Jingdezhen: The Blue and White City

Jesse Golden, Good Dirt LA Teacher

Instagram: @JCGolden6

Dec. 6^th, 2019

Qīng-huā (pronounced ching-wah-zte) is mandarin for blue and white, and has become synonymous with the famous porcelain city of Jingdezhen, China. Located a 4-hour bullet train west of Shanghai, Jingdezhen is world renowned for its over 1000 years of producing the finest quality ceramic wares. The blue and white style of clay evolved in Jingdezhen to be used by emperors and commoners alike. I had the pleasure of spending five weeks in this charming city at a ceramic residency learning its history and working with its materials.

(Middle) Classic blue and white imagery on a large pot which can be found in a number of large pot factories around the city. (Right) Jingdezhen celebrates its history and industry with large blue and white hand painted porcelain posts that line the city streets.

The classical blue and white uses brushed cobalt blue oxide underglaze on pure white porcelain greenware. Pieces are sprayed with a clear glaze and fired to cone 10 (2380°F) over 9 hours in a gas reduction kiln. Wait, these pieces are only fired once? How do these pieces not blow up or crack from the intense thermal shock? The materials from this city are perfectly elastic to withstand this unique and efficient firing process. The clay and glazes use the same pure kaolin rock and feldspar stone which make them incredibly compatible.

(Left) Gas kiln with glazed greenware ceramics preheating for a fast and efficient firing cycle. These community kilns fire daily. (Right) Wooden pestles to crush the raw kaolin and feldspar rocks to be used in the pure porcelain clay and glazes. This production facility was located in mountainous Sanbao village, 1 mile from Jingdezhen.

The history of this style in Jingdezhen became famous in the Ming Dynasty (14^th century) when the white porcelain kaolin rock was locally found and the blue cobalt stone was initially shipped from Persia. The technique became accepted by the imperial court and imperial kilns were established to produce millions of pieces of ‘China’ to meet the growing demand for the porcelain tableware. Jingdezhen is widely recognized as one of the first industrial towns in the world. With the expansion of global trade by the 16^th century the beautiful blue and white images could be seen throughout Europe.

(Left) Classic dragon imagery from intact Ming Dynasty pot made in Jingdezhen. Picture taken from the Shanghai Museum. (Right) Ming Dynasty blue and white. Picture taken from the Southern Song Imperial Kiln site in Hangzhou, China.

In the present day you can see the progression of the blue and white style from looking at its antiques. The city has had a long devotion to perfection. Pieces would be discarded in large ditches when a kiln would over fire or imperfections could be found. Present day construction projects find massive antique ceramic deposits which have created a weekly antique market nicknamed the ‘ghost market’. The pieces can be dated from the materials used and particular painted images of their time. I had the chance to tour this market with a local antique dealer who helped determine replicated fakes from excavated antiques.

(Left) Jingdezhen’s Monday morning antique market, nicknamed the ‘ghost market’, which sells ceramics and other wares locally found. (Right) Broken blue and white porcelain shards on display at Jingdezhen’s antique market. There are a number or reoccurring images that were in style for many years in which you can see in different alterations on these pieces. The bottom of the pieces do not have an artist’s signature but the dynasty and which imperial kiln they were produced.

I took a cobalt painting class during my residency from a Shifu (master) in the art of blue and white tile painting. The first step was seeing how the different brushes are meticulously made and the cobalt blue powder mixed and used. The powder is mixed in tea to create darker or lighter shades of blue. I also mixed the powder in peach sap to make it adhere to the piece for painting detailed images. The process has similar methods to water color painting except the colors are not true until the piece is fired. This makes shading and layering extremely difficult.

Brush store in Jingdezhen selling different types of brushes to be used for different cobalt painting techniques. The hairs are taken from a wide range of animals including goats, lambs, and foxes.

(Left) Using cobalt transfer paper on a line of porcelain dresses I created during my residency in Jingdezhen. (Right) Qīng-huā Shifu demonstrating cobalt shading techniques on a porcelain tile.

Contemporary qīng-huā artist Huang Fei’s blue and white Trump piggy bank.

Through time and technique advancements the classical blue and white style has evolved, but not by much. These days screen printing have created transfer paper patterns to make it fast and easy to adhere intricate patterns to tableware. Some artists use this traditional style on modern images, but overall Jingdezhen has maintained its regard for the past. It has maintained its attention to perfection, its industrial production infrastructure, and still produces thousands of beautiful pieces of porcelain with the classical qīng-huā style each and every day.

Written By Good Dirt LA On January 3, 2020