Chapter 1,179: Unique and impossible, as if made by nature, it is true
There are many difficulties in making the Wanshou Zun, but for Chen Wenzhe, writing is actually the most troublesome.
It turns out that Chen Wenzhe knew about such a large porcelain because he was so famous.
Emperor Kangxi's works, such as the Wanshou Zun, the Banquet of Thousands of Old Men, and the Picture of Hundred Deers, are widely circulated.
But he knew it, but he didn't know much about it, because he couldn't even figure out how to make such a piece of porcelain.
The main reason is that I don't know how to write the word "ten thousand years old".
If such an utensil is really made, what is the trouble in writing? All of this is related to the Thousand Old Banquet!
It is estimated that no one would make such a time-consuming and labor-intensive blue and white porcelain Wanshou Zun except to present it to the emperor.
Only when you actually make it can you realize this deeply.
Kangxi's sixtieth birthday coincided with the heyday of the Qing Dynasty, when the country was strong and the people were prosperous, and the world was prosperous.
Therefore, under the arrangements of the ministers, preparations were made to hold a grand birthday banquet for Kangxi that was unprecedented and unprecedented - the Thousand Old Man Banquet.
Kangxi wanted to invite the world's elderly people over 65 years old to have a banquet to celebrate together, firstly to practice filial piety, and secondly to appease the hearts of the people in the world.
Since it is a birthday, birthday gifts are definitely indispensable.
Therefore, these ministers are worried!
What kind of birthday gift can make Emperor Kangxi shine? This is a big problem that ministers think about day and night!
The ministers discussed and decided to make a blue and white porcelain statue, but it must be unique.
So I was going to write on the blue and white porcelain. What kind of words would be most suitable for me to write on it?
The ministers thought about it and finally wrote the word "longevity".
That's not all. They also require the Chinese characters "longevity" to be written on all the blue and white porcelain statues, and they must be written in different ways.
According to the level of porcelain production at that time, it was not difficult to make blue and white porcelain statues.
But it is extremely difficult to fill it with different characters for longevity.
First, the ministers simulated writing the word "longevity" on paper, and then the craftsmen copied it on the blue and white porcelain blank.
This step is crucial. You must not make a mistake in every stroke, otherwise all your efforts will be wasted.
During this process, even if the last word is written incorrectly, everything must be broken into pieces and started over.
Even if the Chinese character longevity is successfully filled in, some uncontrollable situations may occur during firing.
For example, if the temperature is not appropriate, resulting in different shades of blue and white porcelain or pen and ink, then you still need to smash it and start over.
This point also has the same problem with the pastel Bailu Zun, because as long as one color of pastel is not good, or even one stroke is not good, the entire porcelain will be useless.
In the end, both the pastel Bailu Zun and the blue and white Wanshou Zun were successfully fired.
However, transportation to the capital is also a problem. After all, according to the transportation conditions, it is normal for a few to be broken on the road.
Fortunately, these loyal ministers of the Qing Dynasty had a clever trick. They summoned a large number of craftsmen from the beginning and asked them to practice writing the word "Shou" day and night until they were able to write it all silently in one breath, so as to avoid being confused in Su embryo.
Make mistakes.
Then comes the firing, which requires craftsmen to fire dozens of pieces at a time, then select the best one and send it to the capital.
After the ministers passed the inspection, they selected two of them, one as a birthday gift and the other as a backup to avoid any mistakes.
The rest of the finished products were all broken into pieces. It was not until one piece was presented on Kangxi's birthday that the other piece was broken into pieces, making it a unique blue and white porcelain statue in the world.
Kangxi was pleasantly surprised when he saw the blue and white porcelain statue, and was even more shocked by its magnificent appearance, because it was really a big guy.
It is not easy to bake such a high-quality blue and white porcelain statue, and it is also filled with densely packed and different characters of longevity.
Emperor Kangxi, Longyan, was delighted and asked his ministers how many characters for longevity were on the blue and white porcelain statue.
The ministers all replied proudly that there are 9999 characters for longevity, plus a character for ten thousand, which means longevity and boundless longevity.
Emperor Kangxi heard what the minister said and immediately gave him a name, "Wanshou Zun".
Later, Kangxi joked: "I'm afraid no one can count these ten thousand words clearly, right?"
Sure enough, Emperor Kangxi was right, because after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, cultural relic experts accidentally discovered this unique Wanshou Zun when they were sorting out the old collections of the Qing Palace.
After some cleaning, the experts were also shocked by it.
The whole body is composed of longevity characters written in different characters such as Zhen, Cao, Li, Zhuan, etc.
Arranged in rows vertically and horizontally, neatly.
Moreover, the size of the fonts also changes with the curvature of the object itself, making it appear natural and harmonious, as if it were made in heaven.
But experts are confused, is there really 9999 characters for longevity?
So the experts started counting, but they couldn't get it right after counting for several days.
Either too many or too few, not once counting 9999.
Even if several experts were asked to count, no one could count them correctly.
Therefore, the experts finally used computers to conduct infrared scanning on it, and then conducted big data analysis and artificial intelligence processing.
The final number was exactly 9999, and there was no error several times in a row.
The precious Wanshou Zun that has been scanned now is collected in the Palace Museum, not the one in Jinling.
There is nothing that can be done about it. Although only one of the precious treasures such as the Kangxi Blue and White Longevity Master can be kept, the final result will definitely not break the other fired products, because everyone knows
This is baby.
Not to mention other added values, just the firing cost is enough to make it a valuable treasure!
Therefore, even if Kangxi was told that his piece was the only one, the others would be hidden instead of broken into pieces.
The fact that six pieces of Wanshou Zun appeared later proves this point.
Because now there is not only one in the Jinling Museum, but also an identical one in the Forbidden City Museum.
There is even one piece that has been auctioned before. It was on November 29, 2018, at the Sino-Han Auction 2018 Autumn Auction held at the Renaissance Hong Kong Harbor View Hotel. It was an old collection of a guy from Neon - the Kangxi Blue and White Longevity Master.
HK$66 million was hammered down.
It is said that this lot was also made by the Jingzhen Royal Kiln Factory for Kangxi's 60th birthday.
Because the whole body is decorated with a total of 10,000 characters meaning "longevity", it is exactly the same as the "Wanshou Zun" in the Forbidden City and Jinling.
In addition, the overall height, caliber, abdominal diameter, and foot diameter are all the same, so the same shape is majestic, strong and steady.
It is said that two strong men would have difficulty moving it. This kind of porcelain is unique among Kangxi imperial porcelains and is also a rare and important item in the history of imperial kilns of Ming and Qing Dynasties.
Even if modern people want to imitate, it is very difficult.
Because the cost of imitation of such a large and heavy weapon is very high, most people do not have the capital.