout the country during the Tang Dynasty, there were also colored glazed porcelain wares, which were mainly produced at the kilns in Duandian Kiln in Lushan County, Huangdao Kiln in Jia County, Dayaodian Kiln in Neixiang County, Changzhuang Kiln and Xiabaiyu Kiln in Yuzhou City. Among them, the Duandian Kiln in Lushan County produced the best quality of colored glazed porcelain wares. The colored glazed porcelain wares of the Duandian Kiln in Lushan County were mainly decorated with sky-blue or moonlight-white spots on the black glaze and tea-leaf-dust glaze and some wares had the decorations sprinkled with a layer of moonlight-white glaze on the black glaze, which were both commonly used in bottles, jars, plates, bowls, jugs and porcelain drums. The Song Dynasty was a period of rapid development in the history of China’s porcelain, and the inventions and innovations of the porcelain process in this period made breakthroughs the prior distribution pattern of “celadon wares in the south and white porcelain wares in the north” in the industry. Many nationwide and worldwide famous porcelain products were produced in this period, forming the characteristics of wide ranges of varieties, massive distribution, comprehensive development and unique characteristics of different kiln sites. The porcelain industry in Henan Province also reached its peak in this period, “Ru, Guan, Ge, Ding, Jun” —— among the Five Famous Kilns in the Song Dynasty, almost half were located in Henan Province —— the Ru Kiln, the Jun Kiln and the Royal Official Kiln in the Song Dynasty were all here.

After the Yuan Dynasty, the colored glazed porcelain entered into a unified period. In Jingdezhen of the Yuan Dynasty, new products emerged continually, where the blue and white porcelain wares, underglaze red porcelain wares and egg white glazed porcelain wares were produced. In the Ming Dynasty, Jingdezhen continued to be the national center of porcelain ware production, which was considered the representative of the whole industry. Chenghua Doucai (“the contending-colored porcelain”) of the mid-Ming Dynasty period, the Wucicai (“the ancient color porcelain”) in Kangxi Years, and the Fencai (“the famille rose porcelain”) in Yongzheng Years, were all employed the low-temperature glaze painting method. Especially, the Fencai further added gold to produce the gold red color. All of the wares were the illustrations of a colorful pattern of the porcelain established. Finally, Sun Xinmin introduced the international influence contributed by Tang Sancai, the Ru Kiln wares and the Jun Kiln wares, which not only won the favor of Tang people due to its brilliant glaze and rich and varied shapes, but also spread to all over the world. At present, Tang Sancai wares were found mainly in East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Central and West Asia, and also in Egypt, Africa. Under the influence of Chinese Tang Sancai, the “Tang Sancai of Silla” wares were produced in the Silla Dynasty of ancient Korea and the “Tang Sancai of Nara” wares were produced in the Nara Dynasty of Japan. The Ru Kiln porcelain wares were famous for the pure azure glazed color, which indicated light and subtleness. It was a new peak of the porcelain development after the success of the Mise porcelain in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. Many porcelain production methods, such as the celadon color, opaque milky glaze, glaze cracking, double firing production and full-glaze firing with support pins, were profoundly influenced the subsequent Yue Kiln of Zhejiang Province, the Royal Official Kiln, the Longquan Kiln in the Southern Song Dynasty and the Koryo Celadon. The quality of the Jun porcelain declined since the late Jin Dynasty, but the production process of “coarse tire and thick glaze” soon became popular in the Central Plains and influenced the counterparts in the whole country because of its features, such as, low requirement of raw materials, simple and easy to learn. Such features and patterns were massively applied nationwide and formed a typical group in the industry. The famous kiln sites included: the Celadon Kiln and the Linshui Kiln in Fengfeng Mining District, Handan City, Hebei Province, the Hunyuan Kiln and the Pingyang Kiln in Shanxi Province and the Tiedian Kiln in Jinhua City, Zhejiang Province.

Audience at the Seminar