Early the next morning, His Highness the King of Chu, accompanied by Suzhou officials Jin Shen, took a boat via Yuanhetang and headed for Pingjiang Guanyao, fourteen miles north of Suzhou City.
"Pingjiang official kiln has been around for a long time, but this kiln is not for burning porcelain, but for burning gold bricks for the palace." On the way, Fei Mi introduced to His Highness:
“I heard from local old kiln workers that they fired official porcelain for the Southern Song Dynasty back then, but I don’t know if it’s true or not.”
"So you decided to locate the kiln factory in Suzhou?" Lao Liu was sitting in the car, with someone fanning next to him, still sweating profusely. This is why he doesn't like summer.
"No, it's mainly because there is chalk in Yangshan Mountain in the northwest of Wu County. The locals use it to paint walls, making it as white as powder. The Tang Dynasty also paid tribute every year, so Yangshan Mountain is also called Baichan Mountain." Fei Mi shook his head and smiled:
"When Cheng Huishou and others came to Jiangnan for inspection, they found that this was kaolin that could be fired in kilns. It was white in color, fine in grain, and of better quality than Jingdezhen. It was the only one in the whole of Jiangnan. Therefore, they finally settled on Pingjiang Royal Clay.
We come to the kiln next door to make porcelain."
"Hehehe..." Lao Liu smiled and said nothing. Suzhou people love to elevate themselves and belittle others, and officials will inevitably catch the same habit.
As he spoke, a column of smoke towered into the sky in front of him, and he reached the place where the kiln was fired.
"Your Highness, the Royal Kiln Factory has arrived." Fei Mi and others said respectfully.
"Yes." Zhu Zhen nodded. He had already seen Cheng Huishou of the Ming Dynasty Porcelain Industry Federation, as well as Magistrate Li and others waiting at the pier.
After getting off the boat and greeting each other, Zhu Zhen laughed and helped Cheng Qianqian said: "Haha, old Cheng, I haven't seen you for two years. Your hair has turned a lot gray. Thank you for your hard work."
"With these words from Your Highness, the hardships I have endured for the past two years will not be in vain." Cheng Qian smiled bitterly, took off his hat and showed Zhu Zhen his sparse head.
This is like moving an entire industrial chain from Jiangxi, involving countless aspects, and he has to coordinate them one by one. Mobilizing those who don't want to move and negotiating terms with those who want more will definitely take a lot of effort.
.
Getting people here is just the first step. With so many raw materials and such a complicated firing process, it is a difficult job to recreate it intact in Suzhou.
What's more, the water quality and climate on both sides are different. Even if the raw materials are transported from Jiangxi, the porcelain produced is not satisfactory. What's more, it was later decided to use local kaolin to reduce transportation costs. In order to produce high-quality porcelain as soon as possible,
Cheng Qian racked his brains and lost hair in handfuls.
It is already a miracle that it took two years to be officially put into production.
"Fortunately, everything is over. Today is the day for the ugly daughter-in-law to meet her parents-in-law." Cheng Qian took a deep breath and respectfully invited His Highness to go to the kiln factory.
"She is definitely not an ugly daughter-in-law, she must be very beautiful." Lao Liu smiled and followed the guide to the Pingjiang Official Kiln Factory...the Pingjiang Hai Kiln Factory next door.
Seeing the four characters "Pingjiang Haiyao" plastered on paper at the entrance of the factory, Zhu Zhen smiled and asked, "Is this the name you named it?"
"It's a draft. Of course, His Highness has to make the final decision." Cheng Qian hurriedly smiled and said: "Firstly, this porcelain is specially fired for overseas trade. Secondly, it is bold enough to get His Highness's glory. It is the abbreviation of Haiwang Kiln."
"Hahaha, this is a good name." Zhu Zhen readily agreed.
"Your Highness, please."
Under the guidance of Cheng Qian, Zhu Zhen took a tour of the kiln factory. From the layout to the process, it was naturally carved in the same mold as the big kiln factory in Jingdezhen, so there is no need to go into details.
While talking, everyone came to the kiln firing area at the core of the kiln factory. Currently, there are eight gourd kilns in Pingjiang Hai Kiln Factory.
Each kiln is divided into two kiln chambers, front and back. The front is tall and the back is short, the front is wide and the back is narrow, and the front is short and the back is long. The shape is like half a gourd lying on the ground, hence its name.
Lao Liuxin said, isn't it just a gourd? But it's a gourd and it comes from a kiln, which really doesn't sound good, so he didn't say anything to avoid embarrassment to everyone.
At this time, only one kiln had been fired, and the temperature of the kiln had dropped to a level that allowed it to be started. In this era, there was no such thing as speeches by leaders, and there were no ribbon-cutting ceremonies. Cheng Qian directly handed His Highness the King of Chu a big wooden hammer.
, ask him to open a kiln.
This didn't bother Zhu Zhen, so he picked up a sledgehammer and knocked out a hole in the bricks sealing the kiln door. Seeing that it wasn't enough, he started hammering again, knocking down the bricks one after another, while mumbling something.
Said: "Eighty, eighty..."
Cheng Qian was frightened when he saw it. He thought that His Highness would just knock on the key and be done with it, but he didn't expect that he was really hardworking.
It was filled with precious porcelain. If his master dared to open the kiln like this, he would have asked him to open it countless times.
He didn't feel sorry for the porcelain, but he was mainly afraid that it would be broken by His Highness and it would look ugly when he took it out later.
"Is that all right?" After knocking the door of the kiln clean, Zhu Zhen put down the hammer and wiped his sweat away. It wasn't tiring at all, but bursts of hot air came out of the kiln, making his face covered in sweat.
"Yes, that's enough." Cheng Qian stammered. Then he quickly asked His Highness to retreat to the pergola to have tea, while he directed the potter to leave the kiln.
At this time, the temperature in the kiln was still high. The potter wrapped his head and body with wet cloth, wrapped his hands in gloves made of more than ten layers of thick cloth, and then soaked them in cold water before he dared to enter the kiln and take out the fired porcelain.
.
Usually this work is done by apprentices, but today's situation is special. The masters have personally gone into battle and experienced the pain they have not suffered for many years.
After a while, the potter came out of the kiln holding the sagger, which was still purple in color, and placed it respectfully in front of the pergola.
Then Cheng Qian personally held a small hammer and carefully knocked open the sagger. After more than fifty processes, the blue and white porcelain finally revealed its true appearance.
When Zhu Zhen took the blue and white lotus pattern plate from Cheng Qian, he found that it was still warm.
Now His Royal Highness the King of Chu can be considered a semi-connoisseur. He looked at this blue and white porcelain plate produced in Suzhou and compared it with a Jingdezhen porcelain plate with the same pattern. He could still discern something.
He saw that the hair color of the former was more emerald blue, while the latter was more elegant. He didn't know whether it was because of the stronger color contrast, or for psychological reasons, but he always felt that the glaze of the former had a higher degree of vitrification, while the glaze of the latter looked
A little hazy, not so pure and translucent.
In order to prove that it was not his own psychological influence, he asked Cheng Qian to take a few porcelain plates fired from both places and put them in front of him in random order.
The results could still easily identify the place of origin, and the feeling remained the same. He turned over the inscriptions at the bottom of the plate and found that he had read none of them correctly.
"Good guy, why do I feel that I am better than my master?" Zhu Zhen couldn't help but smile and said: "I think the blue and white porcelain fired in Suzhou is better."
"Haha, Xiaguan feels the same way." Li Heng also echoed: "The ones from Pingjiang Haiyao are more vivid, and Xiaguan likes them tight."
Only then did the rest of the people dare to comment, and actually most of them held the same opinion.
