Folk kilns were able to use high-quality kaolin called "royal soil" and "official soil" to fire porcelain. This proves that the government at that time had banned the use of "royal soil" for export.
For my country's porcelain archeology, this is a perfect discovery.
The blue and white porcelain of the Kang and Yong dynasties is the pinnacle of Chinese porcelain art.
Especially for Jingzhen porcelain, there is a saying that "there is no blue and white porcelain outside Jingzhen", which also proves the supreme status of Jingzhen blue and white porcelain.
Of course, it is gratifying to see exquisite cultural relics, but how to protect these water-exposed porcelain is a headache.
Compared with cultural relics made of metal, bamboo and wood, porcelain is much easier to protect.
However, porcelain that has been soaked in sea water for more than 300 years still faces various dangers.
Therefore, it’s not just digging it out and that’s it. It still needs maintenance afterwards.
According to the procedure, every time a basket of porcelain is salvaged, the team members will immediately soak it in plain water to desalt the cultural relics.
This is a seemingly simple job, but it is difficult to do your best.
Fortunately, Chen Wenzhe is knowledgeable and under his guidance, all the work was carried out in an orderly manner.
Otherwise, a large number of well-preserved, very beautiful, and very valuable ancient porcelains were originally excavated, but due to poor maintenance, the glaze soon peeled off and became tattered. Wouldn't it be a pity?
On the surface, these porcelains appear to be as smooth and clean as new, and there seems to be no corrosion.
In fact, the salt will penetrate all the way into the porcelain, and even pass through the glaze and enter the porcelain body.
To achieve complete desalination, these porcelains need to be soaked in fresh water for several months. This process seems difficult to achieve.
With the amount of porcelain, where to find such a large pool at sea, especially on a ship, is already a problem in itself.
If the desalination is not carried out thoroughly, the porcelain will gradually be damaged.
For example, among the cultural relics unearthed from the famous "Nanhai No. 1" shipwreck, some porcelains already have glaze bulges due to salt seepage.
After the salvage was completed, Chen Wenzhe sorted out the entire salvage process.
The sea area where the shipwreck site is located has a water depth of 13-15 meters, and the seabed is made of sandy and silt material.
This ship is a medium-sized sea-going ship from the mid-Kangxi period, with a remaining length of 13.5 meters, a remaining width of 3 meters, and a remaining height of 1 meter.
From this it can be inferred that the ship was originally 18-20 meters long and 5 meters wide.
The ship has 16 cabins remaining, but most of the bulkheads have been damaged.
Except for the three cabins on the eastern bow, which are narrower and have a width of 30-60 cm, the other cabins are generally 90 cm wide.
Only the sixth cabin in the east is slightly wider at 134 cm, and the fourth cabin in the west is the widest at 178 cm.
A log was found in the southwest of the ship, with an exposed length of 250 cm, a circumference of 77 cm, a width of 22 cm, and a height of 26 cm.
The cross-section is in a "convex" shape and can basically be defined as a keel.
Through these details, Chen Wenzhe can completely recount the entire process from the beginning of construction to the sinking of this ship.
A lot of important information is retrieved from some important parts of the entire ship.
In the process, he got a lot of information, especially since the ship had often missed its course since it was launched.
As long as you understand the routes of the ancient Maritime Silk Road in the South Pacific, and then based on the weather and water patterns throughout the ages, as well as some dangerous sea areas around the routes, it is really not difficult to find some sunken ships.
This is also Chen Wenzhe's biggest gain from salvaging the sunken ship this time.
Apart from these possible harvests, the only harvest that can be seen is those porcelain.
After more than fifty days of rescue excavation, Chen Wenzhe and others salvaged more than 1,200 pieces of porcelain produced in Jingzhen during the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty.
This batch of porcelain is mainly blue and white ware, with a small amount of blue and white underglaze red, blue and white glaze, imitation glazed porcelain and multicolored ware.
Most of these porcelains are regularly made and come in many shapes.
There are mainly general jars, lidded jars, phoenix-tailed statues, tube bottles, tube flower goblets, stoves, plates, saucers, bowls, cups, cups, goblets, vials, gourd bottles, powder boxes, etc.
Due to the good preservation methods, and when the ship sank, the entire storage compartment was torn apart.
All the large wooden boxes that stored the porcelain were thrown out and scattered and buried on the seabed, so that this batch of porcelain was well preserved.
Of course, those porcelains that were not buried under the sea were either destroyed by the sea water or were salvaged and were not in Chen Wenzhe's hands.
Therefore, the porcelain he salvaged was all well-preserved, especially the glazes that were as good as new.
This made it easy for Chen Wenzhe to identify this batch of porcelain.
Apart from anything else, just looking at the decorations shows that this batch of porcelain is not simple.
This batch of porcelain is richly decorated with a wide range of themes, including landscapes, figures, flowers and birds, ancient miscellaneous treasures, auspicious characters, etc.
Judging from the shapes and patterns of this batch of porcelain, some have an exotic style and can be identified as export products.
The themes of blue and white patterns and patterns are rich and diverse, including most of the traditional porcelain decorative patterns.
There are landscapes and towers, such as distant mountains, near water, river views, pavilions, waterside pavilions, lakes and rocks, etc.
There are also plants and flowers, such as pine, bamboo, plum, willow, chrysanthemum, lotus, orchid, peony, pomegranate, curly grass, twig flower, etc.
There are also rare birds and auspicious animals, such as phoenix, crane, pheasant, bird, dragon, lion, deer, horse, sea beast, squirrel, etc.
Then there are the display of offering utensils, such as Bagua, miscellaneous treasures, Bogu, Ruyi, chess, calligraphy and painting, etc.
Finally, there are character stories, such as Baby Play, Ju Cui, Shooting and Hunting, The Western Chamber, Water Margin, Three Kingdoms, Seven Sages in the Bamboo Forest, and the Snipe and Clam Struggle.
Of course, there are some relatively simple ones, such as auspicious words (luck, longevity), etc.
Chen Wenzhe has never seen other porcelain. Anyway, from the condition of the porcelain he has salvaged from the water, most of the blue and white porcelain from this sunken ship are neatly made and have smooth lines.
It can be said that the craftsmanship is strict and exquisite, and the surface treatment of the carcass is neat and smooth, with no obvious turning marks.
The larger ones are calm and dignified, while the smaller ones are light and graceful. The overall style shows simplicity, dignity and generosity.
Among them, the bright blue blue and white has a green and delicate color, fresh and bright, which is what the connoisseurs call "emerald blue" and "sapphire blue";
Obviously, the Kangxi emerald blue figure vase that Chen Wenzhe discovered before came from here.
Other blue and white flowers are not common. These blue and white flowers are divided into rich and shallow multi-color levels, which make the scenery painted on the blue and white porcelain have distance, density, clear layering, and strong three-dimensionality.
When people praise the Kangxi blue and white, they must say that "the ink is divided into five colors". This means that using a blue and white color material, you can distinguish the yin and yang of things in the painting, distance and density, making the picture full of three-dimensionality.
This kind of blue and white changes the traditional monotonous painting style of blue and white in the Yuan and Ming dynasties, making the blue and white hair colors of different shades, just like the "five colors of ink" in painting.
Therefore, the Kangxi blue and white flowers also have the saying that "the colors are divided into five colors" or "the blue and white flowers are divided into five colors".
In fact, the reason why Kangxi blue and white can be "divided into five colors" is largely due to the Yunnan "zhuming material" used in mid-Kangxi blue and white.