Overview of Ceramic Kiln

Kiln generally has the following three meanings: first, the kiln, that is, an important facility for roasting ceramics, its form and structure directly affect the quality of ceramic products; second, the kiln for the production of ceramics, such as Xing kiln, Longquan kiln, Jingdezhen kiln and so on. The third is kiln ware, i.e. ceramics, such as the products of Ge Kiln, Jun Kiln products and so on.

As early as the Neolithic era, China has invented the "cave kiln" used to burn pottery. Shang and Zhou period, and the emergence of a rising flame type of round kiln and square kiln, but then the porcelain and pottery with the kiln firing, and no specialized porcelain kiln, such as the Shang and Zhou period of primitive porcelain and printed hard pottery that is the same kiln firing. With the continuous development of the porcelain industry, the porcelain kiln is gradually separated from the pottery kiln, the kiln became specialized in firing porcelain.

According to the shape to points, the kiln has bun kiln (round kiln), dragon kiln, class kiln, gourd-shaped kiln, egg-shaped kiln and so on. One of the bun kiln and dragon kiln is the most common, and used for a long time, the northern plains more bun kiln, while the southern mountainous areas, semi-mountainous areas are more mountainous construction of dragon kiln; the following talk about these types of kilns.

Steamed bun kiln, also known as the "round kiln", the fire chamber and the kiln room into a steamed bun-shaped space, hence the name. Steamed bread kiln appeared in the late Western Zhou Dynasty, has been used until now, it is the northern region of the popular ceramic kiln form, by the kiln door, fire chamber, kiln room, chimney and other parts of the composition, more in the soil layer digging and repair or billet, brick masonry and become. Steamed bread kiln is characterized by easy to control the speed of heating and cooling, better humidity, suitable for baking the thick body, high temperature glaze viscosity of porcelain; but because it warming, cooling are relatively slow, firing time is relatively long, and the kiln temperature before and after, up and down the distribution of the uneven, so it is easy to come out of the defective products.

Dragon kiln, also known as the long kiln, more on the hillside or mound tilt building, kiln length of more than 30-80 meters between the shape of a long dragon, so it is called the dragon kiln. Long kiln structure is divided into kiln head, kiln bed, kiln tail three parts. Dragon kiln appeared in the Shang Dynasty, this period of the dragon kiln both firing printed hard pottery, and firing primitive celadon, that is, usually referred to as "ceramics with the kiln burn", to the late Eastern Han Dynasty, the end of the ceramics with the kiln burned the same situation, the emergence of the dragon kiln burned exclusively for ceramics. Since then, the dragon kiln gradually grows, the inclination of the dynasty and the structure has been improved, so that the dragon kiln firing effect is constantly improved, the Song and Yuan period of the dragon kiln appeared in the kiln chamber masonry firewall, divided into a number of small rooms, firewall lower smoke and fire holes, so that the room with the room to the room, that is, the so-called "chamber dragon kiln". Until now, some areas in the south are still using the dragon kiln firing ceramics. Dragon kiln is characterized by convenient construction, loading and burning a large amount of high yield, its heating, cooling are very fast, easy to maintain the reducing atmosphere, suitable for baking a thin body, high temperature glaze viscosity is small lime glaze porcelain, so some people say that the dragon kiln is the cradle of celadon.

The class kiln appeared in Fujian Dehua Kiln, developed from the compartmentalized dragon kiln of the Song and Yuan dynasties. It is a brick and other materials in accordance with the sloping hillside building, the inclination of about 21 degrees, by the kiln door, fire chamber, a number of rooms and chimneys, etc., the rooms are connected in turn, from the bottom to the bottom of the formation of layers of class, so called "class kiln". It is a combination of dragon kiln loaded burning volume, high yield and bun kiln is easy to control the advantages of rising and falling temperature speed in one, at the same time has the advantage of saving fuel, suitable for firing the Dehua kiln white glaze porcelain and other ceramics containing high potassium oxide, glaze viscosity at high temperatures in the larger porcelain.

The gourd-shaped kiln is developed from the dragon kiln, the dragon kiln made a large modification, by the kiln door, fire chamber, front chamber, back chamber, chimney and other parts of the composition, suitable for firing porcelain with high content of potassium oxide, glaze viscosity at high temperatures.

The egg-shaped kiln appeared in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province, in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, evolved from the development of the gourd kiln in the Yuan and Ming dynasties, and consisted of the kiln door, fire chamber, kiln chamber, parapet wall and chimney. Its structure is reasonable, the materials needed for low cost, construction is convenient, firing quantity, suitable for a variety of billets and glazes, many types of varieties of porcelain can be fired at once; egg-shaped kiln to firewood as fuel, firing time is short, product quality is good, it is for the development of porcelain in Qing Jingdezhen, has played a very important role.

In accordance with the flame direction, the kiln is divided into straight flame kiln, inverted flame kiln, semi-inverted flame kiln, flat flame kiln.

The kilns for firing porcelain can be countless in all provinces, and the famous kilns of the past dynasties are also scattered. The Northern Song Dynasty, the emergence of the official construction, hosted the firing of porcelain kilns, known as the "official kiln". In fact, as early as in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, Wu Yue Qian's court monopolized part of the production of Yue kiln, already has the nature of the official kiln, but has not yet formed a specific concept. History of the famous official kilns such as the Northern Song Dynasty Daguan, Zhenghe years in Bianjing set the Northern Song Dynasty kilns, the Southern Song Dynasty Xiu Nesi kiln, the Ming Dynasty Xuande kiln, Wanli kiln, Chenghua kiln, the Qing Dynasty Kangxi kiln, Yongzheng kiln, Qianlong kiln and so on. Successive dynasties of the official kiln porcelain has three main purposes, one is the official court porcelain, including giving a gift to the meritorious relatives of the bounty of porcelain; two is the gift of porcelain for foreign exchanges; three is used for overseas trade in goods porcelain. Due to the high level of craftsmanship of the official kiln artisans, there are special supervisory officials to supervise the production, and will produce inferior strictly destroyed, so the official kiln porcelain is generally more delicate, and the survival of less.

Relative to the court of the official kilns, the folk kilns known as folk kilns, the vast majority of porcelain kilns throughout the ages are a number of such kilns, many folk kilns, a kiln as a representative of the products of the tire glaze composition, technology, modeling, glaze, decoration, etc. the same or similar to a group of porcelain kilns, is often divided into a kiln system. Kiln system formed in the folk porcelain industry unprecedented prosperity of the Song Dynasty, the Yuan Dynasty continued to develop. Important as the Song dynasty eight kiln system. The products of each kiln system are mostly of one variety, such as white porcelain of Ding kiln, black-flower porcelain on white ground of the magnetic state kiln system, incised celadon of the Yaozhou kiln system, and celadon of the Longquan kiln system, etc., but sometimes there are also some other kinds of products. Compared with the restriction that the products of the official kilns must represent the will of the royal family and reflect the psychological needs of the ruling class, the products of the folk kilns were more free and rich in shape and decorative themes.

Song Dynasty is a prosperous period in the history of China's porcelain industry, porcelain kilns throughout the country. At this time there is a history of the famous five kilns eight kiln system. The five famous kilns of the Song dynasty refers to the official kiln, brother kiln, Ru kiln, Ding kiln and Jun kiln. Eight kiln system is designated kiln system, magnetic state kiln system, Yaozhou kiln system, Jun kiln system, Longquan kiln system, Jingdezhen kiln system, Jian kiln system and Yue kiln system. Song Dynasty porcelain kilns are numerous, each with its own characteristics, is China's ceramic history of famous kilns bee up, famous porcelain iteration of an important historical period.

China's porcelain kilns in the Yuan Dynasty before the distribution of the north and south is more balanced, kiln sites throughout the country, kilns scattered, such as the above mentioned eight kilns in the Song Dynasty, is the north and south of each of the four major kilns, and the development of the porcelain industry after the Song Dynasty is tilted, due to war in the northern region of the economy has been seriously damaged, the decline of the porcelain industry with the decline of the center of gravity of the porcelain industry to the south, and many of the kiln workers to move south. After the Yuan dynasty, jingdezhen, jiangxi province, with its unique natural resources and skilled craftsmen, in the original strong porcelain technology on the rapid development, to the Ming and Qing dynasties, and finally developed into the country's largest porcelain center, the world famous "porcelain capital".

Chinese ceramic culture has a long history, porcelain production areas are widely distributed, due to the distribution of kilns in different regions, the natural conditions and natural resources of each region are different,

Different raw materials constraints on the kiln's means of production, process technology, decorative techniques, so that the kiln's products have different styles and characteristics, to accurately identify the origin of the ancient ceramics and their authenticity provides an important basis.

According to the "history of Chinese ceramics" records, porcelain appeared in the Eastern Han Dynasty, more than 1,800 years ago, the time of the emergence of porcelain in the Eastern Han Dynasty, there is a large amount of archaeological data as a basis. In zhejiang shangyu, ningbo, cixi, yongjia and other cities and counties have found the han dynasty porcelain kiln site, in henan luoyang, hebei anping, anhui huxian, hunan yiyang, hubei danyang and other east han dynasty late tombs and jiangsu gaoyou shaojiagou han dynasty site, have been found in the porcelain products, especially in jiangxi, especially zhejiang is found more. One of the Eastern Han Dynasty "Yan Xi seven years '(AD 164) chronicle of the tomb out of the linen pattern of the celadon jar," Xi Ping four years '(AD 175) tomb unearthed celadon ear cups, five joints cans, wells, smokers and ghost stoves, "Jia Ping five years" (AD 175) tomb of celadon. The celadon jars found in the tomb of "Jia Ping five years" and the linen-patterned celadon jars unearthed in the same tomb with the ceramic jars of "Chuping first year' (190 AD). The discovery of these conclusive age of the porcelain, so that we are convinced that the invention of China's porcelain will not be later than the end of the Han Dynasty, it should be the late Eastern Han Dynasty, should be more accurate.

According to the field archaeology information, China found the earliest porcelain kiln site in present-day Zhejiang Shangyu, Ningbo area, the age of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Zhejiang region in ancient times, there is a long tradition of burning primitive porcelain, has been found to burn primitive porcelain kilns, and its age can be traced back to the Warring States.