April 20, Beijing, China, National Museum of China/中国国家博物馆 (Part 5 – Ancient Chinese Porcelain exhibition/中国古代瓷器展):
First post of the year, gotta start with something good: this is a rather famous vase from Qianlong era of Qing dynasty (1644 - 1911). It's made in the suantouping/蒜头瓶 (lit. "garlic-head vase") shape, and decorated with falangcai/珐琅彩 (basically cloisonné but done on porcelain instead of metal). The design features a nice combination of traditional Chinese chanzhihua/缠枝花 motifs (traditionally this continuous plant motif symbolizes longevity) and European art influence, specifically from rococo. This is interesting as rococo was also influenced by Chinese porcelain, making this vase another example of cultural influence going both ways.
As mentioned in my previous announcement post, my visit to the National Museum of China was very brief, everything took place in the span of one day (plus traveling to and from Beijing), please pardon the picture quality.
And from here on I will be going in chronological order. Below is an urn from the Northern Dynasties (439 - 581 AD). This urn was decorated with lotus petals all around, and was specifically a type of grave good, not made to be used by the living. Lotuses are a commonly used symbol in funerary rites due to its association with Sukhavati (Sanskrit: सुखावती; referred to as "极乐世界" or "Land of Bliss" in Chinese) in Mahayana Buddhism.
Another urn, this time from the Sui dynasty (581 - 618 AD) Shouzhou kiln/寿州窑. This urn may also have been grave good, as evidenced by the numerous Buddhist symbols all around.
Left: a small Sui-era vessel, found in a tomb. It's probably also a grave good, because of its pointy design (imagine holding that).
Right: a group of small Sui-era grave goods, these were tiny and adorable
In the middle is a Tang dynasty (618 - 907 AD) pitcher, made by the Lushan kiln/鲁山窑. This pitcher displays Lushan wares' characteristic blueish glaze, where the blue comes from different concentrations of iron oxides.
Left: a Northern Song dynasty (960 - 1127) white-glazed wine vessel called a meiping/梅瓶 (lit. "plum vase"), but in Song dynasty it was called a jingping/经瓶.
Middle: a Northern Song era white-glazed Ding ware/定窑 plate decorated with the double fish motif.
Right: this one is pretty cute, it's a container for weiqi/围棋 pieces that's shaped like a drum, made by Yaozhou kiln/耀州窑.
Left: forgot to take a picture of the placard, but my guess is that it's a bamboo-necked celadon-glazed Longquan ware/龙泉窑 vase (I might be wrong).
Right: a small Southern Song dynasty (1127 - 1279) Ge ware/哥窑 bixi/笔洗. Bixi are containers used to rinse traditional brushes. This bixi has the crackled glaze that's characteristic of Ge wares.
Left: a small haitang/海棠 flower-shaped celadon-glazed lidded container box called a taohe/套盒, made by Southern Song dynasty guan kiln/官窑 (guan/官 means "official", so "guan kiln" is best understood as the kiln that's run by the imperial court; this is important as later dynasties may have their own guan kilns). These containers can hold various small objects including food, and are stackable.
Right: a Song-era haitang-shaped rose purple flower pot, made by Jun kiln/钧窑. Jun wares are known for their glaze colors, which shift and change according to the firing temperature, this is known as yaobian/窑变 (aka kiln transmutation or "flambé"). This particular flower pot became part of Qing imperial court's collection later on.
A Yuan dynasty (1206 - 1368) qinghua/青花 ("blue and white") porcelain pot, decorated with dragons. The blue color in the famous qinghua porcelain comes from cobalt blue pigment in the underglaze.
A Yuan-era qinghua porcelain vase decorated with a flying fenghuang:
Two Ming dynasty (1368 - 1644) tall-footed bowls, the left one has a glaze known as "sweet white glaze" (甜白釉), since this shade of white was likened to the white of crystal sugar; the reign mark indicated that it was made during the Yongle era of Ming dynasty. The bowl on the right has the peacock blue glaze (孔雀蓝釉), and the reign mark indicated that it was made during the Xuande era of Ming dynasty. Reign marks are markings that indicate the dynasty and era during which a piece was made.
A side note on era names or nianhao/年号: nianhao was a way of identifying years in imperial China and was usually decided by the reigning emperor at the time. One emperor may have multiple era names during their reign if they so choose, however since Ming and Qing dynasty mostly have just one era name per emperor, Ming and Qing emperors are often referred to simply by the era name they used, for example Yongle Emperor (temple name Emperor Chengzu of Ming) or Qianlong Emperor (temple name Emperor Gaozong of Qing). Depending on the context, usage of a Ming or Qing era name may refer to the time period during which an emperor reigned, the emperor who used the era name, or even both.
Three Ming-era monochrome (called danseyou/单色釉 in Chinese) porcelain plates. Monochrome porcelain became popular in Song dynasty, and has been popular ever since, but overall three dynasties were the most famous for their production of monochrome porcelain: Song dynasty, Ming dynasty, and Qing dynasty (1644 - 1911). Recently monochrome porcelain has been gaining popularity again, since their vibrant colors fit into modern aesthetics surprisingly well.
A wall of monochrome porcelain plates, illustrating the effect of different elements and firing temperatures on glaze color.
A set of wares that may be found in a study, made in the Kangxi era of Qing dynasty (1662 - 1722). The glaze used here is quite famous, called jiangdouhong/豇豆红 (aka cowpea red), created by applying copper red glaze in high temperatures. The end result is notoriously hard to control, so some pieces may turn out to have multiple colors, mostly the shade of red as seen below and apple green. The left and back pieces are both small decorative vases (for the longest time I thought the one on the left was an upside-down bowl......lol), the small box in the front is a seal paste box, and the flat bowl on the right is a bixi.
Left: red and blue yaobian vase, made during the Yongzheng era of Qing dynasty (1723 - 1735); unfortunately due to the angle here, you can only see a little bit of the blue streak running down the front. The colors are so vibrant here that this kind of yaobian has earned the nickname of "flaming red"/火焰红.
Right: a langyaohong/郎窑红 (also called "sang de boeuf" or "oxblood") vase, made during the Kangxi era of Qing dynasty. Langyaohong glaze is known for its deeply red color, hence the names that relate it to blood.
A Kangxi era blue glazed gilt porcelain vase. I love the intricate interconnected lotus patterns (chanzhilianwen/缠枝莲纹) here. I didn't have time to take a picture of the placard so it literally took hours of pulling my hair out reverse image searching to find out when (which era) this vase was made................. (btw the text in the back refers to the painting in the background, not this vase)
Left: a youlihong/釉里红 vessel that's shaped like an apple, so it's quite literally named a pingguozun/苹果尊. This shape is rather unique to the Kangxi era. Youlihong (lit: "red inside glaze") is basically a red copper oxide underglaze.
Middle: a youlihong vase made in the Yongzheng era.
Right: a larger vase made in the Yongzheng era that combines qinghua underglaze and youlihong underglaze in one piece.
This giant qinghua vase from the Qianlong era of Qing dynasty (1736 - 1795) was made in the shape of Shang and Zhou dynasty ancient bronze ritual vessel named gu/觚. This is also one of the few pieces produced in history that had the name of the potter attached to it. The potter who made this vase was Tang Ying/唐英, and he was the superintendent who oversaw imperial porcelain production in Jingdezhen/景德镇 (basically the Ming and Qing dynasty guan kiln) during the Yongzheng era and the Qianlong era. Together with the Kangxi era, these three Qing dynasty eras are collectively called "清三代", or "the three Qing generations (of emperors)", this was the second height of porcelain making in Chinese history after the "five great kilns"/"五大窑" of Song dynasty.
A column shaped openwork fencai/粉彩 incense holder from Qianlong era, where fencai is basically overglaze enamel decoration that falls under famille rose.
Left: a Qianlong era green fencai vase that feature kaiguang/开光, which were window or panel-like designs on the piece where scenes may be painted. This particular vase also displays poetry by Qianlong Emperor himself.
Middle: a fencai shuanglianping/双联瓶 made during the Jiaqing era of Qing dynasty (1796 - 1820). Shuanglianping are conjoined vases that symbolize the coming together of matching talents or generally good things.
Right: a Qianlong era gourd-shaped doucai/斗彩 vase with kaiguang. Doucai combines both underglaze decorations and overglaze decorations.
I want to draw special attention to this leaf-shaped fencai cup in the middle that was made in the Guangxu era of Qing dynasty (1875 - 1908). The "leaf" part is actually a lotus flower, but the cool thing about it is that the green stem part is a built-in straw, so this is a highly decorative porcelain straw cup. I really do hope there are cheaper modern replicas of this cup sold somewhere, I want one
Finally, to wrap up this exhibition, here's an arrangement to show how these different porcelain pieces would be utilized in a traditional study room.
Btw about the seal paste box, this is what a seal paste box would look like when opened:
The square in the middle is a small piece of gold foil, which, upon mixing, would give the seal paste a little bit of sparkle
This seal paste was a gift from a relative (still unopened). The seal is my personal seal.
