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China is a world-renowned ancient country of ceramic, which has long been one of the most significant traditional handicrafts in China. As early as the early Neolithic Age 8,000 years ago, earthenware was already made and used. During the mid-Shang Dynasty, porcelain in its rudimentary form started to appear. In terms of crafts, pottery and porcelain are both silicate products made atdifferent stage of development, porcelain being derived from pottery. They differ in raw materials, firing temperature and physical properties. Pottery was not pase out when porcelain invented, but continued to develop on its own course parallel to that of porcelain.

During the late Neolithic Age, painted pottery emerged as an outstanding variety of handiwork. And the then Neolithic Culture was called Painted Pottery Culture, also known as Yangshao Culture, named after Yangshao Village, Mianchi County, Henan Province where relics abound in pottery painted with colorful patterns were first found. Painted pottery is a kind of earthenware in reddish brown or pale brown with red or black decorative patterns elegant in shape and exquisite in design. Painted pottery was distributed over a vast area, including the Yangshao Culture region in the upper and middle reaches of the Yello Rver, the Dawenkou Culture region in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River (dating back to 4,500-6,400 years ago), and the Hemudu Culture region in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, of which Yangshao Culture was the most flourishing. Painted pottery was superior in ornamentation. As people at that time used to place utensils on the ground, the ornamental patterns tended to take an upper position while taking into consideration at the same time the vertical view and the side view so as to embody an integral effect.
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In the early stage of human society, stone artifacts were the main implements of production. Through the fabrication of stone artifacts man had a better understanding of the effect and significance of hand and thus handicrafts gradually developed. As early as 1,700,000 years ago, at the age of the Yuanmou Man in Yunnam Province, China, the ancients of China began to make rough stone artifacts as implements or weapons for existence. At the time of the Upper Cave Man, that was 17,000 years ago, there were plentiful kinds of stone artifacts and in the respect of technological processing, the technology of drilling, scraping, polishing, and line engraving were already used. The technological fabrication could preliminarily meet the demand of man’s material life and the rudiment of decoration also appeared to reflect their aesthetic consciousness. The Upper Cave Man also learned how to drill wood to make fire. The development from preserving kindling material to bore wood to get fire showed the great improvement of man’s ability for existence. The use of fire made possible all the later crafts, like the invention of pottery and metallurgy, which was of extraordinary significance in the history of development of human culture.
In the process of material selection for stoneware, people found some “beautiful stones” with close grains and sparkling colors. With meticulous processing, they made the stones into ornaments either for carrying with them or being buried with them after death. Thus jade ware craft was developed and gradally became an independent variety of workmanship.
Buildings reflect man’s consciousness for settlement. In line with their respective geographic conditions, people of the clan society in ancient China built welling places in different styles,
semi-underground basemet in the northern Yellow River valley and nests on trees in the southern Yangtze River valley. For meeting the demand of dwelling, people also developed carpentry. From the dwellings ruins in Yuyao, Zhejiang, we ca see the people there already lived a kind of settle life in houses built with earth and wood seven thousand years ago.
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China has an ancient civilization with a very long history. CUnderstanding it solely through the study of documents is clearly inadequate. A wealth of objects and remains has been preserved on China’s vast territory and underground; much of which has been collected and is exhibited in various kinds of museums. This raw material of history can, in a certain sense, be considered more valuable for our understanding of the past than documents and historical records.
One can see many of China’s cultural treasures in Western museums. Some of these are exquisite works of art, but at the same time they are fragments that have been removed from the original matrix of their being. To enjoy a complete and systematic experience of Chinese cultural history, one must visit the museums of their native land.
Although there are Dunhuang sutras in the British Museum, stolen by Aurel Stein, Dunhuang itself and the center of Dunhuang Studies remain in China. Although quite a few treasures from the Summer Palace were looted by British and French troops and are now exhibited in France at Fontainebleu, the majority of choice pieces remains in the Palace Museum in Beijing.
In the past, China’s antiquities and most artworks were kept in the recesses of the reshidences of aristocratic families and the imperial clan. The public at large was not able to see them. China’s modern museums started from the Westernization Movement of the early twentieth century and the overthrow of the feudal imperial court during the Xinhai Revolution (1911). Only after this was the public allowed to enter the halls and pavilions and enjoy the fruits of the civilization of their own ancestors. In the past twenty to thirty years, due to China’s opening and reform policy as well as to the development of a market economy, travel, tourism, and cultural exchange have greatly increased.
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