Sui Dynasty White Glaze Goblet
Although white porcelain began to appear in the Northern Dynasties, its real success in firing should have been in the Sui Dynasty. In 1959, the Anyang excavation team of the Institute of Archeology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences excavated a tomb of Zhang Sheng from the 15th year of Emperor Kaihuang's reign in the Sui Dynasty (595) in Anyang, Henan, and discovered a batch of white porcelain. Although these white porcelain still had some characteristics of celadon , but it is much better than the white porcelain unearthed from Fan Cui's tomb in the sixth year of Wuping in the Northern Qi Dynasty (575).
The iron content in the glaze has been reduced, the firing temperature has been increased, and the glazing technology has also been improved, increasing the whiteness and hardness of the utensils. The shapes of porcelain are much richer than before, and it can be seen that the molding technology of the utensils has been significantly improved.
Among the porcelain unearthed from Li Jingxun's tomb in the Sui Dynasty's fourth year (608), which was 13 years later than Zhang Sheng's tomb, there were celadon and white porcelain. White porcelain has a pure white body and a smooth glaze. There is no trace of yellow flashing in the white or bluish in the white glaze. There is no doubt that it should be called white porcelain. Among this batch of white porcelain, the double-jointed vases with dragon handles and the chicken-head pot with dragon handles are the most exquisite.
Sui Dynasty white-glazed jar
The double-jointed vase has a unique shape and is exquisitely made. The dragon-handled chicken-head pot is the traditional shape of celadon since the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, but it has been replaced by New white clothes. The white porcelain vase unearthed from the tomb of Daye in the 6th year of the Sui Dynasty in Guojiatan, Xi'an, and the white porcelain lid jar unearthed from the tomb of Ji Wei are even more successful works of white porcelain in the Sui Dynasty.
If we start with the early white porcelain unearthed from Fan Cui's tomb in the sixth year of Wuping in the Northern Qi Dynasty (575), and end with the tomb of Li Jingxun in the fourth year of Daye in the Sui Dynasty (608), it only experienced 33 years of development. In a short time, the white porcelain was fired quickly. The firing of white porcelain in the Sui Dynasty laid a good foundation for the further development of white porcelain in the Tang Dynasty.
In May 1982, a white porcelain kiln site from the Sui Dynasty was discovered in Jia Village at the junction of Neiqiu and Lincheng. There are also two types of white porcelain: pure white porcelain without makeup soil and very delicate white porcelain. The fired bowls all have deep bellies, straight walls, and flat bottoms, which are the same as the white porcelain bowls unearthed from Sui tombs in the north.
Tang Dynasty white glaze slag bucket
The Sui Dynasty white porcelain kiln site was found in the Tang Dynasty Xing Kiln, proving that white porcelain had already developed in this area before the Xing Kiln and Tang Dynasty white porcelain appeared. The discovery of the Sui Dynasty white porcelain kiln in Jiacun not only filled the gap in the Sui Dynasty white porcelain kiln and proved that the Sui Dynasty successfully fired white porcelain, but also provided important information for the study of the development process of white porcelain in the Tang Xing kiln in the north.
Early white porcelain developed into the Sui Dynasty. If it is regarded as the firing period, then it should enter its development period starting from the Tang Dynasty. White porcelain in the Sui Dynasty broke through the style of traditional celadon and laid a good foundation for the development of white porcelain in the Tang Dynasty. White porcelain in the Tang Dynasty took a big step forward compared to the Sui Dynasty, changing the development direction dominated by celadon.
Although the kiln sites for firing white porcelain in the Tang Dynasty have not been discovered in the area south of the Yangtze River in my country until the 1970s, the white porcelain of the Xing kiln in the north not only became a popular "universal product for everyone in the world" at that time, famous porcelain, and porcelain kilns for firing white porcelain have appeared one after another in Hebei, Henan, Shanxi, Shaanxi and other vast areas.
Tang Dynasty Xing kiln white-glazed jade-shaped bottom bowl
Therefore, the production of white porcelain has become a common phenomenon in the north, marking the entry of my country's porcelain into celadon and white porcelain. new stage. The achievements of porcelain production in the Tang Dynasty are closely related to the emergence of Xing Kiln and the development of white porcelain in the north.
Xing kiln had already fired white porcelain in the Sui Dynasty and reached a high level. This was an important reason for the high development of white porcelain in Xing kiln in the Tang Dynasty. It is different from other white porcelain kilns, such as the Gongxian kiln in Henan, which fired celadon before white porcelain. Therefore, Xing kiln was the first important porcelain kiln in the north to successfully bake white porcelain and raise it to the level of development of "white as snow". Therefore, it is called the representative of northern white porcelain.
The white porcelain fired in the Sui Dynasty white porcelain kilns in Chengguan, Neiqiu County, Hebei and Jiacun, Lincheng County, are basically similar and belong to the same system. The fired straight-mouthed, deep-shaped, flat-bottomed bowls are the same as those unearthed from Sui Dynasty tombs in the north. The famous Xing Kiln in the Tang Dynasty was developed on the basis of white porcelain fired in Neiqiu and Lincheng in the Sui Dynasty. Xing kiln white porcelain has a delicate, white texture and fine workmanship. Lu Yu described it "like silver" and "like snow" in the "Tea Classic", which is very appropriate.
Tang Dynasty Xing Kiln White Glaze Jar
With the firing of Xing Kiln white porcelain, porcelain kilns for firing white porcelain have appeared in Hebei, Henan, Shanxi, Shaanxi and other regions. . White porcelain is widely produced in the northern region, which marks that we have entered a new stage of development of white porcelain production.
In the Sui Dynasty, although white porcelain had been successfully fired, celadon still dominated. In the Tang Dynasty, due to the development of white porcelain production in Xing kiln, there was a trend of white porcelain and celadon going hand in hand. People have become very interested in "silver-like" white porcelain, which is reflected in the phrase "Xingzhou may be located in Yuezhou" in the "Tea Classic".
According to archaeological data, a lot of northern white porcelain has been unearthed from Tang Dynasty tombs in Hunan, Zhejiang and other places. Hunan and Zhejiang were both important producing areas of celadon in the Tang Dynasty. In particular, a large amount of white porcelain was unearthed from the Tang tombs in Lin'an, Zhejiang, which was rich in Yue kiln celadon. This shows that after the development of white porcelain production in the north, it was valued by the upper-class feudal bureaucracy. , they placed orders with northern porcelain kilns and shipped white porcelain to the south.
Tang Dynasty White Glaze Rabbit Jar
In addition to the famous Xing Kiln and Ding Kiln, there were also some white porcelain kilns in the northern Tang Dynasty that had great development, such as Gong County in Henan Province. Kiln, Mi County Kiln, Pingding Kiln and Hunyuan Kiln in Shanxi, etc. In this way, the white porcelain system represented by Xing Kiln was formed in the north, and the celadon system represented by Yue Kiln was formed in the south. There are two major types, one green and one white. The porcelain kiln system keeps pace with each other, so there is a saying of "green in the south and white in the north". The "green in the south, white in the north" porcelain production pattern of the Tang Dynasty continued into the Five Dynasties period. Later, the production pattern of "green in the south and white in the north" was broken when Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province, started firing white porcelain.
The white porcelain of the Tang Dynasty is the most famous of Xing kiln wares. It is quoted from the "Supplement to the History of the Country" by Li Yu of the Tang Dynasty that "Neiqiu white porcelain Ou... is used by everyone in the world." It can be seen that its production scale is large and its influence is huge. Far.
Since the 1950s, a lot of white porcelain has been unearthed from Tang tombs, especially in Shaanxi, Henan, and Hebei. Some of the white porcelain may be products of neighboring porcelain kilns. Some exquisite white porcelain, such as the white porcelain bowl unearthed from the Tang Tomb in Xingtai, and the white porcelain bowl and lamp holder unearthed from the Xuejiazhuang Tang Tomb in Anyang, Henan, are in the center of the shape, glaze color and jade-shaped bottom bowl of the utensils fired by the Qicun kiln. They have completely different characteristics in terms of glazing and other aspects. In particular, the exquisite craftsmanship of the lamp holders has not been found in other white porcelain kilns, so it can be seen that they should be products of Qicun kiln. A fragment of the bottom of a bowl with the word "ying" unearthed from the Daming Palace site in Xi'an is the same as that unearthed from the Xing Kiln site in Neiqiuchengguan, and should be a product of the Xing Kiln.
Tang Dynasty White Glaze Double Dragon Ear Vase
According to preliminary measurement results from the Handan Cultural Relics Appraisal Institute of Hebei Province, its whiteness is approximately above 70 degrees.
The alumina, iron oxide, and titanium oxide of the Xing kiln white porcelain body are obviously lower than those of other white porcelains of the same era, which determines the sintering degree and whiteness of its body glaze. Both are better than ordinary white porcelain.
This proves that the typical "silver-like" and "snow-like" white porcelain of Xing kiln has a hard body and a white glaze, which is consistent with the records in the "Tea Classic". Using high-quality raw materials, exquisite production and regular shape.