Chapter 1589: Blank Transition Period
This trip to Qingshen was very fruitful. I received a Yongle Blue and White Lotus Plate and discovered a huge ancient kiln tentatively designated as Baipo Kiln or Tan Guan Kiln. I visited the site group and harvested a lot of remaining porcelain from these kilns, as well as the small jar that Zhou Zhi holds in his hand and can't put it down.
This small jar was given to him by blind man Li Er. Its shape is the melon-shaped water bowl that was very common in the Tang, Five Dynasties and Northern Song Dynasties.
The water bowl is about the size of a fist, with a mouth without a rim, a round belly, and four melon ribs on the belly. The glaze is white, slightly milky yellow, relatively flat, and there are small openings if you look closely.
The most special thing is that there are two kinds of color spots on the glaze, one is green and the other is purple-red like burning clouds. The color spots are divided into four pieces, showing a kind of color on the glaze. In a naturally haloed state, because the carcass is relatively rough and the stains are very thin, it causes The color-causing glaze deposits more in the rough holes of the carcass and less in the smoother and flat places, and then emerges from under the thin white glaze, forming a distribution of shades like clouds in the sky, and Accompanied by some green and purple lines and spots, it is very beautiful.
In particular, there is a patch of color that is separated by a concave melon ridge. One side is green glaze, and the other side is red glaze. The two flow into the melon ridge and converge, forming a blue-purple dripping pattern at the bottom, which is then covered with white glaze. Cover, the effect is like Tang Sancai with a layer of emulsified leather shell, or faded Jun Kiln glaze, the color effect is very charming.
"What on earth is this thing?" Although Zhang Cheng is lame, but the lameness is in his left leg. He is not unable to drive. He is driving now. Seeing Zhou Zhi non-stop playing with the can, I couldn't help but asked curiously.
He couldn't understand this jar just like Blind Li Er: "Blind Li Er is an expert, and even he can't understand this thing. Isn't it some made-up fake?"
< br>"If it is a made-up fake, with his It's impossible to keep your eyesight for decades." Zhou Zhi turned over the bottom of the small jar and said, "The color of the fire has faded, and the pulp is covered with iron. This is caused by playing with it for decades." br>
"Then he is still willing to give it to you?" Zhang Cheng asked.
"Because he hopes that I can solve this mystery." Zhou Zhi said: "And I have basically solved it."
"Really?" Zhang Cheng said in surprise: "You know the origin of this thing ?”
“This is an important porcelain from the transition period,” Zhou Zhi said: “The shape of the vessel is correct and the glaze is smooth. It is obvious that it was fired in a sagger. The craftsmanship avoids the contamination of the body by flue gas dust. "
"From the perspective of the shape and footwork, the knife skills are sharp, the lines are tough, and the texture of the body has changed from the thick and heavy in the Han and Tang Dynasties to the Song and Ming Dynasties. The transformation is light and delicate, but it is still relatively rough and belongs to the early stage of transformation."
"So this thing is from the late Tang Dynasty?"
"It's almost like, either the late Tang Dynasty or the Five Dynasties." Zhou Zhi said.
"That's...Changsha kiln?"
"No, Changsha kiln doesn't use cosmetic clay." Zhou Zhi said: "The texture of this jar is relatively rough, so in order to make it beautiful , after the carcass was completed, a layer of cosmetic soil was added as decoration to cover up the shortcomings of the bottom tire. "
"The most important thing is the shape of its foot. It is a pancake-shaped circle foot, and the end of the foot is beveled with a carving knife. It is different from the traditional circle foot and the jade foot. Only one kiln mouth has this feature in the Five Dynasties period. ”
“ Is there any?" Zhang Cheng's knowledge of porcelain is limited to the Ming and Qing dynasties. As for the Tang and Song dynasties, it is too far back. Except for the secret color porcelain of the Tang Dynasty and the five major kilns of the Song Dynasty, the rest of the research is basically blank.
"Yes, such a foot is a typical feature of our Qiong kiln in central Sichuan!"
"It's no wonder others don't know about it. Especially the research on Qiong kiln seems to be the history department of your Shu University. "Dean Jiang and a few professors are more powerful." Cheng said with envy: "And all they know how to do is research on ready-made things. It's not their strong point to pick out the things at a glance in the cultural toy market. In this regard...it seems that you are the only one who can do it." ?" "Hey hey hey..." Zhou Zhiye To be honest and polite: "Just average, third in the country."
"Have you not played with a lot of things from Qiong Kiln?" Zhang Cheng asked: "Why is this thing so special? "
" The previous research on Qiongzhou kiln was all about celadon, white and black porcelain." Zhou Zhi put two fingers into the jar, held the jar apart and stuck the two fingers apart, then turned left and right to admire: "This thing Ah, it’s really special.”
"Oh? What's so special about it?"
"If it was really fired by the Qiong Kiln of the Fifth Dynasty, then it would have created at least two firsts in the country!"
"Emma, you are Don’t you want me to scold you? Hurry up!”
“First, it looks red. Are you here? This is copper red glaze. If this jar is really from the Five Dynasties, then the history of red glaze in our country will be advanced by one or two hundred years!"
"Secondly, this jar was first made. The red and green glazes are painted on the pottery body, and the white glaze is applied later, so..."
At this point, Zhang Cheng already understood and felt his heart beat faster: "Underglaze color! This is still a white background underglaze color based on makeup soil!"
Underglaze color, also known as underglaze color "Kiln color" is a glaze decoration of porcelain. The production method is to use colorants to draw various patterns on the shaped and dried blank, then cover it with white transparent glaze or other light-colored top glaze, and fire it at once.
After firing, the pattern of the porcelain will be covered with a transparent glaze film, so that the surface of the porcelain will become smooth, soft, crystal clear, smooth and not protruding.
The emergence of underglaze colored porcelain can actually be traced back to the late Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period. In the Nanjing Museum, there is a celadon underglaze colored feather human pattern dish mouth pot, which was unearthed in 1983. The porcelain body is white and slightly gray. , in addition to the molding on the upper abdomen, the whole body is painted with brown-colored outline patterns, and a green-yellow glaze is applied on top.
However, this technique of decorating porcelain with simple stippling of dark pigments cannot be considered a deliberate decorative creation. At present, the industry generally uses iron oxide and copper oxide as color materials in the Changsha kiln of the late Tang Dynasty to draw patterns on the blank, inscribe poems, and then apply celadon glaze. The porcelain is fired at a high temperature of about 1,250 degrees as the glaze. The founding period of Xiacai porcelain.
However, the above-mentioned porcelain can only be regarded as the "original" form of underglaze color. The base color is yellow or cyan, the glaze color is also yellow or cyan, and the glaze is still yellow or cyan, but the depth is different. Although the craftsmanship It is already available, but the effect is not seen at all.
Afterwards, porcelain entered the true color porcelain stage. The standard ones were Tang Sancai and Song Sancai, but at this time it became overglaze color, and makeup clay was still not used.
Further back, the origins of the article written by Zhou Zhi, the Huangbao Yaozhou Kiln in Shaanxi Province and the Yue Kiln in Cixi, Zhejiang Province, finally began to appear in the real practice of painting thickly painted pottery embryos covered with white cosmetic clay. Underglaze blue and white porcelain, in the formal sense, consists of colored lines or patterns, and an almost transparent protective glaze. The underglaze blue and white porcelain, which has a profound influence on Chinese porcelain, first appeared in the Song Dynasty.
But if you carefully pursue the above-mentioned development process, you can find a problem that has troubled the industry for a long time - that is, the hundreds of years between the original underglaze color porcelain and the mature underglaze color porcelain. years, there was a lack of a transitional representative to support its trajectory.
It seems that underglaze colored porcelain suddenly entered the mature state of the Song Dynasty from the original state of the Three Kingdoms and Tang Dynasty, and the transitional period in the middle was blank!