| It was
a big event in the Eastern Han Dynasty and a landmark of the prosperity of
Zhejiang's economy and culture that the celadon appeared. According to the
relevant archeological materials, the earliest porcelain wares of the
country were excavated from the sites in Shangyu, Yuyao, Ningbo, Yongjia
and Cixi of Zhejiang Province. The testing showed that the porcelains
excavated from Shangyu Xiaoxiantan Kiln site of Eastern Han Dynasty had
met with the standard for the mature porcelains. There were a lot of
common points in shapes and decorations between the porcelains of the
Eastern Han Dynasty and the primitive porcelains. For example, both of
them were decorated with flax, net, fir leave, triangle or pane veins. The
Double-Stringed Celadon Bell was the representative porcelain ware of the
Eastern Han Dynasty that was made with fine and standard craft and pure in
the ceramic glaze. The Black Glazed Candleholder In A Bear' Shape of the
late Eastern Han Dynasty was very unique in conception and combined skills
of sculpture, line engraving and paste to display a cute bear squatted
with his legs across. |
The bronze mirror manufacturing had
been highly developed in Eastern Han Dynasty and made Huiji County its
center. The mirrors were very elegant in shape and delicate in pattern.
Among the various kinds of mirrors, the chariot mirrors, the immortal
figured mirrors and history-illustrated mirrors were the most common while
the mysterious beast mirrors and dragon-and tiger-mirrors revealed
mysterious religious senses. The Immortal on the Chariot Mirror was
decorated with Jade Emperor's Queen dancing in her long-sleeved shirts and
the Figure Mirror of Wu & Yue Kingdom had XiShi's story illustrated on
it. Both were of high artistic value.
The Celadon
Figure-Piled Jars with Performers -> |
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| In Eastern Wu
Kingdom of the Three Kingdoms Period, painting developed quickly. There
appeared a famous painter named Cao Buxing. Born in Huzhou, he was the
first painter recorded in Zhejiang history. He was good at drawing
figures, Bodhisattvas and dragons, and was regarded as the originator of
the Bodhisattvas painting genre of the nation. There was a tale about him:
while he was painting a folding screen for the king Sun Quan, he
accidentally dropped a drop of ink on the unfinished painting. After his
revision of the ink spot into a fly, the king tried to drive it away when
he saw the screen. This is the famous story of A faulty Point Into A Fly.
In his book Appreciations to the Ancient Paintings, Xie He of the Southern
Dynasty praised Cao Buxing's paintings as the ones of the highest-level.
|
| During
the Three Kingdoms Period and The Northern and Southern Jin Dynasties, the
development of the tools made it possible for the porcelain wares to be
made in large quantities and various kinds. There were three
characteristics of the productions then: the porcelain wares became
various in shapes; the figures became various and colorful thus made the
porcelains became practical and artistic wares for daily use; the
porcelain wares for memorial use became prevailing. The four major
branches of Zhejiang kilns came into being, i.e., the Yue Kiln, Ou Kiln,
Wu kiln and Deqing Kiln. |
| The Yue kiln was
a very important genre of China, which was mainly located in Shangyu and
its vicinity. There had been about one hundred kiln sites in the region.
In the Three Kingdoms Period and The Northern and Southern Dynasties, the
Yue kiln reached its first development peak. The works of the period were
delicate which usually presented a kind of light green color in glaze,
decorated with beautiful veins and used vivid animal figures as the outer
shapes. The gifted handicraftsmen put life into the daily-use wares
through their unique skills. For instance, the Cock-headed Pot was
developed from the common pots, but with a cock's head and tail pasted
onto it, the plain pot was changed into an artwork instantly. The
Frog-shaped Water Container combined the container's daily utility with an
exaggerated figure of a frog and was very vivid indeed. Among the celadon
works of the time, simple, but exaggerated animals figures were widely
used and achieved great artistic flavors. |
| During the period,
the piled pot was the most characteristic work among the celadon wares.
The piled pot was very huge and complicated in its structure. On the basis
of a huge pot was added several small pots as well as such figures like
gods, josses, characters, birds and animals and houses on the top. In
Eastern Jin Dynasty, the custom of luxurious funerals disappeared into
history and so did the production of the complicated piled pots. |
| With the
prosperity of Buddhism in the Southern Dynasty, one of the theme patterns
of Buddhism, lotus was applied as the decorative vein of the porcelains,
such as the Lotus-veined Celadon Jar and the Lotus Petal-veined Celadon
Bowl. |
| Wuzhou Kilns spread over the regions of
Jinhua and Quzhou. Due to the iron element in the clay, the craftsman
usually daubed some dressing coatings before glazing in order to reduce
the influence of the iron element to the green color of the glaze. The
products of Wuzhou kiln were rough, thick and unique in shape among which
the Figure-Piled Jars were most representative. For example, the
calabash-shaped Figure-Piled Jars with Performers displayed the scene of
an entertaining party. The foreign players had roman noses and sunken
eyes. One of them was sitting straight and playing vertical flute on the
top. Under him were some cute acrobats. Deqing Kilns produced celadon and
black porcelain. The black porcelain was the representative product of
Deqing kiln, which enjoyed high reputation for its fine techniques,
lacquer-like glaze, and smooth surface. The celadon produced in Ou Kilns
were relatively white in their roughcast color and green in glaze and some
of them were unique in shape such as the Cattle-shaped Candleholder
excavated in the tombs of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. It was never seen in
Yue Kilns. An obvious characteristic of the Ou Kiln porcelains was the
brown spots partly decorated on the green glaze. |
|
During the Western and Eastern Han Dynasties
and The Northern and Southern Dynasties, Buddhism had been in fashion for
a long time and the temple-related construction arts had developed
greatly. A lot of famous temples had been built in this period, such as
the Tiantong Temple and Eyuwang Temple in Ningbo, Linyin Temple in
Hangzhou, and Huge Buddha Temple in Xinchang. The Huge Buddha Temple was
initially called the Yinyue Temple where there was a stone-engraved
Laughing Buddha of 15 meters high, the tallest Buddha in Southeast China.
| During the Wei, Jin, Northern
& Southern Dynasties period, the Chinese calligraphic art
stepped into its Silver Age. Wang Xizhi (321-379) was the master
calligrapher of the Jin Dynasty, who was born in Shangdong province
and lately moved to Huiji of Zhenjiang province. He had been the
Right General of Jin Dynasty, so people called him Right General
Wang. He had learned the cursive hand script from Zhang Zhi and the
regular script from Zhong Yao. His regular script works being
straight and neat, his running script works being powerful, diverse
and natural, he had great impact on later generations and was
considered the best of all times. Once in 353, he invited 41
scholars (including such celebrities like Xie An, Sun Tong) to
attend a banquet in the Orchid Pavilion in Huiji. While in high
spirits, he wrote the Preface to the Orchid Pavilion to memorize
this banquet. The work was praised as 'the Best Running Script Piece
of the World' Wang Xizhi enjoyed the highest reputation among the
history of the Chinese Calligraphy; and the books like Jin History '
Wang Xizh' Whole Life, Criticism to the Ancient and Modern
Calligraphy Works (by Liang' emperor Wu) and Praise for Wang Xizhi
(by Tang Taizong, the famous emperor of the Tang Dynasty) used the
most gorgeous words to describe his achievements. His other works
like Yue Yi' Statements, Huang Ting Scripture, Fast Snow and
Occasional Sunny Tablet, Auntie'Tablet and Shangyu Tablet were great
calligraphic pieces. He and his son Wang Xianzhi (344-386), were
collectively called 'The Two Wangs'Wang Xianzhi was good at almost
all calligraphic styles especially the official, regular and cursive
hand styles. He wrote the Moon Festival Tablet with cursive hand
style, the Yatouwan Tablet with running script and To Goddess Luo
with regular script. All of the three pieces were of unique flavor
and revealed the degage characteristic of the calligrapher.
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