Marlene. Dumars The Watercolor Language

From the Qing Dynasty to the 1950s, blue-and-white plates with fish patterns were prevalent among the people in our country. The lines were unconstrained and smooth, like floating clouds or flowing water, vividly outlining fish with a few strokes. Under-glaze blue and red cyprinoids of Jingdezhen in Jiangxi, double-fish freehand brushworks of Zibo in Shandong, fish and lotus patterns of Chengcheng in Shaanxi and blue-and-white mandarin fish of Dehua in Fujian—all those patterns have been greatly favored for several hundred years by the people and on their dining tables. They record a period of simple folk history with vivid artistic language, and embody a precious national faith as a result of their profound culture. The long prevalence of blue-and-white fish-pattern plates is not occasional. It is closely related to its unique style and features and profound cultural connotation. These plates have a rich variety of patterns, flexible compositional pictures, tranquil and elegant glaze of white and blue, fluent and unbridled lines, clean and pure styles of life. Having always been the favorites among people, they reflect the meanings of auspiciousness and abundance, promotion and prosperity, multiplication of life, happiness and contentment. These meanings add strength and color to people's spiritual pursuit. The flexible tension and convoluted dynamism of fish on the plates express the spirit of self-perfection of our people. It is the endless pursuit of new generations and the perfect revelation of Chinese wisdom, spirit and mentality. On the basis of field survey and large qualities of materials collected, this thesis focuses on the comprehensive and intensive study of the categories, artistic styles and features, and cultural connotations of blue-and-white fish-pattern plates in order to interpret comprehensively their unique and profound cultural connotations.