Thousand-year kiln fire: never "extinguish", refining and casting eternal beauty

　　Xinhua News Agency, Zhengzhou, September 16 -

　　Xinhua News Agency reporters Wang Ding, Gui Juan, and Shuang Rui

　　Xiaohuangye Village, Gongyi, Henan.

　　From doorways and roadsides to windowsills and tabletops, bottles and jars are piled up everywhere, and even flower pots are waste products made by themselves.

Near the kiln site of the Huangye Kiln in Gongxian Kiln, a well-known kiln in the history of Chinese ceramics, 63-year-old You Guangming uses the rudimentary farmyard as a studio, focusing on researching and re-burning historical classics.

　　"I want more people to see the wisdom and aesthetics of ancient China, so that people in my hometown can use Gongxian kiln porcelain that was only enjoyed by court nobles in the past." You Guangming said, immersed in the world of porcelain for nearly 20 years, every time he burns one The appearance is his happiest moment.

　　There is a Huangye River next to Huangye Village. There is no more water now.

Historically, the Huangye River first flowed into the Yiluo River, and then merged with the Yiluo River into the Yellow River.

Huangye Kiln is located in the heart of Heluo Cultural District, and is the closest place to the Yellow River among all kiln sites.

　　"The Gongxian kiln is not well recognized among ordinary people, but it has a very important position in the history of ceramics." Sun Xinmin, president of the Chinese Society of Ancient Ceramics, introduced that the Gongxian kiln was the first to fire white porcelain, and it is still discovered today. The earliest, largest output and best quality Tang Sancai kilns were exported to many countries and regions as early as the Tang Dynasty.

　　Ren Wei, director of the Zhengzhou Cultural Relics Bureau, said that Gongxian kilns are located at the intersection of the Yellow River and the Grand Canal. These porcelains travel west through the land Silk Road to Central Asia and Europe, and follow the Yiluo, Yellow and Grand Canals eastward. From the Tongji Canal to Kaifeng, take the Maritime Silk Road via Yangzhou and transport it to Southeast Asia, Africa and other places.

　　Porcelain is one of the most important impressions of China in the Western world.

From ancient times to the present, there is rarely an object like porcelain that has such a direct and close connection with a country.

Exquisite porcelain has spread the Chinese artistic aesthetics and spiritual pursuit to all parts of the world.

　　"As a typical Chinese cultural symbol, porcelain is inseparable from the development of Chinese history. In the history of 5,000 years of Chinese civilization, 3,000 years of porcelain civilization have run through." Sun Xinmin said.

　　As early as the early Shang Dynasty in the 16th century BC, the earliest porcelain appeared.

There is an original Shang Dynasty porcelain statue in the Henan Museum. The interior and exterior are covered with bright blue-gray glaze. It has a glass texture and luster. If you tap it with your hand, it will make a crisp sound of gold and stone.

　　In the Eastern Han Dynasty, porcelain in the true sense was produced.

The Han dynasty porcelain excavated by archeology has good light transmittance, low water absorption, transparent and shiny glaze. It is fired at a high temperature of about 1300℃, and has all the basic conditions of porcelain.

　　Since then, the art of mud and fire has transformed into a new look.

In the Song Dynasty, the firing of porcelain reached a peak. The five famous kilns known to later generations were all concentrated in this period. The beauty of glaze color and glaze reached a new aesthetic state——

　　The Jun kiln is "one color in the kiln, and colorful out of the kiln", the glaze color is endlessly changing like clouds and flowing water; Ru kiln is subtle and moist, praised for the color of "rain over the sky and blue clouds"; the glaze of Ge kiln can have natural texture, praised "Ink pattern plum blossom piece".

Also, Yaozhou kilns are rich in flowing and rhythmic carved flowers, Jingdezhen kilns are blue and white as lake water, and Longquan kilns are as bright as green plums...

　　"Wealth is not as good as a piece of porcelain"-People's admiration for porcelain is not only its value as a utility and artwork, but also because of its infusion of the traditional Chinese aesthetic spirit and cultural connotation, which implies an attitude towards life .

To this day, many Chinese are still obsessed with deciphering the ancient porcelain codes.

　　Compared with innovation, You Guangming is more concerned about keeping integrity.

Gongxian kilns lasted for a long time, with more than 3000 kinds of artifacts handed down, and he has replicated more than 100 typical artifacts.

He said that it is his mission to reproduce the beauty created by ancestors.