Keywords

1 Introduction

The ceramic art in China reaches its first summit in Song dynasty. The porcelains in this period have always been admired and adored for its ‘born beauty’ [1] and graceful elegance, which embodies the amazing creativity of ancient Chinese and demonstrates the high level of science and technology as well as the Chinese people’s pursuit of beauty, art and happiness in the past thousand years. The study of the ceramic art in Song period, therefore, is of great historical value. Ding, one of the five famous kilns in Song dynasty, mostly produced white porcelains which were selected as royal porcelain for its fine craft, its simple color and elegant luster, and beautiful decorative patterns (see Figs. 1, 2 and 3). Its unique monochrome glaze decoration, the connotation of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism culture and the aesthetic value of zen influenced magnificently on the development of ceramics design in the later world.

Fig. 1.
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A large vase white glazed with lotus pattern and a dragon head

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Fig. 2.
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A five-foot censer white glazed

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Fig. 3.
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A handed ewer white glazed with peony pattern and a dragon head

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2 Research Value of Ding White Porcelain in Song Dynasty

Ding kiln, was located in Ding Zhou in Song dynasty, which is nowadays Quyang County of Hebei Province. Ding began to produce white porcelains as early as in the late Tang Dynasty, and became one of the five famous kilns in Song dynasty. Song period witnessed lot of creation and improvement in ceramics production, and the enormous production scale of a wide varieties of Ding porcelains including bowls, dishes, bottles, discs and pillows made Ding one of the five famous kilns in Song dynasty along with Ru, Jun, Guan and Ge (as was called in later ages). Deeply influenced by the politics, religion and economy at that time, Ding developed an aesthetic perception of simplicity, naturalness and harmony. Unfortunately, compared to other kilns, study on Ding aesthetic and its influence on ceramic design in later ages can hardly be traced due to lack of history and literature record as a result of various restrictions. Therefore, the author believes that analysis on aesthetic features of Ding kiln should be of certain academic value and practical guiding significance to the study of the development of ceramic design. In the late Tang dynasty, Ding kiln had begun to produce white porcelain, imitating Xing kiln in the early days. In Song dynasty, Ding had already surpassed Xing kiln in the technology of sintering, and gradually replaced the latter as a main kiln [2]. For its exquisiteness, fine glaze color and beautiful patterns (as shown in Figs. 4, 5 and 6), Ding had gradually outstood from a common commercial kiln at the beginning to become the imperial porcelain kiln for rulers of Song dynasty and the paragon of the time. On the other hand, thanks to the open foreign trade policy of Song dynasty, export of ceramics boomed amazingly, In Pingzhou Ketan, a book recording anecdotes, businessman in the Northern Song dynasty carried countless ceramic articles to southeast Asia by various ships [3]. More than 30 countries maintained trade relationship with the Southern Song dynasty, over 20 of which were frequented by traders shipping ceramics from the Southern Song dynasty [4]. The Song porcelain salvaged from the shipwreck “South China Sea No.1” showed that the Ding aesthetic perception had been accepted and widely spread, which promoted the development of ceramic design in the world, especially in Southeast Asia.

Fig. 4.
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White glaze clean bottle

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Fig. 5.
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White glaze loop-handled teapot

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Fig. 6.
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White glaze engraved lotus matrass

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3 The Main Aesthetic Features of Ding in Song Dynasty

3.1 An Aesthetic of Refinement and Naturalness

Song, a dynasty advocating literature or fine art but despising military and physical labor, is awash with literati and scientists. While rulers of Song dynasty adopted a strategy of emphasizing civil administration at the expense of national defense, the aggressiveness and powerfulness as well as the warship of military achievements were replaced by literature and art and an aesthetic of refinement, meditation and metaphysics [5]. Song dynasty implemented Confucian political thought in civil administration, while Buddhism and Taoism are the main religions at that time. The new Confucianism emerged after its absorption of Buddhism and Taoist thoughts [6]. The reflection on aesthetics intrigued by the integration of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism made it a trend for literati of Song dynasty to pursue the spiritual realm, and all kinds of ceramic and porcelain wares had become something to express feelings and aesthetics in their hands, which greatly influenced the shaping and patterning.

Lao Tse and Chuang-Tzu, the representatives of Taoism say that the nature of human beings lies in being natural, and what Taoism emphasizes is “essence”, and what they pursuit is “being” and “simplicity”. “Simplicity” is to keep the essence of things and eliminate artificial factors to achieve a beauty of simplicity, naturalness, and silence. Zen, which has always been the main Chinese Buddhist sect, is a mixture of the Indian Buddhism and the traditional Chinese Taoism, flourishing most in Song dynasty, influencing on the then aesthetic with a profound life outlook and social ideologies [7]. Being indifferent and natural, white porcelains are quite in consistence with Taoism and zen in their pursuit of a mental state and temperament of nothingness. The ceramic art style and Chinese aesthetics have been influenced by the mixed Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism ever since Song dynasty, with a different dominating philosophy in a different era.

3.2 Animal and Plant Modeling and Decoration Aesthetics

In Song dynasty, imagery modeling and decoration were adopted for the design of white porcelain, which is to imitate the biological form in nature in the design to achieve the goal of aesthetic originality. The aesthetic of Song dynasty is mainly attributed to the Taoist culture advocating a doctrine of “natural beauty”, i.e. anything that is beautiful is of nature. Ceramic and porcelain wares, inseparable from daily life, such as pottery pots, pomegranate shaped boxes, human-shaped pots, etc., naturally follow the “life-copy” policy, and are usually decorated with flowers and landscapes and fancy animal images. Figure 7 The design of the baby pillow is mimicking the naive posture of a sleeping baby. Figure 8 Delicate, light, and handy, the five pointed petal plate produced by Ding kiln was made out of exquisite workmanship.

Fig. 7.
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White glaze baby pillow

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Fig. 8.
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5-Petaled plate

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Professor Li-xin Li said: “The integration and transformation of Buddhist artifacts into China ceramic and porcelain wares is the sinicization of Buddhist artifacts design, which almost changed the history of art development of China ceramic and porcelain wares after Han dynasty [8].” From the imagery ceramic artifacts of Song dynasty, we can see the impact of Buddhism-zen thought on white porcelain design, which is directly embodied in the shape and decorative patterns, as shown in Fig. 9, a waist pillow with carved patterns of lotus flower, whose character and moral are regarded as to be in conformity with the Buddhist doctrine and is treated as the symbol of Buddhism. The love of nature and the influence of religion in Song dynasty can be seen in the existence of a large number of carved flower patterns.

Fig. 9.
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White glaze lotus pattern round waist pillow

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3.3 An Aesthetic Integrating Simplicity, Beautifulness and Practicability

The urban prosperity of Song dynasty led to the most prosperous industry in the city, the catering and entertainment services. The streets were full of restaurants, tea shops, and restaurants, Vacherie, the earliest entertainment place in Song Dynasty, and brothels all over the cities. In the northern Song dynasty, there were more than 3,000 “Zhengdian” (the authorized wine dealer) and “Jiaodian”(the retail wine dealers) in Bianjing, the capital city, whose main business was to offer catering services. According to the statistics of “Meng Liang Lu” by Wu Zimu of the southern Song dynasty, there were as many as 335 types of dishes on the market in the city of Hangzhou [9]. The development of the catering industry brought by urban prosperity required a large number of household utensils, which naturally promoted the rapid development of ceramics in Song dynasty. Ding kiln produced large quantities of ceramic ware in many varieties in a big scale, greatly satisfying the life needs. Meanwhile it set up its own image during its rapid development and formed its own unique shaping and molding norm (see Figs. 10, 11 and 12).

Fig. 10.
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White glaze flower plate

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Fig. 11.
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White glaze engraved teacup with saucer

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Fig. 12.
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White glaze engraved teacup with saucer

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Fig. 13.
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White glazed earthenware with button lid

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In general, the understanding of art often demands an unpractical emphasis on the appreciation of artistry, while Song porcelain relates the artistry to the practical function, showing the symbolic connotation of Song dynasty culture by its shaping and patterns. Before Tang and Song dynasties, the ancients were seated on the ground, usually kneeling on the grass mats. The invention of chair liberated human body and mind [10]. Song dynasty is a period for the transition of Chinese sitting position. The matching of table and chairs released the mental productivity, and the dimensions of household furniture also subsequently became bigger and higher. Indoor layout also changed correspondingly with the coming of light and small daily house wares easily movable and suitable to put on the furniture. Then came the era for ceramics and porcelains to accommodate the modern life habit, which perfectly explained why daily life articles accounted for most part of Ding white porcelain.

Although Ding porcelain is of high cultural value, it is not too noble to keep common people away. On the contrary, it is the most common articles for daily use, which embodies its aesthetic of simplicity, beautifulness and practicability.

4 The Influence of Ding White Porcelain on the Design of Modern Ceramics

The design of ceramic creative products is a new concept of ceramic products along with cultural creation. The promotion of culturally creative industry has currently become a trend for many countries in drafting their economic development strategies. The traditional culture of each nation and its lifestyle has its unique identification. To meet global market competition, a design with cultural features can demonstrate the uniqueness of the product and bring a special consumption experience [11]. With a higher life level, an economy era has come when the consumer market began to emphasize on experience and aesthetic. A unique regional culture and creative ideas have become the key to the development of ceramic products [12]. With an extremely high aesthetic norm and exquisite ceramics technique, Ding porcelain has become the source of modern ceramic culture and product design, constantly inspiring designers to reflect on culture, creativity, technology innovation.

4.1 Heritage of Simple Beauty and Simulation Modeling

Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism are the three thoughts that have been influencing Chinese culture and art and the Chinese society, life and mentality. The aesthetic tastes of the three schools are also similar in some ways, which is why white porcelain has been held in high regard for its simple elegance and ethereal decorative style. With this aesthetic, white porcelain influences greatly on the design of modern creative ceramics, helping the evolvement of modern design philosophy which covers today’s humanity, conciseness, and practicability. It is a very important guide for modern designers, which helps them to remove trivial adornment and retain precise workmanship. An aesthetic tendency in product design can be formed through innovation of culture symbols and keep the balance between the culture and design.

From the 1980s, designers began to concentrate on product semantics-to regard a product as a symbol system. By studying its operation and application, designers created symbols out of product shapes, which were applied to product design [13]. The design of lid in Figs. 14 and 15 shows the influence of the traditional white glazed pottery jar (see Fig. 13) of Song dynasty. The originality lies in combination of the rock in traditional landscape gardening with the design of the pot lid. The combination of two different kinds of ceramic materials adds to the decorousness in addition to its simplicity and elegance and ethereal beauty of a traditional white porcelain glaze. This well explains the designers ’research on culture symbols.

Fig. 14.
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White glaze can with a rockery lid

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Fig. 15.
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White glaze can with a rockery lid

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4.2 Heritage of Practicability and Ethereal Glaze

The design of modern white porcelain mainly inherits practicability as daily products in people’s life. In Song dynasty, among many colored glaze daily utensils, Ding white porcelain is unadorned but in good taste, showing off a unique temperament aloof and proud. This clean glaze color and the simple modeling proportion have a far-reaching influence on the later generations. Throughout the modern ceramic market, with stricter inspections on internationally traded goods and more requirements on products related to human health, porcelain tableware has seen an overnight change from colored ones into plain white porcelain, which has now become an irreversible trend [14] (see Fig. 16).

Fig. 16.
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Modern white glaze tableware

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With changing consumers’ demands, their cognition must also be taken into account in current product design in addition to product function and practical usage [15]. On the vigorous development of global creative industry, the consumer market is becoming more and more concerned with its cultural characteristics and aesthetic perception. Therefore ceramic products with culture symbols may lead to resonance of the consumers. In the design of white porcelain teapot, for example, the designer will try to find inspiration from the traditional modeling which has been publicly accepted for satisfying consumer’s perception of products and cultural appeal, and design more models to meet the aesthetic needs of consumers (see Fig. 17).

Fig. 17.
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Modern white glaze teapot

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4.3 Inheriting Skills and Exquisite Workmanship

Ding eggshell porcelain is a craft that has a profound influence on modern creative products. The crafts include gilding “mankou”(a defect on the porcelain being calcined) with gold or copper, and three main decoration tactics of engraved design, incised design and printing design. Ding initiated “Fushao” method to produce a fine quality product described as being thin as a piece of paper, with a sound like that of chime stone, and a glaze of a jade”. The technical invention greatly increased the yield and improved the quality, and is still used in today’s production. On the other hand,the new method according to which the vessel mouth is put upside down while being fired has a defect that the mouth of the vessel is not glazed. The unfired pottery has no color and appears rough. This is what we commonly know as “Mangkou”. In order to cover up the flaws, skilled craftsmen wrapped “Mangkou” with silver, gold or copper to hide it when they made utensils for the palace. Now it has become a characteristic of Ding kiln [16] (see Fig. 18). Although better solutions have been found for the faults, this kind of adornment characteristic, a splendid show of fine workmanship and ornamental technique, has been inherited, which we often see on the white porcelain decoration (see Fig. 19).

Fig. 18.
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White glaze lotus matrass

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Fig. 19.
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White porcelain teacup set

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The common decoration techniques of Ding porcelain are engraved flowers, incised flowers and printing. Engraving flowers is to carve on the surface of the utensil into a bevel so that the pattern can suggest volume with different shade and depth. With concise and fashionable composition and firm lines in symmetry, these patterns are usually lotus, peony, and other natural flowers. Printing refers to the method of copying the pattern on the surface of the utensil with a patterned mold. In Song dynasty, the printing of Ding kiln is the most superb. In addition to the common flowers, there are also animals such as mandarin ducks, lions, fish and so on. These patterns are usually combined with flowers and plants to present a harmonious nature picture of great complexity [17]. These decoration method is well applied in modern creative ceramic products. White eggshell porcelains with distinct printing decoration show how exquisite Ding white porcelain craft is, and how popular it is in the market (see Fig. 20).

Fig. 20.
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White porcelain printed single teacup

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5 Conclusion

The evolution of Ding white porcelain aesthetic thoughts is closely connected with Song dynasty’s political culture, religion, science, and ways of life. From the modeling and decorations of white porcelain in Song dynasty, we can see how ceramic designers in Song dynasty had been influenced by culture in creating such highly reputable ceramic products. Professor Rongtai Lin said: “ The design of culturally creative products is a taste or lifestyle which is to be realized through the industrialization of culture. [18].” Ceramics, as a traditional art material, enjoys a treasure of cultural heritage. Ding porcelain of Song dynasty is what we can learn from to create a product of such taste and lifestyle.