A Study On The Decorative Painting Of Cizhou Kilns During The Song And Jin Dynasties

It is acknowledged by the academia that Cizhou Ware was the largest folk kiln in ancient Northern China.Thanks to the discovery of an ancient town of Song Dynasty in nowadays Jvlu Town,Hebei Province,Cizhou Ware was firstly unveiled in 1918.With the research by Tianjin Museum and the excavation by Peiping Historical Museum,well-known for its products' delicate ornamentation,this folk kiln rarely mentioned in history has attracted widely attention from scholars both home and abroad.The history of Cizhou Ware can date back to the late Five Dynasties or the early Northern Song Dynasty.Absorbing and adopting other kilns' advanced technologies and techniques,and combining its characteristics in order to reform and innovate bravely,after references and gropes,Cizhou Ware created uniquely charismatic ornamentation on colored painting of porcelains.It matured gradually in late Northern Song and peaked in Jin Dynasty.In Song and Jin Dynasties,ancient China's politics,economics,cultures and arts highly developed,and porcelain industry was also prosperous.Simplicity,vividness,lucidity and unconstraint,the distinctive characteristics of colored ornamentation have extensive and far-reaching influences on the arts afterwards.This dissertation is an integrated and in-depth systemic research on ornamentation of colored painting on Cizhou Ware in Song and Jin Dynasties.It mainly concludes the following six sections:Firstly,introduction raised the significance of specific discussion on ornamentation of colored painting on Cizhou Ware in Song and Jin Dynasties.After collection and arrangement of the past research attainments,this section introduces the history of the research on Cizhou Ware,its ornamentation of the colored painting,and the related viewpoints and achievements.The concepts and scope of the subjects investigated are defined.Corresponding research thoughts and approaches are proposed.Chapter 1 focuses on type analysis and historical periodization of ornamentation of colored painting on Cizhou Ware in Song and Jin Dynasties.The typical thematic ornamentation selected by the type analysis is a concentrated reflection of era and region,cultural tradition,aesthetic consciousness,views and values,social fashion and ethnic customs on porcelain's decoration.According to the contents of the themes,the ornamentation can be divided into four types:plants,animals,humans and landscapes.Every type can be divided into inferior ones as per concrete conditions.Firstly,the histories of every ornamentation type before Song and Jin Dynasties are briefly introduced.The decorations on porcelains are reflections on not only real life but also history.The contents and styles of the former and contemporary arts have important influence on its development and evolution.Secondly,based on summarization,arrangement,comparison and classification on colored painting,a research on archaeological typology is done.In order to understand and analyze the general features of colored painting thoroughly and deeply,the origins of samples author analyzes are fairly wide-spread,including not only the materials discovered in kiln sites,tombs and cellarage,but also private and museum-collected Wares,for the latter ones,the author identities and adopts seriously.Finally,the historical periodization and concrete times of the colored paintings are discussed.Based on the coexistence of all Wares in archaeological units(kiln sites,tombs,cellarage,etc.),the relations of stratigraphic succession or break and relevant Calendar data,considering colored ornamentation's characteristics such as crafts and techniques,layouts,techniques of expression,aesthetic styles,etc.,the author divided the development and evolution of Cizhou Ware's ornamentation in Song and Jin Dynasties into three periods.On the basis of the periodization,the characteristics and concrete start-stop time of each period are discussed.Chapter 2 analyzes the social background of the formation of Cizhou Ware's colored painting,and discusses the process and characteristics of the historical development of colored painting under such a background.During Song and Jin Dynasties,to some extents,a number of factors,such as society,economics,politics,military,arts,aesthetics,the industry of porcelain have decisive,influential and restrictive effect on Cizhou Ware and the ornamentation of its colored painting.The secession in Five Dynasties was ended by Northern Song Dynasty.The latter focused on centralization of authority,and social stability was maintained.Thanks to the policy of easing class conflict by the rulers,social economy developed well in Northern Song Dynasty.Moreover,thanks to the rulers' open-minded standpoints and the respects for culture,the people's mind was open and the culture was developed,the literati class was expanded,plebeian culture boomed,and more people were educated.The academia then emphasized humanistic pragmatism.Theories like "study the nature of things" influenced people's aesthetics and practice.The rulers of Northern Song Dynasty's emphasis on literature and art led the upholding and pursuing for arts by the whole society.An unprecedented prosperity was reached,and it was more of plebification and secularization.The progress and achievement in Song Dynasty were far more than the dynasties before.During the Jurchen's perishing Liao Dynasty and invading Song Dynasty,Northern China(i.e.the main kiln sites of Cizhou Ware)was destructed.Since the beginning of North against South between Jin Dynasty and Southern Song Dynasty,the rulers of Jin Dynasty had implemented rehabilitating policies and social economy was rejuvenated gradually.Generally,it can be regarded as the continuation and development of Northern Song Dynasty.Some parts of it exceeded that in Northern Song Dynasty.Objectively,the Jurchens' migration into Northern China led by Jin rulers and Meng'anmouke's southward migration promoted the communication among ethnic groups.Approaches such as Jin's reform following Han people's political system and moving the capital to Yanjing(Now Beijing)also promoted feudalization and Chinesization of Jurchen society.Cultural integration reflected in the maintenance of advanced economic and cultural traditions in Central China,and Jurchens accepted Chinesization,accelerated transformation in the process of Chinesization,and even added new factors into the Central China's Culture.Apparently,Jin's literature and art were impacted by Northern Song Dynasty.The court culture and scholasticism were weakened;plebeian culture obtained opportunity and developed well.Ceramics in Song and Jin Dynasties leaped forward in technology and craft.It mainly reflected in coal's use instead of wood,development of furnaces design,reform in loading and burning technology and innovations in decoration craft.The ornamentation of colored painting of Cizhou Ware was formed in Song and Jin Dynasty.On one hand,its developing status and process were results of the social factors like politics,economics,culture and arts.On the other hand,it is also a reflection of the social development,economic advancement,flourishment of literature and art and prosperity of ceramics.Chapter 3 summarizes the artistic characteristics of colored painting on Cizhou Ware and the development and evolution of its ornamentation and craft.The artistic characteristics can be concluded as four aspects.Firstly,subject and content.It focused on the faithful reproduction of the objective world and the realization of the real life.Secondly,composition.From the perspective of decoration,it can be divided into three types:decorative composition of patterns;decoration close to Chinese painting and pattern-type arrangement;single decorative composition close to Chinese painting.From the perspective of painting,it has three characteristics:complexity and simplicity;partial and entirety;pace and rhythm.Thirdly,crafts and techniques.The characteristics of traditional Chinese realistic painting knife are its solidity and dynamics.The advantage of Chinese writing brush is its freeness.The knife and brush are cooperative.Freeness helps Cizhou Ware rid of formalness and rigidness,while ingenuity avoids extensiveness and humbleness.The techniques are expressive of faithfulness and conciseness.Fourthly,styles and aesthetics.Absorbing both patterns and paintings,Cizhou Ware,Cizhou Ware is both decorative and realistic.Single and compound Fifthly,On the basis of conclusion on artistic characteristics of the ornamentation of colored painting on Cizhou Ware in Song and Jin Dynasties.The themes of the ornamentation are similar,their effects are similar too.It indicates the mutual relevance and similarities but the different source,approaches and styles.Hence,it can be easier to recognize their common appearance,own regulations and stage characteristics and the reason why they continually develop or disappear finally via comparing the previous ornamentation and contemporary ones,unveiling their generation,development,matureness,fading and their mutual influence.Chapter 4 discusses the relevance between ornamentation of colored painting on Cizhou Ware in Song and Jin Dynasties and other types of arts.As per the four types in the first chapter,i.e.plants,animals,humans and landscapes,a representative is selected in each type.Considering other arts types and works in Song and Jin Dynasties,such as painting(passed-down paintings on silk and paper,tomb frescoes,religious mural,colored paintings in architecture,woodcut pictures,etc.),sculptures(tomb sculptures,tomb complex sculptures,religious sculptures,sculptures in architecture,ceramic sculptures),metalwork(gold and silver Ware,bronze Ware),dyeing and weaving,lacquerware etc.,the author tries to dig out the relevance between colored painting on Cizhou Ware and other art types in Song and Jin Dynasties.From the perspectives of iconography,fine arts,history and culturology,the author does an integrated and in-depth analysis and research,so as to discover their similarities and variance,seek the source of the inheritance and variation of their contents and forms,clarify the reasons why they have relevance and the approaches,process and conclusion of the relevance.The conclusion is that to some extents,colored painting on Cizhou Ware in Song and Jin Dynasties was influenced by a number of art types,besides;colored painting also influenced other arts more or less potentially.Chapter 5 clarifies the thoughts reflected on the ornamentation of colored painting on Cizhou Ware in Song and Jin Dynasties.In the process of social and historical development,the contents and forms of the ornamentation vary as per times and regions.It is the result of worships,sacrifices,etiquettes,aesthetics,religions,legends,customs,geography and climate.Therefore,it has close connections with specific times,national and cultural systems,and from numbers of aspects,it has vivid and direct reflections on culture cultivating it and life of its people.Via the ornamentation,we can understand the time and recreate and appreciate their thoughts and viewpoints.Ornamentation of colored paintings on Cizhou Ware in Song and Jin Dynasties resulted from the social and cultural background in the period.The themes,types and styles are reflections of the typical viewpoints then,which included the following five types:First,feudal etiquette.On one hand,it reflects imperial power.On the other hand,it is norms for feudal laws.Second,praying for sons and long-life.It shows the people's strong awareness for continuation of the ethnic group and life.Third,getting fortunes and riding of disasters.It shows a common idea that people are willing to have good luck and avoid harm.Fourth,richness and honor utility.It reveals that people are pursuing for happiness,richness and high official.Fifth,cultivating moral characters.It includes nobility,honesty,uprightness and morality.Via overall analysis of the contents above,this dissertation concludes the periodization and rules of the development of the ornamentation of colored painting on Cizhou Ware,the close connections between it and the society and life then.Its unique artistic style and characteristics are discussed,and the relevance between it and the contemporary arts is clarified,notion that it conveyed is derived.On the basis of type analysis on typical thematic ornamentation,Chapter 1 divides the history into concrete times.Chapter 4 discusses the wide relevance between colored painting of Cizhou Ware and its contemporary arts.As core of the dissertation,these two chapters were never discussed before.They are innovations of the dissertation.Last,a conclusion is drawn:Absorbing all advantages from other arts,considering its condition,the ornamentation of Cizhou Ware's colored painting not only satisfied the need of the masses and the market,but also was full of living elements.Suit both refined and popular tastes,it was full of interest,charm and individuality.At the same time,we should also realize the extraordinary creations and contributions of folk painting artists.Thanks to them,all the valuable material and spiritual fortunes were kept for us offspring.