Longquan celadon firing technique

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: Longquan celadon firing technique

Applicant: Longquan City, Zhejiang Province

Project No.: 359

Project No.: VIII - 9

Time of publication: 2006 (the first batch)

Category: traditional art

Region: Zhejiang Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Longquan City, Zhejiang Province

Protection unit: Longquan Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center

Introduction to Longquan celadon firing technique:

Applicant: Longquan City, Zhejiang Province

Longquan is a famous historical and cultural city in Zhejiang Province. It is located in the southwest of Zhejiang Province, bordering Jiangxi and Fujian provinces. It is famous for producing celadon. According to the general survey of cultural relics, there are more than 500 ancient kilns firing celadon here, and there are more than 360 in Longquan City alone. This huge porcelain kiln system is historically known as Longquan kiln.

Longquan kiln is a famous celadon kiln with the longest firing time, the widest kiln site distribution, the highest product quality, the largest production scale and export scope in the history of Chinese ceramics. Longquan kiln began in the Western Jin Dynasty, and began to take shape in the Northern Song Dynasty. In the middle and late Southern Song Dynasty, it entered its heyday, and its porcelain making skills reached the peak. Meiziqing and fenqinggao reached the highest level of celadon glaze color. Ge kiln, Guan kiln, Ru kiln, Ding kiln and Jun kiln in the traditional Longquan kiln were known as the five famous kilns in the Song Dynasty. From the Southern Song Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty, porcelain kilns along the coast of Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi successively produced products similar to Longquan celadon. Longquan celadon also had a great influence abroad. It was exported in large quantities in the song and Yuan Dynasties. Chen Qiaoyi said in the preface of Longquan County gazetteer: "from the ports along the southeast coast of China to the Persian Gulf, Arabian Sea, red sea and East African coast along the Indian Ocean There is no trace of Longquan celadon anywhere. " Longquan celadon reached its peak in the song and Yuan Dynasties. In the Ming Dynasty, the production scale did not decrease, but the quality declined. In the Qing Dynasty, it gradually declined. After the late Qing Dynasty, it once stopped firing, and only a few kilns were engaged in antique production.

The technological process of Longquan celadon is composed of eight links: batching, molding, trimming, decoration, glazing and plain firing, box loading, kiln loading and firing, of which the two links are very characteristic. The glaze application after drying can be divided into several steps, such as swinging glaze, dipping glaze, coating glaze, spraying glaze and so on. Thick glaze products usually need to apply several layers of glaze, apply one layer of plain glaze once, and then apply glaze and then plain glaze again. This can be repeated four or five times. At most, they need to apply more than ten layers of glaze before they enter the normal firing. The temperature of plain burning is relatively low, generally around 800 ℃. The glaze is fired at about 1200 degrees centigrade, and the temperature is gradually raised and controlled according to the requirements, so as to control the atmosphere in the kiln, and finally the finished product is fired. From the Southern Song Dynasty to the early Yuan Dynasty, Longquan kiln used to burn the objects with thin viviparous glaze, one layer of glaze was used to burn them once, and the thickest layer could reach more than ten.

Celadon firing is not only a technology, but also an art. Excellent celadon is green and moist, clear, full of charm, and has the beauty of "jade like", reflecting the profound cultural connotation.

After the founding of the people's Republic of China, celadon firing technology, which had declined since the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, was restored. But because the function of celadon ware is gradually replaced by modern goods, the social demand is not much. At present, some techniques of celadon production are gradually forgotten. With the intervention of modern machinery, the traditional hand-made porcelain technology is facing serious challenges and is on the verge of extinction.

Chinese PinYin : Long Quan Qing Ci Shao Zhi Ji Yi