The world-famous Jingdezhen is a famous historical and cultural city of ceramics, which was born and prospered by porcelain, and is famous for its porcelain. It originated in the Middle Tang Dynasty, rose in Song and Yuan Dynasties, flourished in Ming and Qing Dynasties, and lasted for more than 2,000 years. The history of pottery smelting, more than 1,000 years of official kiln history, more than 600 years of royal kiln history and more than 100 years of modern ceramic history.
Not long ago, the world's first ancient ceramic gene bank was unveiled at the Jingdezhen Royal Kiln Museum in Jiangxi Province.
Integrating scientific research, restoration and display
The unveiling of the Jingdezhen Ancient Ceramics Gene Bank marks the official launch of a gene bank of Chinese ceramic civilization cultural relics that integrates data storage, archaeological research, scientific and technological analysis, protection and restoration, and achievement display.
Over the years, with its unique ceramic archaeological and cultural preservation resources and sound supporting facilities, Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Museum has successively cooperated with Peking University, the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the Palace Museum, the University of California, Los Angeles, the University of Tokyo and many other domestic and foreign institutions. Carry out academic exchanges and archaeological cooperation, and on this basis have accumulated nearly 20,000 ceramic analysis data from more than ten kilns, and initially established a basic scientific database of ancient ceramics in my country.
Based on the unique historical conditions and the natural opportunity of digital technology, since July last year, Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Museum has started to build the Jingdezhen Ancient Ceramics Gene Bank, and the top domestic universities and research institutions that have cooperated with it for a long time have also joined the collection of the gene bank. research work.
After nearly a year of hard work, on June 11 this year, the Jingdezhen Ancient Ceramics Gene Bank was unveiled, and the Jingdezhen Ancient Ceramics Gene Bank Management Platform also officially started operation.
At present, Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Museum has formulated the "Jingdezhen Ancient Ceramics Gene Bank Construction Plan" and "Porcelain Gene Bank Entity Sample Management, Preparation and Preservation Standards (Trial Draft)", and completed the construction of sample preparation space, gene bank and database management. Preliminary construction of the system, carry out systematic research on the display and dissemination of ancient ceramic culture knowledge map.
It is understood that the "five-year plan" for the construction of Jingdezhen's ancient ceramic gene bank is divided into two steps: the first step is to complete the collection and production of the first batch of 2,400 sets (9,600 pieces) of imperial kiln ancient ceramic specimens within 1 to 2 years. The second step is to complete the collection and summary of physical and chemical digital information for most of the specimens within 4 to 5 years, and build a gene bank information sharing platform.
"We plan to initially build the Jingdezhen ancient ceramics gene bank in two years, and it will become an important part of the national cultural relic gene bank of Chinese civilization in the future," said Weng Yanjun, director of Jingdezhen Royal Kiln Museum.
Why "Listen to Porcelain Language and Understand Porcelain Meaning"
According to reports, researchers will sort out the kiln industry specimens unearthed from the local porcelain industry sites such as Jingdezhen Royal Kiln Factory, Luoma Bridge, Hutian Kiln, Nanyao, Nanshi Street, etc. According to the characteristics of the age, shape and craftsmanship of the existing complete utensils , select the most representative ones to form the "Standard Ware Logistics", and complete the physical sample preparation and virtual sample construction corresponding to each standard utensil in the "Standard Ware Logistics", taking the sample as the information element, and comprehensively covering the "standard equipment logistics" of Jingdezhen porcelain. Gene fragment information such as archaeological information fragment, "Tire material technical fragment", "Molding technical fragment", "Glaze technical fragment", "Firing technical fragment", "Painted decoration fragment" and other gene fragment information.
"We adopted the '7+X' standard when collecting the information of ancient ceramic specimens." Weng Yanjun said, "7" refers to the "shape, embryo, glaze, color, decoration, The core information of the 7 aspects of the base, the decoration and the firing process" is jointly built by the Jingdezhen Royal Kiln Museum and various cooperative units; and "X" is all the extended information, such as the similar collections of the world's major ceramic museums, related Overseas archaeological discoveries and historical documents, as well as modern academic research results, require the participation of more institutions and individuals, and ultimately realize the co-construction and sharing of gene bank information.
"For example, the Chenghua blue-and-white crane-neck bottle in Ming Dynasty, its physical specimens are divided into four types: fragments, cross-sections, flakes, and powders." Weng Yanjun said that through the collection of digital information, we can simultaneously understand the artifacts when they were unearthed and after restoration. What is the complete pottery like, including its three-dimensional restoration map, information on similar collections in museums at home and abroad, and even auction information, all of which can be presented on the Jingdezhen Ancient Ceramics Gene Bank Management Platform.
"The most difficult thing is the process of data collection. Not every point of data is valid and representative, and the success rate is even less than 1%." said Xiong Zhe, head of the Science and Technology Laboratory of Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Museum. The process is very similar to the firing process of these ancient ceramics. Countless flaws are smashed and buried deep in the pursuit of the next perfection.
Weng Yanjun said that the collection of "X"'s genetic information is open, and only with the participation of more institutions and individuals can the genetic information in the gene bank be enriched, and finally present an all-encompassing digital world of ancient ceramics, allowing the "gene bank" global sharing of data" becomes more meaningful.
In the eyes of the builders of the ancient ceramic gene bank, the value of this gene bank is not simply to study the ceramic utensils themselves, but to analyze the origin, development and changes of the ancient ceramic civilization through the utensils, and then deduce and restore the system. The true face of the pinnacle era of porcelain.
A piece of ancient porcelain can parse hundreds of pieces of information
Since the 1980s, Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Museum and its predecessor, Jingdezhen Ceramics and Archaeology Research Institute, together with Jiangxi Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Peking University School of Archaeology and Museology, the Palace Museum and other units, have successfully conducted research on Nanyao ruins and Lantian in the Tang Dynasty. Kiln ruins, Hutian kiln ruins, Yangmeiting ruins in the Five Dynasties, Yinkengwu ruins, Luomaqiao kiln ruins in Song Dynasty, Liyang kiln ruins in Yuan Dynasty, Ruinan ancient porcelain kiln ruins, Imperial kiln factory ruins in Ming and Qing Dynasties, Guanyin Pavilion ancient ruins More than 30 archaeological excavations have been carried out at the kiln site, among which nearly 100 tons of ancient kiln specimens have been unearthed, and nearly 20 million pieces of broken porcelain have been collected, among which the Ming and Qing imperial kilns accounted for a large proportion.
"Porcelain fired by the imperial kiln factory is exclusively used by the royal family. A large number of unselected imperial kiln porcelain will be smashed and buried deep underground." Weng Yanjun said.
In the eyes of ancient ceramic experts, Jingdezhen's massive ancient ceramic fragments have complete chronological sequences, rich archaeological information, and relevant data that are extremely authoritative - because compared with precious ancient ceramic complete ware, ancient ceramic fragments are more conducive to technical testing. , can adapt to the requirements of modern instruments and equipment such as energy spectrum electron microscope, Raman spectrometer, X-ray fluorescence analyzer and so on.
"These broken ancient porcelain pieces have a clear origin, clear stratum, and rich categories. You can observe the decoration on the surface, splicing and reducing the type, slicing to understand the green tire, grinding and analyzing the material and even the firing temperature." Weng Yanjun said that each piece of ancient Porcelain pieces can parse out hundreds of pieces of information, and their value is not inferior to or even higher than the handed down collections of the same period.
"A broken piece of porcelain can restore a historical scene." Weng Yanjun said that a large number of ancient ceramic pieces can not only restore the materials, formulas and craftsmanship of the year, but also form a puzzle of society, history and culture.
Affected by factors such as the texture of raw materials, processing technology, changes in firing technology, and aesthetic tastes, the shapes and patterns of ceramics in different eras have evolved, and the chemical compositions of their tires, glazes and colors are also different.
The domestic academic circles believe that the blue-and-white pigment Su Ma Liqing from Persia was used in the early production of blue-and-white porcelain, because blue-and-white painted pottery was produced there. Both imported and domestic pigments are used.
However, most of these are speculated by people through the Qing Dynasty literature and handed down craftsmanship, and there is no research support.
After technological progress, people began to infer the composition of blue and white pigments through the iron-manganese ratio, but the accuracy is still questionable.
"Now we can 'see' the existence of two kinds of blue and white materials by microscopic means." Weng Yanjun said that the ancient ceramic gene bank has carried out physical and chemical analysis of blue and white porcelain fragments through advanced focused ion beam microscopy, confirming that it uses both domestic and imported paint.
"We can make genetic specimens in both physical and digital forms through component analysis and data collection of ancient ceramic pieces." Weng Yanjun said that the ancient ceramic gene bank established based on massive information and using digital information technology is expected to restore ancient ceramics. The firing process and raw material formula of ceramic specimens at that time explored the "mystery of craftsmanship" of Jingdezhen's millennium ceramics, and deciphered the "civilization code" contained in the peak era of ancient human porcelain industry.
Global Sharing of Gene Bank Helps Research on Ancient Ceramics in the World
What can Jingdezhen Ancient Ceramics Gene Bank bring to the world?
"Through the open management platform of Jingdezhen Ancient Ceramics Gene Bank, Jingdezhen Royal Kiln Museum will draw a knowledge map of ancient ceramics genes, and integrate fragmented information into a panoramic and systematic knowledge for people to use in different aspects of learning and research." Weng Yanjun said that the shape, decoration, tire, glaze and color of ceramic utensils in different eras will be different. By studying the specimen information collected into the gene bank, the firing process and raw material formula of ancient ceramic specimens can be restored.
These restored information can not only provide solid theoretical data for contemporary ceramic archaeological identification, but also provide scientific and technical support for the inheritance of contemporary ceramic cultural and creative products.
According to unofficial records, Ming Xuanzong Zhu Zhanji loved fighting crickets, and the court records did not mention this matter.
However, the Jingdezhen Royal Kiln Museum restored the blue-and-white cloud-dragon-patterned cricket jar of Xuande year among the many broken pieces of porcelain, which has become a powerful material evidence of this history.
"These interesting and vivid historical details can be used in the development and application of cultural and creative products and tourism products in the future, enabling the development of the cultural tourism industry." Weng Yanjun said.
"More importantly, the technical system of the Jingdezhen imperial kiln site has profoundly affected the development of the world's porcelain-making industrialization." Weng Yanjun said that in history, Jingdezhen's blue-and-white porcelain craftsmanship has greatly influenced the lifestyles and artistic styles of the Middle East, Africa, Southeast Asia, Europe and other places. Influenced, kilns all over the world have used it as a model to imitate and recreate.
Today, Turkey, Egypt, Japan, Vietnam, North Korea, Italy, France, the Netherlands and other countries still retain important physical remains of these early kilns.
The massive data of ceramic utensils restores a history of Chinese ceramics' foreign exchange for the world, which not only makes the historical and cultural stories of Chinese ceramics more colorful, but also allows contemporary porcelain craftsmen to inherit history on the basis of respecting history, design and develop more Cultural and creative products that pay tribute to historical classics and continue to tell new stories of traditional Chinese culture in foreign exchanges.
"The Jingdezhen Ancient Ceramics Gene Bank is a growing gene bank. The open sharing of data resources will continue to provide an excellent platform for the excavation and research of ancient ceramics history in China and the world, as well as the development and exchange of ceramic culture. A new story of the fusion of civilizations with ceramics as the carrier." Weng Yanjun said that after the completion of the gene bank, it will actively cooperate with various museums and scientific research institutions at home and abroad to discuss the topic of global ceramic civilization, and strive to become an international new platform for the exchange of traditional Chinese culture. .
(Our reporter Hu Xiaojun, our correspondent Feng Liangcheng Wanhai)