Blue and white porcelain in Ming dynasty
Hongwu official kiln blue and white is the product of connecting the past with the future, inheriting the blue and white tradition of the Yuan Dynasty, but it is neat and has not changed much. The theme of the pattern is mainly stylized flower patterns, and the layout tends to be simple. Flat chrysanthemum pattern, twig wrapping pattern or overlapping lotus leaf pattern are more common. The dragon pattern has five claws, and the tips of the five claws are connected in a circle. There are generally three claws and four claws. The shapes are mainly plates, bowls and cans. Except for the bottle in Yuhu Lane, the pot in Yuhu Spring and the big bowl with a diameter of about 20 cm, the rest are thick bottoms. Disks and bowls with thick bottoms have red protective glaze at the bottom, and most of them have obvious brush lines. The patterns of Hongwu blue-and-white porcelain are mainly floral patterns, which are basically consistent with the underglaze safflower, especially the flat chrysanthemum pattern. Some utensils are decorated with tied branches and flat chrysanthemums. From the handed down products and the specimens found in Jingdezhen kiln site, it can be seen that the bottom of the bowl-shaped flower coarse porcelain on the back of the folk kiln in Hongwu period was unglazed and had spikes, which still retained the characteristics of oblique foot cutting in Yuan Dynasty.
Hongwu official kiln blue and white mainly uses domestic green materials with low iron content and insufficient refining, and the color is mostly gray blue. Iron crystal spots are not obvious. Hongwu blue-and-white is different from the typical blue-and-white with bright back, and the world is also different from the rich color translation of typical Yongle and Xuande blue-and-white and has its own characteristics. In the Ming Dynasty, Yongle and Xuande blue and white flowers were mostly fired with imported suma green materials, and the colorful back flower patterns were dotted with silver-black crystal spots. This kind of green material is richer in iron and lower in manganese than domestic green material. Facts have proved that blue and white materials are not covered under glaze, but are black after burning, similar to the black and white works of Yaozhou kiln in Tang Dynasty. If the cover is fired under glaze, the finished product will be grayish blue. Someone once made a simulation experiment with kiln site materials, covered the blue and white glaze on the blue and white material and fired it again to get Hongwu blue and white.