The Ming Dynasty of China was a prosperous period of blue and white porcelain firing, but there was a period of specialness, that is, the three dynasties of Orthodoxy, Jingtai and Tianshun. At this time, the country was more turbulent, and natural disasters were encountered, and the production of blue and white porcelain in Jingdezhen was reduced, and the heirlooms were even rarer.
The Qingdao Municipal Museum in Shandong Province has a collection of Blue and White Porcelain Jars from the Ming Dynasty of China, which is 37 cm high, has a large instrument shape, a thick carcass, a deep blue and white color, and an elegant shape.
The pattern on the porcelain jar is divided into four layers, the neck depicts the turtle's back brocade pattern, the shoulder is based on the ball pattern, and four groups of begonia-shaped open light are interspersed during the opening light, and the folded branch lotus is depicted inside the open light. The near bottom is decorated with a week of waves, and the belly of the jar depicts a theme pattern with a picture of a visiting friend.
In the pavilion under the clouds of trees, the master and the waiter are pushing the window to look out, and the guests who come to visit not far away are spurring the horse forward. In front of him were two waiters holding the violin and carrying the violin, and behind the guests were two officials on horseback, followed by two servants carrying fine wine and delicacies. The willow branches on the side of the road sway with the wind, the clouds in the distance are swirling, the mountains are dripping green, and the blue water is long. The whole painting is cleverly conceived, both shape and god, and the layers are clear, just like a beautiful Chinese ink painting.
The allusion to visiting friends with the qin comes from a historical story recorded in the famous Chinese Warring States period "Liezi Tang Qing". In the Spring and Autumn Period, there was a musician named Yu Boya in the Chu Kingdom, who played the piano very well, and he skillfully integrated his feelings about nature into the sound of the piano, but ordinary people could not understand it.
One day, Yu Boya was playing on the Yangtze River, and the woodcutter Zhong Ziqi heard his piano and sincerely expressed his admiration. Yu Boya did not expect that a woodcutter could understand his piano sound, it was difficult to meet the sound, Yu Boya and Zhong Zi period were very excited, the two became friends from then on, often together to discuss friendship.
However, soon after Zhong Ziqi unfortunately died of illness, Yu Boya was heartbroken, thinking that no one in the world could understand his piano, so he threw the piano in his hand to the ground and vowed never to play again.
This is the allusion to "mountain flowing water meets Zhiyin". Later, according to this allusion, people created painting themes such as seeking fangs with wine and visiting friends with the piano.
The theme pattern on the blue and white porcelain jar collected by the Qingdao Municipal Museum is a picture of visiting friends with a piano, but the content is innovative. For example, in the picture, a servant picks a three-tier food box on his shoulder, with a strong breath of life, which has not appeared in the previous pictures of visiting friends with a piano.
Another striking aspect of the painting is that there is a servant carrying a pair of plum bottles filled with fine wine. There has been controversy about the use of plum bottles in the past, and some people say that it is used to insert plum blossoms, so it is called plum bottles. Some people say that this porcelain vase is a pure ornament, but this picture vividly tells people that the plum bottle is used to hold wine. Therefore, this blue and white porcelain jar has high historical value.
The Ming Dynasty was the heyday of the development of Blue and White Porcelain in China, and Zhu Yuanzhang, the Grandfather of the Ming Dynasty, was very fond of blue and white porcelain, and he pushed the firing of this porcelain to the peak. However, during the Ming Dynasty, the production of blue and white porcelain fell into a trough. This blue and white porcelain jar bears witness to this special history.
In 1368, the Ming Dynasty was established. Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang attached great importance to the porcelain industry, and he built more than twenty imperial kiln factories in Jingdezhen to specialize in the production of imperial kiln porcelain, and blue and white porcelain also entered the golden age of its development.
In the Ming Yongle Xuande period, the firing process of blue and white porcelain can be described as a leap forward, and Yongxuan blue and white is famous all over the world.
In 1436, the sixth emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Mingyingzong Zhu Qizhen, ascended the throne and changed his era name to Orthodox. Soon he issued a ban on firing, forbidding the firing of blue and white porcelain in private kilns, and the death penalty was imposed on those who violated the order. The promulgation of the ban on burning caused the production of folk blue and white porcelain to fall into a trough.
However, what makes people wonder is that since the imperial court has announced the ban on burning, where does this blue and white pot made by the people's kiln come from?
This also starts with the production of royal blue and white porcelain. According to historical records, during the reign of Emperor Ming Yingzong, he once set up a banquet to entertain his courtiers, and the tableware used was all blue and white porcelain. Since this kind of porcelain was rare at that time, many people loved it. After the feast, 580 pieces of tableware were lost. On the one hand, this incident reflects people's love for blue and white porcelain, on the other hand, it also reflects the great demand for blue and white porcelain in the royal family.
Due to the limited output of the Imperial Kiln Factory, in order to ensure the supply of royal porcelain, the imperial court ordered some folk kilns to also help produce royal blue and white porcelain, which is the official and civilian blue and white porcelain recorded in the history books.
Because the imperial court paid the kilns relatively low wages, in order to earn more profits, some kilns took the opportunity to burn blue and white porcelain for sale in the folk, but the pattern on these blue and white porcelain was completely different from the royal porcelain.
The patterns of the folk kiln blue and white porcelain are mostly based on the themes of wind and snow moon and pastoral art, and this blue and white pot with a qin and a visiting friend may have been fired during this period.
From the birth of this porcelain, it can be seen that the ban on burning issued by the imperial court was not strictly enforced in the folk. Although many of the blue and white porcelain of the Ming Dynasty were fired by folk kilns, they could not be compared with the official kilns in terms of craftsmanship or exquisite patterns. However, the products of these folk kilns have their own unique artistic style, with strong characteristics of the times.
The pattern on the blue and white jar of the Qinghua painting with the QinYou tu collected by the Qingdao Municipal Museum bears the typical artistic style of the ming dynasty folk kiln blue and white porcelain, the most prominent of which is Ruyi Yunwen. The ruyi cloud pattern on the screen is outlined with thick lines and filled with fine cloud patterns inside the outer contour, and arranged according to certain rules.
Ruyi Yunwen generally only appears on blue and white porcelain during the Ming Dynasty, usually as a background or vista for the theme pattern. Ruyi Yunwen carries the meaning of step by step and ruyi auspiciousness.
In addition to the content of the pattern, the blue and white porcelain ornaments fired in the folk kilns during the Orthodox years are also relatively simple. The ornamentation on the top of this orthodox blue-and-white tangled lotus-patterned lid jar now in the Jiangxi Provincial Museum in China is very simplified. The craftsman depicts the peach shape with green material in the center of the flower, and the peach-shaped exterior is sketched with thick lines and strips, and the petals are painted. The leaves on the tangles are smaller and unobtrusive, making them more comfortable.
The Ming Orthodox folk kiln blue and white porcelain, represented by the pictorial jar of the visiting friends with the qin, inherits the tradition of Yongxuan qinghua and has its own distinctive characteristics. Although the amount of inheritance is small, it still occupies a place in the history of Chinese porcelain.
The orthodox years of the Ming Dynasty were in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, and the blue and white porcelain style of this period reflected the characteristics of carrying on from the top to the bottom. Although the blue and white porcelain handed down during the Orthodox period is extremely rare, the influence of the blue and white porcelain of this period on the later Jiajing, Longqing and Wanli periods can still be seen from the artifacts passed down from generation to generation.
This blue and white porcelain jar collected by Qingdao Municipal Museum is rough in style, and the pattern depicts vividly and is quite innovative. It is not only a treasure of Ming Dynasty blue and white porcelain, but also reflects the style of the times during the orthodox years, and has important historical value.