The Study On The Pottery-making Craft And Relevant Issues In The Ancient City Site Of The Zhu State

During the period from the Eastern Zhou to the Qin and Han Dynasties,pottery-making craft reached a new peak since the Longshan Culture.The potteries produced in this period were rich in variety,uniform in shape,and durable.However,previous scholars' research did not mention much of these technologies,and most focused on prehistoric period.In addition,few researchers indeed talked about ceramics in Eastern Zhou and Qin and Han Dynasties,but they only paid attention to the craft,and rarely delved into other issues.Therefore,based on the previous studies,this essay will first try to restore the ceramics in the ancient city site of the Zhu State during the period from the Eastern Zhou to the Qin and Han Dynasties,by using fieldwork resources from pottery-making workshops in the ancient city site of the Zhu State,and folklore materials of pottery at the town of Zhegou in Sishui.Additionally,production levels and organizations of ceramics industry will be discussed later,according to the standardized statistics of pottery.Finally,this article will dig into the relevant factors of society,politics and economics,which promoted the development of pottery.This essay includes six chapters.The first chapter is the introduction.This chapter will first introduce the reasons and significance of this topic.Then,it will describe the literature review of Chinese ceramics research,and state this article's research methodology.The second chapter is the background and Analysis of the unearthed resources from the Ancient City Site of the Zhu State.This chapter will investigate the natural environment and historical background of the ancient city site of the Zhu State,and then show the excavated materials of the ancient city site of the Zhu State and other resources used in this article.Furthermore,the results of archaeological research on the pottery workshops in the ancient city of the Zhu State,and the folklore materials of pottery at the town of Zhegou in Sishui also will be discussed in this chapter.The third chapter is the research on the ceramics of household earthenware in the Ancient City Site of the Zhu State.This chapter is the first emphasis of this article.It will first distinguish some typical wares such as Dou,Guan,Pan,Pen,Lei and Liang through their shapes and styles,and then narrate the details of each type of vessels'production process.Lastly,it will compare and summarize the ceramic art of household earthenware during the Eastern Zhou,Qin and Han Dynasties.According to the research,lay coiling method and fast potter's wheel-throwing were both used to make household earthenware at that times.More specifically,the making of pottery Dou generally needed to first coil its plate and handles,and then bonded and adjusted them;pottery Guan should be formed twice or three times by clay coiling method;the production of pottery Pan usually utilized fast potter's wheel-throwing or clay coiling method;pottery Pen could be formed by using wheel-throwing once,or using wheel-throwing twice and then spliced them;the production process of pottery Lei was similar to Guan,which also should be coiled three times;and the crafts of pottery Liang'production was one-time wheel-throwing,and the size should be confirmed at the time of production,furthermore,the volume needed to be calibrated again after drying.The forth chapter is the research on the ceramics of building supplies in the Ancient City Site of the Zhu State.This chapter is the second point of this essay.It will first distinguish some typical building supplies such as Tongwa,Banwa and Wadang through their shapes and styles,and then narrate the details of each tile's production process.Lastly,it will compare and summarize the ceramics of building supplies during the Eastern Zhou,Qin and Han Dynasties.According to the analysis,Tongwa could be produced by three methods.The former two techniques were popular in the Eastern Zhou dynasty,while the last one started to popularize in the Han dynasty.Banwa could be formed by two methods,which were popular in the Eastern Zhou dynasty and Han dynasty.Wadang could be divided into half-round eaves tiles and round tiles,which were different in the connection with semi-circle shaped tiles.The former was popular in the Warring States Period,and another one was welcome during the period of the East and West Han Dynasties.The fifth chapter is the study of relevant issues of the potter-making craft.This chapter is the last focus of this paper.Firstly,it will discuss the specialization of ceramic production and the issues of pottery tiles disposal.In order to demonstrate the standard level and specialization production of pottery crafts in different times,this paper will count some rim samples during the period from the Spring and Autumn Ages to the Han dynasty.Additionally,based on the evidence of pottery tiles disposal,this article will infer the distribution of building communities,the recycling of abandoned tiles,etc.Secondly,this chapter summarizes the organization of the ceramic industry.It includes two aspects,one is the location and development of the pottery workshops,and the other is the gender,origins,and management of the potters.Finally,this chapter will expound the influence of the social structure transformation on the ceramic industry.During the period from the Eastern Zhou to the Han dynasties,with the transformations of societies and politics,and the rapid development of economy,the pottery-making craft had been significantly improved from the Spring and Autumn Period to the Han dynasty.The ceramic industry became one of the important categories of the hand-craft industry in the Zhu State,and the products had abundant species,good qualities and standard specification.The chapter sixth is conclusion.This chapter will conclude the whole article,and show some weaknesses of this paper.