At present, there is no detailed information to explain how pottery was invented. Morgan's book "Ancient Society" points out in the introduction: "Gukuiya was the first person to propose the invention of pottery in the ninth century, that is, people coated clay on combustible containers to prevent fires. Later, they found that only clay could achieve this goal. Therefore, pottery appeared in the world. " Segars further pointed out in his book The Origin of Family, Private Ownership and State: "It can be proved that in many places, perhaps all places, the manufacture of pottery is caused by coating clay on woven or wooden containers to make them fire-resistant. In doing so, it was soon discovered that molded clay could be used for this purpose without an internal container. " The invention of pottery was not the exclusive product of the ancient ancestors of a certain region or a certain tribe. It was independently created by any ancient agricultural tribe and nation in the long-term life practice of mankind.
The appearance of pottery is linked with the development of agricultural economy. Generally, agriculture comes first, and then pottery comes. When human beings entered the Neolithic Age, due to the emergence of agriculture and animal husbandry, they began to live in a settled and semi-settled life. In particular, the occurrence and development of agriculture has provided relatively stable edible grains for human beings. Grain is a granular substance, unlike the carcasses of wild animals, which is convenient for barbecue on the fire. At the same time, the remaining food needs to be stored. Because of this, with the development of agricultural economy and the need of settled life, people's demand for cooking, holding and storing food and collecting water utensils is more and more urgent. Therefore, people are encouraged to create pottery closely related to human life in their daily life practice. The emergence and development of pottery is the result of thousands of years' hard work of working people in China. Sufficient material evidence can be obtained from ethnology and archaeology.
It is difficult to know the specific age of pottery at present. According to archaeological data, it began to appear in the Neolithic Age about 8-9 thousand years ago, and has been the main living appliance of human beings for thousands of years. At this time, due to the different firing techniques, different kinds of pottery such as red pottery, gray pottery and black pottery also appeared. At the same time, in order to prevent pottery from being broken by fire or soaked in water, people put sand in the soil and burn it into mud-gray pottery with sand and red pottery with sand. This kind of pottery is mostly used in cookers, pumps and large containers. Therefore, there are two kinds of clay and sand pottery.
Pei Ligang culture was first discovered in Pei Ligang Village, Xinzheng County, Henan Province in 1977. According to the calculation of carbon 14, it is about 8000 years ago, and it is the earliest Neolithic site in China. At the same time, cultural sites of the same period were also found in Cishan, Wu 'an County, Hebei Province. The unearthed pottery has certain primitiveness, and it is the earliest pottery found in China at present.
Yangshao culture and painted pottery are its main features. According to the determination of carbon fourteen, the age is about 7000-5000 years ago. Pots mainly include pots, cans, bowls and bottles with small mouths and sharp bottoms, and the texture is argillaceous pottery and mixed sand pottery.
Qujialing culture is a culture distributed in Jianghan basin after Yangshao culture, which can be traced back to more than 4000 years according to carbon 14.
Dawenkou culture is an ancient oriental culture after Yangshao culture and before Longshan culture. According to the calculation of carbon fourteen, the age is about 6000-4200 years ago, and its pottery forms and ornamentation have their own characteristics.
According to the calculation of carbon 14, Longshan culture from about 4300 to 3800 years ago is the most representative artifact, especially "eggshell black pottery". At the same time, white pottery fired with kaolin appeared in the late Longshan culture. It laid the foundation for the invention of primitive porcelain later.
Bronze wares produced brilliantly in Shang Dynasty, but the main utensils in ordinary people's daily life were still pottery. The pottery of Shang Dynasty is still dominated by gray pottery. At that time, there were different workshops specializing in firing argillaceous gray pottery and argillaceous mixed sand gray pottery. However, in the later period, white pottery and printed hard pottery have made great progress, especially white pottery, which has the artistic characteristics of bronze and is gorgeous and precious. At the same time, the blue glazed original porcelain with kaolin as the tire appeared.
After the Western Zhou Dynasty, there were many kinds of pottery, including bricks and tiles, pottery figurines and building utensils. By the Warring States, Qin and Han Dynasties, it had become a custom to bury with pottery figurines, beasts and pottery. Therefore, the pottery industry is more prosperous. The Terracotta Warriors and Horses of Qin Shihuang Mausoleum discovered in Xi 'an in recent years, and the Terracotta Warriors and Horses of the Western Han Dynasty discovered in Xianyang, Shaanxi and Xuzhou, Jiangsu, are exquisite in shape and magnificent in lineup, which are rare in the world.
Due to the social stability and the rapid development of agriculture and handicrafts in the Han Dynasty, the wind of heavy burial prevailed among the people. The pottery industry burned a lot of pottery for burial. At this time, painted pottery that appeared in the Warring States period was developed and glazed pottery was widely used. At the same time, people who used white powder and ink calligraphy on pottery also appeared in large numbers. From the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Three Kingdoms, the firing technology of porcelain gradually matured, and pottery was replaced by porcelain and retired to a secondary position.
Tang Sancai belongs to lead glazed pottery, which is made of kaolin and colored glaze. Song and Jin are still popular.
Types of Ancient Pottery in China
Red Tao Hong actress, born 1969 pottery first appeared in China, and the firing temperature of red pottery was around 900 degrees. Archaeological data show that Peiligang culture in the Yellow River basin 8000 years ago and Yangshao culture and Dawenkou culture 5000 years ago are mainly clay red pottery and red Chu pottery mixed with sand.
Painted pottery painted pottery is an outstanding achievement of Yangshao culture. It is pottery decorated with ochre, red, black and other colors. Painted pottery art has a strong flavor of life and a unique artistic style. Before the pottery is fired, it is coated on the ceramic blank. After firing, the color pattern is fixed on the surface of the ware and is not easy to fall off. Some people paint a layer of white pottery before painting, so they paint a layer of white pottery before painting the knot, which makes the painted pattern more vivid. Painted pottery patterns are mainly flower patterns and geometric patterns, but there are also a few animal patterns. Geometric patterns mainly include: chordal pattern, reticulate pattern, sawtooth pattern, triangle pattern, chessboard pattern, hanging pattern, vortex pattern, circle pattern, zigzag pattern, wide band pattern, and moon, sun, big dipper and other patterns. Animal patterns, such as fish, birds and frogs, are common. There are many animal patterns, such as pig pattern, dog pattern and deer pattern. Some of them are running while others are standing. The appearance of these animal images reflects the important position of fishing and hunting in the primitive social life at that time. The numbers are few. 1973, a pottery bowl was produced in Datong County, Qinghai Province. There are three groups of dancers painted on the inner wall of its mouth, a group of five people. The dancers are neat, elegant and delicate. Plant patterns, rice and wheat grains, branches and leaves, petals were found on the pottery of Hemudu culture in Zhejiang province 6800 years ago, and some of them have even been summarized into geometric shapes and mixed with geometric patterns to form patterns, forming a unique style and a special taste.
Black pottery appeared during the Longshan culture period. The firing temperature of black pottery is about 1000℃. There are three kinds of black pottery: fine clay, argillaceous clay and sand. Among them, the production level of fine mud thin-walled black pottery is the highest, and it is known as "black as paint and thin as paper". This kind of black clay is called "eggshell pottery" after elutriation and wheel-making. The thickness of the sidewall is only 0.5- 1mm, and then it is polished and burned black. Its skill is amazing and it enjoys a good reputation at home and abroad. During this period, black pottery was mainly polished with plain surface, with few decorative patterns such as strings, scratches and carved holes.
Gray Pottery Gray Pottery has appeared in Khan Lee cultural sites in the early Neolithic period. There are a certain number of gray pottery in Yangshao culture and Longshan culture, especially cookware, most of which are mixed sand and gray pottery. In the Xia Dynasty (early Erlitou culture), gray pottery and sand pottery occupied the main position.
White pottery refers to a kind of pottery with white inside and outside and fetal quality. Made of porcelain clay or kaolin, the firing temperature is about 1000 degrees. White pottery is basically hand-made, and will gradually adopt mud lath system and wheel system in the future. White pottery appeared in the late Longshan culture and reached its peak in Shang Dynasty. In the late Shang Dynasty, white pottery issued a large number of tuxedos, and the largest number of them were unearthed in Yinxu, Anyang, and the production was quite exquisite. During the Western Zhou Dynasty, white pottery was no longer fired because of more firing and use of printed hard pottery and primitive porcelain.
Hard pottery Hard pottery is finer and harder than ordinary argillaceous or mixed sand pottery, and its firing temperature is also higher than ordinary pottery. Moreover, the surface of pottery is printed with decorative patterns with geometric patterns, so it is collectively called "printed hard pottery". The Western Zhou Dynasty is the heyday of the development of relief hard pottery, and its raw materials are basically close to the original celadon according to the chemical composition analysis. Due to the high iron content of raw materials used for printing hard pottery, the tire color is dark, mostly purplish brown, reddish brown, yellowish brown and grayish brown. Printed hard pottery is durable, mostly containers. Printed hard pottery of the Shang Dynasty was found in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River and the Yangtze River. From the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Warring States Period, relief hard pottery was mainly prevalent in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and Fujian, * *, Guangdong, Guangxi and other places in the south.
Glazed pottery In the Han Dynasty, there appeared a kind of glazed pottery with lead added to the glaze, also known as "lead glazed pottery". The successful production of lead glazed pottery is an outstanding achievement of pottery-making technology in Han Dynasty. Adding lead to the glaze can reduce the melting point of the glaze, make the glaze more bright, uniform and smooth, and make the iron and copper colorants appear beautiful green, yellow, brown and other colors, but the green glaze is the most, green as jade and radiant.
The surface of lead glazed pottery unearthed in tombs sometimes has a silvery white luster, and some people mistakenly call it "silver glaze". According to the scientific research of archaeologists, it is found that the reason for the formation of "silver glaze" is that the glaze is wet for a long time, and multiple layers of deposits are precipitated on the glaze, which produces silver luster under the refraction of light.