First of all, let's look at a blue-and-white peony-patterned tower bottle unearthed from Yuan Yanyou's tomb in 1319, which was collected by Jiujiang Museum in Jiangxi Province. This bottle was thirty-two years earlier than the Ming ear bottle in the eleventh year of Zhengzheng. A pair of lions and elephants are piled up on the shoulders of the bottle, and the heads of the animals are painted with cobalt shawls, the abdomen is decorated with peony patterns, and the feet are painted with lotus petals for a week. Because the decorative pattern is under the glaze and there is no halo, it has a contour line. Blue-and-white color is slightly gray in blue, and the heavy pen and the place where the pen is started and received are darker in color, which is brown and round, and the pigment accumulation is slightly brown. Although the enamel floor of the fetus is not as fine as the "Zhengzhi" blue and white ware, it can be seen that it is indeed a product of Jingdezhen.
This bottle is the earliest blue-and-white porcelain in China. Yanyou six years belongs to the middle of Yuan Dynasty, so it is undoubted that the shape, decorative style and glaze characteristics of this bottle are earlier than the "perfect type". Bottle-capping is a sacrificial vessel, which has the same purpose as the celadon plastic bottles unearthed in the tombs of Song and Yuan Dynasties in Jiangxi Province, and has the characteristics of Song and Yuan Dynasties. In decoration, the first thing to be mentioned is a pair of lions and elephants stamped on the shoulder, which has been a common decorative theme for the "perfect" device. Lions are often used as the cover buttons of "Zhengzheng" blue-and-white jars, and elephant heads are also used as the decoration of the ears. For example, the ears of the famous blue-and-white jar inscribed in the 11th year of Zhengzheng are decorated with elephant heads. The cloud-head shawl pattern decoration on the shoulder is mostly inherited and widely used by the "to-the-right" device. The bough-bound peony pattern on the abdomen can be said to be the theme decoration of later blue-and-white porcelain. In particular, the lotus petal pattern on the foot has almost become the fixed decoration of the foot of the "perfect" blue and white porcelain.
In a word, from the shape, decorative patterns and glaze characteristics of this bottle, it has the embryonic form of "Zhengzheng" blue and white. Although it is not as mature as "Zhengzheng" ware, it fully conforms to the relevant definition of blue and white porcelain, and it can be seen that there is a relationship between inheritance and development between them. Therefore, it is not unreasonable for some scholars to call it "extended-aid type".
Recently, archaeologists discovered a tomb of Ding Younian (1297) of Yuan Dade in yingtan, Jiangxi Province, and unearthed a pair of blue-and-white porcelain tower bottles, with a short neck, bulging abdomen, adduction below the abdomen, and slightly outward. The shape of this bottle is different from that of the Song and Yuan tombs in Jiangxi, but it is basically the same as the blue and white tower bottle of the above-mentioned "Yanyou type". Compared with the two, it is not difficult to see the relationship between them. This provides us with circumstantial evidence that the upper limit of blue and white porcelain can not be traced back to the early Yuan Dynasty.