What are the characteristics and identification methods of Ge Kiln and Ding Kiln in Song Dynasty?

Geyao porcelain in Song Dynasty is solemn in shape, simple and elegant, elegant and natural in glaze color, especially famous for its unique and magical ornamentation. Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty wrote ten poems praising the porcelain of Ge Kiln, among which the poem "Pink-green sunflower petal mouth plate" said: "The dark lines are not obvious, so it is called Ge Kiln." Another song, "Uncovering the Book Pavilion and Collecting Ink", praised: "The cluster platform is a muddy official tile, which is not as quaint as the Ge kiln. Green is like a spring wave, and the stone shows its surface. "

Ge Kiln is one of the five famous kilns in Song Dynasty, including Ru Kiln, Guan Kiln, Ge Kiln, Jun Kiln and Ding Kiln. There is no record of Ge kiln in the literature of Song Dynasty. Kong Qi, a Yuan Dynasty man, first mentioned Geyao Cave. He wrote in "Knowing Ji Zheng": "In the winter of B Wei (1355), when I was in Hangzhou, I saw a fragrant tripod in Geyao Cave. Although it is very good and new, its color is as bright as the old one, and people who know it are hesitant. Huijingxi Wang De Weng Yiyun: Recently, Geyao is unique among the ancient official kilns and needs to be carefully distinguished. " It can be seen that since the Yuan Dynasty, Ge Kiln has been recognized as a famous kiln in the Song Dynasty and regarded as an important collection object. Ge Kiln was listed as one of the five famous kilns in the Song Dynasty, which was first seen in Xuande Dingpu Yi, and it was recorded that "the inner library learns the world, such as firewood, ru, official, elder brother, monarch and tripod". Because the site of Geyao kiln has not been discovered so far, it has been covered with a mysterious veil.

However, our predecessors' discussion and research on Ge Kiln in Song Dynasty continued, especially experts, scholars and workers in the fields of ceramics, archaeology, science and technology in modern China conducted in-depth and comprehensive, systematic and scientific research. With the late famous ceramic expert Feng Xianming in China as the representative, countless objects belonging to Ge Kiln were sorted, arranged and compared, and a very small number of objects were selected for identification. This kind of porcelain handed down from ancient times refers to the "old-made" porcelain recorded by Kong Qi in the Yuan Dynasty, not the products of other kilns, and even less the imitations of later generations.

Handed down porcelain is mainly collected by Beijing Palace Museum, Taipei Palace Museum, Shanghai Museum, some large foreign museums and a few collectors. These handed down porcelain styles include bowls, plates, dishes, washing, bottles, fish-ear stoves, cans and so on. When firing, pad firing technology is mostly used, and Zhi Ding branch firing is used in some cases. The tire colors are black gray, dark gray, light gray, khaki, etc., and the tire quality is porcelain tire and sand tire. The fetus is dark gray and dark gray, with purple mouth and iron feet, light gray and khaki without purple mouth and iron feet. The glaze is opaque and opaque, and the glaze is mainly grayish blue, and there are also sand beige, light grayish blue and beige. There are patterns on the glaze, a combination of large and small patterns, a small caviar pattern, a large pattern of black and small yellow all-silk iron wire, and some patterns have only one color. Stripes are distinguished by color, such as eel blood, gold and iron thread, light yellow roe pattern. According to the shape of the opening, there are reticulate patterns, plum patterns, scraps, caviar patterns and so on.

Since the birth of Geyao porcelain in Song Dynasty, this kind of porcelain with unique style has flourished, and literati in past dynasties have written poems and praised it. In particular, the layering and varied patterns of glaze not only created a new aesthetic taste in the history of China ceramics, but also had the feeling of being "as clever as gold and as clear as jade", which was second to none among the five famous kilns in the Song Dynasty.

Ding Kiln is one of the five famous kilns in Song and Jin Dynasties in China. It is a large-scale porcelain kiln system that rose after Yao Xing White Porcelain in Tang Dynasty. The main producing area is Cicun, Quyang, Hebei. Archaeological data show that Ding Yao-style white porcelain is also fired in Pingding, Yangcheng, Jiexiu and other places in Shanxi, and the product quality is not inferior to Quyang in Hebei. Ding kiln prevailed in the middle and late Northern Song Dynasty. Ding kiln was selected as court porcelain by the Song Dynasty government because of its excellent porcelain quality, elegant color and exquisite decoration, which greatly increased its value and made its products all the rage. According to Gui Qianzhi,

"Dingzhou flower porcelain Europe, the color is white all over the world." It can be seen that the kiln fixing device was not only loved by people at that time, but also produced a lot. After the Jin Dynasty ruled the northern part of China, the porcelain industry of Ding Kiln recovered rapidly, and the production level of some products was no less than that of the Northern Song Dynasty. Judging from some objects with dragon and phoenix patterns, Ding kiln products are also favorite porcelain varieties of rulers in the Jin Dynasty.

The decorative techniques of white glazed porcelain in Ding Yao mainly include painting, carving and printing.

Painting flowers is one of the main decorative methods of Ding kiln porcelain in Song Dynasty. Usually, grating tools are used to draw simple patterns with smooth lines and full of movement. Lotus petal pattern is the most common decorative pattern in kiln. There are single flowers, double flowers in parallel, lotus leaves staggered out, and some are also equipped with duck patterns. The patterns are simple and diverse. The decorative patterns of vertical objects are mostly decorated with carved flowers (figure 1), but few are carved. In early kiln ware, some carved patterns were combined with lotus petals and chrysanthemum patterns, and the overall layout was not very harmonious. This is in the primary stage at that time, which should be regarded as a new decorative technique, and also provides a basis for the dating of kiln furniture.

Carving is developed on the basis of carving decoration technology. Sometimes it is used with the scribing process. For example, in the center of a dish or bowl, the contour lines of broken branches or bound branches are carved, and then a grate tool is used to carve a plurality of lines on the contour lines of flowers and leaves. The most common decorative pattern is double flowers, which are usually symmetrical. Ding kiln sculptors often draw thin lines on one side of the outline of flowers, fruits, lotus, ducks and Yunlong to enhance the three-dimensional sense of the decoration.

The most expressive decorative pattern in Ding Kiln is printed decorative pattern. This craft began in the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty and matured in the late Northern Song Dynasty. The most exquisite kilns are decorated in the center of plates, bowls and other utensils, but there are few decorations inside and outside these utensils. Decorative patterns of kilns are characterized by distinct layers, the outermost ring or the middle, and the patterns are often separated by palindromes. The overall layout of decorative patterns is clear, complicated but not chaotic, and has a high artistic level. The most common theme of Ding Kiln printing is flower pattern, followed by animal pattern. Animal decorations mainly include cattle, deer, unicorn and flying dragon. Ding kiln dragon pattern is generally decorated on plates, dishes, bowls and other bedding pieces. (Figure 2) The dragon pattern is located in the center of the object, surrounded by auspicious clouds, with many single dragons and no symmetrical double dragons. The flying dragon is vigorous, with its head held high between auspicious clouds, its tail entwined with its hind legs, its teeth bared, and it wants to swallow a fireball. It has fins on its back, scales carved on its body, a fluttering beard and hair, hairy elbows and three sharp claws, which are lifelike. However, the vertical pieces of Ding kiln are only decorated with deformed dragon patterns, which are far from the dragon patterns on plates and dishes. The decorative patterns of birds mainly include phoenix, peacock, egret, mandarin duck, wild goose, duck, etc., and the exquisite flying phoenix is rare. Peony and lotus are the most common flower patterns, followed by chrysanthemum. The arrangement of flower patterns mostly adopts methods such as winding branches and folding branches, emphasizing symmetry. The most exquisite decorative patterns of Ding kiln porcelain are mostly concentrated on plates and dishes, and the decorative patterns can reach four layers. There are many kinds of decorations on each floor. The outer ring decoration is mostly geometric patterns or deformed lotus petal patterns, and the center is a combination of animals and flowers, full of relief and artistic atmosphere. And this baby pillow in Ding kiln in Song Dynasty is a famous product of this kiln, and its modeling performance and decorative technology of decorative patterns are all excellent works. (Figure 3)

The main characteristics of Ding kiln porcelain in Song Dynasty are as follows: 1. The carcass is thin and white. Second, the glaze color is mostly milky white, and the white is light beige. There is often a teardrop-shaped glaze flow at the glaze accumulation place, which is yellow-green. The spin marks on the tire can be seen in the thin glaze on the outer wall of the object. Third, in the early Northern Song Dynasty, the mouth edge of Ding kiln products was glazed, but it was not glazed in the later period, commonly known as "Mangkou". The edge of python mouth is often inlaid with gold, silver and copper to cover up the defects of python mouth, which is a major feature of Ding kiln. Fourth, there are "officials" and "grain bureaus" at the bottom of the porcelain used by the government. Fifth, there are usually bubbles on the glaze of the kiln. Observing with a magnifying glass, we can generally see bubbles of different sizes, and some large bubbles are scattered around the dense small bubble area, which is similar to the characteristics of Song Yingqing porcelain. There is no difference between the excellent kiln furniture of the Jin Dynasty and that of the Northern Song Dynasty. However, the decoration techniques of middle and low-grade kilns in Jin Dynasty were obviously inferior to those in Northern Song Dynasty. Some products use sand ring burning method, and there is a ring of exposed tires on the inner bottom of the object. This is the obvious difference between Jinding and Dingyao in the Northern Song Dynasty.