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| The
first pottery with any claim to aesthetic interest appears
in north China, in the basin of the Yellow River or Huanghe
and in Gansu, about 4000 BC. During the Shang (16th - 11th
century BC) and Zhou (11th - 221 BC) dynasties, a type of
ceramic ware covered with a thin, glossy, greenish-brown glaze
appeared. This ware differs from ordinary contemporaneous
pottery in many respects; it is covered with a layer of glaze,
the body is much harder than pottery and it was fired with
a much higher temperature. The technique of firing glazed
pottery was developed, and ash glazed ware based on grey ware
forms was fired; this ware is also known as 'proto porcelain'.
From the end of the Spring and Autumn Period (770 B.C. - 403
B.C.) until the Warring States Period (403 B.C. - 221 B.C.),
vitrified pottery with impressed decoration was produced,
and there are also many example of ash-glazed ware patterned
after bronze vessels. |
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| After
about sixteen centuries of development, in the late Eastern
Han period (25-22), celadons of better quality were being
produced in various places in Zhejiang province. The body
is of much finer grain; the glaze has a more glossy surface
and is more greenish in tone. During this period, there was
a practice to place bronze, lacquer or jade objects in burials,
but these objects were substituted by celadon versions in
the succeeding Wei (220-265) and Jin (265-439) dynasties.
The great demand for funerary celadons in turn stimulated
technical advancements. |
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