Chapter 1,554: The blank period for prohibiting the creation of official forms
The Yongle and subsequent Xuande periods were the peak of porcelain production.
The green materials used in this period were mainly Su Ni Boqing, with "rust marks" often seen.
There are also some domestically produced green materials, but even with domestically produced materials, the hair color is quite good.
Utensil types include plates, bowls, pots, jars, cups, etc.
In particular, there are some monk hat pots, ribbon flat pots, flower watering pots and other types of vessels.
This reflects the cultural exchange and integration with foreign lands during this period.
The decorations often include various twisted or broken branches, flowers and fruits, dragons and phoenixes, sea water, sea monsters, swimming fish, etc.
The fetal texture is finer and denser than before, the enamel is plump and plump, and orange peel lines are common.
Compared with the utensils of the two dynasties, Yongle's utensils are lighter, thinner and more beautiful.
The blue and white hair color is richer and the rust stains are heavier.
The decoration is sparse and the depiction is more delicate.
The bottom glaze is relatively white, and most of the utensils have no inscriptions. Only the four-character seal script inscription "Yongle Year System" can be seen.
The Xuande ware has a thicker body, denser patterns, and a slightly bluish base glaze.
There are many inscriptions, with four- or six-character year inscriptions, and there is a saying that "Xuande's inscriptions are clothed all over the body."
Generally speaking, Xuande blue and white flowers are large in quantity, variety, and have a wide influence. Therefore, there is a saying that "the blue and white flowers of Xuande are preferred over Xuande."
However, in the Yongle period, this kind of money did exist, especially the four-character Yongle year mark.
Yongle style is the collective name for porcelain styles from Yongle official kilns in the Ming Dynasty.
Official kiln porcelain with the imperial year mark on it began in the Yongle period and became custom-made.
However, most of them do not have the year mark, and a few have the year mark, which can be divided into three types: blue and white materials or underglaze red materials, cone-engraved models and mold-printed models.
Seal script is the most common font for identification, and there are also some regular script and running cursive script.
Seal script inscriptions are the most common type on Yongle official kiln porcelain. The ones we see so far all have the four characters "Yongle Year System" arranged in two rows.
Cone-engraved and die-printed styles are mainly found on Yongle monochrome glaze porcelain.
The position is in the center of the inner bottom or on the inner wall, and the characters are arranged in two rows in the center of the sunflower or in a single circle.
Stenciled models are mainly found on sweet white glaze thin tire printing devices.
Cone-engraved patterns are mainly found on Yongle red glaze or sweet white glaze carved vessels.
The Yongle year mark, whether written or carved, has smooth strokes, rounded turns and rigorous structure.
For the Yongle era model, the common trimmings mainly include single circle, dragon and phoenix, lace, wheel shape, moiré, and oval double circle.
There are also single hoops with lace, and single hoops with moiré patterns on the outside.
The various forms of border decoration and the fine depiction are also one of the important features of Yongle reign models.
In the early years of Yongle, the imperial court of the Ming Dynasty set up an imperial weapons factory in JDZ.
The fired imperial vessels are the earliest official kiln models in Jingzhen.
Yongxuan porcelain is very famous. Chen Wenzhe had dabbled in it before, and he also collected many precious porcelains from the Xuande period.
Therefore, regarding this aspect, Chen Wenzhe did not want to study too deeply this time.
Instead, he paid more attention to the next three dynasties, because this was a very famous gap in history, also known as the famous blank period.
During the Ming Zhengtong, Jingtai, and Tianshun dynasties, political turmoil, natural and man-made disasters and other factors led to economic decline.
Moreover, from the beginning of Orthodoxy, there were many orders to "forbid the production of official-style porcelain."
Therefore, the number of porcelain during this period was small, and it was called the "blank period" in the history of ceramics.
Generally speaking, the main types of utensils in this period are bottles, cans, bowls, cups, plates, etc.
Some of the green materials used are "Su Qing".
Some of the blue and white colors are rich and colorful, similar to Xuande ware, and some are bland and elegant, closer to Chenghua ware.
The glaze surface is mostly gray and the carcass is thick.
The soles and feet are not finely trimmed, but have a solid feel;
Most of them have shallow, wide and flat sandy bottoms, some have sticky sand, and some have flint red.
The mouth of the orthodox bottle and jar has a straight neck shape, which is consistent with the Xuande vessel;
During Tianshun period, it is like a trapezoid with a narrow top and a wide bottom, which is similar to that of Chenghua period.
The bodies of both bottles and jars have plump shoulders, a round belly, tucked-in downwards, and slightly turned-out feet;
The plum vase has a longer body than the Xuande vase.
The decorations are mainly dots and strokes, including figures, flowers, dragons and phoenixes, peacocks, etc.
The background of the characters is often painted with large cloud patterns.
Bottles and jars are often decorated with seawater patterns or banana leaf patterns. The middle stems of the banana leaves are white and the leaves are wide, like a small tree.
Style recognition, the orthodox one is the style with the character "福";
Jingtai's initial mark moved from the center to the bottom of the vessel. In addition to the word "Fu", there are also "Made in Taiping Nian", "Taiping", "Made in Daming Nian", etc.;
Tianshun has chronological inscriptions, Sanskrit inscriptions, etc.
The development and evolution of the official kiln base in the Ming Dynasty is very interesting.
Of course, this period is also very important, because it was also from this period that the porcelain organ models that we have seen officially appeared.
Careful analysis will reveal that the production of porcelain in the Ming Dynasty can be divided into three periods.
Early period (1368-1435): Hongwu, Jianwen, Yongle, Hongxi, Xuande; among them, the Yong and Xuan dynasties were the peak.
Middle period (1435-1521): Zhengtong, Jingtai, Tianshun, Chenghua, Hongzhi, Zhengde;
Among them, porcelain from the Chenghua period is the most famous, and it is said that "the Ming Dynasty looks at Chenghua, the Qing Dynasty looks at Yongzheng".
Late period (1521-1644): Jiajing, Longqing, Wanli, Taichang, Tianqi, Chongzhen.
Affected by the three major factors of geographical discovery, commodity globalization and currency silverization, the output and export scale of porcelain during the Jiajing and Wanli periods reached their peak in the Ming Dynasty.
Before the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, Jingzhen's porcelain did not have a standardized designation.
After Yongle, official kiln porcelain began to be signed with the reign name of the current dynasty to demonstrate the supremacy and uniqueness of imperial power.
The products of private kilns are mainly based on dry and ink items and picture notes.
The most common one is written in blue and white. In addition, there are also dark engraving, embossed printing and alum red.
In fact, the date writing on official kiln porcelain can be traced back to the Song Dynasty, but it is rare and has no system.
For example, some of the artifacts from kilns built in the Song Dynasty were inscribed with the words "Jinxi" and "Gongyu" on the soles of their feet, which were used as tribute inscriptions.
There are several Ru kiln wares in the collection of Wanwan Palace Museum with the words "Fenghua" and "Cai" engraved on the bottom.
Among them, "Fenghua Zun" was Song Gaozong's favorite piece of Ru kiln.
This was specially imitated by Chen Wenzhe when he was making Ru kiln porcelain.
The word "Fenghua" is said to refer to the Fenghua Palace where Mrs. Liu, the favorite concubine of Emperor Gaozong of the Song Dynasty, lived.
The bottles and statues with these two characters are the porcelain displayed in Mrs. Liu's palace.
Next is the Ding kiln. In the Ding kiln there are some utensils with "official" and "new official" inscriptions from the Northern Song Dynasty, which are also considered to be special porcelain for the palace.
Some white glazed porcelains of the Yuan Dynasty were stamped with the word "Privy House" (called Privy White Porcelain).
There are also "Tai Xi", "Dong Wei", "Fu Shou", etc.
Apart from this, other signatures are rarely seen.
The practice of formally writing emperor's year on the bottom of porcelain began in the Yongle Dynasty, but compared with later generations, it is still less common.
During the Xuande period, the emperor loved to show off, and under the prosperous atmosphere created by the "Reign of Renxuan", his personal desires were quite inflated.
It is precisely because of this that the porcelain style of the Xuande period was really formed, and it was also very exaggerated.