Opening Ceremony of the First Cizhou Kiln Culture Festival in Handan
1. Cizhou Porcelain Historical Porcelain is the representative of Chinese civilization. Jingdezhen is the most famous porcelain in China, but Cizhou porcelain, which can be called Jingdezhen porcelain, is much more bleak. Cizhou in the Song Dynasty, in Pengcheng Town and Cixian County under the jurisdiction of Handan, Hebei Province today, has high quality porcelain and is known as "Jingdezhen in the south and Pengcheng in the north". Cizhou porcelain has a long history, and thousands of years of historical precipitation and cultural heritage have long been immersed in the genes of Cizhou people, creating a unique porcelain.
porcelain of Jingdezhen
Cizhou had a civilization in the Neolithic Age and was called "magnetic mountain culture". Magnetic mountain culture has entered the agricultural civilization, and people at that time have begun to make pottery vessels, which can be regarded as the forerunner of porcelain making. According to the ancient kiln site in Wu 'an County, Hebei Province, it can be determined that the steamed bread kiln, an important stove for making porcelain in the north, appeared in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. During the Three Kingdoms period, Cizhou was called "Linshui County", which was the first time that Cizhou developed into a populated area and became a political center. During the Northern Qi Dynasty, this place was the only way from Yecheng, the capital of the Northern Qi Dynasty, to Jinyang, a military stronghold. The Royal Xiangtangshan Grottoes appeared here, and the cultural industry began to flourish. The folk porcelain industry finally appeared in the Song Dynasty, and Cizhou also developed into one of the largest folk porcelain centers. Note that this is a folk porcelain industry, and the official porcelain industry in Cizhou existed in the Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. After the rise of folk porcelain industry in Song Dynasty, the official kiln porcelain industry declined. The culture of Yuan Dynasty was not prosperous, and the huge porcelain-making industry in Cizhou tended to decline. Cizhou porcelain in the Ming Dynasty began to revive and spread to later generations.
Pengcheng Town, where Cizhou Kiln is located
Although porcelain making has a long history, Ma Weidou said that the name of Cizhou Kiln appeared late, and it was not until the early 20th century that these three words were exported by a foreigner named Hobson.
Because of the good quality of porcelain made in Cizhou, Cizhou porcelain has become the main representative of the northern porcelain industry, so everyone calls the porcelain produced by the northern people Cizhou kiln. Porcelain is not only produced in Cizhou, but also in Hebi, Dengfeng and Xinmi in Henan, Zibo in Shandong and Huoxian in Shanxi, but the porcelain in these places is called Cizhou Kiln.
cizhou kiln
Second, the special craft of Cizhou Kiln There are few written records about Cizhou Kiln, because the porcelain research in the Song Dynasty began in the Southern Song Dynasty, represented by Lu You and Hui Zhou. They all live in the south, and the north has fallen. They haven't been there, so the most brilliant Cizhou kiln in the north was ignored by the Song people. It was not until the Ming Dynasty that Cao Caizhao recorded Cizhou porcelain for the first time. He said that the quality of Cizhou porcelain can be comparable to that of Ding kiln, but Cizhou porcelain has no tears, flowers and embroidery, and the price without decoration is higher than Ding kiln.
Simple kiln setting
The uniqueness of Cizhou porcelain lies in its emphasis on comparison. Craftsmen often use composition and striking patterns to express their feelings, such as white glaze with black flowers, and porcelain also depicts specific figures, flowers, birds, fish and insects. According to the history of Chinese ceramics, Cizhou Kiln has 58 decorative techniques.
Cizhou porcelain also has its own shortcomings, that is, the soil in the north is not as good as that in Jingdezhen, but the clever Cizhou people invented a craft-plastic soil. After the local soil is burned into the prototype of porcelain, it is painted with a layer of white powder and then glazed. This layer of white powder is makeup soil, just like girls applying powder to make up. Of course, Cizhou porcelain also has its own unique advantages, that is, it belongs to folk porcelain. It will not change greatly because of the change of rulers' hobbies and the change of dynasties. It retains its own system, so it can be passed down freely.
Cizhou Kiln is also special in that it retains text decoration. Generally, porcelain is mostly plain bottles or decorated with paintings. There are few porcelains decorated with pure words. The most famous writing porcelain is Changsha kiln in Tang Dynasty, but Cizhou kiln actually produces writing porcelain! The most famous porcelain pillow is forbearance, which is quite suitable for the political environment of the Song Dynasty.
Cizhou kiln renzi porcelain pillow
Third, Cizhou folk temple fair under porcelain benefits from the economic benefits and cultural convenience brought by Cizhou's long-standing porcelain making industry. Most local people are engaged in related industries such as porcelain making. It can be said that the porcelain industry has developed the unique cultural customs of Cizhou people, and many folk activities in Cizhou are related to porcelain. For example, sacrifice is one of the most traditional ways for China people to express their feelings. Every place has its own way of offering sacrifices, but in Cizhou, porcelain occupies the C position of offering sacrifices.
Since the Song Dynasty, Cizhou is not only an important producer of porcelain, but also the largest trading place. It happened that the Song Dynasty was an era of free trade. Due to the prosperity of trade, there are many temple fairs in Cizhou. Temple fair, temple fair, meeting in front of the temple, in front of what temple? Generally speaking, people gather in front of temples that protect gods, such as the City God Temple, while Cizhou is very special. Most of its temple fairs are held in front of temples related to porcelain burning, such as fire temple, pottery temple, kiln temple and cylinder temple. The main trading object at the temple fair is porcelain.
Yaoshenmiao
4. Cage helmet and cage helmet wall Today, if you can go to the old housing area of Pengcheng Town in person, you will find that the houses in the old housing area are different from those in other areas. Houses in other areas are generally built of masonry, while the old houses in Pengcheng Town are actually made of cylindrical saggers. The sagger of this cylinder was originally the waste after porcelain burning in Cizhou, and the locals called it "cage helmet".
Pengcheng's cage helmet wall
Cage helmet is not only the waste of porcelain after firing, but also witnessed the history of porcelain making in Cizhou for thousands of years with Cizhou porcelain. Cage helmet is the name of Cizhou, which is a protective measure to prevent porcelain from being affected by falling ash and slag in the fire kiln during firing. To put it bluntly, it is a cylindrical urn larger than the porcelain to be fired, and it is ventilated up and down. To burn porcelain, first put the prototype of porcelain in the middle, put a cage helmet on the outer ring, and then send it to the fire kiln together. The existence of the cage helmet directly hinders the direct contact between the flame and the porcelain in the fire kiln, which reduces the ash drop. The cage helmet has the characteristics of ventilation, heat conduction and high temperature resistance, which ensures the proper firing temperature. This tool can be reused until it is damaged. Therefore, the cage helmet has become an essential tool for porcelain making, and it is precisely because of the existence of the cage helmet that the quality of Cizhou kiln is guaranteed.
Cage helmet
Wen said that Cizhou Kiln is the most outstanding representative of the northern magnetic industry, and its inheritance has never stopped for thousands of years. Today, Mr. Yan Baoshan is active in the research peak of Cizhou Kiln. He is not only proficient in painting, but also studies Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, trying to integrate the essence of China traditional culture into the production of Cizhou Kiln. 2065438+August 2006, the first Cizhou Kiln Culture Festival sponsored by Handan Propaganda Department was held in Pengcheng Town. At that time, the slogan was "kiln fire is passed down from generation to generation and will last forever". The opening of the Cultural Festival fully demonstrates people's appreciation, persistence and inheritance of history and culture in a rapidly modernized society.
Porcelain is a symbol of China culture and a unique business card of China. Once upon a time, Wen watched a video of Japanese hand-made porcelain firing on a website, and there were some rainbow farts of Japanese obsequious elements floating in the barrage. Without exception, they are all Japanese ingenuity, inheriting history and original flavor. This is porcelain and so on. However, when I went to China to make a video of touching porcelain, the barrage became a messy, rough and backward industrialized society. Wen Shijun doesn't know what the purpose of these people is, but is it really glorious to worship foreign things and tease his own culture? We admit that some technologies in Japan are more advanced than those in China, and some measures to protect cultural heritage in Japan are better than those in China, but our craftsmen have been sticking to traditional culture for decades.