Shiwan Ceramic and Pottery Collecting Group Forum

How To Study Shiwan Ceramic Wares

Shiwan Ware, Exhibition Catalogue
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(1) The study of Shiwan ceramics should include, besides the general condition of the town itself, the political, economic, and cultural aspects of the various periods. Only then can one get a relatively clear view of its development. For example, the ceramic industry of Shiwan prospered in the Ming and Qing dynasties because capitalism began to germinate after the middle of the Ming Dynasty, when industry and commerce developed together with small cities and towns. Foshan, one of these new industrial and commercial towns, was especially well advanced in ironwork and ceramic industry. The division of labor amongst the Shiwan potters became very fine. Some were responsible for refining clay, some for moulding, some for making biscuit, some for glazing, some for painting, etc.

This shows that ceramic industry had already arrived at the stage of employing manual workers in special workshops. The development of ceramic industry also attracted businessmen to invest their capital in handicraft industries. As a result the individual potters were grouped together to work in workshops to increase the output. The Huo family of Foshan, a family of bureaucrats and landlords, was also engaged in ceramic industry. Huo Weiya ( Hua Tao ) in his Family Admonitions written in the second year of Zhengde (1507) says, "An accountant is set over the ceramic industry of Shiwan, the coal and iron of Foshan and the forest of Dengzhou, which concern the comforts of the people are profitable. Every year one man is appointed to take charge of the kiln, one the coal and iron, and one the forest. It is their duty to report to the accountant the profits they have made and the accountant submits their accounts to the head of the family at the end of the year so that it may be decided which of the three is most worthy of reward. This shows that the ceramic industry of Shiwan was at that time as important as the coal and iron of Foshan and the forest of Dengzhou. It also reflects the activity of the contemporary capitalist.

Moreover, the continual development of foreign trade and navigation along the Southeast coast of China in the Ming and Qing dynasties gave impetus to the production of trade handicrafts. The natural economy of the society was gradually broken up, and the change in the way of production fostered the germination of growth of capitalism. And it was under the condition of capitalism that the ceramic industry of Shiwan could gradually attain prosperity.



(2) The ceramic art of Shiwan should be studied together with the famous kilns and the various achievements of contemporary potters. It was not isolated from society but related to it through continuation and development. It absorbed the advanced ceramic techniques of its age and was influenced by the artistic styles of the famous kilns. For example, in the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Shiwan kiln was already using pottery wheel knife with which the inside and outside of a ware could be made smooth and of the same thickness. This was an important innovation in ceramic production.

As for methods of glazing, besides rinsing, dipping, sprinkling and brushing, there was the blowing method invented during the Ming Dynasty. "A piece of fine muslin gauze was stretched over a bamboo tube", and a certain amount of thin glazing material was then poured on to the gauze and carefully blown on the ware. Several blowings were usually needed to produce a multi colored glaze, which was then fired in the kiln to produce a flambe glaze. As most of the Shiwan glazes were thin, they could be fired at low temperatures. The most beautiful ones were fired several times. This shows how well the Shiwan kiln could adapt advanced techniques to its own conditions. Its achievements were great and many.

In the process of initiating the famous kilns in China, Shiwan was ale to learn extensively the best ceramic techniques from various kilns, which the potters incorporated into their traditional art with great creativity. One example is the general use of an opaque glaze on the wares. The glaze was fired till it took on the appearance of thick milk, thus looking all the more heavy and imparting to the Shiwan wares their characteristic style of simplicity, bluntness, antiquity and thickness. Judging from the extant wares the Shiwan potter was adept in learning from others to make up for his own defects. His imitation of the famous kilns in China was attended with brilliant success. The very existence of the wares makes this point indubitable.


(3) Artistic ceramics are only part of the products of the Shiwan kiln, which chiefly manufactures articles for daily use. Thus, while studying the Shiwan ceramics, we should not confine ourselves to the examination and appreciation of artistic ceramics, but should study the subject comprehensively and systematically, taking history and contemporary conditions into account.

In the history of ceramic art, Shiwan is inferior to Jingdezhen both in achievement and in status. However, it should be noted that what Jingdezhen manufactured was porcelains, and since the Song Dynasty most of its kilns were run by the government (i.e. imperial kilns), or were run by the people under the supervision of the government, or were people owned kilns in which imperial porcelains were fired. All efforts and resources were devoted to produce things for the enjoyment of the ruling class. The Shiwan kiln on the other hand, chiefly manufactured pottery wares for the daily use of the masses and only a very small proportion of its products was artistic ceramics. The Shiwan kiln, run by the people, made use of common pottery clay (clay with relatively rich content of iron oxide), common glazing material and simple tools to manufacture quantities of articles for daily use and artistic ceramics, which were liked by the people and were very popular not only in Guangdong and Guangxi, but in Southeast Asia as well.

The ceramic industry of Shiwan had suffered for more than one thousand years the persecution and exploitation of feudal and reactionary rulers. The situation was aggravated by the economic invasion of imperialist countries in the hundred years when China was at once a quasi-feudal country and a quasi-colony. However, it managed to survive although it was almost throttled to death.

The products of Shiwan were closely related to the life of the people and centered to the needs and taste of society. All sorts of wares were manufactured for different uses and with the right kinds of clay and glazing materials. The wares were practical, economical and beautiful, and were liked by the masses.

Most of the Shiwan artistic ceramics were made for practical use as well. They are plain and simple, not gaudy and pretensious. For example, various kinds of daily use wares were modelled in shapes of birds, animals, insects and fish. And there were also flower vases, flower pots, wall jugs, stationary, ash trays, and lamp shades made in plant and animal forms. Some artistic ceramics manufactured only for appreciation are characteristic of South China. Figures of fishermen, woodcutters, farmers and cowboys - bare-breasted, barefooted, dress and hatted, wearing coirraincoats or with leaf hats on - were so life like that they won the people praises and were called "Shiwan gongzai (figurines)".  Small carved articles for miniature landscapes in flower pots were especially admired. These included miniatures of pavilions, terraces, chambers, arches, pagodas, and bowers surrounded by water huts, bridges, boats, persons, birds, animals, etc. The smaller ones measure only several centimeters, and were very finely made. This was Shiwans unique achievement, which was not shared by other kilns. It is true that some of the miniature figures are manifestations of mythical, daoist or Buddhist beliefs which stink of feudalism and superstition. However they are a reflection of the old society and a kind of rubbish, and do not represent the mainstream of Shiwan ceramic art.

It was a great invention of the Shiwan potter to use his art as a political weapon. In the Opium War, the people of Foshan, Panyu, Shunde, and Dongguan rose against the British invaders. At that time, the British consul in Guangzhou who placed himself at the head of an invading army, molested the Chinese wherever he went and was an object of their intense hatred. The Shiwan potters therefore manufactured a bath of chamber pots shaped after this imperialist invader, the body of the pot represents his trunk, and the figure, lying down with its feet bent, wears a straw hat, which is the mouth of the pot. Its right hand is placed on its hop to make a circle which serves as the handle, while its left hand, with the elbow on the ground serves as a support to the chin. The figure is coated with a brown glaze from head to foot. This caricature frightened the Brithish invaders so much that they opened serious negotiations with the traditorous Manchu government, which secretly decreed the confiscation of the chamber pots and nearly destroyed all of them.

After the Opium War, the Shiwan potters made the figures of those who offered resistance or advocated the surrender to the British. The heroism of those who offered resistance contrasts sharply with the servility of those who objectly desired surrender. This set of figures, now in the Beijing Museum of History, shows very vividly the people's opposition to surrender and their desire to resist invasion.

All the above deals only briefly with a few questions about the Shiwan kiln and contains several suggestions. It also gives a general outline of the ceramic industry of Shiwan snd an account of its excellent traditions. We must hereafter persist in the course of "finding something new in what is old" and "making the past serve the present". Together with the adoption of modern ceramic techniques, the Shiwan potters must seriously learn from and develop the excellent traditions of their ancestors. This is the correct direction in which the ceramic industry of Shiwan should develop.

Shiwan Wares, Exhibition Catalogue, 1979