The Great Collection of Cultural Relics from the Palace Museum: Jin and Tang Dynasty Porcelain

Author: Li Huibing
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-12-01
Features: Chinese ceramic craftsmanship is renowned worldwide for its long history. As early as the Neolithic Age, people began using pottery. With the development of production, porcelain emerged, with its earliest origins traceable to primitive celadon from the Shang and Zhou periods, and later to celadon from the Eastern Han Dynasty. Subsequently, Chinese porcelain production underwent different stages of development, progressing from celadon to white porcelain, and then to colored porcelain. The rich and diverse porcelain has earned China the reputation of being the "Porcelain Kingdom" in the world. For inherited ceramic artifacts, scientifically determining their era, origin, and craftsmanship features is a key topic in ceramic research. For this reason, since the 1950s, the Palace Museum has conducted surveys of ancient kiln sites nationwide. After decades of effort, it has accumulated extensive research materials. At the same time, it has corroborated findings with porcelain unearthed from tombs and specimen data, serving as scientific evidence for dating. As a result, the Palace Museum's research on ceramic history has made breakthroughs, resolving numerous issues related to the dating, kiln origins, and craftsmanship of inherited ceramics. In the 60-volume series Treasures of the Palace Museum, nine volumes are dedicated to ceramics, from which the latest research findings will be disclosed, along with showcasing the highlights of the museum's collection. This volume, Porcelain of the Jin and Tang Dynasties, includes artifacts with very few from the former imperial collection, but the selected pieces are highly representative, with many fine examples. They not only compensate for the lack of imperial collection artifacts but also systematically reflect the general outline of porcelain development during the Jin and Tang periods. Since Five Dynasties porcelain is closely related to Tang porcelain, it has been included in this volume. Tang sancai, though technically a type of pottery, is an important part of Tang ceramics, so it has also been selected for this volume.