With the gradual integration of Buddhist culture, the trinity of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism has become the mainstream culture in Chinese civilization. During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, people interpreted Buddhism with Laozi and Zhuangzi. After the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Buddhism and metaphysics tended to merge, which was deeply appreciated by literati. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the independent status of Buddhism, coupled with its deep-rooted spiritual and cultural influence, was in full swing, especially when Dharma, the founder of Zen, came to China, and Zen began. Buddhism and temples have become a common practice all over the country, and religious activities are very frequent. Du Mu, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, said: "There were 480 temples in the Southern Dynasties, and there were many towers in the misty rain." At that time, the exquisite lotus patterns on ceramic incense burners were widely popular, and lotus represented Buddhist culture. As a sacrificial vessel, incense burners have been widely used at this time.
The unprecedented development of science and technology in the Tang Dynasty, the level of craft manufacturing can be called world-class, both the casting industry for producing gold and silver wares and the manufacturing industry for firing porcelain have attracted worldwide attention. Among them, celadon is represented by Yue Kiln in the south and white porcelain is represented by Xing Kiln in the north, which is a true portrayal of Tang Wenhua's in-depth social life. A kind of pottery bean resembling pre-Qin appeared in the tri-color incense burner in the Tang Dynasty, which was unearthed at the site of Huang Baoyao, Shaanxi. In ancient life, the "incense" used for burning incense was powder made of various fragrant pills, balls, sweet cake or "mixed incense". The history of linear incense appeared relatively late. "Burning incense" is not to burn incense pills and cookies directly to make them smell fragrant, but to burn them slowly with charcoal fire to minimize smoke and make the fragrance low and long. In ancient paintings, the scene of women "adding incense" is elegant and beautiful, but there is basically no incense in the incense burner. In Japan, South Korea and Taiwan Province Province of China, this tradition of burning incense still remains.
The society in the Song Dynasty was relatively stable, and a large number of bronzes, jades and pottery unearthed in the pre-Qin period made imitation possible. Starting from "respecting literature and restraining martial arts", the emperors in Song Dynasty strongly supported Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, which promoted the formation and development of Neo-Confucianism in Song Dynasty. In the Song Dynasty, when China's traditional culture was the most developed, a science-epigraphy came into being. In the seventh year of Yuan You (A.D. 1092), Lu Dalin, the full-time custodian of palace cultural relics, compiled the Archaeological Map, which not only drew the figures of the vessels, but also recorded their sizes and inscriptions. From then on, the identification of cultural relics and academic research were integrated, which laid the foundation for porcelain to imitate pre-Qin ritual vessels in an all-round way.
Emperor Zhao, who was born in a noble family in the Song Dynasty, has a high cultural accomplishment, likes retro, attaches importance to old ritual vessels, and likes simple and elegant colors. Therefore, simple elegance became the popular color of the society at that time. Song people advocate nature and frugality, and pursue exquisiteness, elegance and indifference in life interest. The ancient prose movement led by Ouyang Xiu, a literary leader at that time, emphasized that literature should be based on Tao and Ming Dow, learn from the creation of the ancients, and oppose extravagant style of writing. Under this background, Song porcelain created a brand-new aesthetic realm-not only attaching importance to the beauty of glaze color, but also pursuing the essence of glaze texture. For example, in the past, the palace utensils were mainly gold and silver, but in the Song Dynasty, the palace utensils were reduced and porcelain was used instead.
Longquan kiln incense burner in Southern Song Dynasty
In the Song Dynasty, the official kiln was specially set up to burn porcelain for the imperial court, and the emperor was required to give it to ministers, trying not to use gold and silver utensils, but to use porcelain instead. Porcelain incense burners imitating pre-Qin artifacts emerged one after another in the Song Dynasty, such as ding incense burners, pan incense burners, pan incense burners, fish incense burners and three-legged incense burners. The incense burner in the Song Dynasty represents the artistic spirit of porcelain in the Song Dynasty. Incense burners began to enter the room and appeared in the imperial court, while some small incense burners became playthings of literati. At that time, burning incense, making tea, arranging flowers and hanging pictures were listed as the four arts of literati, which were very popular among literati.
The texture of incense burners in the Ming Dynasty has changed, including bronzes, pottery and porcelain, as well as wood carving, bamboo carving and stone carving. In the Song and Yuan Dynasties, celadon incense burners and kiln-changed glaze incense burners were the main ones, while in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, blue and white incense burners were the main ones, and new varieties of incense burners such as red glaze and colored porcelain appeared.
Some new varieties of incense burners appeared in Ming dynasty, such as elephant ear burner, bell ear burner and drum burner. In the Qing dynasty, bowls and furnaces were the mainstay.
Xuande furnace in Ming dynasty
Emperor Xuande of the Ming Dynasty had a high artistic talent and a particularly outstanding sense of color. Under his influence, multicolored and colorful porcelain developed unprecedentedly and became a bright spot in the development history of China porcelain. Emperor Xuande likes incense burners. In particular, he ordered the import of a batch of weathered copper from Siam, and instructed Lu Zhen, a court craftsman, and Wu Bangzuo, assistant minister of the Ministry of Industry, to design and supervise incense burners with reference to the styles of famous kiln porcelain collected by the Imperial Palace. In order to ensure the quality of the incense burner, craftsmen also mixed dozens of precious metals such as gold and silver into the raw materials and cast them together with copper. The finished bronze incense burner is crystal clear and moist in color, and its exquisite and wonderful degree can be said to be unprecedented. The successful casting of Xuande Furnace opened the precedent of bronze furnaces in later generations, and Xuande Furnace also became the collective name of bronze incense burners.
Over time, Xuande furnace has become a rare treasure, and post-imitation furnace and private furnace are also very precious. The reason is that Xuande Furnace suffered various disasters in just four or five hundred years. During the Chongzhen period of the Ming Dynasty, the national treasury was empty after years of war, and even various bronzes collected by the imperial court were sent to Baoyuan Bureau to make coins. During the Xianfeng period of the Qing Dynasty, internal troubles and foreign invasion made him destroy all kinds of bronze coins preserved in the palace and imperial palace. During the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression period, the Japanese invaders lacked copper for guns, and collected bronzes in various parts of China, which were melted and made into guns. After liberation, there are few Xuande furnaces left, such as steelmaking in the Great Leap Forward and "breaking the capitalism" in the Cultural Revolution.
After the Qing rulers entered the Central Plains, they ruled the world with "filial piety". During the reign of Kangxi, sacrificial rites prevailed, and incense burners as ritual vessels received unprecedented attention. After the painstaking efforts of the Kang Yong dynasties, the society in the Qianlong period was unprecedentedly prosperous. Emperor Qianlong is fond of the past, and Qianlong porcelain has very high technological requirements in terms of modeling, glaze color and decorative patterns, even in folk kilns, which fully reflects the prosperity of Qianlong.
Incense burner, as the main tool of sacrifice, is accompanied by the historical process. With the expansion of its functions, it endows people with more spirituality, so that people can follow it beyond just visiting and pursue and appreciate the profound traditional culture of China.
Edit this paragraph | Back to the top ancient porcelain incense burner culture-Appreciating the incense burner in Tang and Qin Dynasties
Tang Xingyao Lu Qin
The Tang Dynasty is considered to be the heyday of feudal society in China. After more than 300 years of division and civil war, the rough and unrestrained passion of northern porcelain and the delicate and euphemistic feelings of southern porcelain were skillfully combined in the Tang Dynasty. Xing kiln, which represents the highest achievement of northern white porcelain in Tang Dynasty, was developed under such a cultural background.
Yao Xing Qin Lu in Tang Dynasty was a vessel used by the royal family in Tang Dynasty. I have visited ancient kiln sites and major museums all over the country, and I have never seen such a beautiful piano stove, which makes people fondle it. The piano furnace is 5.2 cm high, 5 cm in diameter and 3.3 cm in diameter. Its shape is so regular and its craft is so exquisite, which shows the extraordinary value of Xing Kiln. Milky white glaze is applied to the furnace body and bottom. The glaze color is pure and uniform, the enamel is thick, white and moist, and the fetal bones are exposed at the soles of the feet. I can see that the porcelain clay is carefully washed. The furnace wraps around the neck, shoulders are wide and abdomen is bulging. The three beasts stand upright and put outward, which is very strong and powerful, and quite has the charm of the Tang Dynasty.
In the Tang Dynasty, commercial trade was so prosperous that copper coins were not enough to be used. In order to gather copper and make money, the court issued a decree to the world prohibiting the casting of daily necessities with copper. Subsequently, the application of porcelain became more and more extensive, and it became the main appliance for daily life.
In the Tea Classic written by Lu Yu in the Tang Dynasty, it is said that "Xing porcelain is silver and Yue porcelain is jade; Xing porcelain snow, more porcelain ice. " Xing kiln tire is firm, thin and white, and its shape is dignified and generous, elegant but not vulgar. It is famous for its clean frost and snow tones and simple and elegant demeanor in Bai Sheng, which embodies the spotless and unpretentious noble sentiments of the Tang people, just like the vigorous spirit of the prosperous Tang Dynasty.
Ancient literati were quite elegant and liked piano, chess, calligraphy and painting. For thousands of years, Qin has been closely related to the life of literati, and it is inseparable from the Qin, Qin, Zheng, Xiao and literati's study at banquets. The pianist pays great attention to etiquette before playing the piano. Usually he takes a bath, washes his hands and burns incense. Light a wick in the study and play the piano for a while. The fragrance is dense and the sound of the piano fills the air. Watching a wisp of smoke curl up and smelling the fragrance floating in, it is like entering the celestial world and reaching the artistic conception of selflessness.