Chinese porcelain is famous both at home and abroad
3 min readPottery invention was independent in the world, but porcelain was created uniquely by the Chinese forbearers.
Chinese porcelain invention, therefore, should be mentioned in the same breath with the four great inventions.
The original porcelain wares appeared in Shang dynasty. From pottery to porcelain, there underwent threetechnological breakthroughs:
① consumption of kaoling or porcelain clay in place of general clay;② kiln improvement for increase of the sintering temperature up to 1,200℃ or higher;③ invention and application of ceramic glazes. The original porcelain body felt hard, with a very thick lay of glaze in dark but uneven colours.
Through endless development over the past 1,000 years or longer, standardized porcelain wares were produced with maturity in the middle and late Eastern Han dynasty. The standard porcelain body then had refined texture blendedwith bright glazes, the blue porcelain from dragon-shaped kilns in Zhejiang province being the most representative.
There were two major porcelain varieties in northern and southern China during Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern dynasties, when the emergence of northern white porcelain manifested significant technological breakthrough. The technology involved removal of the iron element in the porcelain body and the glaze, to control the ferrous content of no more than 1% and also to make efficient use of oxidizing flames in the process of porcelain making.
The invention of white porcelain paved the way for later development of colour porcelain. After Sui and Tang dynasties, the representative ones included the blue porcelain from the southern Yue kiln and the white porcelain of the northern Na kiln. The key technical breakthrough was the invention of the unique process of “ceramic underglaze decoration”at Changsha kiln. Song and Yuan dynasties were the most splendid period for Chinese porcelains with competitive well-known kilns and top quality porcelain products: in-kiln variable porcelain wares initiated at Jun kiln, invention of grained porcelain at Ge kiln, the blue glazed porcelain representation at Ru kiln, the official porcelain kiln featuring thin body and embellishing hue, and the Ding kiln best known for its white porcelain.
In addition to the five major porcelain kilns, there were also many other kilns known for their locally special porcelain products, such as those at Longquan, Yaozhou, Cizhou, Jianyang, Dehua, Jingdezhen, and Chaozhou.
Starting from Yuan dynasty, China entered a stage of color porcelain. By the time of Ming and Qing dynasties, Chineseporcelain had reached its summit of development, when the Jingde town of porcelain was formed. Colorful porcelain prevailed across the country. Based on the ceramic underglaze decoration technology, onglaze or underglaze and their combination were developed, followed by a series of process innovations with the emergence of refined porcelain products such as blue-and-white, red-in-glaze, and pink-enamel. China is the origin of porcelain and a major producer.
As a”country of porcelain”, the English word”china”originally implied “porcelain”. After Han and Tang dynasties, China started to sell its porcelains outside the country, as a symbolic product exported along the “on-sea silk or porcelain road”. Along with porcelain export, its production technology was also introduced to other parts of the world with a broad influence on the living of the peoples. Moreover, Chinese porcelain wares were not only practical daily necessities but also artworks of very high value.
