Yangcai Decorations

Yangcai (洋彩)

The term ‘Yangcai’ has been used for at least two different colors, or rather three. Its name basically means "western colors". That name was first used in the Kangxi reign for fencai enamels because the apparently enamels were introduced from the west in that reign. Later, Falangcai was also developed in the Kangxi reign, however this one was only used in the imperial workshops; it was although intitially called Yangcai. This type of decoration was used only in the palace and was discontiued after the Qianlong reign. The palace seems to have kept this secret, even the imperial kiln did not do it. It did only the blanks which then were decorated in the palace workshops. Private kilns were only able to do this decoration at the end of the empire.

Fencai was first used in the late Kangxi reign. From then it was used throughout the 18th and 19th, as well 20th centuries. The name “fencai” apparently was used from sometime later in the 18^th century, while Yangcai was used for what is called “falangcai”. The advent started probably the replacement of wucai (meaning: five colors). Wucai has no graduation of intensity in colors, that is the hue or tone of these is always uniformly the same, they lool flat. That was probably was the main reason for the popularity of fencai, which allows better expression of depth. In the Yongzheng reign fencai became the main stream decoration type. Most collectors know the red (crimson) colors that Yongzheng flower petals have, and how their colors vary from pink to dark red in the same flower.

Fencai is also called "ruancai" (meaning literally soft colors) by the Chinese for this specific reason. There does also exist the term "yingcai" (meaning hard colors). It generally is used for Canton enamels, because these do not reflect the softer tones of ruancai (=fencai). By the way, fencai can be translated as "powder colors". Yingcai aka Canton enamels are something different, they were only used for export porcelain painted in Canton. I do not know about the origin and nature of those pigments.

Note:

I have no information regarding composition canton enamels used, or what pigments they contained. I can not find any information from the Chinese. Possibly because they do not know either.
Canton enamels were only used in Canton to paint the porcelain for export. The blanks were made in Jingdezhen, transported to Canton, where they were painted, in the factories of the foreign companies (the Eastindia Companies) presumably. As far as I know they were then fired again in Canton. There was a kiln there.

It is difficult find out about these Canton enamels, and I highly suspect that they were enamels or made from pigments imported from the west by the foreign traders located in Canton. That would explain why they were not used elsewhere. I also am suspecting that they were early chemical colors, but not sure about this. Any information shedding some light on this would be appreciated. Maybe western sources are better suited to clear this mystery.

Back to Yangcai:

Yanglan (western blue)
In the late 19^th century chemical pigments began to arrive in China and started to be used instead of the cobalt blue mineral pigments, replacing these slowly.
It seems that these chemical pigments introduced from abroad were also called Yangcai for a time. Now they are called Yanglan (洋藍), which means western blue.

Note:

Linguistically “Yang” means “ocean”, but in China this was commonly used to describe anything imported or coming from the west, including people.

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