Jiangnan | Han Kesheng: Yixing Ding shu, shengshi Jiangnan

The living dragon kiln, the most endless is the people

Archaeologists have not yet understood how the ancients had a whim and turned soil into pottery. The earliest pottery pieces found today are more than 15,000 years old. As a professional pottery making place, kilns slowly appeared. Kilns are divided according to shape, dragon kilns, steamed bun kilns, class (ladder) kilns, are common kilns. The so-called dragon kiln, built on the slope of the mountain, is long and long, reclining like a dragon, hence the name.

Ding Shu's former Shu Dragon Kiln has a history of 600 years and is still in use, which is called "living dragon kiln". Regarding the living dragon kiln, in Ding Shu, I heard two theories, much the same, the difference being whether there are only two or three remaining in the whole country. The three seats are said to be that in addition to the former villa, there are also the "Potter Ancient Dragon Kiln" of Xianyou in Fujian province and the "Nanfeng Ancient Kiln" in Foshan, Guangdong. But coincidentally, not long ago to Xuancheng, Anhui Province, the person in charge of the local literary federation solemnly recommended the "world's only" Ningguo Millennium Dragon Kiln. From Yixing to Ningguo, the drive is only two or three hours. It can be seen that the statement that there are only three seats is not conclusive. But in any case, as a national cultural relics protection unit, the former Shulong kiln is of extraordinary value, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it is a national treasure.

The most recent ignition of the former Shulong kiln was on October 6 of this year. Incense burning, worship, dragon dance, the spectators are blocked, the ignition ceremony is solemn and sacred, but it is a pity that it has not yet flourished. We can only faintly see the liveliness of the scene from the pictures. The opening of the kiln a few days later was more like a carnival than the sacredness of the ignition ceremony. Anticipation, trepidation, joy, and elation are all written on the face, frozen in pictures.

I reached through the narrow kiln door, and it was sunny outside and dark inside. The light from the various fire openings reflected on the kiln wall, bright as lacquer, and the mottled white light set off a black dragon that snaked upwards. It turns out that this is the best perspective to observe and understand the dragon kiln. From the outside, a pale yellow earth dragon can still see the head and tail; from the inside, a dark and transparent golden dragon, seeing the head but not the tail, mysterious and long.

Guarding the former Shulong kiln are a father and son, who have inherited the master's business and guarded the kiln for more than fifty years. He said he didn't make blanks, he didn't engrave words, he just burned fire. I was suddenly puzzled. But the knowledgeable people quickly corrected me that burning fire is not simple, just watching fire is a skill that needs to be refined. Any master who makes blanks and engraves words depends on the fire. Can it not matter if you burn a fire? The master's voice was loud and his head was full of energy, which had nothing to do with my imagination of "dust and smoke, two sideburns and ten fingers black", which surprised me. Drink his tea, ask him about it, say goodbye, ask his age, nearly seventy years old! So, another sigh. This is called the myth of immortality.

The song of mud and fire is endless, and the most endless is man, who gives life to the kiln and pottery.

"Han Yun" and "Moon Farewell", the life of pottery

People who play pots, people who like pottery, mo do not know "Han Yun", the original pot of gu Jingzhou, the pot art master, the peak of ancient innovation. The pot is round, the shape is rigorous, the momentum is steady and beautiful, the lines are flowing and flowing, and the pot body is light and grainless. It is especially rare in the ever-changing shapes, carvings and ornaments.

What is pure fire? What is Great Instrument Tiancheng? What is simple beauty, simple beauty, and ultimate beauty? "Hanyun" is. You can not understand the pot at all, and have never even seen the pot, but as long as you understand the aesthetics, you will appreciate the "Han yun" pot. If you have ever been in the sea and are accustomed to all kinds of pots, the last thing you can't forget must be the "Hanyun" pot. The British aesthetician and literary critic Clive Bell famously judged in his book Art that the essence of art lies in "meaningful forms". This is very aptly presented on the "Han Yun" pot.

Compared with the fame of "Hanyun", if you have not been to Yixing and have not been to Dingshu, I believe that the vast majority of people do not know the meaning of the word "Moon Farewell".

"Moon farewell" is the night pot, the clay pot that men used to pick up and urinate at night. The flat, round urn, the handle is particularly strong and can bear weight. In terms of this shape, there were also such ordinary kettles in the countryside in the old days. However, the mouth of the night pot is short and round, and the opening is larger, which is obviously different from the slender kettle outlet. The night pot is not necessarily made of pottery, the Ming Dynasty Yongle Emperor used a gold night pot, and the modern Yuan Shikai's night pot is made of tin, which obviously has nothing to do with the common people. The clay night pot is the most normal choice for ordinary people. In the past, Ding Shu had the largest production of "Moon Farewell", because after all, only a few people drank tea with purple sand pots, and men had to use night pots to get up at night - my grandfather, my father, my brother, and when I was a child, I enjoyed the ease and comfort brought by "Moon Farewell".

The process of making night pots is more complicated than that of clay pots, so they are all made by well-skilled masters. However, I have not heard of any master who is famous for doing "moon farewell", nor has I heard of which "moon farewell" has been auctioned for tens of millions of dollars. Therefore, in dingshu now, purple sand pots are famous all over the world, and there are very few "moon farewells" - of course, the progress of the times and the improvement of living conditions are the most fundamental reasons.

Dingshu, with a population of more than 200,000, is an authentic town, not only in Yixing, but also in other parts of Jiangnan. Today, when the rural urban population is accelerating its transfer to the central city, the adsorption of so many people depends on this purple sand pot. It's just that this pot, in the gradual penetration of capital now, more modern means are used, and more are given the meaning of aesthetics and collection, and the original intention and origin of "drinking tea tools" have a tendency to gradually fade. Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

The life of pottery lies in practicality, in more and more creative "ways to open", in integrating into fashion and becoming a part of life. Master Xu Xiutang said that traditional handmade skills are the "body and mainstream" of purple sand pots. This is not conservatism, this is the essence of the pot after a thousand burns and quenching, and it is to make a ten thousand years for the purple sand pot.

The "pottery life" that Su Shi sought but did not get is presented in this dynasty

Originating from the Yangtze River between the Kunlun Mountains and the Tanggula Mountains, it flows west and east into the sea. As a song sings: "You come from the snowy mountains, the spring tide is your style; you run to the East Sea, and the waves are your spirit." With sweet milk, you feed the children of all races; you lift up the mountains and the sea with your healthy arms. ”

The Yangtze River connects countless towns and villages. Meizhou and Changzhou, which are two thousand kilometers apart, were originally two cities with little to do with each other, but they were connected by one person, and he was Su Shi. Meizhou was Su Shi's hometown, and Yixing Dingshu, which belonged to Changzhou at that time, was Su Shi's second hometown.

The theory of the second hometown is too vulgar, and the words of the literati are mostly unreliable. For example, Li Bai, who I like, promises everywhere, saying that he will come here to retire when he is old, and he has not seen him seriously. After Li Bai came out of the river, he went down the river, the boat traveled slowly, saw the Anhui Gong Mountain, looked at it from a distance, and wrote a poem of "Waiting for Me to return to Dancheng, and returning to this place", which made future generations excited. However, Su Shi was serious about Ding Shu, and his earnestness was embodied in a series of sincere poems; embodied in the fact that he used his only financial resources to buy land and property here twice; it was embodied in the solemn choice of leaving his children in Ding Shu at the time of his own suffering; and it was embodied in the infinite long-term affection of writing to the end of his life to request the end of Changzhou. Unfortunately, Su Shi, who had already arrived in Changzhou, was one step away from Ding Shu in Yixing, and he stopped the pace of returning to his hometown.

Su Shi entrusted his love, life, and descendants to Ding Shu.

At that time, Yixing also had an elegant name, called "Yang Envy". Su Shi said: "Buying Tian Yang Envy Wu will grow old, never only for the good of Xishan", "Yang Xian Gu Su has bought a field, who believes that it is the frontier" "Huiquan Mountain under the soil is like a wet, Yang Envy Xitou Rice Shengzhu"... Such a straightforward style of writing is very rare in Su Shi's works, which is Su Shi's inner confession, no need to cover up, no embellishment.

His "Three Songs of Returning to Yixing, Leaving the Title zhuxi temple" is full of the joy of going home: "Ten years of returning to the dream to send the west wind, this is really a tian sheweng." The remaining Water of Shugang New Well should be brought across Jiangdong with the taste of the countryside" (one). The title is "home", and the first sentence is "home". The ancients said "home", is the meaning of "home" and "home". "The general died in a hundred battles, and the brave soldier returned in ten years", "The wind and clouds flew, and Wei Jia Hai returned to his hometown" "The return date of Junwen was not expected, and the night rain in Bashan rose in the autumn pond", all of which specifically refer to homecoming. The mountain is Shu Mountain, the gang is Shu Gang, and the water is the same as the Shu River... Originally, this place was called "Dushan", and the traditional character for "du" was "獨", because he loved it, and went to "犭" to "Shu". Su Shi regarded this place as his hometown "Shu", and the Ding Shu people gladly changed the name of the landscape and accepted this wanderer from other places with open arms.

It is a pity that Su Shi did not enjoy the "pottery life" he expected here. In the second half of his life, he liked Tao Yuanming more and more: "I have nothing good with the poet, only the poetry of Yuanming", he is brilliant to the point of returning to the plain poetry style, and the essence of Tao Yuanming is obtained. He went through almost all the pottery poems, totaling more than a hundred. He used Tao Yuanming as a mirror to measure himself, saying that his poems were "not very ashamed of Yuanming", but in the realm of life, he was "deeply ashamed of Yuanming", indicating that he "wanted to teach his teachers in the late festival in case".

Writer Mu Xin said: Sometimes, life is really not as good as a Tao Yuanming. Su Shi had no luck, and when he arrived in Ding Shu, he did not live the life of Tao Yuanming's "picking chrysanthemums under the eastern fence and leisurely seeing the South Mountain", nor did he see the "pottery life" advocated by Ding Shu thousands of years later: based on ceramics, reveling in good ecology, Tao Ran in slow life, and finally realizing the cultivation of life.

All this belongs only to the prosperity. Su Shi got his talent, got his land, and did not get the time. We are fortunate, Ding Shu is fortunate, we are fortunate to meet a prosperous Jiangnan.

Author: Han Kesheng

Edit: Fan Jiale

Editor-in-Charge: Yang Jian

*Wenhui exclusive manuscript, please indicate the source when reprinting.