Chapter 20 Section 6 Ding Kiln

For porcelain kilns in the Song Dynasty, there were five famous kilns from the Ming Dynasty, and the arrangement order of official kiln, Ru kiln, Ding kiln, Jun kiln and Ge kiln (Longquan kiln) was proposed.Later, some people suggested that Ding kiln should be listed as the first of the five famous kilns because of its high artistic achievements.There are not many different opinions among porcelain researchers. The central kiln of Ding Kiln is in the area of ​​Jianci Village and Xixiyanchuan Village in Quyang County, Hebei Province. It belonged to Dingzhou in Song Dynasty, so it was named Ding Kiln.According to archaeological survey, the kiln site covers an area of ​​1.17 million square meters.In the Tang Dynasty, it rose under the influence of Xing Kiln. The bottom of the firing vessel was jade-shaped or jade-shaped, but the molding and trimming were not precise, and the glaze color was not as bright and white as that of Xing Kiln.However, it follows the example of Xing Kiln, which has the highest level of white porcelain craftsmanship in the Tang Dynasty, and its production grade is relatively high from the beginning, which indicates that it has broad development prospects.After the development of the late Tang and Five Dynasties, the technology in the Song Dynasty improved rapidly, and the production scale expanded. In order to adapt to the development of the feudal economy in the Song Dynasty, new techniques were adopted in glaze color varieties, decorative techniques and increased production, and produced high-quality, artistic, and strong era. emotional works.In the case of the decline of Xing kiln, Hebei Dadi Ding porcelain flourished rapidly and showed great splendor.

The largest output of Ding kiln is white porcelain.It is the most beautiful and has a very rich variety of utensils. It produces daily utensils, such as bowls, plates, cups, saucers, bottles, cans, pots, bowls; stationery utensils such as water bowls and inkstones.In order to meet the needs of the tea drinking fashion at that time, very fine mortars were also produced for people to grind and fight tea.Religious items include clean bottles and six-tube bottles for worshiping gods.There are all kinds of porcelain pillows and spittoons in the bedroom. Ding kiln white porcelain in Song Dynasty has a high level of craftsmanship.The tire material is very finely processed, and after good screening, kneading and aging, it has strong plasticity, and the made utensils have a white and delicate carcass.Due to the rich barren ingredients in the raw materials, the carcass of the utensils is very thin and not deformed, which is beyond the reach of any other white porcelain kilns in the north.The white glaze is pure white like milk, or slightly reddish, and often has bamboo silk brush patterns.Because the raw materials contain relatively high amounts of alumina and titanium oxide, the glaze color has the texture of ivory white.The glaze layer on the back of the utensils flows and condenses into strips during firing, like tear stains.This is an obvious feature of Ding kiln white porcelain.In addition to firing white porcelain, green glazed porcelain (Green Ding), black glazed porcelain (Heiding) and sauce brown glazed porcelain (Ziding) are also fired.Due to the exquisite craftsmanship, soft tones, elegant and beautiful, the artistic value is very high.These exquisite works of art have been found in Northeast China, Suzhou and Anhui in the south of the Yangtze River, and overseas such as Kyushu in Japan.

The development of Chinese arts and crafts has always been based on the quality of materials and exquisite craftsmanship as the social evaluation criteria. Products made of gold, silver, jade, pearls, gemstones and other materials are favored by people.After entering the feudal society, ceramics were very willing to imitate and pursue the texture and artistic effect of these items.The needs of the upper class of the ruling class often inspire craftsmen to exert their high wisdom and skills, improve production technology and create new works of art.For example, after the edge of the utensil is inlaid with gold, it looks magnificent.However, the edge of the mouth is covered with a layer of glaze, which is too smooth and unstable, so it is best to make a burr without glaze.It is likely that under the inspiration of such requirements, Ding Kiln invented the covering firing process.Around the mid-Northern Song Dynasty, craftsmen abolished saggers and used support rings instead.The supporting ring is made as big as the rim of the utensil, and the utensils are just buckled on it.A support ring buckles a utensil, stacked on top of each other.The outer wall of the support ring is tightly fastened due to its delicate texture, and a layer of fine mud is applied on the outside to seal it.This has produced three obvious effects: first, the purpose of the raw edge (mans mouth) is easy to be inlaid with gold, and the edge of the porcelain mouth should be inlaid with gold, silver, and copper mouths to make it more luxurious; second, the output has been increased. .In the past, porcelain was fired upwards, and a body was filled with a sagger, and each sagger was about 20 centimeters high. When the support rings were fired on top of each other, each support ring was only less than 2.5 centimeters, so the space occupied in the kiln Reduced by more than 5 times.For the same kiln, use the same fuel and time to increase the output by four to five times; third, the support ring is small and cannot be made of refractory clay with a large sand content, but must be made of fine materials. Dingci craftsmen use and porcelain The tire-like mud is used as a supporting ring, which can ensure that the blank expands when heated and shrinks when cooled during the roasting process, reduces deformation or distortion, and improves the yield.The invention of Ding Kiln is of great significance. For the handicraftsmen, the cost has been reduced and the output has been increased.This technique is adopted by many porcelain kilns, such as Huozhou kiln in Shanxi, Pengxian kiln in Sichuan, and Hutian kiln in Jingdezhen.

Ding kiln white porcelain is exquisite in shape and very particular about decoration. Its decoration techniques include scratching, engraving, printing and kneading.In the early days, scratches and engravings were often used.The patterns include lotus petals, peonies, daylilies, mandarin ducks, double ducks, double geese, water wave double fish, three fish, four fish, etc. The picture is simple, the lines are straight, strong and powerful, and the craftsmanship is fine.In the late period, it was mostly decorated with printing, and the Palace Museum has a large collection of printed white porcelain from the Ding Kiln.The decorations include clouds and dragons leaping, phoenixes wearing peonies, as well as group flowers and well-organized Kesi patterns on the brocade of the Song Dynasty.The golden color decoration of Ding kiln is magnificent, including white glaze gold color, black glaze gold color and sauce glaze gold color.In the late Northern Song Dynasty, Ding Kiln may have fired porcelain for the imperial palace, because the bottom of some porcelain is engraved with "Shangshi Bureau", "Five Princes' Mansion" and so on.Some porcelain is also engraved with the words "official" or "new official".