Firing techniques of tribute bricks in Linqing

China's national intangible cultural heritage Name: Linqing tribute brick firing skills

Applicant: Linqing City, Shandong Province

Item No.: 874

Project No.: VIII - 91

Time of publication: 2008 (second batch)

Category: traditional art

Region: Shandong Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Linqing City, Shandong Province

Protection unit: Linqing Cultural Center

Linqing tribute brick firing technology introduction:

Applicant: Linqing City, Shandong Province

During the Yongle period of Ming Dynasty, Zhu Di, the founder of Ming Dynasty, moved his capital to Beijing, and spent more than ten years to build the royal palace. For this purpose, he specially set up the official kiln in Linqing to make building bricks. The production of Linqing official kilns continued to the Qing Dynasty for more than 500 years. According to records, Linqing brick kiln production has been supervised by the marketing and repair division of the Ministry of industry since the Ming Dynasty. In 1661, it was supervised by the governor of Shandong and undertaken by the governor of Linqing Prefecture. In 1785, brick kilns were managed by linqingzhou. There were about hundreds of Linqing brick kilns in Ming and Qing Dynasties, which were distributed along the canal, covering an area of 30 to 40 kilometers, with tens of thousands of killers.

After the middle of Ming Dynasty, the products of Linqing official kilns became the main materials for the construction of the Imperial Palace, known as "Linqing tribute bricks". The reason why the brick kiln is located in Linqing is that Linqing is close to the canal, so it is convenient for transportation. The bricks can be transported to the capital by boat attached to the canal; and the soil quality of Linqing is special. Due to the repeated impact of the Yellow River, many places can be found red, white and yellow soil by digging more than one meter down, which is called "Lotus soil". This kind of soil has no impurity, the viscosity of sand is suitable, and after firing brick, it is hard and firm, without alkali and corrosion.

The firing process of Linqing tribute brick is very complex and fine. The tribute brick, auxiliary brick, voucher brick, axe blade brick, line brick, flat brick, Watchboard brick, square brick, ridge kiss brick, carved brick and so on are generally about 25 kg, and the weight can reach 30 kg or 40 kg. At present, Linqing tribute bricks can be seen everywhere in the Forbidden City, the temple of heaven, the temple of earth, the temple of the sun, the temple of the moon, the bell and Drum Tower, the Confucian temple, the Imperial Academy, the gatehouses and the palace buildings in Beijing. The longevity bricks used in Ming Tombs, Eastern tombs and Western tombs were also made in Linqing. In addition, Linqing tribute bricks were also found in Nanjing Zhonghua Gate Wall, Qufu Confucius Temple in Shandong, Jingmen in Zhangqiu town in Dezhou, Acheng and other places. Up to now, these tribute bricks have not been corroded by alkali, and there is a sound when they are knocked.

Due to the need for a large number of tribute bricks for the restoration of cultural relics and the construction of antique buildings, in 1996, the descendants of tribute brick kilns in dongxitaotun of Linqing City inherited the traditional crafts and resumed the production of tribute bricks. The fired tribute bricks are basically consistent with those of Ming and Qing Dynasties in specifications and quality. They have passed the appraisal of Shandong provincial engineering construction supervision center and have been used in the maintenance of Penglai Pavilion, Daming Lake in Jinan and Dufu thatched cottage in Chengdu. At present, Linqing tribute brick is still in the initial recovery stage, and it still needs to be protected to ensure the inheritance and development of traditional production techniques.

Chinese PinYin : Lin Qing Gong Zhuan Shao Zhi Ji Yi