Page 118 - China, 5000 years : innovation and transformation in the arts

Protoporcelain has been found only in certain
regions and appears to have been used only by
upper classes. It did not take the place of pottery;
everyday utensils and tomb furniture were still
made mainly of pottery.

The Han pottery sculptures in this exhibition Fig. 3. Wliite-glazed box, inscribed with character ying.
Tang dynasty (618—goy). Xing ware; h. 7.2 cm, diam. at
amply illustrate the widespread popularity of
pottery burial objects. These lifelike pottery figures mouth JJ5. 7 cm. Shanghai Museum.

demonstrate the superb artistry of Han pottery ewer with dragon handle (cats. 121, 122) have the
exuberant forms unique to the north, and are
sculpting, and at the same time they illuminate, in typical of green-glazed porcelain produced in
differing degrees, various social phenomena. For
example, most earlier scholarship conjectured that the north.
China's oral literature owed its burgeoning mainly
to the practice of reciting and singing Buddhist Tang polychrome-glazed pottery ware developed
texts during the Tang and Five Dynasties. But the
reciting/singing pottery figures exhibited here out of Han lead-glazed pottery. The more extensive
(cats. 96, 97) show that the tradition of oral
literature was already strong during the Han. Tang palette comprised primarily green (from

The high-temperature glaze applied to the copper oxide), blue (cobalt oxide), and a range of
protoporcelains mentioned above was fired at
ferruginous hues from cream through yellow and
I200°C. High-temperature glazes were first used in
China, but low-temperature pottery glazes, fired at amber to dark brown (ferric oxide); it also included
roughly 700—900°C, were in use even earlier in the
Middle East. Low-temperature lead glazes were a near-black, purple, and white. The famous Tang
probably not used in China before the fourth
century BCE, and they were not in widespread use three-color (sancai) wares were generally decorated

until the Han dynasty. Lead-glazed pottery burial with overlapping splashes of different-colored

objects were very popular during the Han, with a glazes, which were allowed to flow together in the
limited palette of colors created by the addition of
different colorants to the glazes. The principal kiln. This created a richly mottled, harmonious,

colors used in the Han were rust browns (some resplendent effect. At the same time, various

with a reddish tint) with iron as the colorant, and a techniques such as molding, incising, applique, and

green for which copper was the colorant. The hand modeling were used to create decoration.
reddish-glazed pottery dog (cat. 101) in this
Yellow-and-green as well as blue lead-glazed pieces
exhibition is lifelike and appealing, and the green-
glazed waterside pavilion (cat. 100) affords a vivid were found in the tomb of Zheng Rentai (664 CE)

example of Han architecture. at Liquan county in Shaanxi Province, proving that

Mature porcelain appeared initially in the mid- polychromes were being manufactured by the early
Eastern Han, and continued to be made during the
Three Kingdoms, with early green-glazed ware Tang, and they were produced on an even greater
reaching its apogee during the Western Jin. The best
wares of this era had glazes of a consistent greenish Wuscale by the reign of Empress (r. 684—704). The
gray or a slightly yellowish green, with a rather
lustrous surface. Beauty of shape and ornamentation polychrome braying camel with monster-mask
was prized in vessels. Animal forms were widely
used, and vessels of all types were decorated with saddle (cat. 107) is a representative work of this

stamped, incised, or applied patterns. Openwork period.

and modeling were also very highly developed. In the history of Chinese porcelain making potters
of the Tang dynasty accomplished the transition
Green glazes were developed much later in from the production of green-glazed wares alone to
northern China than in the south. To date, not a an equally significant production of white porcelain
as well; they also advanced the development of
single kiln making green-glazed porcelain during black, brown, multicolored, and painted porcelains.
the Western Jin period has been found north of the
Yangzi River. It is believed that green-glazed
porcelains gradually appeared north of the Yellow
River around the sixth century CE.The Northern
Qi incised jar with six lugs and the chicken-headed

THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHINESE CERAMICS