Study on the Historical Development of Qinghua Art in Jingdezhen (1949-1966) ()
1. Introduction
Jingdezhen blue-and-white art has a deep historical foundation, through the development of the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, the formation of daily-use porcelain, furnishing porcelain, and stationery three blue-and-white mainlines (He et al., 2023) . After the founding of the country daily-use porcelain and furnishing porcelain rapid recovery and development, until the “First Five-Year Plan” of the full implementation of the Jingdezhen porcelain industry initially completed the socialist transformation of handicrafts, the art of lapis lazuli was experienced in the founding of the country’s porcelain trial, the establishment of Jingdezhen Ceramic Research Institute of the two important events, the completion of the task of the national level of porcelain production, so that blue-and-white porcelain art of daily-use porcelain production standardization and standardization. After the establishment of the Ceramic Research Institute to summarize the blue-and-white painting process, production process, and the exploration of new styles of blue-and-white art, the creation of several representative works of porcelain for the theoretical development of the art of blue-and-white porcelain, public inheritance provides a guarantee at the institutional level (Wu & Coe, 2023b) .
In the study of in-depth content in this area, it is found that the literature suggests that the industrial heritage of Jingdezhen is an important part of China’s industrial heritage, and that its unique industrial cultural background and surviving resources have extremely high historical, cultural, artistic and scientific values. However, with the rapid advancement of modernization, these industrial heritages are facing many problems of protection and utilization. This literature study explores the conservation and reuse of industrial heritage in Jingdezhen from the perspective of sustainable development (Colomban et al., 2022) . They advocate a green and ecological concept for the protection and development of cultural heritage, combining the needs of open space utilization, landscape restoration, and functional conversion in industrial heritage landscapes, and adopting approaches such as ecological restoration and urban repair in order to prolong the service life of the industrial heritage and maintain the openness and compatibility of natural and industrial resources. Literature suggests that the protection of Jingdezhen culture should start from itself and the inheritors, and that the Jingdezhen culture should be innovated and developed in order to make it play a unique value in the world cultural heritage. At the same time, they also emphasized the importance of improving the inheritance mechanism, through effective mechanism design, in order to ensure the inheritance and development of Jingdezhen culture (Wu & Coe, 2023a) .
In a word, in these seventeen years, Jingdezhen blue-and-white porcelain art inherits the tradition, develops and improves two lines in parallel, and Jingdezhen blue-and-white porcelain art is divided into two stages of “restoration and development” and “inheritance and improvement”. Jingdezhen blue-and-white art has a long history, which makes it adhere to the tradition. Meanwhile, the intervention of national forces plays a leading role in the production and creation of blue-and-white art, which also promotes the rapid innovation of blue-and-white art, shows the national image of new China, and has a certain impact on foreign exchanges. To help the inheritance of Jingdezhen blue-and-white porcelain art, this paper will start from 1949-1966 to study the historical development of blue-and-white porcelain art (Jiao, 2022) .
2. The Significance of Research on the Art of Blue-and-White Flowers in Jingdezhen
Jingdezhen blue-and-white art is an important part of traditional Chinese porcelain art, with rich cultural connotation and unique artistic value. Its significance is mainly reflected in the following aspects:
Inheritance of history and culture: blue-and-white porcelain is one of the traditional varieties of porcelain production in Jingdezhen, with a long history and unique cultural connotations (Zhang et al., 2022) . It not only represents the essence of traditional Chinese porcelain-making techniques, but also embodies the aesthetic pursuit and humanistic spirit of Chinese culture. By inheriting and promoting the art of blue-and-white porcelain, we can better inherit and carry forward the excellent traditional Chinese culture.
Embodying artistic value: Blue-and-white porcelain is a kind of porcelain variety mainly decorated with blue-and-white flowers, and its decorative techniques and artistic style have unique aesthetic value. The lines of blue-and-white porcelain are smooth, the colors are fresh and the patterns are exquisite, giving people the enjoyment of beauty. At the same time, the shape and decoration of blue-and-white porcelain also reflect the social and cultural characteristics of different historical periods, with high artistic research value (Zhang & Gethin, 2021) .
Innovation and development: The art of blue-and-white porcelain is not only a traditional art form, but also an art form of continuous innovation and development. In modern society, with the changes in people’s aesthetic concepts and lifestyles, the design and production of blue-and-white porcelain are also constantly pushing forward. Through the introduction of new design concepts and production techniques, the art of blue-and-white porcelain has been able to revitalize itself on the basis of tradition (Mueller, 2022) .
Cross-cultural communication: As a form of cultural art with global influence, the art of blue-and-white porcelain has become an important carrier of cross-cultural communication. Through the display and dissemination of blue-and-white porcelain, it can promote cultural exchanges and understanding between different countries and regions, and enhance mutual friendship and cooperation (Hou et al., 2021) .
In conclusion, Jingdezhen lapidary art, as a cultural form with deep historical heritage and unique artistic value, is of great significance for inheritance and development. Through protection, research and innovation, we can better inherit and carry forward this excellent cultural heritage and contribute to the prosperity and development of Chinese culture.
3. Historical Achievements in the Art of Jingdezhen Celadon
Celadon porcelain is a traditional porcelain variety with various designs and images painted in cobalt blue pigment on a white porcelain tire. In Jingdezhen, the technique and style of making blue-and-white porcelain has a long history and unique tradition (Huang, 2022) .
The abstract part of the art of blue-and-white porcelain can be understood as a style or technique in the decorative techniques of blue-and-white porcelain. It creates patterns and forms of abstract beauty through the use of simple geometric elements such as dots, lines and surfaces. This style does not fully represent all the characteristics of Jingdezhen blue-and-white porcelain, but it is certainly a part of blue-and-white art. Therefore, it can be said that Jingdezhen blue-and-white art covers the abstract part of blue-and-white art, but it is not equivalent to it. Jingdezhen blue-and-white art also includes other decorative techniques and styles, such as realistic, brushwork and new color, which all have their unique aesthetic value and artistic expression.
3.1. Modeling
Yuan dynasty blue-and-white is mainly large pieces of ware, heavy body, and large size. The most common types for the plate, jar, vase, long neck vase, gourd vase, jade pot spring vase, flat vase, pot, bowl, box, teardrop, high-footed cups, turn, marigold, mainly used in Indonesia, Southeast Asia, and other places of export as well as domestic temples furnishings ceramics, porcelain for daily use is less common. Ming dynasty ware type is lightweight, Yongle, Xuande as the peak of ancient Chinese blue-and-white porcelain, ware type numerous. Yongle common plum vase, jade pot spring vase, jade pot spring pot, double play flat vase (also known as hold the moon vase), deep body wash, large plate, large bowl, dish cans, bowl, high-footed cups, small bamboo handles, and all kinds of bowls, pressure hand cups and so on. Xuande than yongle ware is more varied in the past based on the addition of the vase, square flow jugs, jars, octagonal candlesticks, beans, high-footed bowls, all kinds of wash, stove, plate, basin, bowls, cups, butterfly, lamp and brush tube, pen box, etc., the Qing dynasty Qing dynasty blue-and-white wares, such as bowls, plates, bowls, such as the continuation of the Ming dynasty, the shape of the subtle changes in the form of some of the special type disappeared, such as Persia shaped jugs, vase, the sky ball. Qing dynasty square shape, Zun and other bronzes appear in large quantities, such as square gourd bottles, and square lid boxes. Qing dynasty Jingdezhen blue-and-white is roughly divided into two categories, one completely imitated the Xuande, Chenghua shape, and the other with the era of specific innovations and birth. The former, such as imitation of Xuande a lotus plate, chicken heart ear, double ear gourd mouth flat pot, embrace the moon vase, entwined branches of lotus bowl and flower pouring, handle pot, etc., the latter, such as ox-head zun, slanting shoulder vase pierced through the ear, pierced through the ear of the six-square vase, eight-square flat vase, Ruyi ear vase, deformation of the sign bottle, deformation of the high foot. Qing dynasty official kilns were mostly small pieces of daily-use ware and stationery, private kilns are larger pieces of daily-use ware, and the prevalence of imitation of the Ming Xuande, Chenghua, Jiajing wares, and fall with the “Ming Xuande system”, “Ming Chenghua system”, “Ming Jiajing year to” and “Daming Wanli year system” paragraph, such as a large mallet vase, large square vase, phoenix-tailed vase, Guanyin vase, and so on. Since the late Ming Dynasty became the main varieties of porcelain exported to foreign countries, this foreign trade has never been cut off, the Qing Dynasty, Jingdezhen ceramics has always been the mainstay of Chinese ceramics, blue-and-white porcelain has become an important branch of daily-use porcelain.
3.2. Patterns
Yuan blue-and-white pattern to simplify the main flowers and plants decoration, by the characteristics of the shape of the layers of decoration, ware mouth, foot often for the blue-and-white twining twig pattern, back over the lotus petal pattern, water wave pattern, miscellaneous treasure pattern. The heart of the vessel is often the theme of decoration, a class by the composition of the whole picture, such as fish and algae, people story map, lotus pond and lotus pond waterfowl map, garden flowers and birds, banana, bamboo and stone map, class for the animal prints, to the dragon, phoenix, peacock, lion, celestial horse, unicorn, grass and insects are mainly in animal prints due to the metaphorical relationship between dragon prints and the royal family and focus on the exploration of, such as exploring the number of dragon’s claws and the relationship between the hierarchy of. In addition, floral motifs can also be used as thematic motifs, such as entwined peonies and entwined lotus scrolls. Ming Dynasty motifs are mainly dragons, phoenixes, flowers, flowers, mostly twining branches and paper folding peonies, and lotus, and the previous dynasty compared to see fewer characters story animal motifs, character story motifs in the Wanli period in the form of contemporary landscape paintings, the Eight Immortals to wish for longevity, and so on. Chenghua’s blue-and-white ware patterns are mostly cloud dragons, flying phoenixes, waves and sea animals, regiment dragon regiment phoenix lotus eight treasures, courtyard baby play pine, bamboo and plum three friends, flowers, plants, flowers and birds patterns. To Ming Jiajing, the baby play figure was popular, and the emergence of text patterns, blessings, and longevity of grass body became the theme of decoration, the Qing dynasty official kilns, folk kilns as a whole the pursuit of exquisite, traditional, patterns are often dragons, phoenixes, entwined with lotus, clouds and cranes, blessing and longevity, landscapes, flowers and so on. In addition to the above patterns, the decoration of the folk kilns also encompasses the entire decorative drawings, such as the Eight Immortals to celebrate longevity, Ma Gu Xianshou, the story of the characters of the West Wing, etc.
3.3. Process Characterization
Yuan blue-and-white large number of large pieces of ware, jars, bottles and other large ware segmented manufacturing, splicing and become, the bottom of the unglazed, most of the bottom of the ware has obvious spinning lines, easy to dip filling sand, small ware center with nipple-like protrusions, large pieces of ware bottom unglazed exposed tire part of the glaze stained with glaze spots or larger glaze block. Ming dynasty blue-and-white porcelain using drill material imported from the Middle East, Islamic region tire glaze glistening, rich color, plate, bowl brown bottom with red tire glaze, the bottom of the obvious brush lines. Hongwu kiln’s blue-and-white rough porcelain bottom is unglazed and spike-like raised, retaining the Yuan dynasty oblique cut foot characteristics. Yongle blue-and-white glaze is fat and bright, blue-and-white objects in the glaze, blue-and-white have a halo phenomenon. Chenghua’s blue-and-white material changed to use the broken pond green of Jiangxi Leping, hair color is lighter than before without black spots. Ming Jiajing’s official kilns of blue-and-white porcelain use the West back to the blue material and Jiangxi material ratio and become, back to the blue color color, folk no access to opportunities, so the folk kiln blue-and-white slightly gray, mixed color, no fixed gray. Wanli dynasty official kilns lapis lazuli used of back to blue material, the late switch to Zhejiang material to improve the material process, from the past water amalgamated magnet to remove impurities into the charcoal fire tender burning method and improve the stability of the color. Then the development of blue-and-white declined, and to the Qing Dynasty Kangxi period blue-and-white production and then set off a climax, but it is still not the mainstream of porcelain production, and then the protagonist is all kinds of color glaze. The production of large pieces of blue-and-white in the imperial kiln is less, mostly for daily porcelain and stationery utensils.
4. The Significance of Traditional Lapis Lazuli to the Art of Lapis Lazuli in Jingdezhen after the Founding of the People’s Republic of China
After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the porcelain industry of Jingdezhen, which experienced the turmoil of the war, was restored and rebuilt under the government’s takeover and support, including blue-and-white art. The art of lapis lazuli in the seventeen years from 1949 to 1966 was faced with the contradiction of the old traditions and the new state’s intention to show the conflict between the art of lapis lazuli, which was embodied in the stylistic characteristics of the lapis lazuli daily-use porcelains and the display porcelains and the lapis lazuli decorative style and other issues.
Jingdezhen kilns have been fired since the Five Dynasties. In the Song Dynasty, Jingdezhen became one of the four most famous towns in China, and the Jingdezhen kilns became even more prosperous, but at this time, they mainly produced blue-and-white porcelain. Since the Yuan Dynasty, Jingdezhen blue-and-white porcelain has had success, from the 14th century 20s and 30s to the early 15th century, Jingdezhen blue-and-white porcelain gradually occupied the mainstream of China’s porcelain production, since the Ming Dynasty in the history of Chinese ceramics in the position of a unique, the past five famous kilns in the Song Dynasty, the eight kilns in the four sides of the prosperity of the scene by the Yuan dynasty no longer exists, and Jingdezhen, with the blue-and-white porcelain domestic and foreign sales occupy a huge market as a Deservedly China’s porcelain capital. Qing Dynasty Jingdezhen’s porcelain capital status is more prominent than the Ming Dynasty, the Imperial Palace ware is from the Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Factory, folk porcelain is also mostly supplied by the Jingdezhen kilns, the Qing Dynasty is in addition to the Ming Dynasty, another peak of the East-West gradual change of Western learning, especially the Qianlong Emperor for the introduction of Western technology is very interested in the field of ceramics invented the process of enameling and a variety of colors of glaze mass production, blue-and-white porcelain, although not a technical focus, but still the most popular among all classes of people. The creation of blue-and-white porcelain, although not the focus of technology, is still the first choice for daily use by all classes, and the demand market is huge.
Jingdezhen kiln burned from the Five Dynasties, to the founding of the country before the span of a thousand years. During the periods of dynastic change and war invasion, the porcelain industry vein has always growing continuation of this vein on all excellent branches and leaves is after the founding of Jingdezhen blue-and-white porcelain reconstruction of the foundation, whether it is porcelain technology, decorative techniques, or modeling style. After the founding of the new generation of ceramic practitioners is in the historical legacy of the treasury to add new elements of the times, so that the Jingdezhen blue-and-white art forward.
5. Jingdezhen Blue-and-White Art Historical Development
5.1. Recovery and Development of the Art of Lapidary (1949-1957)
1949-1957 was a critical period for the restoration and development of the art of lapis lazuli, during which the creative face of porcelain art in Jingdezhen took a turn for the worse. Therefore, 1949-1957 can be regarded as a period of time for the study of the historical development of lapidary art in Jingdezhen.
The first is the reform of the subject matter. At that time, the art trend advocated realism, simplicity, and close to people’s lives. That the Republic of China prevailed in the imitation of ancient, copying ancient themes of feudal superstitions, emperors and generals content often appear, which carries the traditional idea of detachment from reality is not conducive to the public to establish a new concept of life. For example, “fortune and prosperity”, “early birth”, “gold and jade”, “fortune and wealth”, etc. convey money, wealth, and prosperity, pursuing a career and pursuing wealth. These themes convey the values of money, wealth, and the pursuit of fortune, as well as the themes of nude women and the erotic palace. In addition, these subjects, techniques, and the then-promoted porcelain art style can not match, in the export exhibition is not popular, resulting in the relevant supply and marketing, the exhibition department to provide feedback Secondly, for the renewal of the porcelain painting art style performance, the creation of paintings do not take into account the main subject matter with the type of matching, simple appropriation of the style of the paper paintings, and even more so on its inscription “white head of wealth”, “gold and jade”, “gold and jade” and other values such as money, wealth, and the performance of naked women, the erotic and other subjects. Themes such as “White Heads, Rich and Powerful” and “Jade and Jade Hall” are too clear to reduce the artistic point of view. Edge decoration’s cumbersome stacking tendency is serious, brocade ground, Yanglian, hanging beads edge, and so on to reduce the production. Technique with new creations together is a new climax. In the past, foreign porcelain dumping, coupled with people living in poverty, low consumption levels, artists more than making crude thin profit to make ends meet, ash can ware, new flowers, decals, and other foreign colored porcelain are very rough these techniques in the reform of the more refined to improve. Jingdezhen Pottery Research Institute of blue-and-white works is the best feedback of the reform of the ceramic art world at that time.
Decoration, plants and flowers, and animal prints are the most common, the two are often arranged in combination with the cross-appearance. Such as Jianguo Porcelain in the pattern of begonias, entwined lotus pattern, as well as the phoenix dance pattern. Figure 1 below for the peace and prosperity of the porcelain vase.
As can be seen from the picture above, the lion, China’s ancient name for cunning appearance, for the beast, strange beasts, “the king of beasts” to express the mighty to shock the eight sides. It is fierce, but in popular culture is the beast, folk often have lion dance recreational activities, and lion statues are used to suppress demons and ward off evil spirits. The lion pattern and the bottle are also associated with the meaning of “everything is safe”.
Ware design, daily-use porcelain to build a series of porcelain works as a representative, such as tableware in the “Zhengde style” and “pier-shaped bowl”, mostly in the history of the classic type of combination of the basis of the actual use of the function to design, but at the same time exudes a modern sense of rationality and aesthetics. Chenzhi porcelain type has less change, its heavy historical attributes, carrying the traditional aesthetic experience.
Jianguo Porcelain Factory was established in 1950, according to “Jingdezhen Cultural and Historical Materials Seventh Series” records, when the name of the porcelain factory for the Jianguo Porcelain Company, officially renamed Jianguo Porcelain Factory in 1952, the predecessor of the Jiangxi Provincial Porcelain Company, such as if you trace back further, it is the famous Imperial Kiln Factory, Jianguo Porcelain Factory in 1951, undertake to do the national porcelain, in 1952, the launch of new varieties of high quality “green paved gold peace dove tableware”. Jianguo Porcelain Factory’s sales network also covers domestic and foreign countries, set up a porcelain sales network in Shanghai, self-transportation, and sales of porcelain 4.5 million quintals, accounting for 39% of the total sales in Jingdezhen. Jianguo Porcelain is the first porcelain public company in Jingdezhen, it is not a simple ceramic economic entity, there are corresponding social functions, such as the establishment of the state-run porcelain company pilot, at the same time the government’s power to penetrate the porcelain economic entity, and will be set up as a porcelain company typical of the rest of the company to facilitate the late guide. Jingdezhen ceramics historical manuscript has recorded the words of the local party secretary Huang Yonghui: “This is not a factory, but the city’s first public enterprise is on behalf of a direction, we have to
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Figure 1. The main body of the Taiping Shengshi porcelain vase with interlocking lion and lotus motifs.
make an example of the working class”. Huang Yonghui talked about the direction, that is, the ceramic handicrafts turn, celadon porcelain production mode industrialization, and organizational forms of state-run. Its establishment is the Jingdezhen municipal government of Jingdezhen porcelain industry pattern of reform of the beginning of attempts, is for the late blue-and-white porcelain industry handicraft industry socialist transformation to create a state-run model, will be continued to the end of the people’s Jingdezhen handmade refined division of labor porcelain production and sale of the ceramic system into a mechanized mode of mass production.
Jingdezhen’s blue-and-white porcelain industry socialist process mainly involves “three reforms” in two parts of the content, not only for which involves handicrafts, capitalist industry, and commerce part of the socialist transformation, but also its industrialization construction. Jingdezhen’s blue-and-white porcelain industry since the Ming and Qing dynasties formed by the commodity economy as the core of the operation of the handicraft industry model gradually transformed into a planned economy as the core of the industrialization of the modern porcelain industry model. The government took the lead in the production of blue-and-white porcelain links to start, through private and private joint ventures, public-private partnerships, the establishment of state-run porcelain factories, and other modes of expanding the public ownership of the components, strengthen the state’s control over the production of blue-and-white porcelain industry. By 1956, the city’s 2491 private ceramic factories, and households gradually formed 19 public-private factories, and 16 porcelain societies. 15 paintings porcelain room, to 1958 after the above factories and societies merged into nine large local state-run porcelain factories, and before the existence of the state-run porcelain factories in the state-owned porcelain factory, known as the Ten Porcelain Factory. A comparison of the city’s porcelain industry in 1952-1956, the development of economic components, and the relevant content is shown in Table 1 below.
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Table 1. Comparative development of the city’s economic components of the porcelain industry in 1952-1956.
Since then, in the porcelain industry chain at the upper end of the production mechanism to complete the transformation, this transformation is two sides of the same coin, in addition to the ownership of the means of production by the capitalists to change the form of public ownership, the process of industrialization and planned production is also due to the unity of the public system and more efficiently promote the plan of the celadon porcelain production, the plan of the ceramics sales naturally followed, the entire supply chain of the upstream and downstream arrangements are clear, the implementation of the order of the day.
Based on the above content, the analysis of the 1949-1957 Pottery Research Institute’s blue-and-white porcelain painting process. By 1957, the work of the Institute was meticulously reflected in the “Third Anniversary Exhibition of the Establishment of the Institute”, which included four parts: the organization of paperwork related to Jingdezhen ceramics, records of international exchanges, technical summaries and innovations, and artistic creations and improvements, of which the two parts that were closely related to celadon were the Technical Creation/Improvement Room and the Artistic Creation/Improvement Room. In December 1957, the blue-and-white decal paper was successfully developed in the fourth factory in Jingdezhen and put into production in small quantities. In the book “Basic Knowledge of Daily-use Ceramics Production”, Jingdezhen Ceramic Research Institute summarized the tools, materials, and process of Qinghua painting in Jingdezhen in the 1960s in the section on underglaze painting. The flow chart of the blue-and-white painting is shown in Figure 2 below.
The three steps in the blue-and-white painting process that need to be completed by the artist are drafting, tracing, and mixing. Drafting can be done directly on the blank with a material brush dipped in light yellow water, or on paper and then printed on the blank. Before tracing the line, use a washing brush to sweep away the floating dust from the blank and replenish the water in an appropriate amount. The formal tracing line needs to pay attention to the blue-and-white material is not soluble in water, can not form a solution, is easy to precipitate, and can add a small amount of brine, and talc. Tracing the line to pay attention to the line’s uniformity and strength, to avoid intermittent, old artists often add a small amount of Zhu Ming material to add lubrication, mixing
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Figure 2. Flow chart of cyanotype painting.
the water in two ways, hook line, after mixing the water, easy to grasp the beginner, but the constraints, the picture is dull. First outline, then mix the water, the picture is fresh and natural, but the difficulty is higher and is not suitable for drawing detailed and neat patterns. The mixed water technique is flexible and changeable, mastered well can achieve the same effect as the ink painting performance, mastered badly may destroy the picture. Taking this problem into consideration, Hunan Jiling artists have created the Mixed Water Pen, which has an internal structure similar to that of a fountain pen, and the flow of light materials is controlled by a switch on the pen’s barrel.
In the Jingdezhen blue-and-white art of modeling analysis found that furnishing porcelain and daily-use porcelain are different, often the form of beauty placed before the utility, in terms of meeting the needs of people’s lives, it is more inclined to meet the user’s aesthetic needs. And back to the specific context, Jingdezhen Ceramic Research Institute of porcelain furnishings place of use are mostly more solemn, formal gift porcelain also represents the national image, so the shape of the pursuit of stability rather than light, the pursuit of atmospheric, beautiful, elegant rather than light and stylish. As shown in Figure 3 below.
The blue-and-white phoenix and luan pattern open-mouthed zun and blue-and-white glazed red marionette pattern porcelain plate, modeling style simple, thick, smooth, and straight outline line shape, then the coordinated, proportional shape. Large objects with heavy bodies, segmented production, and the Ming and Qing dynasties, compared with less innovation, mostly for the jar, Zun, and bottle.
As the predecessor of China Light Industry Ceramics Research Institute, Jingdezhen Ceramics Research Institute from the establishment to date, has experienced 60 years of spring and fall turnover, it has made contributions to the field of ceramics is a full range of impact. Its impact in the first few years of its establishment from its initial name “Jingdezhen Ceramic Experimental Research
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Figure 3. Blue-and-white open-mouthed zun with phoenix and luan motif and blue-and-white glazed red marionette pattern on porcelain plate.
Institute” can be directly seen in traces. Shortly after the founding of the new China, people were eager to break away from the old, backward past and enter the modern society. Science, to be precise, the development of natural science and technology is considered an important symbol of modernity. At that time, Jingdezhen coincided with the country and East Germany signed a technical cooperation agreement, the need for China to provide ceramic production and production of the corresponding technology, internal and external causes of the double impetus, practitioners began to examine from the scientific and technological point of view, and summarize the Jingdezhen porcelain production technology. Only the evaluation of Jing porcelain as “white as jade, bright as a mirror, thin as paper, sound like a chime” is not comprehensive, and the Chinese Ministry of Light Industry and the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Metallurgical Ceramics to intervene, to help Jingdezhen ceramic research institute comprehensive, systematic summary of Jing porcelain production technology.
5.2. Inheritance and Improvement of the Art of Celadon (1958-1966)
The production capacity of the Jingdezhen ceramic industry increased significantly in the first five-year plan (1953-1957). The growth in production of major products over the five years is shown in Table 2 below.
The sales of the above six products, the most reflective of the development of ceramic industry data for daily-use porcelain net growth of 449,997 quintals, doubling the annual output, the net growth of china clay 15,294 tons, more than three times the annual output, the rest of the annual output of related products also doubled growth Jingdezhen ceramic industry, a total of 5,360,000 yuan of investment, accounting for Jingdezhen, all of the industrial investment of 44.7%. The ceramics industry means of production socialist public ownership of the initial establishment of the economy, the new reconstruction of several porcelain factories and porcelain societies, Jing porcelain product exports, export areas are expanding year by year, recapture part of the domestic and foreign markets accounted for by the Japanese porcelain (He et al., 2023) .
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Table 2. Production and growth rate of major products in 1953-1957.
In September 1690, the party central committee established “adjustment, consolidation, enrichment, improvement” of the national economic policy, 1963-1965, the economy began to recover, Jingdezhen porcelain industry production also experienced some turbulence, the number of daily-use ceramics for domestic sale and the actual amount of exports in 1960, 1961 respectively, fell to the lowest point. The lowest point is followed by a certain steady increase due to policy adjustments. The former from 256.39 million pieces in 1958 fell to 36.94 million pieces in 1961, a drop of 85.6%, the latter from 43.14 million pieces in 1958 fell to 4.4 million pieces in 1960, a drop of 89.8%, the general direction of Jingdezhen ceramics production to further continue the First Five-Year Plan in the development of a planned economy, and modeled on the Soviet Union “trusts” model constructed by the Jiangxi Porcelain Company unified plan management of Jingdezhen ceramic production system, the following enterprises directly as “the basic link of porcelain management”, reorganized enterprises in the state approved limits of strict compliance with the production of financial plans enjoy the right to independence. 1964 In 1964, according to Zhou Enlai and other Vice Premier’s instructions to set up the Jiangxi Provincial Porcelain Company, the abolition of the Ceramic Industry Bureau. The company’s administrative subordinate to the provincial light chemical industry department, the nature of the unified economic organization, in the national plan under the unified arrangements for production. The company’s management scope for the former City Ceramics Industry Bureau belongs to the Red Star, Cosmos, Jianguo, Dongfeng, Red Flag, Bright, Jingxing, Art, Xinping, and nine porcelain factories as well as the related 6 raw and auxiliary materials enterprises. The whole company system has 11 porcelain factories, 7 raw material mines, and 3 auxiliary materials manufacturers, with employees totaling more than 28,000 people.
In part of the historical text, the furnished porcelain is not the main character, it is not quite in line with the creative orientation of this time for the general working people, but in Jingdezhen porcelain factory museum still found a large number of furnished porcelain. After all, furnishing porcelain still exists in a large number of creators, and the traditional family for furnishing porcelain aesthetic demand also still exists. Most of the Chenshi porcelain type from the Qing dynasty Chenshi porcelain type, mainly for the bottle class and cylinder class, ten thousand pieces of bottles, and a thousand pieces of cylinder. Typical types are winter melon bottle, mallet bottle, double ear bottle, gourd bottle, etc., jade pot spring bottle is also common. The most common type of cylinder is the lotus jar. Chenzhi Porcelainware type is larger, the billet is often used by the splicing method of firing and becomes, many times molding. The larger the shape of the artisan and kiln master the higher the requirements. Therefore, the CPC municipal party committee put forward a “like ceramic science and art of advanced advanced march” call, large pieces of furnishing porcelain can prove the technological sophistication of the furnishing porcelain has a place. The more common shape is shown in Figure 4 below.
This period of Chenzhi porcelain type, pattern large-scale antique reasons are roughly the following three reasons. One for the official kilns of skilled craftsmen scattered folk, even in the civil kilns engaged in ceramics production, but also still maintain the past creative inertia, underglaze blue ceramic decorative techniques in Jingdezhen as the Yuan Dynasty inherited to the Republic of handicrafts, has long since formed its inheritance model and norms, breakthroughs can be made overnight. The second time people had more respect for the ancient, the ancient, compared to the modernity of Western civilization and art for the “subversion” of the favorite, the early years of the founding of the country, most people are still immersed in the thick ancient thin social subconscious, antique blue-and-white is by no means an isolated case. In the Kangxi period, the official kilns on the prevalence of blue-and-white imitation of Ming Xuande Chenghua, Jiajing wares, and fall “Ming Xuande Nian system” and “Ming Chenghua Nian system”, “Ming Jiajing Nian system” and “Daming Wanli year system” paragraph. In addition, the past ban is strict, in addition to being officially allowed to participate in the “government with the people burned” production of the porcelain structure of the kiln, folk are strictly prohibited from imitating the official kiln porcelain. Drinking stream Zhai said porcelain translation note about the late Qing dynasty and early civil porcelain imitation, said: Since the end of the (late Qing dynasty) to recent days, the imitation of the products is very progressive, one is due to the official kilns of skilled craftsmen around the dispersal, and the ban on the abolition of the ban or relaxation of the former dared not imitation, from the audience point of view, imitation of the antique styles are also more susceptible to the mainstream aesthetic favorites. Three for the new China was founded soon, outside the multiple powers eyeing, the national subjective consciousness is unprecedentedly high, antique porcelain in a sense has a symbolic expression of subjectivity, this subjectivity can be thoroughly antagonistic to the Western discourse of foreign porcelain, in other words, the local blue-and-white porcelain in the form of imitation of antique porcelain, antique porcelain with the Western production model of Western porcelain in the form of a covert confrontation.
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Figure 4. More common shapes of large, furnished porcelains.
Artistic summary of the 1958-1966 Jingdezhen blue-and-white. 1958, the country’s economic planning “Second Five-Year Plan” kicked off, and in the next eight or nine years, the government gradually constructed the Jiangxi Porcelain Company’s unified plan to manage the Jingdezhen ceramics production system, which included many state-owned porcelains, including the People’s Porcelain Factory, represented by blue-and-white porcelain, and the Jianguo Porcelain Factory, which was designed and produced mainly color glazes, supplemented by the Jianguo Porcelain Factory. Blue-and-white porcelain is the representative of the People’s Porcelain Factory, as well as the design and production of color glaze-based, blue-and-white porcelain as a supplement to the Jianguo Porcelain Factory.
Unlike paintings, blue-and-white porcelain, because of its original functional value, has the dual attributes of an artwork and an economic product. Especially for daily-use porcelain, which was the first to serve the function of use, its mode of production inevitably affected the artistic style, therefore, these porcelain factories became an important place to influence the direction of the art of blue-and-white porcelain in Jingdezhen at this stage. They produced blue-and-white porcelain at the same time cultivated several excellent blue-and-white masters, or re-cohesion of the Republican period of blue-and-white creators. State-owned porcelain factories also play the role of a social university to some extent, and the factories often cultivate their own blue-and-white porcelain art talents, which is also the third group of blue-and-white porcelain art creation, the excellent workers of porcelain factories. This period of blue-and-white works of art should be analyzed more from the creative group, they all belong to the system of porcelain factory units, and even the most personal expression and artistic self-awareness of the “king of blue-and-white” Wang Bu’s works, is still the “people’s artists”, the concept of creation is to better serve the workers, peasants, and soldiers. The concept of creation was to better serve the workers, peasants, and soldiers. But Wang Bu’s blue-and-white works are still prescriptive towards aesthetic expression, the object is mostly common life animals and plants, shrimp, petunias, and vines are his expression of the object, but through the works, whether it is daily use of porcelain or furnishing porcelain, have expressed their aesthetic interest, while caring for the workers, peasants, soldiers and the general public. Porcelain is still in the inheritance of ancient aesthetic culture by the artists of the time to improve, Jingdezhen blue-and-white art as a type of traditional Chinese crafts, and should not artificially create a break between the ancient and modern, but to learn from the creators of the time, how to “new” and “old” between “new” and “old”. Rather, we should learn from the creators of the time how to strike a balance between the “new” and the “old”, and between the “public” and the “artists”.
6. Concluding Remarks
The current blue-and-white art of Jingdezhen has long passed the era of reflecting the Western contemporary art concept as the creation goal. And the Western art concept is built on Western aesthetics, and Western aesthetics and Chinese aesthetics are very different. What contemporary Jingdezhen blue-and-white artists should think about is how to create blue-and-white art that belongs to their own culture and aesthetic system, and how to use new blue-and-white art forms, such as innovation in the drawing process and blue-and-white material color-matching, to express the local aesthetic psychology and aesthetic concept of Chinese people. Wang Bu, Wang Xihuai, and other blue-and-white artists of the past seventeen years may be able to provide a solution to this problem by selecting a form of art from traditional Chinese art categories, condensing its aesthetic connotation, and combining it with the art of blue-and-white. To realize the advancement of this aspect in the research and deepen the historical development of the art of blue-and-white flowers in Jingdezhen, this paper completes this research, hoping to realize the inheritance of the historical excellent culture in the real sense through this research.