Comprehensive Scientific Analyses Of Porcelains Of The Song Dynasty

As one of the four major ancient civilizations, China has a long and continuous history and brilliant culture. In the Chinese history of civilization, the creation and development of ceramic have played a significant role, which represented the progress of productivity and the fruit of ancient Chinese people's wisdom.Since the earliest pottery from the early Neolithic Age, as early as 10,000 years ago, the development of Chinese ceramics has experienced three technical breakthroughs and five milestones. And as the technique progressed, there has been more and more delicate ceramic articles and refined craftsmanship.From the 90s of the 20th century, scientific analysis has been applied in the study of ancient ceramics, and the research technique and methodology were gradually improved herefrom. Generally speaking, the analytical method of ancient ceramics can be divided as compositional analysis and structural analysis. Those methods revealed the physical and chemical characteristics of ancient ceramics in terms of element component, microstructure, mineral composition and so on, and furthermore explored the information of the material provenance and production technology.This doctoral dissertation concentrated on the application of modern analytical techniques in the study of Song porcelains. The first chapter summarized the historical and economical background of the Song dynasty, and the development of porcelain manufacture at this period; meanwhile, this chapter introduced some common analytical methods applied in the study of ancient ceramics, and briefly discussed their advantages and limitations.Celadon wares of the official kiln were one of the most important kinds of porcelain in the Song dynasty, which represented the highest level of productivity of that time. The long-term controversy on the location of the Northern and Southern Song official kiln gradually settled down after the excavation of Laohudong, Hangzhou of Zhejiang Province in the 1990s and Zhanggongxiang, Ruzhou of He'nan Province in the beginning of this century, and the study on the unearthed cultural relics. In the second chapter of the dissertation,24 celadon shards from Zhanggongxiang and Laohudong were analyzed in terms of appearance, microstructure, firing temperature and chemical composition, and therefore the relationship between the products from those two kilns were discussed.The third chapter tried to explore the transmission route of celadon in the Song dynasty. Chromatic aberration and element composition were analyzed to find out the celadon transmission route from Ru and Zhanggongxiang kiln of the Northern Song, to Yue and Laohudong kiln of the Southern Song dynasty.There was a fashion of "tea appreciation" in the Song dynasty, and black-glazed porcelain articles got prevalent because they could accent the whiteness of the tea. And in the fourth chapter, several black-glazed porcelain shards excavated from Luozhou city site of Hubei Province were studied in terms of microstructure and chemical composition. The element components were analyzed with SPSS in comparison with precedent result, and the provenance of those black-glazed porcelain shards were primarily identified.Qingbai, the bluish white porcelain, was a kind of jade-like porcelain developed in the Song dynasty, and the research on its provenance had been the focus of the Qingbai study. In the fifth chapter, we analyzed several Qingbai shards excavated from Luozhou city site of Hubei Province to understand their physical and chemical properties. In comparison with other Qingbai shards with confirmed provenance, those samples' provenance was determined. Furthermore, several Qingbai and celadon shards were selected to discover the difference and relationship between those two kinds of porcelain by comparing their chemical components.This dissertation explored several important issues about the development the Song porcelain. We provided evidence that Zhanggongxiang kiln was the official kiln of the Nothern Song dynasty by comparing the celadon shards of Zhanggongxiang and Laohudong kilns in terms of the firing temperature, microstructure, chemical component of the body and glaze, and the trend of elemental composition between the body and glaze. And we discussed the transmission route of official celadon in the Song dynasty, which was Ru kiln-Zhanggongxiang kiln-Dilingtou of Yue kiln-Laohudong kiln. Furthermore, black-glazed and Qingbai porcelain shards excavated from a city site were studied to indentify the provenance by comparing the composition of microelement with other samples. The abundance and profundity of the Song porcelain is, indeed, far beyond the research of a single doctoral dissertation. However, this dissertation involved several important kinds of Song porcelain, such as the celadon, Qingbai and black-glazed porcelain, among which the celadon of the official kilns especially represented the highest level of the production technique in the Song dynasty; in this sense, this dissertation may relect the panoramic technological and artistic achievement of the Song porcelain to some extent.