When Chen Wenzhe took a boat for the first time and hunted for treasure on the Yangtze River, the luxury goods on the cruise ship were actually some foreign brands of glass products. Can he tolerate this?
Even if it is just to support a domestic luxury glass brand, Chen Wenzhe still needs to work hard.
And Boshan Glazed Craftsmanship should be a good entry point.
If we really make glass products, not just copying some ancient handicrafts, but just some modern works will be enough.
For example, the chicken fat-yellow jade pot spring vase and the chicken fat-yellow imitation Han Dynasty bells. Aren’t these innovations?
There are many other colored glazes, such as lifelike lampwork scenes, colorful colored glaze bouquets, poetic and timeless colored glaze inner paintings, uncanny nesting carvings...
The "royal furnace" is firing, and the "royal craftsman" is busy. This time Chen Wenzhe has completely inherited the skills of the descendants of the royal kiln.
The old man who indirectly taught him the skills was actually a descendant of the Boshan Sun family and the Yan family.
You must know that these two families were very famous in Boshan back then, because their family had been making glazed products for the royal family since the Ming Dynasty.
Boshan District, Zi City is the hometown of colored glaze. It has profound accumulation in natural resources, historical factors, cultural background and other aspects. It is an important town for colored glaze production.
Boshan Glaze has a wide variety of varieties and exquisite craftsmanship. It has led the development of glaze in my country for hundreds of years.
This time, Chen Wenzhe carefully sorted out the glaze firing process and felt that the variety of its production is not necessarily much less than that of porcelain.
Even many porcelains can be replaced with colored glaze.
There are many techniques used on porcelain that can also be used on colored glaze.
Also this time, Chen Wenzhe discovered that the glaze firing time was actually very early, which was unexpectedly early.
When the production of Boshan Glaze originated, it is difficult to determine due to limited historical data and physical objects.
In the 1980s, Boshan excavated the earliest existing ancient glazed kiln ruins in my country - the glazed workshop ruins of the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties.
Therefore, in a general sense, the origin of Boshan colored glaze can be dated to the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties.
Archaeological experts also pointed out that the workshop site was large in scale and the unearthed artifacts were extremely mature in terms of shape and technology.
Inferred from this, the origin of Boshan colored glaze may be earlier.
In the book "Ancient Chinese Beads", Zhu Xiaoli came to the following conclusions through extensive collection and research.
At least since the Southern Song Dynasty, my country’s Boshan glazed beads and Yinsan beads have equally divided the Philippines’ bead market.
This shows that in the Southern Song Dynasty or earlier, colored glaze production had already occurred in the Boshan area and had reached a certain scale.
During the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty, the production of Boshan colored glaze reached a relatively large scale.
At this time, Boshan has become the national glass production and sales center, and the glassware produced has been exported to all over the country and the world.
In the early years of Hongwu, the palace officials set up an exclusive "tribute" glaze workshop in Boshan, with Sun Kerang in charge.
According to the "History of the Ming Dynasty", there was an "internal official prison" in the Ming Dynasty palace, which was one of the "twenty-four eunuch yamen" in the palace.
At that time, all the construction work of the country was done by Dong Qi, and the copper, tin, wood, and iron utensils used in front of the emperor were given to him on a daily basis.
Moreover, it has "many external factories, each with its own admiral, factory manager and other officials."
The Sun family of Yanshan was the first family in the Boshan glaze industry to become a craftsman and become an "imperial craftsman".
According to the "Preface to the Reconstruction of the Sun Clan Genealogy of Yanshan": "Our clan is originally from Zaoqiang. In the third year of Hongwu, the founder Kerang moved to the southeast corner of Dongguan, Qingzhou Prefecture, and later moved to Longshui. It used to be Yanshen Town, Xiaoxiang, Yidu
, this is why it is now under the jurisdiction of Boshan County. The inner officials should supervise the green curtain craftsmen, who are engaged in making colored glaze, bead lamps and bead curtains for use in the inner court."
According to the "Miscellaneous Records of Yanshan" written by Sun Kerang's ninth grandson, Sun Tingquan, a bachelor of the Academy of Secretaries during the second year of Kangxi's tenure in the Qing Dynasty.
"The stove seat is from the Hongwu Duo family, and the internal officials oversee the Qinglian family business. However, when the country builds a suburban altar and dining hall, it is in charge of the root and curtain affairs. ... He is affiliated with the inner court and is a class craftsman.
It’s all about the old world and sticking to it.”
From then on, the Sun family, as registered palace craftsmen, managed some "shift craftsmen" who were registered as craftsmen, and provided glaze tributes to the Ming court for 275 years.
During the same period, Boshan's Jiang family, Qian family and other families were involved in the glass industry.
They either focus on production or sales, promoting Boshan Glazed to the whole country.
"Yanshan Miscellaneous Notes" describes that the sales situation of Boshan colored glaze is "from Yan in the north, to Baiyue in the south, to Korea in the east, and to Hewai in the west, and it travels thousands of miles".
Therefore, the "Qingzhou Prefecture Chronicle" written by Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty directly states that "glazed ware came out of Yanshen Town".
He added, "It is mainly made of native horse teeth and purple stones, and is made of yellow red, white lead, and bronze coke. The beads are worn on lamps, screens, chess games, tent hooks, and pillow tops. They are smooth and lovely."
The "Yidu County Chronicle" of the 11th year of Emperor Kangxi's reign in the Qing Dynasty also recorded: "The residents of Yanshen Town (Liuli) are good at what they do, and the soil in the town is really barren and the people are not cold and discouraged."
In the early years of Emperor Kangxi's reign in the Qing Dynasty, the Ministry of Internal Affairs established a Construction Office responsible for handling the construction and procurement of the imperial palace.
Since Emperor Kangxi was very interested in Western glass products, he ordered the Manufacturing Office to set up a glass factory in the 35th year of Kangxi's reign.
Mainly produces glass snuff bottles, bottles, bowls, slag hoppers and other utensils.
At first, the craftsmen in the glass factory were all Westerners.
Later, except for a few foreigners, they were mainly recruited from Boshan.
Most of the glass strips used are produced in Boshan.
Boshan's glass furnace is known as the "imperial furnace", and Boshan's craftsmen are called "imperial craftsmen".
The First Historical Archives of China, which contains the "Complete Documents of the Works of the Yangxin Hall Construction Office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Qing Dynasty", and the "Documents of the Ministry of Industry for the Preliminary Approval of the Case of the Dushui Department of the Ministry of Industry" in the 22nd year of Qianlong's reign in the Qing Dynasty.
and other historical materials all record the situation of Boshan glaze craftsmen making glaze products in the Qing Palace.
These recruited Boshan glaze craftsmen were first selected by the government government from the furnace shop and sent to the governor's office. Then the Qilu governor's office was responsible for sending them to the Ministry of Industry and handed them over to the manufacturing office for service.
These glaze craftsmen, while bringing Boshan glaze production techniques to the imperial palace, also brought the imperial palace and foreign glaze production techniques back to Boshan.
Boshan glazed craftsmen serving in the manufacturing office had to complete the production of various glazed wares according to the styles and quantities designated by the emperor himself.
The produced glazed wares were not only played with by the emperor himself, but were also given to princes, ministers and foreign kings in large quantities.
At that time, Boshan's glazed products could be said to be outstanding, and "glazed" was popular all over the world!
Especially since the Jiaqing Dynasty, the national power of the Ming Dynasty has declined, the scenery of Liulichang has gradually lost, and the overall craftsmanship of colored glaze has declined.
On the contrary, Boshan Glaze production has shown a unique situation with the changes in fashion and market orientation.
During the seventy or eighty years before and after Xianfeng, Boshan's glass industry prospered unprecedentedly.
During this period, the business scope expanded and the types of utensils were diversified.
Products such as snuff bottles, cigarette holders, imitation jade ornaments, etc. have been constantly innovated to cater to market demand.