The Historical Inheritance of Longquan Kiln

Longquan Kiln is located in Longquan County, Zhejiang Province, and is named after the celadon system in southern China.

His creation reached its peak in the early Northern Song Dynasty, reached its peak in the middle and late Southern Song Dynasty, and gradually declined after the middle of Ming Dynasty. The lower limit of Longquan celadon handed down from Qing Dynasty to Kangxi period, the firing history reached 700 to 800 years.

Longquan celadon in Northern Song Dynasty has a thick tire bone, light gray tire soil, reddish ochre kiln at the exposed tire, slightly burnt tire, good vitrification, transparent glaze layer and strong glaze luster.

Decorative patterns are simple, such as fish patterns, banana leaves, golden branches and lotus flowers.

The decorative style tends to be unrestrained.

Longquan celadon, which was in the heyday of the Southern Song Dynasty, formed its own unique artistic style and showed its unique charm.

The modeling of Longquan celadon in the Southern Song Dynasty has also formed its own style, which is steady and generous, simple and elegant, rich and diverse, and the decorative patterns are generally carved and piled up, which is quite artistic.

Longquan celadon was burned in large quantities in the Yuan Dynasty, and its style was quite different from that in the Southern Song Dynasty: its shape was tall and its carcass was heavy; The tire color is white with gray or yellowish; Glaze toner is blue with yellow-green, with strong luster and translucent glaze layer; Decorative techniques are varied, such as carving, marking, printing, pasting, plastic and so on. With scribbling as the main method, the pattern is rough and the lines are bold. Yunlong, Huangfei, Pisces, Eight Immortals, Bagua, Peony and Lotus Leaf are the most common decorative patterns.

In addition, there are a large number of inscriptions in Chinese and Basiba.

Longquan celadon in Ming Dynasty tends to be light, with a heavy fetal weight, rough production, grayish yellow fetal color, thick glaze layer, high transparency and strong glaze luster. The glaze colors are cyan gray, tea powder, grayish yellow and so on. The decoration is mainly based on underglaze carving, and there are also decorative methods of impressing characters' stories.

Longquan celadon in Song Dynasty is the historical peak of celadon craft.

The beauty of the glaze color and texture of its celadon is also like a kind of artificial jade with exquisite workmanship, and the whole world is fascinated by it.

Then, in the long history, what kind of development track has Longquan kiln experienced? In his book Celadon of Longquan Kiln, Mr. Zhu summarized the development of Longquan Kiln into four stages: Wei, Jin, Five Dynasties and Ten States were the pioneering period, with few porcelain kilns, intermittent production and intermittent local sales; From the Northern Song Dynasty to the early Southern Song Dynasty, porcelain kilns developed rapidly and gradually formed a large porcelain kiln system. From the late South to the end of Yuan Dynasty, porcelain kilns developed rapidly, the quality of celadon was greatly improved, and the products sold well in domestic and foreign markets. The decline of Ming and Qing dynasties, especially after the middle of Ming dynasty, Longquan kiln was in a difficult situation, and porcelain kiln continued to close down until the end of Qing dynasty.

If these four stages outline the whole context of the development history of Longquan kiln, then the three glorious periods in the development history of Longquan kiln are the key points of coherent development.

Create an era

Up to now, it is usually said that Longquan Kiln was built in the Three Kingdoms, the Jin Dynasty, the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and it was also said that it began in the Five Dynasties or the Song Dynasty.

In ancient literature, there are few records about the founding age of Longquan kiln. At present, the earliest record is "Chicken Ribs" written by Zhuang Chuo in the third year of Shaoxing in the Southern Song Dynasty (1 133). "Longquan county, Chuzhou ... there is celadon again, called secret color.

The tribute of money is covered here.

In Xuanhe, the Forbidden Court needs to make samples, and Longquan celadon is good at processing. "Zhuang Chuo was an official in north and south counties, including Zhejiang, with extensive friends and rich experience.

In the above article, he clearly described that Longquan County in Chuzhou was the birthplace of Qian's tribute celadon in the Five Dynasties.

"Xuanhe Bell" and Longquan Kiln have become the favored courts of the palace porcelain production kilns.

It is precisely because the court ordered the burning of celadon that "Longquan celadon is easy to process."

In the past, when many scholars quoted this document, they did not recognize the view that "the five generations of secret porcelain came out of Longquan".

However, in the "Longquan County Records" compiled in the 27th year of Qianlong (1762), it was mentioned that "Longquan Jincun and Liu Tian porcelain workshops had begun to take shape in the 5th year of Zhenming in the Five Dynasties (9 19)", which shows that in the limited ancient literature, there are at least two references to the fact that Longquan started to burn porcelain before the Five Dynasties.

Five Dynasties and Northern Song Dynasty

Longquan is rich in mineral resources, such as porcelain clay, continuous mountains and dense forests. It also lives in Oujiang-Buyou. It not only has sufficient raw materials, fuel and water resources, but also has convenient water transportation, so it has unique natural conditions.

As early as the Three Kingdoms and the Jin Dynasty, the local people took advantage of the local superior natural and geographical conditions, absorbed the porcelain-making technology and experience of the surrounding kilns such as Ou Kiln and Wuzhou Kiln, and began to burn celadon. But the celadon fired at that time was very rough and the kiln industry was not big.

This situation changed suddenly in the Five Dynasties and the early Northern Song Dynasty, which was also called the "chaotic period" of Longquan kiln celadon.

The representative porcelain of this period is light blue glazed porcelain.

This kind of light blue glazed porcelain has a regular shape, uniform and smooth glaze color and a faint cyan color. Some of them have been carved and decorated. Compared with the rough early Longquan celadon, there seems to be no transition, and there seems to be no connection between the late famous plum and the pink celadon. This seems a bit abrupt in the whole history of Longquan celadon development, and therefore becomes a "mystery".

According to the author's field investigation, it is confirmed that the firing place of this light blue glaze is mainly in the area of Longquan Jincun.

In the Ming Dynasty, Lu Rong's Miscellaneous Garden once said: "Celadon first appeared in six fields and reached six miles in the county.

Next came the Jincun Kiln, and Liu Tian walked more than five miles.

There are White Goose, Indus, Anren, Anfu and Lv Huan outside. However, the mud and sand are all mixed, and the shape is ingenious, unlike Liu Tian. Liu Tian, also known as "Ryukyu Field", is today's big kiln and the traditional porcelain making center of Longquan Kiln.

However, the author thinks that there is a golden village in front of a big kiln. One of the main reasons is that there is no sign of burning light blue glazed porcelain in Dayao, but light blue glazed porcelain fragments can be seen everywhere in Jincun.

From this point of view, Jincun porcelain was brilliant at that time. Jincun River is narrow, so early transportation is very convenient.

Later, the scale of porcelain industry expanded, and the narrow terrain of Jincun village did not adapt to the development at that time.

Liutian, with an open terrain and only five miles away from Jincun, has naturally become a new center of porcelain industry.

The sudden emergence of Longquan kiln is probably related to Longquan kiln burning "tribute" for the court.

At that time, Jiangnan belonged to the former dynasty of Wu Yueguo, which always pursued the strategy of reconciliation with the Central Plains, so porcelain became an important "tribute".

Relevant experts have found such a light blue glazed jar in archaeological collections, and the words "First year of Tianfu, rebuild the kiln, try to burn official objects, good luck and good luck" are glazed on the outer wall.

In the first year of Tianfu, that is, in 936 AD, Tianfu was the title of Shi Jingtang, the great-grandfather of Houjin, and Wu Yueguo lived in Houjin. Based on this, it is speculated that the "official objects" burned at that time were probably tributes to Shi Jingtang except for the personal use of Wu Yueguo's court.

Of course, Yue Kiln mainly burns tribute, and its tribute is also called "secret colored porcelain".

Secret color porcelain originated in the late Tang Dynasty, so it is called "secret color" because the objects enshrined are not allowed to be used by officials.

Longquan Kiln also burns "secret color porcelain". Song Zhuangzhuo's "Chicken Ribs" records: "There are many beautiful trees in Longquan County, Chuzhou, which are also made of wood ... and celadon is also produced, called" secret color ",where money is paid and covered.

Xuanhe, forbidding the hospital to prepare samples must be invited, which is conducive to processing. "

Zhuang Chuo experienced five dynasties: Northern Song Dynasty, Zhezong, Hui Zong, Qinzong and Gaozong. He served as an official in counties and counties all over the north and south, and traveled all over Jingxi, Huainan, Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi, Jinghu and Guangnan. He has a wide range of friends and rich experience, and his record should be credible.

From this point of view, the second stage of "secret color porcelain" is Longquan kiln celadon products that came from behind.

On the one hand, there were a lot of porcelain tributes at that time. History of the Song Dynasty (Volume 480) Biography of a Family II (Qian Family) Taiping Xingguo came to Korea in March of the third year, and entered ... five things, and the golden buckle surpassed 150 things.

Song Yaohui: "On April 2, the third year of Taiping and Xingguo, there were 50,000 pieces of porcelain and 150 pieces of golden buckle porcelain."

In 978 AD, in the third year of Taiping and Xingguo, more than 100,000 pieces of secret porcelain were donated to Taizong of the Northern Song Dynasty. Such a huge amount of porcelain making should not be carried out voluntarily, and such a huge production capacity is beyond the bearing capacity of Yuezhou kiln.

On the other hand, Yue Kiln gradually declined for various reasons, which led to the transfer of the southern porcelain making center to Longquan Kiln.

In this case, the advanced porcelain-making technology of Yueyao was introduced to Longquan, and a number of excellent porcelain-making craftsmen settled in Longquan one after another, and the quality of Longquan kiln products improved rapidly.

Longquan kiln, which takes "peace" as its mission, has gained an opportunity for its own development. Since the Northern Song Dynasty, Longquan Kiln has gradually replaced Yue Kiln and become the first kiln in the south of the Yangtze River.

Northern Song and Southern Song Dynasties

The development of Longquan kiln in the Southern Song Dynasty can not be separated from the big social background.

After the demise of the Northern Song Dynasty, a large number of people in the north moved south, and the national political, economic and cultural center moved south. Famous kilns such as Ru kiln and Ding kiln in the north were destroyed by war, and their porcelain-making technology was introduced to the south.

At this time, Longquan kiln, combining the technology of the south and the art of the north, quickly matured and formed its own style, thus forming a larger porcelain kiln system.

Not only the formula, modeling design, glazing method, decorative art and kiln firing have been greatly changed and improved, but also the types of vessel shapes are greatly enriched.

Because of mastering the formula of fetal glaze and glazing process for many times, the firing atmosphere is controlled, the glaze color is pure and the glaze layer is thickened. In the late Southern Song Dynasty, pink glaze and plum glaze were successfully fired, reaching the peak of the beauty of celadon glaze and writing a glorious chapter in the history of China porcelain.

On the other hand, water towns and promontories were established in the Southern Song Dynasty, and water transportation was developed, which was beneficial to the development of commercial trade.

The government of the Northern Song Dynasty set up "trading companies" in Guangzhou, Mingzhou (Ningbo), Hangzhou and Quanzhou, the southeast coast of China, to trade directly with overseas countries. During the Southern Song Dynasty, * * * even regarded overseas trade as an effective way to solve financial difficulties.

The increase of foreign trade further affects the export of porcelain. Longquan celadon is a popular commodity in East Asia and East Africa, as well as in various countries.

According to historical records, at that time, "there were many kilns, fireworks facing each other, and porcelain boats on the river shuttled back and forth, busy day and night." Porcelain is shipped to Lin 'an for domestic sales and exported to Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia via Oujiang.

Since13rd century, there have been two series of exquisite products in Longquan kiln: black tire thick glazed celadon and white tire thick glazed celadon.

The number of products of black tire thick glaze celadon is relatively small. So far, this kind of porcelain has only been found in Longquan Kiln and nearly ten kiln sites in Xikou, all of which were fired with white celadon. Among them, Xikou Tile Kiln mainly fires black tire thick glaze celadon, while other kilns mainly fire white tire thick glaze celadon, and some black tire celadon and black tire celadon also fire thin tire thick glaze and glaze opening layer.

None of these can find the corresponding development track in the internal development vein of Longquan kiln celadon, especially the foot-binding glaze burning technology is unprecedented in Longquan kiln.

The sudden change of craft style is obviously the result of the impact of foreign porcelain-making technology, and the most likely is the intervention of the court.

Today, high-tech testing also shows that there are many similarities between the black tires, carved celadon, shape, pattern and chemical composition of Longquan kiln and the official kiln under the suburban altar.

In addition, the production process of white glazed celadon also inherited the official kiln of the Southern Song Dynasty, but it was innovative and different in glaze formula.

Compared with black-tire celadon, white-tire celadon has smooth and delicate glaze surface, white tire color, and green glaze, which is better than jade.

In addition, some of these two series of porcelain also imitate the shape of the official kiln in the Southern Song Dynasty. Official kilns are not allowed to be copied by the people at will, and the appearance of imitation official kilns cannot be simply explained as "imitation".

In addition, archaeological excavations also prove that the celadon of Longquan kiln in the Southern Song Dynasty has been unearthed in a large number in the ruins of Lin 'an Capital and the tombs of Song and Sixth Dynasties in Zangong, Shaoxing.

Dayao Longquan kiln site still retains the ancient road of the Southern Song Dynasty, which is spread all over the kiln site of the Southern Song Dynasty. There are also various stories about the Southern Song Dynasty among the local villagers.

All this seems to be telling the inextricable connection between Longquan kiln and the court at that time.

In the Southern Song Dynasty, the imperial court owned Xiunei Temple and Xiatan Imperial Kiln. Why should technicians and officials be sent to supervise the burning of ritual vessels in Longquan and other places? I think there are many reasons. The main reason is probably that the local porcelain clay resources in Hangzhou are not ideal, and the ancient porcelain industry is highly dependent on geographical environment and resources. The fetal quality of the official kiln in the Southern Song Dynasty is still loose and fragile. The so-called "nothing is official", opening a piece is a major feature of official kiln porcelain in the Southern Song Dynasty.

However, whether it is an ice crack or a plum blossom slice, beauty is beautiful, but it is not practical. Imagine that porcelain full of open pieces, as porcelain for daily life, has health problems.

In contrast, the celadon of Longquan kiln is fine and hard, especially the celadon with thick white glaze, which is smooth in glaze, beautiful and practical.

Late yuan dynasty and early Ming dynasty

Although the kiln fire burned in Longquan kiln was once trampled out by Mongolian fighters, Longquan celadon continued to develop on the basis of the previous generation after entering the Yuan Dynasty.

In addition, the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty continued to carry out the foreign trade policy, so that the production scale of Longquan celadon continued to expand in the Yuan Dynasty, the kiln site and the number of products reached an unprecedented level, and the product varieties increased and the styles were diversified, which were exported to all parts of the world.

From 65438 to 0979, in order to cooperate with the construction of Jinshuitan Reservoir Project in Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang Provincial Cultural Management Committee and other units conducted a general survey in Longquan County, and excavated the kiln site of Yuan Dynasty in Anrenkou area in the east of Longquan County, which provided a lot of physical data for studying the production situation and product appearance of Longquan kiln in this period.

These data show that the Yuan Dynasty was still the prosperous period of Longquan kiln.

In addition to inheriting the tradition of the Song Dynasty, the products of the Yuan Dynasty had new creations in form and decoration, such as the popular bare tire technology at that time.

Due to the development of land and water transportation and foreign trade in the Yuan Dynasty, a large number of porcelains were exported and the demand surged.

Under such conditions, Longquan kiln in Yuan Dynasty quickly expanded to the banks of Oujiang River and Songxi River, which enabled a large number of Longquan kiln porcelain to be exported to all parts of the world from Wenzhou and Quanzhou, important trading ports at that time. Longquan kiln porcelain is found in Europe, Africa, Southeast Asia and other places.

From 65438 to 0975, a sunken ship of the Yuan Dynasty was found in Xin 'an, southwest Korea, and more than 10,000 pieces of porcelain 1 10,000 were recovered, among which Longquan celadon accounted for more than 9,000 pieces, showing the important position of Longquan celadon in foreign trade of the Yuan Dynasty.

In fact, the Mongolian rulers of the Yuan Dynasty were not unilaterally assimilated by the Han culture. Mongolian soldiers conquered a dynasty, but they also brought the atmosphere and roughness of the grassland. The most representative example of Longquan kiln celadon in Yuan Dynasty is the appearance of a number of large objects.

These big wares have thicker tires, rough shapes and more mature and dignified glaze colors.

The kiln type of Longquan kiln in Yuan Dynasty still followed Changpo kiln, but the length was slightly shortened. This change is beneficial to increase the temperature in the kiln, make the heat distribution more uniform and reasonable, and is very beneficial to firing large utensils.

The prosperity of Longquan kiln in the Yuan Dynasty laid an important foundation for the establishment of Longquan official kiln in the early Ming Dynasty (see the book Discovery: Longquan Official Kiln in Daming House for details).

Longquan Imperial Kiln in Ming Dynasty continued the glory of Yuan Dynasty, and brought the profound aesthetic concept to the extreme. Before, Longquan celadon in the early Ming Dynasty was often confused with Longquan celadon in the Yuan Dynasty, or "late Yuan and early Ming Dynasty", which also explained the relationship between the two.

So far, from the pieces of Longquan kiln celadon collected by Chuzhou Celadon Museum in the early Ming Dynasty, combined with the handed down complete ware, we can see that the firing technology of Longquan kiln celadon in Ming Dynasty has reached an unattainable peak, which undoubtedly represents the highest level in the firing history of Longquan kiln porcelain.

Taking carving as an example, the celadon of Longquan official kiln in Ming Dynasty is mainly decorated with carving, which is exquisite and incomparable. Carving and glaze are integrated as jade, reaching a perfect artistic height.

Sculpture is one of the traditional decorative techniques of Longquan kiln celadon. Carving decoration was once very popular in the Northern Song Dynasty, but in the Southern Song Dynasty, due to the application of lime-alkali glaze and the mastery of glazing technology for many times, Longquan kiln celadon often won by turning glaze color into the sky.

In fact, the glazed jade is of course the best in the world, but once the glaze layer is thickened, the original carved flowers are easily covered by thick glaze.

Therefore, the decorative techniques such as bare tires, plastic sticking and impression were popular in the Yuan Dynasty, so that the decorative effect of jade glaze and pattern was achieved at the same time.

Longquan official kiln in Ming Dynasty combined engraving with thick glaze just right, which made a new breakthrough in engraving decoration technology.

In addition, there are many fine folk kilns in the early Ming Dynasty, and the scale and quantity of Longquan kilns in the early Ming Dynasty should not be underestimated, which was neglected in the past and needs to be re-recognized and evaluated.

Ching Dynasty

During the Hongwu period, Gegu Lun contained: "Longquan Kiln is located in Longquan County, the capital of Zhejiang Province, and is rich in porcelain." At that time, the vessels dedicated to the imperial palace and nobles were still burned by Rao (Jingdezhen) and Chu (Lishui Longquan).

From Yongle to Xuande, Zheng He made seven voyages to the West, and overseas trade promoted the production of celadon. During the orthodox period, the works represented by the famous craftsman Gu Shi were beautiful in shape, thick in glaze and blue in color, and many large porcelain products are still collected by art connoisseurs inside and outside the car.

After Chenghua and Hongzhi, blue and white porcelain rose, China's maritime industry declined, and the road of maritime trade became the road of aggression by western colonists. In the Ming Dynasty, the sea ban was implemented, and the export sales of celadon dropped sharply. The kilns in Dayao Village and Xikou Village were closed one after another, and the kilns from Dabai 'an Village to Anrenkou Village were changed to burn folk general celadon, and the shape and firing were not as beautiful as before.

The number of kilns was reduced to more than 160.

In the early Qing dynasty, there was little kiln sound left.

In the middle of Qing Dynasty, there were only more than 70 kilns in the southern suburbs of Qingxi, the village of Shantou and the village of Sunkeng in the water area.

The product has rough fetal quality and blue-yellow glaze color.

The skill of fan kiln in Wei Sunkeng Village has been passed down from generation to generation, and it has been fired until the early Republic of China.

After several dynasties, the flower of Longquan celadon withered here.

Republic of China (19 12- 1949)

At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, people from Japan, Germany and the United States came to Longquan to collect ancient celadon, followed by a large number of antique dealers.

As a result, on the one hand, the excavation of Longquan ancient tomb was triggered; On the other hand, a group of porcelain artists of the Republic of China began to develop more than 70 imitation kiln products, such as "Peony Bottle" and "Phoenix Ear Bottle", and mailed them to the Ministry of Industry of People's Republic of China (PRC) to make contributions.

To sum up, the author thinks that the three glories in the history of Longquan kiln are closely related to the imperial court. Whether it is the production of "tribute" or the establishment of official kiln, it is the most powerful driving force to promote the rapid development of Longquan kiln.

Because in feudal society, the instructions of the imperial court were often the highest social motive force, which played a great role in the development of a porcelain kiln.