Ma Weidu said: the mystery of Yuan blue and white

Editor’s Note: Yuan Blue and White is an exciting topic in the ceramics industry. In terms of value, it has maintained an unattainable world record for a long time. Where does Yuanqinghua come from? This is a simple question that cannot be simpler. Chinese ceramics, where a new variety is born, its identity is clear, from small to large, from weak to strong, and the context is clear. But Yuan Qinghua has no childhood, no juveniles. When you see it, it is a young man. Written by: Ma Weidu Photography: Yang Dazhou 

In the heavily guarded warehouse of Topkapi Palace in Turkey, there are 40 pieces of blue and white flowers, many of which are unknown in the world. Yuan Qinghua Xuanji  　　Blue and White is a very literary name, very poetic, only ancient Chinese ceramics are so romantic. Other varieties, both before and after it, are presented in a scientific and calm attitude. The ceramic variety “glazed red”, which is similar to its contemporaries, is not called safflower, and blue and white is never called glazed blue. I have long wondered why Chinese ceramics only have blue and white names. 

[Peony flower plum bottle (pair)] 
Height: 42 cm, Topkapi Palace collection of blue and white glaze is full of thick blue. This pair of peony plums has a quiet, deep blue glaze. The peony on the main body of the bottle and various patterns are painted with a plump brush stroke. The change of color in the Yuan Dynasty was influenced by foreign cultures, which completely changed the inherent aesthetic taste of Chinese ceramics. Scholars all hope to find the origin of blue and white. Today, the blue and white of the Yuan Dynasty is an indisputable fact. The “right-to-right” is the standard. The excellent Yuan and Qing dynasties are all this gesture. Many scholars believe that blue and white burns are earlier than Yuan, and they started in Tang, and they started in Song, so there are Tang Qinghua and Song Qinghua. But the question is whether the so-called “Tang Qinghua” and “Song Qinghua” are in the same line as the recognized “Yuan Qinghua”? In terms of fetal soil, glaze color, ornamentation, craftsmanship, modeling, etc., is there a cultural blood relationship between him and the other? 

[The kiln glaze elliptical wash] 
Northern Song Dynasty, caliber: 14.5 cm, 
before the appearance of the Tibetan Museum of Blue and White in the British Museum , blue is not the traditional color of Chinese civilization, and was once considered to be an unlucky color. Song glaze pursues the color of natural attributes, paying attention to the azure color of “the rain breaks through the blue sky” (shown in the kiln washing as shown above). Blue and white in the Yuan Dynasty is obviously not our cultural tradition, depending on the color of the farming people. We admire red and yellow. Red is life and yellow is fundamental. Blue, especially blue and blue, has never occupied a place in the cultural aesthetics of our nation. We have long regarded blue as bad, and the evil spirits in the Buddhist scriptures are called blue women. The ancient township tried blue pens, called blue. Single; there is a blue snake in the legend, its first poisonous blue medicine, the drug is dead… 

[Kylin Feifeng Blue Glaze White Flower Lingkou Large Plate] 
Caliber: 41.5 cm, Topkapi Palace collects 
blue glaze for the land, contrasting the white pattern of the Yuan Dynasty blue and white large plate, painted with the common unicorn and flying phoenix in Chinese traditional culture. . Surrounded by complex flowers. The glazed surface is plump and delicate, and the blue is full, revealing a mysterious atmosphere. Such a market is unique in the world. Why can blue and white in the Yuan Dynasty drive straight into? Since then, for seven hundred years, the anti-corrupt cultural concept, or color or ornamentation, has entered the Chinese ceramic culture. 

[Blue glaze white dragon disk] 
Yuan Dynasty, caliber: 16 cm, the Palace of the Tibetan 
blue and white small plate less than 20 cm in China only the Palace Museum collection. The ever-changing ceramic glaze is metallic. The blue and blue of the blue and white are the same as the metallic cobalt as the coloring agent. Only Tang Sancai is that pottery is not porcelain, blue and white is porcelain and not pottery. Pottery and porcelain are very different in science, and the difficulty of firing is very different. So before the blue and blue flowers, Turkey and other countries can only burn blue glazed pottery. These have deeply influenced the blue and white flowers, and even ignited its birth. 

There are only a record of the inheritance of the Yuanqinghua in the Topkapi Palace collection worldwide, and many of these blue and blue flowers are orphans in the world. Ma Wei is carefully studying one of the eight gourd bottles. The origin of Yuan blue and white  　　Chinese scholars mostly recognized that blue and white buds began in the middle of the 14th century or earlier. The exact standard of the 1804 standard of the Daweide Foundation, the blue-and-white dragon-sized bottle, was not controversial. Even if the blue-and-white flower was early, it was early in the early 14th century. This conclusion has reached a consensus. In the Turkish literature, the use of cobalt as an underglaze blue color entered the Persian region as early as the end of the 12th century, but it was only used on glazed pottery, which is still a big step away from porcelain. Japanese ceramic authority three last time Mr. Man also believes that after the middle of the 11th century, Persian ceramics have had an impact on Chinese ceramics, especially Persian white glazed blue pottery directly affects the birth of Chinese blue and white. This technology transmission from west to east clearly has obvious cultural integration characteristics. 

[Lianchi Waterfowl Lingkou Large Plate] 
Caliber: 45 cm

The blue glazed anti-white market in the Topkapi Palace collection is extremely unique. After the craftsman has finished, a layer of mottled color points is sprayed on the entire pattern. This decorative technique is not found in other world blue and white collections. 
 　　Although the works such as the blue glazed white flower Lingkou market fully express the color of Islamic culture, the blue is full, but why is it not a popular trend? The blue and white works have undoubtedly become the mainstream of this kind of blue porcelain. In the visit of Istanbul, in the understanding of the blue of Islamic culture, it gradually realized the expressiveness of its blue, dense, shady, content. The mysterious blue is no longer a simple blue. 

[Yuanqinghua Ghost Valley Down the Mountain Pot] With blue and white flowers, the anti-white decoration is a minority in the Yuanqinghua and even the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Think carefully, this seems to remind us. When blue and white were born, Chinese artisans had tried many kinds of attempts because they tried to leave us with a variety of aesthetic meanings of blue and white porcelain. Blue and white are monochrome, which can directly express content and contrast content. Although the cost limits the number of anti-blue and white works, the exploration of artisans in the early start-up period is precious. 

[Blue-and-white Yunlong pattern plate plum bottle] 
Caliber: 44.5 cm 
This dragon-shaped bottle has a green dragon on its body, which is large in size. From a single angle, it can only “see the end without seeing the tail” or “see the end without seeing the head”. Su Ma  　　is a professional term from Qing Su Ma. It is so strange to hear, so the explanation for Su Ma has been inconsistent for many years. Su Ma is also written in the literature on the Qing dynasty. This is a necessary coloring agent for blue and white. Among them, the word “green” behind Su Ma and Qing and Su Bo is the common suffix, such as the word “tea” behind Longjing tea and oolong tea. So what is Su Ma? 

[Blue and white lotus pond 鸳鸯八方梅瓶] 
高: 40.5 cm 
Topkapi Palace collection of these two squares each bottle because of its uniqueness has become the world’s orphan. According to the law of the name, Su Ma is the most likely to be a place name. Scholars are looking for this transliteration in the possible range. The earliest scholars believed that the green material came from Sumatra in Indonesia, and later scholars said it was Somali. Japanese scholars also verified that it was Smaltum, a color material in Central Asia; Some scholars have verified that the oldest ceramics center in the Middle East, Samarra, is the birthplace of Su Ma. 

[Flower lotus seed bowl] 
caliber: 40.5 cm, height: 18.5 cm

This is the largest blue-and-white bowl in the Topkapi Palace collection. Its size is superb and extremely rare in the world. The bowl of this bowl is painted with a squid lotus flower surrounded by white clouds and waves. The outer wall is painted with delicate patterns such as squid lotus, and the blue and white and white leaves complement each other. Regardless of who is the origin of Su Ma, it should be related to Islamic culture, first of all its color – blue; followed by its application – pottery, which can prove the blood of blue and white. Most of the above regions completed the process of Islamization before the 13th century. 
 　　Su Ma from the Qing Dynasty Wanli people Wang Shizhen “seeing the sky outside” first mentioned: Yongle Xuande room in the interior of the burning, so far is expensive, … with Su Ma from the green. All other similar records after this time were similar, and even later fell into the mud after the Qing Dynasty. This phenomenon also led the Chinese to stubbornly believe that blue and white were burned for the Yongzheng period. After 600 years of blue and white birth, American Pope corrected this statement. 

[Blue and white worm flower and flower gourd bottle] 
Height: 60.5 cm Subsequently, whether the life of Su Ma is related to Zheng He’s voyages to the West began to become a problem. In the past, it was believed that Su Ma was brought back by Zheng He’s voyages to the West, which made the Yongxuan blue and white unattainable. However, the source of the Qing dynasty and the Qing dynasty’s life is becoming clearer and clearer. This period of history has to be rewritten to make it tend to be true. 

[Peony- 
style gourd bottle] Height: 70 cm grass worm is the taste of Chinese literati, and is also a traditional theme in the Yuanqing pattern . The gourd bottle in the picture above is the collection of Topkapi Palace. It has its distinctive features in its square shape. The gourd bottle in the picture below is known for its large body shape. China has not found such a huge gourd bottle. Today, the world knows that blue and white is the quintessence of China and has a history of 700 years. The secret of this history has gradually become public, and Yuan Qinghua is the crystallization of Chinese culture, Islamic culture and Mongolian culture. It combines farming culture with nomadic culture, uses traditional Chinese and excellent porcelain craftsmanship to express the metal crafts of Islamic culture, and uses the bright blue color of Islamic culture to change the inherent aesthetic taste of Chinese people. This culture combines unprecedented beauty, let us enjoy it. . The content of this article is national