Neolithic animal-shaped red earthenware pot.
Neolithic red earthenware he, a cooking vessel.
Colored earthenware pot of the Majiayao culture(some 5,000 years ago).
Colored earthenware pot, H 22 cm.
Late Neolithic geometrical-lined colored earthenware basin,H 20 cm,
Colored earthenware basin of the Yangshao culture.
Colored earthenware urn of the Yangshao culture.
Colored earthenware vase unearthed from Gansu Province, H 38.4 cm Dia. at mouth 7 cm.

    Colored pottery was an outstanding achievement of the Yangshao culture. The making process involves drawing or painting the patterns on the clay before the pottery vessel is fired. After firing, the colored designs are fused with the surface of the pottery and are quite resistant to fading and peeling. Colored pottery uses mostly black coloring, sometimes together with red coloring. Some areas are applied with a layer of white as the background so that painted patterns will become even more appealing. Colored pottery motifs contain subject matters including flora, geometric shapes and animals. These patterns or images are often applied to the mouths and bellies of fine-clayed alms bowls, bowls, pots and jars. Usually there would be no painted images on the underside or contracting portions of the pottery ware. This kind of design was related to the living habits of people at the time. Since people in the Neolithic Age were subject to restrictions by their living conditions, they often sat on mats directly placed on the ground or squatted. Therefore, the designs on the potteries needed to be placed at the spots most visible from such a position and angle.

    Through spectral analysis of Yangshao culture pigments, the most prominent element in the red pigment was iron; the key elements in black coloring were iron and manganese. In white pigment, aside from small quantities of iron, there are hardly any traces of coloring. Based on these analyses, some scholars suspect that the red color was from ocher; the black pigment was made from a kind of earth with high iron content; and the white coloring was probably a derivative of porcelain clay with solvent additives.

    Yangshao culture's pottery forms concentrate on both functionality and aesthetics. Its exteriors are usually fluid and balanced; with richly colored decorations, it appears unusually beautiful and has a highly artistic presence. There are many different kinds of colored pottery objects, including cups, alms bowls, bowls, pots, jars, urns, flasks, vases, cauldrons, stoves, cooking pods, and the lids and bases of vessels. Among which the small-mouthed and pointy-based vase is the most outstanding. These potteries usually show a difference in form or decorated patterns with respect to their times and places of origin.

    There are many ways of shaping pottery, with the main methods being the following:

Pinching

    This is the original and most simplistic way for making pottery. Pinched pots usually result in relatively rough and inconsistent form, but it is very flexible and convenient. Therefore is often used for small clay sculptures and only rarely

employed for pottery vessels for daily use.

Stack-and-Shape

    As with hand-pinched pottery, stack and shape is also one of the earliest ways of making pottery. By applying layers of wet and sticky clay on the outside of something akin to an inner mold, a whole vessel is shaped. Usually the pieces of clay are applied in order from bottom to top, with at least a double-layer

composition; some vessels are multi-layered. Potteries made through this technique appeared thick and hefty; the shapes and especially the mouths of the vessels were not very even. From archeological findings and studies, evidence supports that stack and shape was used more than six to seven thousand years ago and was gradually replaced by the coiling technique.

Coiling

   Pottery clay is first made into coils and then placed on top of one another in a circular fashion. Paddles other tools were used to flatten and smooth the exterior and interior, and to accurately shape the vessel. Not only were most Neolithic pottery made this way, some minority nationality groups in China today still employ this method for pottery-making.

Colored earthenware bo, H 20 cm. Unearthed from Dahe Village, Zhengzhou.

the shaping and smoothing of the mouths much easier. The slow potter's wheel had drawbacks as well, as partial wheel marks are often left on the body of the pottery. This technique began roughly during the middle of the Yangshao cultural period.

    Colored pottery has rich decorative images and patterns; most commonly seen are the motif of fish, birds, frogs, deer and so on, as well as some images of flora and human and deity figures. Some scholars believe that these decorative patterns were related to totem worship. In the myths and legends of ancient China, we find evidence of fish and birds being clan totems in parts of China. Among the colored potteries uncovered from the area of Banpo (6,800-6,300 years ago), a kind of large-mouthed, flare- lipped, shallow-bellied and circular-based earthen pot was

found.

    These earthen pots usually sport black drawings with red clay coating all over the body. The interior walls of these vessels show two motifs, one with a human face and fish, the other being just a fish, all painted in black and in alternating arrangement. The human face was round; above its eyes was a black or negative triangular area. The ears either bent upwards in a symmetrical fashion or were in the shape of fishes. The fish motif was in the shape of a tall triangle, and the head of the fish was in a triangular shape as well. A round spot marked the eye

of the fish and rows of diamond shapes denoted the scales. The human face and fish images alternated and interacted as two intersecting lines formed the corners of the human mouth where a fish was shown on either side. Short lines and dots decorated the body of the fish.

     Birds were the subject matter of pottery found in areas along the lower reaches of the Yellow River. From literary records found in this region, the totemic symbolism that birds carry in clan legends and records can be confirmed. Colored potteries of the later periods of the Yangshao culture show a dual-headed bird with

multiple feet. Its body was elongated and usually appearing alongside motifs of the sun. This indicates that the clan with such a bird as its totem might have also worshipped the sun. Even though we may never know the true purpose of putting totem design and decorative patterns on pottery, we can still postulate the cause. As society progressed forward, more frequent communication occurred between all clans and tribes.

    The members of groups mingled with one another and thus it was difficult to differentiate their identities. Totem signs and names therefore existed to precisely distinguish groups from one another and show the different characteristics of each group. This can prevent members of one group floating to another, thus weaken the collective strength of the former, as all groups wished to become stronger. Pottery as a daily necessity of the people at the time needed to be marked with the symbol of its people, so that potteries of each group was clearly kept apart from those of other groups, and that was perhaps the true meaning of the totem sign.

    In early pottery arts, we see two most common pattern types realistic and geometric from abstraction. Most often, the earliest patterns were realistic, while geometric patterns were developed later. Take the image of the fish from potteries as an example, its earlier appearances came in forms of individual images. It was

illustrated with specific traits and thus rather realistic with lesser exaggerations. These images appeared on the top section of potteries mostly. By the middle stage of colored pottery with fish patterns, the motif became more impressionistic as the head of the fish changed from natural organic forms to geometric shapes. This also increased its decorativeness. By latter stages, the fish motif was abstracted even further, eventually resulting in positive and negative geometric shapes which were highly decorative.

    The image of birds on pottery pieces also experienced gradual abstraction. In the decorations found on colored pottery of the Miaodigou area, there are individual images of frontal or profile images of birds. The frontal view consists of a round shape signifying the head. A single triangle represents the body of the bird with wings spread. Three vertical lines denote that this is a bird with three feet. In later works, the three feet had also been omitted. Thus the bird became a logo with only two geometric shapes. The bird from a profile view began as a rather realistic

image, much like a silhouette of a bird standing. As with the fontal view, the image changed from shapes to lines, then from line to simplified lines that no longer resembled a bird, but only the motion of flying remained.

    Often appearing on colored pottery was an image that resembles a frog or a human with hands up in the air and legs in a squatting posture. Scholars seem to take sides as to whether this is the image of a frog or man. Some even believe that it could be the icon for a totemic priest dressed as a frog praying to the heavens. Other researchers believe that it was an image of people planting seeds in the fields, as a symbol of ancestral worship. This kind of semi-frog and semi-human image was later simplified, with its head omitted, and only the limbs and the fingers or paws remained. Even later, the fingers or paws were gone too and all that was left eventually were beveled lines of varying thickness.

    There were many other similar cases of abstracted images in potteries of Neolithic China (6000-2000 B.C.). This would indicate that the patterns on colored pottery of this particular era abode strongly by an ordinance. They were not simply icons denoting certain tribes or clan, nor were they merely religious patterns. It

also had the functions of written languages.

    Through deciphering these primitive colored pottery motifs, we can perhaps return to the origins of Chinese philosophy. Primitive potteries from other countries of the world also had patterns that were either realistic or geometric. The geometric patterns were usually symmetrical or arranged in tiers; some had a uniform spatial arrangement. Most of those images were of a static state. However, images found on Chinese colored pottery usually signified motion. There were many curved lines and round shapes, which brought forth a sense of frolic and movement. Usually this type of movement came in a spiraling fashion and repetitive cycle; a swirl motif gives off a sense of constant motion, which transcends the limitations of space. This may very well have been the reflection of the early people's macro-understanding of the universe.

    In addition, pottery found at the Banpo area near present day Xi'an often contained Yin and Yang decorations, or positive and negative markings. Not only does it possess a strong decorative effect, it also conveys the concept of the opposites, which attract, interact and exist because of the other. The Banpo area was where the ancient Zhou people once dwelled, and the originating area of the concept of Yin and Yang. Therefore it should be no mere coincidence that such designs found their way onto pottery. At the time, colored pottery spinning wheels, used for textiles, also contained many "S-shaped" lines, dividing its round surface into halves. They seem to be revolving concentrically, which is really the basic concept of Yin Yang. Such a movement can represent the heaven and earth, the sun and moon, man and woman and everything else in the universe, as opposites balance and constantly interact with one another.

    The design patterns on colored pottery of the late-Neolithic.Age are the earliest cases of large-scale creation of geometric patterns in Chinese history. As a message carrier, they revealed to us the richness of early Chinese culture, including social order and discipline which should have begun to develop at the same

time. As an art form, they laid the cornerstone for decorative patterns to be used in a wide range of media and applications.

    Many ways of creating decorative patterns were all fully realized during this time, such as band patterns consisting of with two combined units; or uniformly placed repeating patterns with four combined units; rules of symmetry, balance and contrast, and changes within harmony; the ways to create individual motifs and fitting designs within particular shapes; the proper use of points, lines, shapes and areas of black, white and grey and so on. This time period can be considered a peak of development in the history of Chinese decorative pattern design.