Yuan Qinghua "Ghost Valley Down the Mountain" large pot
In Chinese antique porcelain, Yuan Qinghua seems to exist like a god - yuan qinghua represented by the large jar of "ghost valley descending the mountain" has repeatedly created price myths on the global auction floor; yuan qinghua represented by the plum vase of "Xiao He Yue chasing Han Xintu" is mostly the treasure of museums around the world. It is worth noting that although the Yuan qinghua produced in Jingdezhen has a history of nearly 700 years, the history of systematic understanding and research of Yuanqinghua is only 70 years. Yuan Qinghua has left infinite reverie for future generations, and also left difficult puzzles to be discovered by the academic community.
- Editor
Yuanqinghua Cloud Dragon Pattern Beast Ear Ring Lid Jar, Gao'an Museum Collection
Before the Yuan Dynasty, the aesthetic pursuit of Chinese porcelain with the beauty of the scholar can be described as the pinnacle, represented by the five famous kilns of the Song Dynasty. By the time of the Yuan Dynasty, the aesthetic orientation of the Mongolian nation "blue sky and white clouds" on horseback opened a brilliant new chapter in the aesthetics of oriental ancient ceramics. This is the Yuan Qinghua fired in Jingdezhen. Before the Yuan, there was no blue and white one. The so-called "Tang Qinghua" and "Song Qinghua", which are still controversial in the academic community, are only non-mainstream blue color porcelains fired in Gongxian kilns and Longquan kilns, and have not been recognized by the officials and people in the Tang and Song Dynasties. From the beginning of the Yuan Qinghua, Chinese porcelain no longer adhered to minimalism and entered an era in which blue flowers and painted paintings bloomed vigorously.
Yuan Qinghua has won the pursuit of the world with the mysterious blue of Su Ma. However, it was soon discovered that Yuan Qinghua was an embarrassing proposition that could not be confirmed by historical documents - the history of qinghua firing lasted for more than 500 years, and there was no record of the firing of blue and white porcelain in the Yuan Dynasty. All literature believes that Chuang Qinghua began when Ming Yongle Zheng He went to the West and brought back Su Ma Liqing. The Forbidden City has a collection of many cultural relics from the Song To the Ming and Qing dynasties, and the lack of records of blue and white porcelain from the Yuan Dynasty also supports this view. Until 1952, the British Daweide Foundation hid the eleventh year blue and white elephant ear vase, which was set by the researchers as the standard of the 14th century blue and white porcelain generation, and was recognized by Chinese ancient ceramic scholars around the world, and named "Zhizheng Qinghua", thus lifting the mysterious veil of Yuan Qinghua. There is a saying that there are about 300 yuanqinghua complete pieces in the world, of which more than 200 are abroad and more than 100 are in domestic state-owned collection institutions. Although this statement has been questioned, it also confirms the rarity and preciousness of Yuan Qinghua from one side.
Yuanjingdezhen blue lotus petal plate, Shanghai Museum collection
Before and after the Yuan dynasty, Su Ma liqing, which was used for the color of ceramics, subverted the aesthetic standards of the Song people who regarded plain beauty as beauty
Su Ma li qing, there are also called "Su Ni Ma Qing", "Su Bo Ni Qing" and "Su Ni Bo Qing". The earliest record of Su Ma's departure from Qing is Wang Shimao's "Peeping into the Heavens and The Outer Ride" during the Ming Dynasty: "... The official kiln, my dynasty is specially located in Jingde Town, Fuliang County, Yongle, Xuande, and The Inner House is burned, which is still expensive. Decorated with Su Ma Liqing..."
Su Ma Liqing, as a pigment, is used for ceramic decoration, creating outstanding blue and white varieties in the history of Chinese ceramics - Yuan Qinghua and Yongxuanguan kiln qinghua. It comes from the ancient Persian region, and it is also said to come from Sumatra in the South China Sea. Around the time of the Yuan Dynasty, the ceramic craftsmen of Jingdezhen successfully applied "Su Ma Li Qing" to the color of ceramics. Using white porcelain as the ground, su ma liqing as the material, under the glaze paint flowers, birds, spirit beasts and figures. The Aesthetic Standards of the Song People, who regarded the beauty of the plain, have come to a subversion. The blue flowers of the East could have been so intense. Yuan Dynasty scholars and Westerners found common ground in the aesthetics of ceramics. In the mid-fourteenth century, Jingdezhen craftsmen used Su Ma Liqing, which was sold back from the Middle East by merchants, to create brilliant blue and white porcelain, which was sold throughout China, Southeast Asia, and even further afield in Central Asia. Blue and white replaced Yingqing as the mainstream product of Jingdezhen.
The biggest charm of Su Ma Liqing lies in the achievement of the bright and bright Yuan Dynasty "Zhizheng Qinghua". Zhizheng (1341-1368), the era name of Yuan Huizong, the last emperor of the Yuan Dynasty. At that time, the ruler's regime was in decline, and many parts of Jiangnan were subject to resistance by divided warlords and civilian forces. It is a miracle that the thousand-year-old kiln fire in Jingdezhen can survive the gap between the wars of all sides, and the blue flowers shine brightly. The Han warlords and White Lotus believers in the south reverently worship the blue and white flowers, and on top of the general daily aesthetics, they also gave the pure spiritual meaning of the blue and white porcelain. For twenty years from the eleventh year of Zhizheng, Jingdezhen has been caught in the vortex of war. The status of the porcelain capital was not weakened, on the contrary, it was able to grow against the trend in the cracks of the war. Everyone in the world knows that blue and white porcelain was the most powerful Chinese manufacturing at that time, which could bring rich trade income. Those who pass by strongmen need military expenses and need blue and white porcelain. The surrounding fighting was very hot. Yaoli and Hutian fires are also very strong.
Before yuan qinghua, the painting and engraving of porcelain were completed by folk ceramic craftsmen. Because of the war at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, a large number of folk artists and Han calligraphers and painters in the north invariably gathered in the rear of Jingdezhen, where the war was relatively calm. The joining of professional painters has greatly improved the painting level of blue and white porcelain at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. For example, in the yuanqinghua moon shadow plum ornament, we see the shadow of Wang Mian and other literati calligraphy and painting.
At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the painters of Jingdezhen found that this kind of thing called Su Ma Liqing had a melancholy blue with purple in it, which was naturally suitable for writing their emotions. The scholars in Jiangnan are crowded in the narrow landscape for a long time, and naturally accumulate more strength to break through outward. Su Ma left the blue and achieved a breakthrough in blue hair color, from the near ink black to the distant blue. The painters of Jingdezhen walked out of yesterday's study, and the landscape in front of them suddenly opened up - the blue pine smoke was colorful, gorgeous and intense, clear and transparent; the crystal spots at the condensation place were self-flickering, dark and thick crystal spots, concave to the glaze, deep into the fetal bone, the skin was as uneven as the undulating emotions.
The worship of nature and the pursuit of the realm of life continue the context of the two Song Dynasties to the Yuan. The blue and white painters found emotional resonance in the chaotic world. They hid in the southern courtyard, painting the arrogant Dragon phoenix Qilin, the skinny moon shadow plum blossom, the tangled Xia Lian Qiuju, also painting the "Eight Immortals", painting the "Quanzhen Seven Sons", painting heroic character stories: Ghost Guzi descending the mountain to help Sun Zhen, General Meng Tian, Xiao He Yue chasing Han Xin, Zhou Yafu Tun Army Fine Willow Camp, Wei Chi Gong Single Whip to save the Tang King, Liu Guan Zhang San Gu Mao Lu to invite Zhuge Liang, fighting tiger hero Wu Song three bowls but gang...
Yuan Qinghua elephant ear vase, british Great Vid Foundation collection
The archaeological discovery of blue flowers in the Yuan Dynasty cellars of Gao'an, Jiangxi, empirically confirms the existence of yuan qinghua, linking the cracks in ceramic memory
On the afternoon of November 29, 1980, brilliant blue flowers bloomed at the infrastructure construction site of Jiangxi Gao'an Second Motor Factory. A hoe from the migrant workers opened the door to a treasure house. In the cellar with a diameter of 1.3 meters and a depth of 0.8 meters, there are 245 cultural relics of the Yuan Dynasty, of which 19 are blue and white porcelain. This confirms the existence of Yuan Qinghua from the perspective of archaeological findings, while the collections of Yuan Qinghua in Iran and Turkey show exactly that Yuan Qinghua came from China.
For a long time to come, cultural relics experts continued to maintain their passion for this batch of cultural relics, and gradually magnified the charm of discovery. This is a major discovery about the blue and white porcelain of the Yuan Dynasty, the first in the country and the third in the world.
Among the stars in the pile of treasures, among the 19 pieces of yuan qinghua, one is a cloud dragon pattern animal ear lid jar, two are cloud dragon pattern lotus leaf lid jars, four are cloud dragon pattern plum bottles with lids, two are peony cloud shoulder pattern lid plum bottles, one is a flower with lid pattern, and nine are various goblets.
Animal ear lid jar. Animal ear nose ring, with cover, animal head. The solid and round shape gives people a sense of security - like Maitreya Bodhisattva, with a large belly, he can use unused debris, and he will not overturn it. Peony ornamentation and cloud dragon, carved on the most open abdomen. The large ball of peonies, opened in the most folk posture, opened with a big grin and no reservations. The wandering dragon, above and below the dragon pattern, leaves a large piece of flying white, giving people the imagination of the sky and white clouds. The dragon is the inspiration of the ancient Chinese people, it represents a certain sacrosanct power and status, which is regarded by the emperors and sought after by the people. Depicted in a blue and white pot, the dragon is slender, curved, the dragon head is up, the double horns are backward, the eyes are facing, the neck is thin, the belly is curved, the tail of the snake, the dragon scales are dense, and the three claws are particularly powerful. The strength of these three claws is different from the painting method of the dynasties after the Yuan Dynasty. Cultural relics experts use this as a logo to distinguish the dragon patterns of the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties.
Lotus leaf lid jar. There are two of them, the main ones are three-clawed dragons and tangled peonies. The chasing dragon shows a certain mysterious power, and the peony gives this mysterious and unpredictable sense of wealth and magnificence that the folk are happy to see. The realistic lotus leaf cover, the wonderful combination with mandarin fish, blue fish, catfish and crabs, and the aristocratic aesthetic of strength and wealth give natural interest, as well as the liveliness and vitality of the folk. The dynamic dragon, as well as those small fresh things, set off by static peony lotus leaves, the aesthetic pursuit of opposition and unity, is clearly a blue and white, pleasing summer color ink map. In June, the pond in the southern afternoon was surprisingly quiet. There was a wind blowing in the distance. The sound of the wind cut very finely and quickly, wrapped in distant raindrops. The ruffle horns rose sharply, as if they were going to fly. Then, the protagonist, the three-clawed dragon, is about to appear — it's what stirs up the mid-afternoon storm.
Plum bottle with lid. Or peony and dragon pattern. However, the dragon pattern appeared with four claws. The official kiln system of the Yuan Dynasty has not yet been clearly established, but the symbol of the imperial power of the dragon has long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Five claws, the power in the hands of the emperor has reached the extreme. Four claws, three claws, the status class moved down. The number of claws provides information on the identity of the owner of the blue and white porcelain from one side. The six plum bottles reflect the highest level of aesthetics of desk furnishings since the Song Dynasty. Plum bottles were originally used to insert plums. The porcelain vase of plum was inserted, and the blue and white flowers also became lively with the dark fragrance of plums. Six plum bottles, with the words "Li, Le, Shu, Count, Shoot, And Yu", were written by the owner at the bottom of the vessel. Since the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty, etiquette has gradually become our daily aesthetic program. The "Six Arts" are written by the owner at the bottom of the plum bottle, and the motto is reverently enshrined and observed. Rules, correct the daily attitude of each day. It's like six attitudes to life, not just craftsmanship.
Judging from the grade of the excavated blue and white vessels, the researchers believe that this batch of cellar blue flowers should not be owned by ordinary people. They found information about a family in the Gao'an County Chronicle - Wu Xingfu and Wu Liangchen's father and son in Wujia Village, Shangquan, Gao'an in the middle and late Yuan Dynasty, and Wu Xingfu once served as a lieutenant of the Yuan Dynasty. It is believed that the owner of Gao'an's cellar is the Wu family. It is said that there are still descendants of the Wu family in Gao'an. The "Chronicle of Gao'an County and Military Defense" records that in the eleventh and twelfth years of Zhengzheng, the war in Gao'an was particularly chaotic. The industry speculates that this batch of blue flowers is likely to be owned by the Duwei family, hidden to avoid war, and today it can be seen again, becoming a cultural relic that links the cracks in the memory of ceramics.
Yuanqinghua dragon pattern lotus leaf lid jar, Gao'an Museum collection
The hero worship complex of the painters appeals to Qinghua's pen, achieving the most unique character story theme of Yuan Qinghua
The blue and white flowers stored in the Yuan Dynasty of Gao'an in Jiangxi are all flower and bird themes, but the most unique and enjoyable art of Yuan Qinghua is the theme of character stories.
During the period from the Southern Song Dynasty to the Yuan Dynasty, dialect books, Yuanqu songbooks and New Year paintings (prints) widely entered the city, directly spawning the prosperity of Yuan miscellaneous dramas. Guan Hanqing, Wang Shifu, Bai Pu, Ma Zhiyuan and a number of other playwrights, based on the miscellaneous drama works created by folk history themes, put the stories of heroes of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, Han, Tang, Song and Yuan dynasties on the stage, and were deeply sought after by the common people. At this time, the creation and burning of Jingdezhen Qinghua just made the character story have a better daily carrier. Previously, Cizhou Kiln also had a small number of character story themes such as cans, bottles and pillows, which laid the groundwork for the Jingdezhen kiln to burn Yuan Qinghua character story works. In fact, the craftsmen of the Cizhou kiln came to Jingdezhen to escape the war, and also brought such ideas to the kiln. As a result, the flourishing of the miscellaneous dramas at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the frequent wars of the late Yuan and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty objectively stimulated the hero worship complex of the Jingdezhen painters and appealed to Qinghua's pen. After repeated comparative experiments, the craftsmen found that the ellipsoidal tank body was more suitable for the complex story of the characters because the circumferential surface was flat and wider than other porcelain. The hero's heroic mood is very consistent with the majestic blue and white pot, and the temperament is very consistent.
The famous "Yuan Qinghua Eight Big Pots" (Blue and White Character Story Big Jars) are all rare and unique. With the exception of the Incense Burner Jar from the Private Collection of The West Chamber in Asia and the Jinxiang Pavilion Jar from the Collection of Wang Dingqian of Taiwan, the remaining six pieces are based on folk hero stories.
Look at the British collector Eskenach's collection of the "Ghost Valley Down the Mountain" jar. At Christie's in London on July 12, 2005, it sold for £15.688 million, equivalent to about RMB230 million, setting a record for the highest auction of Chinese art in the world at that time. The story depicted in the jar is a passage of "Sun Pang Douzhi", but the main body of the performance is Sun Pang's master Ghost Guzi. The sergeant opened the way with a spear, the tiger and leopard pulled the cart, and the young general held the flag on his horse and wrote the word "Ghost Valley". The protagonist, Ghost Valley, sits in the middle car, no shouting, no bloodshed, no strategy, not even an opponent. In order to render the quiet, the painter meticulously depicts the pine bamboo and grass on the side of the road with a fine brush, and those grasses, which bloom by themselves. The ghost valley was meditating, the general followed, the soldier did not speak, and the tiger and leopard bowed their heads. Pine is silent, bamboo is silent, flowers and plants are silent. If it is so silent, it must indicate that there is a loud voice somewhere, that is, the word "ghost valley" on the military flag. The admiral plots and surrenders without a fight – the so-called highest state of wisdom and justice.
Yuan Qinghua Sangu Maolu Picture Jar, Pegsus Foundation Collection
The "Three Gu Maolu" jar collected by the Peggers Foundation depicts a well-known story in Chinese folklore - "Three Gu Maolu", at the end of the Han Dynasty, Liu Bei visited Zhuge Liang three times to help him. In the painting, Zhuge Liang is wearing a soft scarf and wearing a robe, sitting cross-legged under the cang pine, the book boy is standing with the book card in both hands, and a boy with a bun in front of him is leaning over to pray. On the other side of the picture, there is a leafy weeping willow. Under the tree, Liu Bei wore a crossed foot and a robe, and bowed down to pray. Guan Yu and Zhang Fei whispered on the side, and the painting vividly reflected Zhuge Liang's high elegance, Liu Bei's thirst for talent, and the anxious and irritable looks of Guan and Zhang, showing the superb painting skills of the Yuan Dynasty. The heroic story of the late Yuan and early Ming Dynasty, "Three Gu Maolu" is the most deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Moving this story to the blue and white jar conveys simple values, loyalty, righteousness, and wisdom.
Heroes are not all tragic and magnificent, but also feminine. The "Shōgun Desetu" jar in the Izumitsu Museum of Art in Japan allows people to see the other side of the hero. The lid is lotus leaf shaped, with lotus leaf veins and buttons. The mouth of the jar is decorated with seawater waves, and the shoulders have a tangled lotus pattern, and the tibia is a deformed lotus petal pattern. The story tells the story of the heroine Wang Zhaojun out of the jam. This jar brings the melancholy beauty to the extreme: the protagonist and two handmaidens, in a high bun, dressed in beautiful clothes. There were also two groups of six men, one of whom held "Hai Dongqing" (a northern bird) in his hand, and some researchers said that the man was the husband of Zhaojun and His kin. The mountains are rocky and the texture is very strong. Shochiku is particularly well painted, as if it were entirely from the hands of first-class literati calligraphers and painters at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. The climax of the picture is the pipa in Zhaojun's hand - it is fixed at the core of the picture. As the most important prop in the plot, it seems to express the emotions of the protagonist Wang Zhaojun: "Once you go to the heart, you will not return, and you will be pitiful to exhaust the Han Palace clothes" and "Qianzai Pipa as a nonsense". Su Ma, who is known for his quietness, portrays the inner emotions of the characters into three points. Through the quiet oriental blue, we seem to hear a woman, resolutely, facing the homeland, "Slave go also..."
In addition, the "Hundred Flowers Pavilion Picture" jar now in the Mano Art Museum in Japan, the "Wei Chi Gong Single Riding Savior Picture" large jar in the Boston Museum in the United States, and the "Zhou Yafu Fine Willow Camp Map" large jar now in the Anzai Art Museum in Japan are all heroic character themes.
In addition to the eight large jars, there are also many yuanqinghua large instruments that paint the stories of heroes and characters.
A plum vase of "Xiao He Yue chasing Han Xintu" is a rare treasure in the blue and white porcelain of the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties, and the treasure of the Nanjing Municipal Museum. The protagonists of the story, Xiao He and Han Xin, the left arm of Gaozu Liu Bang, are one article and one martial artist. The writer Xiao He visited the elite of the world for his master and used it for his own purposes. Han Xin appeared at this time. He first ran to Xiang Liang, and then attached Xiang Yu. Han Xin is a military genius who likes to come up with ideas. Ideas are not put into practice, and even the best ideas are not verified. He then switched to Liu Bang, but still sat on the cold bench. No one used his ideas, and he couldn't bring soldiers, so he abandoned Liu again. A generation of military personnel is about to be buried. After a comprehensive investigation, Xiao He decided to chase Han Xin back and formally recommend him to Liu Bang. Later, this story was moved to the stage of the miscellaneous drama at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, and it was also painted on the blue and white plum vase. This bottle was excavated in 1950 from the tomb of King Muying of Qianning Zhaojing, a founding hero of the early Ming Dynasty in Niushou Mountain, Jiangning County, Jiangsu Province, and is believed by the archaeological community to have been burned at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, known as "the first plum bottle in the world". Mu Ying was zhu Yuanzhang's founding minister, and the story painted with Xiao He and Han Xin as a funeral must have its deep meaning.
The plum vase of "Xiao He Yue chasing Han Xintu" is a rare treasure in the blue and white porcelain of the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties
Another example is the "General Mengtian" jade pot spring bottle, which was excavated in Changde, Hunan in 1956 and is now in the Hunan Provincial Museum. Meng Tian led an army of 300,000 people to attack the Xiongnu in the north, moved the people to the border, built the Great Wall, opened a straight road, and maintained the security of the vast northern frontier for the Qin Dynasty. Later, Qin Shi Huang fell ill and died on the way to the tour, and the palace coup d'état. Meng Tian, who followed Gongzi Fusu, was given death. The death of Monty is humiliating. This bottle depicts a general review of the Huns, an ordinary battlefield detail. In the picture, the only one with dramatic color is the four-character banner with the name: "General Mengtian". The painting also delicately paints details, the fashionable dress of the characters, and the quiet flowers and trees, which seem to reveal a certain emotion of the Han craftsmen in Jingdezhen at the end of the Yuan Dynasty -- let the inner suffocation, fade, and fade again.
Jingdezhen painters moved the heroic stories on the stage to the porcelain, narrating the inner heroism in the way of blue and white, leaving a brilliant and unique stroke for Chinese porcelain.
Yuan Qinghua Mengtian General Tuyu Kettle Spring Bottle Collection of Hubei Provincial Museum
Author: Shen Rongjun
Editor: Fan Xin
Planner: Fan Xin
Editor-in-Charge: Xiaofang Xing
*Wenhui exclusive manuscript, please indicate the source when reprinting.