Chapter 1184 Ding kiln flower porcelain pot, the color is white in the world
Nowadays, many old-fashioned wood kilns have firelights.
To judge the degree of firing of porcelain in the kiln by looking at the changes in temperature inside the wood-fired kiln using fire light, this relies heavily on experience and is not something most people can do.
But I have to say that this has greatly improved the temperature control in the kiln.
Being able to control the temperature is really important for the firing of porcelain in a kiln.
The utilization of coal further expands this advantage.
Therefore, the utilization of coal is also a major technological improvement.
In the Five Dynasties and the early Northern Song Dynasty, the white glaze of Ding kiln was often white with green flashes, and later became white with slight yellowing, taking on a soft ivory texture.
This is due to the use of coal instead of firewood as kiln fuel.
Using coal as fuel, the kiln atmosphere changes from reduction to oxidation, which is why the ivory-like texture is achieved.
The use of coal improves combustion efficiency, changes the firing atmosphere, enhances the heat preservation of the kiln, and plays an important role in increasing the firing capacity and ensuring the firing rate.
This is an important technological innovation for the porcelain industry in the northern region, all because of the coal production in the north.
It was due to various technological innovations that Ding kiln porcelain began to flourish.
Generally speaking, the body of Ding kiln is thin and light, the color of the body is white and slightly yellow, relatively firm and not very transparent, the glaze is beige, and the glaze is so thin that the body can be seen.
The characteristics are also very obvious. The glaze color is white and crystal clear, and many of the accumulated glazes are shaped like tears, which are called "wax tears" and have a faint yellow-green color.
Where the outer wall of the vessel is thinly glazed, you can see the spinning marks on the body, commonly known as "bamboo silk brush marks".
In the early Northern Song Dynasty, the rims of Ding kiln products were glazed, but in the late Northern Song Dynasty, the rims of the utensils were mostly unglazed and were called "Mangkou".
The awn's mouth is often inlaid with gold, silver or copper rims to cover up defects in the awn's mouth, which is another major feature of Ding kiln.
In addition to these well-known characteristics, Ding kiln, as one of the five famous kilns, also has a lot of unknown facts.
For example, Ding kiln white porcelain, which is as white as flesh, is the blank space in landscape paintings of the Song Dynasty. Pure white is used as the simplest decoration.
This kind of blank form appeared in porcelain during the Wei and Jin Dynasties.
On a piece of celadon, you seem to be able to see concrete figures, animals, and other scenes, but these are almost absent on Ding kiln white porcelain.
This is the white art of Dingyao, and it is also a unique art.
Using white or blank space for expression is the ink interest of traditional Chinese painting, and it is a Taoist cultural expression of the coexistence of virtuality and reality.
This shows the beauty of Ding kiln and gives people unlimited space for imagination.
It is precisely because virtuality and reality coexist, and presence and absence coexist, so this "white" and "blank" represents "being" and contains infinite meanings, rather than a single expression like porcelain paintings of some concrete objects.
Just like the artistic conception expressed in "The frost is flying in the sky, and the white sand on the terrace is invisible."
If anyone thinks that the white color or simple decoration of Ding kiln porcelain is the result of the less sophisticated production techniques at that time, then they are totally wrong.
This form of expression was actually very common in the Northern Song Dynasty.
For example, there is a painting "Autumn Colors of Streams and Mountains" collected by Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty. There are streams, mountains and rivers in the painting, and a fisherman expresses his love with a pen, but the right half of the painting is mostly blank.
There is also Wang Jian's imitation of Ni Yunlin's Xiting mountain color scroll. These are his unique use of white space.
Such use was very common in the Northern Song Dynasty.
For example, during the reign of Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty, there was an art academy examination in which students were asked to draw a poem.
The work that finally won the first place was: a man riding a horse, and a swarm of bees flying following the horse's hooves.
The painting does not show flowers, but uses bees to pursue the horseshoes to express the "scent of horseshoes" test question, substituting fiction for reality, and focusing on expressing the beauty of the artistic conception of the painting.
It can be seen from this that the art of the Song Dynasty pursued simplicity and profound meaning, rather than simplicity.
People in the Song Dynasty used a warmer white color to present the beauty of Dingyao, which is as gentle as skin.
It is precisely because of the unique aesthetics of the people of the Song Dynasty at that time that the white color of Ding Kiln can stand out in an era where cyan is the main color, and has its own exclusive color.
At that time, people in the Song Dynasty pursued artistic diversity, and simple white was not enough to express people's understanding of art.
Therefore, we often use printing, carving, scratching and other decorative techniques to incorporate peonies, lotus, poultry, twigs and other patterns, as well as some simple geometric patterns, into porcelain.
What's amazing is that these patterns are integrated with the white color, and there is no intention to overwhelm them.
This also pushed the artistic achievements of white porcelain to a new level.
Liu Qi of the Yuan Dynasty praised it in his "Gui Qian Zhi" as "the colored porcelain ware from Ding kiln is the whitest in the world".
Among them, "Hua Porcelain Ou" refers to the carving technique of Ding kiln.
Chen Wenzhe can fire the Ru kiln, so naturally it will not be too difficult to learn the firing techniques of the Ding kiln.
There are even many similarities between the two, but of course, there are still more differences.
This is what Chen Wenzhe learned emphatically, and he also paid special attention to the differences between Ding kiln and other kilns.
For example, the nail firing methods of Ding kiln and Ru kiln are different, and the covering firing method is often used.
The so-called cover firing method is to turn the object upside down and place the mouth of the object close to the gasket for firing.
As a result, the mouth cannot be hung with glaze, and a circle of unglazed "glazed mouth" will be left.
This is the biggest feature and biggest shortcoming of Ding kiln. The reason why it disappeared is related to this shortcoming.
At that time, in order to solve the defect of "Mangkou" left by overburning, the "Mangkou" would be inlaid with gold, silver, and copper buckles to meet the requirements of the royal family.
After solving the "Mangkou" problem, the advantages of Ding kiln porcelain over other kiln mouth porcelain were revealed.
Because the fixed kiln, including the bottom, can be glazed almost 360 degrees without any dead ends.
Of course, it is impossible to successfully fire Ding Kiln porcelain just through these methods.
Because Ding kiln not only fires white porcelain, but also many other varieties. The most important thing is that they are all fired very well.
Although Ding Kiln is famous for its white porcelain, it does not mean that Ding Kiln only produced white porcelain at that time.
Ding Kiln in the Song Dynasty also had black glaze, and the sauce glaze was also quite exquisite, which was commonly known as "Hei Ding" and "Zi Ding".
The Forbidden City now has a Ding kiln sauce-glazed tureen in its collection. This tureen is 6 cm in height, 12 cm in diameter, and 5.3 cm in full diameter.
The bowl has a straight mouth, a deep belly, a ring foot, and a melon-shaped button on the top of the lid.
The whole body is covered with sauce-colored glaze. The rim of the bowl and the base of the bowl are unglazed, and the exposed parts are white.
Compared with Ding kiln white-glazed porcelain, other glaze-colored wares were fired in smaller quantities, making them more precious.
Covered bowls of this shape were commonly made in kilns in the north during the Song Dynasty, mostly in the Beihe and South provinces.
In addition to sauce glaze varieties, there are also red glaze and green glaze utensils.
These utensils generally have no decorations, but some are decorated with lotus petals.
In addition, when the Palace Museum investigated the kiln site in Jianci Village in 1957, it found two specimens with white bodies but green glaze.