Porcelain production techniques had become quite sophisticated by the time when China came to be ruled by the East Han Dynasty. Porcelain products produced during the East Han period are rated as good, or nearly as good, as contemporary porcelain products in terms of the quality of the roughcasts and glaze and of the temperature in kilns. For this reasons, Chinese scholars regard the East Han Dynasty, or around 200 AD to be more exact, as the time of birth for porcelain in its true sense.
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A blue porcelain sheep. | For nearly 400 years after the East Han Dynasty collapsed, China was torn apart except a short period when the country was unified under the West Jin Dynasty. Southern China, however, was relatively peaceful while wars were fought in succession in northern China. Thanks to a rapid increase in population that resulted from a mass migration of people from the north, areas south of the Yangtze River were able to enjoy an economic boom to the benefit of handcraft production, porcelain production included. Ruins of porcelain kilns identified as of the Six Dynasties have been found across the length and breadth of southern China , in Jiangsu. Zhejiang Jiangxi, Fujian, Hunan and Sichua provinces in particular.
The Six Dynasties , so to speak all had what is now Nanjing as capital and ruled southern China for well over 300 years in succession from the early third century to the end of the sixth. They were the Wu of the Three Kingdoms period, the East Jin, and the Song, Qi, Liang and Chen that are collectively known as the Southern
Dynasties. What is know as "blue porcelain", porcelain with bluish ashy, light blue and greenish blue as the basic hue, constitutes the main stream of porcelain products produced during the period. What merits special mention are the Yue and Wuzhou kilns in Zhejiang Province. Glaze on the surface of blue porcelain produced there is even and fast, indicating proper control of temperature and the extraction of roughcasts inside the kilns.
Most blue porcelain products of the Six Dynasties are for daily use, the rest being funerary objects. In design and decoration. however, they are much better than those produced in the past. Many are ingeniously constructed, breaking away with those old geometrical patterns. There are. for example, bird-shaped cups+ water containers in the shape of frogs+ animal-shaped wine vessels, pots in the shape of eagle, teapots with spouts in the shape of chicken head, as well as paperweights in the shape of crouching sheep. While for daily use these are artworks in every sense.
Let us have a look at a bird-shaped cup unearthed from a West Jin tomb at Baiguan Township Shangyu City, Zhejiang Province. The semi-circular body of the cup serves as the belly of a bird with a backward-looking head on one side of the upper part of the body and a fan-shaped tail on the opposite side. The bird, with its wings opening and its legs drawn, looks as if flying. While anatomically correct+ a blue porcelain sheep unearthed from Mt. Qingling in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, looks so docile as if it is real. |
