| Shanxi province has a typical landform of the loess plateau. The kilns in Shanxi mainly produce black/white ceramics since the loess is the principle raw material for black glaze and the limestone for white glaze. Researches of the Shanxi Archaeological Research Center find that there were three kilns of Tang dynasty while most of the others kilns belonged to Song and Yuan dynasty. The majority of the ceramicss were the black-white porcelain, the carved, cutted, incised or embroidered black porcelain and the painted white procelain. A few others were the kinds of oil spot, hair's fure, twisted pottery, Fahua and glassware. The Fahua and galssware porcelains were unique all over China. The products of different regions had influences upon each other for the geopolitic reasons and the restrictions of the transportation in ancient time. According to the archaeological materials, products of the kilns in a relatively large region were similar. They were interrelated yet had their own characteristics."Girls from Li mountain, boys from the Bai mountain, procelains from the Zhaoxian town and coal from Nangu." In the past, procelains from Zhaoxian town and coal from Nangu were extremely famous. In the south of Zhaoxian town, there was a narrow valley zigzaging southward, along which were a bunch of villages majoring in mining, iron-making and porcelain-making. The villiage Xiao Taze was the center of the porcelain production. Craftsmen in Xiao Taze inherited the traditional production method yet made no innovation, which lagged behind the fast-changing life style and made the products unable to meet the demands of modern people. The appearance of carfts is associated with social development. It is a kind of social service and compensation for life. The traditional arts and crafts delinces when the human society advances, becoming remains unable to be copied and created again in the history. How to protect the existing civilization and the living fossil of the crafts becomes a new topic before us. If the Xiao Taze disappeare forever, we would never be able to see the magnificant and significant material and non-materials resources any more. |
