五彩
Multiple overglaze enamels creating polychrome painted designs on porcelain surface. Applied after initial glaze firing, fixed through second lower-temperature firing. Developed late Ming, continued early Qing.
Technical Structure
Wucai — "five colours" — layers multiple overglaze enamels onto an already-glazed and fired piece, sometimes in combination with an underglaze cobalt blue base, then fixes the enamels with a second, lower-temperature firing. Each colour is typically applied as a flat, separated field rather than blended, giving the system its characteristic graphic quality.
Wucai developed through the late Ming dynasty and continued into the early Qing, predating the tonal blending techniques that fencai would later introduce. Where doucai relies on a fixed underglaze outline, wucai's decoration is drawn more freely across the surface in the second firing.
Colours read as distinct, bounded fields — red, green, yellow, and aubergine over a blue or white ground are common — rather than as shaded or blended tones, giving wucai pieces a bold, direct visual character.