Some people say that to understand China, you must understand Chinese culture, and to understand Chinese culture, you must first touch Chinese faience pottery. The hometown of the world's faience pottery is in China, and the hometown of Chinese faience pottery is in Gansu. Gansu Province has discovered the earliest faience pottery found in China since about 8,000 years ago, which has continued for more than 5,000 years through the cultures of Dadiwan, Yangshao, Majiayao, Qijia, Siba, Xindian, Shajing and so on, forming a complete history of the development of faience pottery. In particular, the faience of Majiayao culture has reached the peak of faience art, representing the brilliant achievements of Chinese faience art.
We tell you about the various stages of development of Gansu faience pottery and its characteristics in stages: the first stage, the stage of Dadiwan culture, about 8000-5000 BC This period chinese civilization is in the early stage of Neolithic, The ancestors of Dadiwan began to use some pottery, and more than 200 pieces of faience pottery such as three-legged bowls excavated at the Site of Dadiwan are the earliest batch of faience pottery found in China so far. The characteristics of Dadiwan faience pottery are: there are early carved symbols on Dadiwan faience pottery, there are more than 10 kinds, there are similar to water ripples; there are similar plant growth, as well as lines and curves intersecting patterns, etc., pottery mouth edge is painted with red wide ribbon, is China's most primitive color drawing.
Dadiwan cultural faience pottery
The second stage, yangshao culture stage, about 5000-3000 BC Yangshao culture is an important stage of Chinese civilization, it takes the middle reaches of the Yellow River as the center, south to Hubei, north to Inner Mongolia, is the Yellow River Basin has the greatest influence on a primitive culture, it spans two thousand miles, stretches for thousands of years, from the world's scope, is also second to none, by the Chinese and foreign archaeological circles as "cultural holy land". Yangshao culture is divided into three periods according to the continuation of time, early, middle and late, and its faience culture characteristics are also different. The main characteristics of early faience pottery are: mainly fine mud and sand red pottery, the type of instrument is round bottom, flat bottom is more, a small number of pointed bottom patterns are decorated with rope patterns, as well as line patterns, string patterns and so on. The main characteristics of the middle period of faience pottery are: flat-bottom pottery replaced the round bottom ware, decorative faience pottery is mostly red pottery, the utensils are mainly concentrated on plates, bowls, bowls and other eating utensils; the faience line from the early straight line to the arc, the most common basic ornament is the multi-terminal arc triangle pattern and back hook pattern. The main characteristics of late faience pottery: the pattern is more than in the middle period, the decorative techniques are more diverse, the colors are more abundant, there are black, red and white colors, mostly black colors; the composition elements are rich, and the most common ornamentation is composed of arc triangle patterns, circle patterns, grid patterns and pod patterns, as well as unique salamander, frog, dog and other elephant biological patterns. Inner wall painting began to appear, and many factors of faience pottery in this stage were inherited and developed by the later Majiayao culture, becoming the source of the Majiayao culture in the heyday of faience.
Yangshao culture faience pottery of various periods
The third stage, the Majiayao culture stage, about 3000-2000 BC Majiayao culture is the inheritance and development of the late Yangshao culture in the Central Plains in Gansu, so it is also known as Gansu Yangshao culture, which essentially belongs to the continuation of the late Yangshao culture. However, at this time, on the basis of inheriting the Yangshao Temple Digou cultural faience pottery, the performance is more refined, forming a gorgeous and elegant artistic style, which is further developed than the Yangshao culture, and the artistic achievement has reached the height of the peak. In the development process of Majiayao culture for more than a thousand years, most of the pottery is formed by the clay strip plate construction method, the pottery is orange-yellow, and the table is polished very delicately, forming its own cultural characteristics. It is generally divided into three types: Majiayao Kiln, Mid-Levels and Machang, which represent the three development periods of Majiayao type faience pottery. In the Majiayao culture is the most exquisite, the main characteristics of the Majiayao faience pottery culture are: 1, the pottery shape is richer than before, mainly pots, bowls, pots, urns, pots, cups, bowls, beans, bottles, cups and so on. 2. Pottery painting is mainly black, pots, bowls and other utensils use internal and external painting, and a small number of bottles and pots are painted throughout. 3. The pattern is decorated with geometric patterns, character patterns and animal patterns, mostly geometric patterns, and the patterns are wavy patterns, swirling patterns or hanging patterns. The lines of the ornamentation are vivid and fluent, the decorative patterns are densely composed, and the changes are rich and orderly. The fourth stage, the stage of combining gold and stone, about 2000-300 BC, the late Majiayao culture also reached the late stage of neolithic culture, bronze began to be manufactured, and Chinese civilization followed the pace of human civilization, entered the stage of combining copper and stone, and then walked into the bronze civilization. The faience pottery culture in Gansu Province has also advanced with the pace of history, and the cultural forms such as Siba, Xindian, Siwa, and Shajing that are now discovered are the main cultural forms at this stage. Although metal instruments (mainly red copper) have begun to be used at this stage, because the level of science and technology is not high, the level of smelting is limited, a large number of pottery is still in use, and its main characteristics are: 1, pottery is dominated by yellow pottery, utensils are mainly flatteners, and there are fewer triped and hooped foot tools. 2, a large number of pottery is plain, there are also a small amount of faience, painted with diamonds, grids, triangles, water waves, and butterfly patterns, the lines are simplified and smooth. 3, the pottery is rougher. There are more daily utensils and fewer decorators.
Goldstone and stage faience pottery
From the above characteristics, it can be seen that the pottery of the Jinshi period has a significant degradation compared with the Majiayao faience pottery. The shajing culture in the Spring and Autumn Period is the latest culture in China to contain faience pottery, and it is the return of the faience culture.
Source: Hexi Corridor FM