Early Ming Dynasty
Hongwu, Yongle, Xuande
（1368—1435）
According to literature, since the second year of Hongwu (1369) in the Ming Dynasty, the imperial court has set up kilns in Jingdezhen (originally named "Pottery Factory", renamed "Imperial Instrument Factory" in the fourth year of Jianwen) to burn royal porcelain.
The porcelain fired in Jingdezhen during the Hongwu period not only had daily utensils, ritual vessels and utensils specially used for rewards, but also fired large porcelain tiles of various glazed colors for the construction of royal buildings in Nanjing and Fengyang (Mingzhongdu). The varieties, shapes, ornaments and other varieties of official kiln porcelain generally follow the Yuan Dynasty, with blue and white, glazed red porcelain is the most representative, the shape of the utensils is thick, the ornamentation is dense, the painting style is simple, due to technical reasons, many of them are dim in color and have distinct characteristics of the times.
Yongle and Xuande are the glorious period of the Ming Dynasty Imperial Ware Factory, not only the blue and white porcelain is known as the crown of the Ming Dynasty blue and white porcelain by posterity, but also the bright red, sacrifice blue, sweet white and other color glazed porcelain is also praised by later generations. Typical Yongle blue and white porcelain is depicted using imported materials, which are rich in color, often with iron oxide crystallization and dissipation, such as traditional Chinese ink paintings.
Yongle guan kiln products can see more foreign cultural factors, such as flower watering, wudang zun, eight square candlesticks and other instrument shapes are the products of Islamic culture influence. During the Xuande period, a large number of cricket jars, bird food pots, flower pots, vases and other utensils were fired, and porcelain such as Ru glaze and Ge glaze was successfully burned.
Ming Xuande sprinkled blue carved gold dragon pattern bowl Jingdezhen Ceramic Archaeology Institute collection
▲ Sprinkled blue is a low-temperature lead sleeve with cobalt as the colorant, and the blue glaze juice is blown on the surface of the vessel with a bamboo tube on the fired white glaze, forming different spots of different shades and shades, and the distribution is natural, such as clusters of snowflakes, so it is named "snowflake blue", which was created and burned in the Xuande official kiln. The unique shape of this object is shaped like a helmet or a dice bowl when it is reversed, giving people a sense of stability. The whole body of the utensils adopts the conical arch process, which is exquisitely made, and there are very few heirlooms of this kind of utensil.
Ming Xuande blue and white tangled branches and flowers were poured into the collection of the Palace Museum
Ming Xuande Blue Flower Bouquet Lotus Dapan Shandong Museum Collection
Ming Hongwu glaze red tangled lotus pattern large bowl Shandong Museum collection
Ming Yongle folded corner white porcelain tower brick Jingdezhen Ceramic Archaeology Institute collection
MingHongwu qinghua folded branches floral pattern lid jar Jingdezhen Ceramic Archaeological Research Institute collection
Ming Yongle bright red glaze plate collection of the Palace Museum
▲Bright red glaze, also known as sacrificial red glaze and ruby red glaze, is used during sacrifices. The glaze containing copper oxide is applied to the porcelain raw blank, and it is fired at one time by entering the kiln at a high temperature of more than 1200 degrees. Because the copper red glaze has strict requirements for the furnace temperature, the color will volatilize when the temperature is slightly higher, and the color will be darker at a slightly lower temperature, so the yield rate is extremely low. Judging from the heirlooms and excavated cultural relics, the bright red glaze of the Yongle and Xuande periods is the most common and has the highest evaluation.
Ming Yongle sweet white glaze jar collection of the Palace Museum
▲ White glaze porcelain in the Northern Dynasty fired successfully, laid the foundation for the development of later generations of color porcelain, after the development of Tang, Song and Yuan Dynasties, the firing of white glaze in the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty reached the highest level in history, white glaze porcelain carcass is as thin as eggshell, white glaze sweet with the color of white sugar, the predecessors of this white glaze more figuratively called "sweet white", for a generation of gems.
Ming Yongle blue and white flower pattern eight square candlestick Palace Museum collection
Ming Hongwu glaze red tangled peony pattern military holdings in the Palace Museum collection
▲ At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, during the Hongwu Period, the Jingdezhen kiln fired glazed red porcelain was very popular, and this glazed red peony pattern was held as a vessel used by Buddhist monks to drink water or clean their hands. Its unique shape and pure ornamentation can be called a treasure in the red porcelain in Hongwu glaze.
Military holding is a kind of water-holding vessel, also known as junqi, junchi, group holding, holding the baby, net bottle, etc., for yunyou monks, Islamists to carry water hand washing utensils. This foreign instrument was introduced to the mainland around the Sui and Tang dynasties, but flourished in the mainland for a long time, and from the Tang Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, the southern and northern kilns were continuously produced and exported in large quantities. The variety is rich and the characteristics of the times are distinct.
Mid-Ming Dynasty
Orthodox, Jingtai, Tianshun, Chenghua, Hongzhi, Zhengde
（1436—1521）
During the orthodox, Jingtai and Tianshun periods, natural disasters and man-made disasters continued, which seriously affected the porcelain industry in Jingdezhen, but did not stop firing. Since so far, no official kiln products with the numbers of these three dynasties have been found, the understanding of porcelain at this stage has been blurred for a long time, so there has been a reference to a "blank period".
Later, with the continuous excavation of physical materials and the gradual deepening of research, it was found that it inherited the Xuande porcelain style in the early stage, and in the later period, it was close to Chenghua and Hongzhi porcelain.
Chenghua guan kiln porcelain tire texture is white and delicate, the glaze is smooth and lustrous, the composition is dense and elegant, the color is clear and elegant, the painting skills are exquisite, and the utensils with small shapes are more common. Among the many varieties of porcelain, it has the highest reputation for fighting color, among which the chicken bowl cup, Coats cup, Sanqiu cup, folded branch grape pattern goblet, seahorse figure Tianzi pot, etc., are all popular and famous products.
The style of Hongzhiguan kiln porcelain is roughly the same as that of the Chenghua period, on the basis of inheriting the previous generation, there are many varieties with distinctive characteristics of the era, such as the prestigious yellow glaze porcelain, whose color is light and delicate (so it is also called "jiaohuang glaze"), surpassing Xuande and Chenghua products, and the technology has been perfected, which can be called the model of the Ming Dynasty yellow glaze porcelain.
Zhengdeguan kiln blue and white porcelain basically maintained the light and elegant style of the Chenghua and Hongzhi periods, but it has begun to gradually overdo the heavy hue of Jiajing, Longqing, and Wanli blue and white porcelain, and large utensils have also increased. Porcelain is often decorated in Arabic, and some also write the year in Ba Si Ba. At this time, peacock green glaze, plain three colors and other varieties, outstanding achievements, has become a prominent and valuable variety.
Ming Orthodox blue and white seawater pattern bowl Jingdezhen Ceramic Archaeology Institute collection
Ming Chenghua Blue and White Seawater Exotic Beast Picture Bowl-1 Collection of the Palace Museum
▲The seawater beast pattern is a decorative pattern unique to the Chenghua period. Blue and white are the characteristics of the transformation from the Yongle and Xuande periods to the Chenghua period, and the blue and white flowers are rich in color.
Ming Chenghua Blue and White Seawater Exotic Beast Tu Bowl-2 Collection of the Palace Museum
Ming Chenghua Festival Red Ground White Dragon Pattern Bowl Jingdezhen Ceramic Archaeology Institute Collection
Ming Chenghua Doucai Chicken Bowl Cup (semi-finished product) Jingdezhen Ceramic Archaeology Institute collection
Zhengde blue and white dragon wears pattern slag bucket palace museum collection
Ming orthodox blue and white dragon pattern large cylinder Jingdezhen Ceramic Archaeology Institute collection point
Late Ming Dynasty
Jiajing, Longqing, Wanli
（1522—1620）
Jiajing, Longqing, and Wanli have a system of "official burning with the people", and the official kiln porcelain is very different from before.
Manifested in the shape of the utensils, although small utensils are still finely crafted, large utensils such as large cylinders, large tanks, large bottles, large plates, etc. have increased significantly, and the process is generally rougher.
In terms of color, the production of multicolored porcelain with simple painting style and strong colors has reached its peak, especially the Wanli five-color porcelain, the number of which is unprecedented.
In terms of decoration, auspicious motifs with Taoist colors prevailed, and it was common to deform auspicious characters into ornaments. During the Jiawan period, porcelain antiques were admired, and the imitations of blue and white and doucai porcelain were quite shaped, which was a masterpiece of antique porcelain in the Ming Dynasty.
Jiajing blue and white ying luo seahorse pattern jar collection of the Palace Museum
Jiajing imitation Longquan glaze dark scratch pattern bottle collection of the Palace Museum
Jiajing red and green color cloud dragon pattern lid jar collection of the Palace Museum
Jiajing green glazed bowl from the Collection of the Palace Museum
Longqing yellow glaze dark scratch dragon pattern bowl collection of the Palace Museum
▲ Yellow glaze, is the most strictly controlled by the royal glaze color, because "yellow" and "emperor" homophony, so yellow as a royal symbol. Ming Dynasty yellow glazed porcelain is best fired in the Hongzhi Dynasty, the color is uniform and delicate, there are "chicken fat yellow", "delicate yellow" or "poured yellow" known as, later generations have many imitations.
Hongzhiguan kiln porcelain style and Chenghua period is roughly the same, on the basis of inheriting the previous generation, there are many varieties with distinctive characteristics of the era, such as the prestigious poured yellow glaze porcelain, because its firing quality exceeds Xuande, Chenghua products, the technology has been perfected pure fire, the color is light and delicate, named "Jiaohuang glaze", which can be called the model of Ming Dynasty pouring yellow glaze porcelain.
Wanli blue and white Sanskrit lotus-style wash-1 Collection of the Palace Museum
Wanli blue and white Sanskrit lotus-style wash-2 Palace Museum collection
▲ During the Ming Dynasty, the imperial court had close contacts with the third Dalai Sonam Gyatso, the leader of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism, and the Yellow Sect culture spread to the court, and the production of this Sanskrit baptism should be related to this.
Wanli multicolored hollowed-out floral dragon pattern rectangular lid box collection of the Palace Museum
▲ Wanli Dynasty, multicolored porcelain is extremely prestigious. Wanli Five Colors have the characteristics of thick carcass, glazed milky white lustrous, strong color contrast, and more use of open light and hollowing process. This lid box is a more typical Wanli five-color porcelain.
(The picture and text are from the Internet, and the copyright belongs to the original author)