The status of porcelain in China is very important, and some people even advocate that porcelain be listed as "China's four great inventions" and become "China's five great inventions". Today we will talk about the history of porcelain.
How to distinguish porcelain.
Porcelain was developed from ceramics, as early as in the Shang Dynasty, people began to fire porcelain, and the real success of porcelain firing was not very late, appearing in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Distinguish between pottery, primitive porcelain, and porcelain, and the difference between the three, that is, temperature. When the temperature is reached, the inner is done, and the external pursuit begins.
There are very few types of porcelain.
Why did it say that there were many porcelains at the beginning, but now it is said that there are few types of porcelain, in fact, a long time ago, in the Eastern Han Dynasty, there were only two kinds of monotonous celadon and black porcelain, and white porcelain appeared in the Three Kingdoms Dingli period.
However, celadon, black porcelain, and white porcelain are just general names for porcelain, and celadon contains blue-green, green-yellow, blue-brown, blue-gray, etc.; Black porcelain contains brown, sauce, etc.; White porcelain may also be slightly yellow or slightly greenish.
In the Sui Dynasty, the importance of celadon is increasing, but the white porcelain is not to be outdone, to the Tang Dynasty, the white porcelain and to the point where it can compete with the celadon, forming a situation of "south green and north white", the south representative is from Zhejiang Yue kiln, the north representative is from Hebei Xing kiln, so there is also a "south Yue North Xing" saying.
Friends who may have watched TV will ask,Why Tang Sancai has no name,Although Tang Sancai was very important in the Tang Dynasty,But Tang Sancai is not porcelain,Because it is fired at low temperature,The following must be met to be called porcelain:
First, the tire material of porcelain must be porcelain clay.
The composition of porcelain clay is mainly kaolin and makeup clay, and contains feldspar, quartz stone and mullite components; Low iron content. After high-temperature firing, the tire color is white, transparent or translucent, and the carcass water absorption rate is less than 1%, or no water absorption.
Second, the carcass of porcelain must be roasted at a high temperature of 1200 1300 to have the physical properties of porcelain. The porcelain clay is different in different places, and the firing temperature is also different, so the sintering shall prevail. Thirdly, the glaze applied to the surface of the porcelain must be a vitreous glaze fired together with the porcelain at high temperatures. So Tang Sancai is not porcelain.
In the Song Dynasty, porcelain was truly in full bloom. In this dynasty, there are our most famous "five famous kilns" - Ru, Guan, Ge, Jun and Ding. "Ru, Guan, Ge, Jun" all belong to the celadon family, while "Ding" is to burn white porcelain.
One of the more special is the Jun kiln, although the color is very different from celadon, but it does belong to the celadon family. As we mentioned earlier, the color of the glaze is determined by the iron content inside, and the Jun kiln is on this basis, adding a little copper, but I didn't expect that the gradual purple red was burned, and people commented that the Jun kiln is "a color into the kiln, and a thousand colors out of the kiln".