At the World Horticultural Expo Park in Kunming, my country, a large vase of "Jade Dragon Tengfei", an extremely valuable Jun porcelain product, is set up in the hall of the Huaxia Pavilion.
This was produced by the Jun kiln of the Miao family of the Queen of Gods. The inscription in the museum said: "A treasure in the world, preserved forever in the World Expo."
This aroused the attention and appreciation of people at home and abroad. Of course, this news also attracted the attention of Chen Wenzhe.
From this we can see that to imitate the Jun kiln, one must also look at the Jun kiln of the Miao family.
Things happen because of people, and things exist because of people.
Shenge, a descendant of the Jun kiln of the Miao family, worked hard and had many ingenious ideas to promote the Jun porcelain culture.
In order to protect the spread of Jun porcelain treasures, Jun porcelain collection certificates are specially issued. The works are divided into two types: treasure grade and top grade, as collectibles.
It shows the rareness of treasures, so that they can be passed down to the world, and it also shows that collectors can identify the authenticity of objects and have elegance.
The saying goes: "The creatures of heaven and earth are gifted with essence, and the earth receives them with shape. All things are magical inside and the shape and quality are revealed outwardly. Those who can express the magic in the outward changes of heaven and earth are the treasures of the world. Jun porcelain, Really precious porcelain.”
In 1955, Yuxian (now Yuzhou) Ceramics Factory began research and development to explore the long-lost basic formula and firing technology of Jun porcelain body glaze.
They not only fired rose purple, begonia red, azure, moon white and other traditional color glazes.
More than ten kinds of flower glazes have also been developed, and new varieties such as modern daily utensils and art display porcelain have been added.
The Jun kiln is located in Yuzhou City, Nanhe Province, and there are different opinions on the year it was fired.
During the Warring States Period, Yuzhou was the capital of Han Dynasty, named Yangzhai. In the Northern Song Dynasty, the Jin Dynasty established Junzhou, hence its name.
In Yuzhou City, Nanhe, more than 100 Jun kiln sites from the Song and Jin dynasties have been discovered.
There are so many kiln mouths spread across several provinces and cities, forming a huge Jun kiln system throughout North China.
Jun kiln has the following characteristics: There are two types of artifacts unearthed from Song Jun.
One is turbid glaze, called dark glaze.
One is bright glaze, called glass glaze.
The former is an early product and the latter is a late product.
Most people think that bright-glazed Jun vessels were imitated later and were mistakenly judged.
The body soil of Jun kiln in the Northern Song Dynasty was finely washed, the body color was light gray, the glaze juice was thick, crystal clear and evenly moist, with sky blue glaze being the most common.
Through the kiln transformation, brilliant and colorful moon white, rosette purple, lilac purple and other tones are produced, among which the red and sky blue glazes are integrated into the "jun red".
This type of utensil has a red glaze on the outside and a sky blue or moon white glaze on the inside.
Products with red glaze both inside and outside are mostly imitations from later generations.
On the Jun red glaze, there are often small, granular black blemishes.
There are also many earthworms that lead to muddy lines and tiny brown eyes. The rims and edges of the utensils are raised with thin glaze, showing a beige color.
Earthworm-induced mud patterns were a major feature of Jun glazes in the Northern Song Dynasty. However, by the Jin and Yuan Dynasties, earthworm-induced mud patterns were almost non-existent on Jun porcelain.
Imitations from the Qing Dynasty and modern times often use open slices to show the pattern of earthworms drawing away mud.
Jun kilns in the Northern Song Dynasty usually applied full glaze, and the bottom of the circle was painted with a layer of sauce brown glaze, commonly known as sesame glaze.
There is no difference between this sesame paste glaze and the milky sky blue glaze on the body of the vessel.
Because the glaze at the base of the circle is thin, the underglaze color blends with the thin glaze to appear a light sauce color.
The three-legged washing vessel still has a sky-blue tint to its thick glaze.
Although the glaze layer is thin, the color is bright.
The glaze on the bottom of later imitations is dry and mottled.
Inscriptions on Jun vessels of the Northern Song Dynasty are rare, and the ones with inscriptions are all used on court porcelain in the late Northern Song Dynasty.
The inscription is mainly engraved with numbers from one to ten, that is, the odd numbers one, three, five, seven, and nine are applied on the bottom of the vessel with Jun red glaze;
Two, four, six, eight and ten even numbers are applied with sky blue and moon white glaze.
But the real purpose of the numbers on the bottom of the vessel is to indicate the size and specifications of the vessel.
The larger the utensil, the smaller the number. "1" represents the largest utensil.
Jun kiln inscriptions are usually added when the object is formed into a blank, and then sesame glaze is applied to the inscriptions.
Later imitations often had characters engraved on the glazed body, thus revealing flaws.
There are also engraved names of palace buildings in the Northern Song Dynasty, such as "Fenghua Palace", "Yangxin Palace", "Chonghua Palace", "Jingyang Palace", etc. The strokes of the inscriptions are thin.
Judging from the physical objects of Jun kilns, both Song Jun and Jin Jun have reached the peak of Jun porcelain firing.
Today's emphasis on the Song Dynasty over the Jin Dynasty is just a matter of aesthetic perspective.
The texture of the Jun kiln in the Jin Dynasty is fine and compact, and it is mostly light gray or beige after firing.
The glaze is moister and the glass light is stronger than that of the Northern Song Dynasty.
The red glaze is not rose red or eggplant purple as in the Northern Song Dynasty, but is decorated with red spots on the sky blue or moon white glaze.
The edge of the erythema is not clear, and it feels like it is gradually fading.
Utensils are usually fully glazed, with no glaze at the ends of the circle, uneven junctions of glazes, and thick hanging glazes, commonly known as snot glaze.
There is no longer a sesame glaze on the bottom, but the same color glaze as the body of the vessel. There are no mud lines caused by earthworms, and there are many open pieces.
The firing process uses a cake pad that is larger than the circle foot, and three nails are used on the edge of the plate to support the firing.
Because the support nails are adhered to the utensils and are often knocked off after firing, the support nails have large and uneven marks.
The output of Jun kilns in the Yuan Dynasty continued to increase, but the quality declined.
The craftsmanship level of some fine products is comparable to that of Song Jun, but there are only a few of them.
Jun porcelain originated in the Tang Dynasty and reached its peak in the Northern Song Dynasty. In the Jin and Yuan Dynasties, the production of imitation Jun products has reached the level of Jun porcelain in the Song Dynasty.
Most of the fetuses are obviously rough and loose, the walls are thick, the outer wall is often not glazed to the bottom, the edges of the glazes are uneven, and there are bubbles on the glaze surface, most commonly in colors such as sky blue, moonlight and white.
The plaques of blue-glazed erythema have clear boundary lines, which are obviously different from the haloed and scattered plaques of the Jin Dynasty, and large-scale vessels are popular.
The bases of bowls and plates are beveled at the base and the center of the base is convex. In addition to being decorated with glaze colors, they are often decorated with appliqués.
The body and glaze of Jun kiln are porcelain bodies, and most of them are gray.
Of course, there are two types of gray: light and dark.
In addition, there are gray white and light yellow.
The former (gray tire) is fine and dense, and makes a metallic sound when struck. This is an early product.
The gray-white and blanched-yellow ones are relatively loose in texture and sound almost like tiles when struck. These are mostly late-stage products.
Jun porcelain has two glazes, dark glaze and bright glaze.
The enamel of bright-glazed Jun ware is rough, the glaze layer is thin, and there are large and small flakes. There are many brown eyes on the glaze and many caviar patterns on the inside. The outer glaze is less than full feet, and the center of the circle is painted with glaze or has no glaze at all.
From the Southern Song Dynasty to the Yuan Dynasty, this type of Jun ware was more common.
Song Jun's "kiln transformation" feature is due to the active formula in the glaze and is closely related to the kiln structure.
What also affects the yield of Jun porcelain is the fuel used.
In addition to the first time, there are also the dense kiln equipment, external factors such as cold and heat, sunshine and rain, and wind direction, all of which require kiln workers to have the ability to adapt to changes.
Otherwise, what the ancients said will happen is that nine out of ten kilns will fail.
These are the experiences of firing Jun kilns. As long as these factors are studied and combined with the scientific achievements of modern research on Jun kilns, it should not be difficult to truly imitate the Jun kilns of the Northern Song Dynasty.
Chen Wenzhe already knew very well about this famous ancient kiln.
Especially when it comes to restoring the techniques of ancient famous kilns, he is even more experienced.