Page 8 - Ming Porcelain Primer

THE COLOURS OF MING:
THE TECHNIQUES OF DOUCAI AND WUCAI

Under the Chenghua emperor (1465–1487) a new technique of overglaze decoration
became fashionable with the court: doucai. The character dou, however, should not be
interpreted literally as ‘fighting’ or ‘opposing’, but rather in the Taoist tradition of the
harmonising of yin and yang, thus rendered as matching or complementary colours. Tech-
nically doucai is a design of delicate enamels within fine, pale underglaze cobalt blue
outlines, painted on an impeccable white body. This highly sophisticated technique and
refined painting involved several steps of production and a second firing, and as a result
there was much wastage.

Ming imperial porcelain decorated in doucai exemplifies ultimate Ming elegance in
porcelain, and it became a highly sought-after and praised collector’s item: Chenghua era
doucai has fetched the highest prices in China as well as in the West (see p. 72).

The fine doucai technique can be studied in the design of the arrow vase from the
second half of the sixteenth century: stylised clouds in pale green and iron red are outlined
with thin lines of underglaze blue (detail p. 85).

Later in the sixteenth century, a new variation of the doucai technique was used,
called wucai, five colours. Again the term is not to be taken literally. Wu, five, is an auspi-
cious symbolic number in China, referring to the Taoist theory of the Five Elements and
the five basic colours associated with these: red for fire, south and summer; green for
wood, east and spring; yellow for earth, centre and high summer; white for metal, west
and autumn; and black for water, north and winter. Wu could also be interpreted as ‘many’,
and wucai therefore as ‘polychrome’. Porcelain decorated in wucai consequently has a
palette of bright colours, such as red, yellow, green, blue and purple.

Underglaze blue was not used for outlines but for vigorous splashes and accents
within the composition thus simplifying the application process. The outlines were made
in overglaze red, brown or black but two firings were still necessary. Wucai was most
popular under the reign of the late Ming emperors Jiajing (1522–1566), Longqing (1567–
1572) and Wanli (1573–1620).

Ref.: Legeza 1980.
Further reading: Legeza 1979; Cort and Stuart 1993.

Arrow vase (detail, no. 18).

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