Source: Art Appreciation Network
Author: Ding Yan Wuhan Museum
Husi kiln site group is the most representative folk porcelain kiln site group in Hubei region. The "Exhibition of Cultural Relics and Specimens Excavated from the Wuhan Lake Si Kiln Site Group" was recently held at the Wuhan Museum. The exhibition is organized by Wuhan Museum, Wuhan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Hubei Provincial Museum, Wuhan Jiangxia District Museum, Fairview Mountain Villa Culture and Art Village and Wuhan Song Wuchang Kiln Research Institute and other units.
The exhibition takes the cultural relics and artifact specimens excavated from husi kiln as the cornerstone, and is divided into four units: "pearl reproduction", "good craftsman", "small family jasper" and "replay of zhuhua", exhibiting 329 cultural relics and specimens (sets), including 9 national first-class cultural relics (sets), detailing the discovery process and archaeological work of the Husi porcelain kiln site group, the song dynasty ceramic firing process, the characteristics of Husi kiln products and the protection and utilization of the Husi kiln site group in recent years. For the first time, the Husi Kiln Site Group, a kiln site group with local characteristics in Wuhan, was sorted out and displayed in detail, showing the appearance of the Song Dynasty porcelain handicraft industry in Wuhan and the wisdom and creativity of the Song Dynasty porcelain craftsmen.
The Song Dynasty was the era of the great development of Chinese porcelain, porcelain became the main daily necessities of society, the kiln sites of the production of Song porcelain were all over the country, the scale of production continued to expand, and the porcelain industry with different characteristics developed unprecedentedly. However, there are few records of the development of porcelain making in Wuhan in the classics, so that there is a saying that "Baiyun Yellow Crane has no porcelain kiln". Until 1974, archaeologists found the Site of Husi Porcelain Kiln in Xiaci Bay, Jiangxiahusi Commune, Wuhan, which opened up the true face of the history of porcelain firing in Wuhan more than 1,000 years ago and filled the gap in the history of ancient porcelain in Wuhan.
Located in the rolling hills along Liangzi Lake and Axe Lake in Jiangxia District, Wuhan, the Husi Kiln Site Group is densely distributed along the lake with an area of 1.7 million square meters in the area along the lake, which is about 40 kilometers long from north to south and about 30 kilometers wide from east to west. Husi kiln was originally founded in the late Tang Dynasty and continued until the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, with the Song Dynasty dominating. The kiln site group is large in scale, numerous and densely distributed, and is the most representative folk porcelain kiln site group in Hubei Province. The existence and development of its porcelain industry provides a concrete example for the southward shift of the economic center of gravity in the two Song Dynasties, and also provides rich, sufficient, informative and typical physical examples and scientific basis for studying the cultural accumulation level, kiln structure and construction method, porcelain firing process, and types of celadon and blue-and-white porcelain in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. A large number of celadon and blue and white porcelain have been excavated from the kiln site group, with rich types, diverse shapes and exquisite ornamentation, reflecting the high level of porcelain making technology and unique artistic aesthetic characteristics at that time. On June 25, 2001, the "Husi Kiln Site Group" was announced by the State Council as the fifth batch of national key cultural relics protection units.
Due to historical reasons, the cultural relics excavated from Husi Kiln are collected in many cultural institutions such as Hubei Provincial Museum, Wuhan Museum, Wuhan Municipal Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Jiangxia District Museum, etc., and there are also a small number of collections. The Wuhan Museum will display the fine works unearthed from the Husi kiln in the form of an exhibition for the first time, which not only allows the citizens of Wuhan to fully understand the historical development of the porcelain industry in Wuhan, but also a panoramic review and prospect of the archaeological excavation and protection achievements of the Husi kiln.
Among them, the national first-class cultural relics blue glazed melon ridge porcelain jug is the representative work of Husi kiln. This jug was unearthed from a Northern Song Dynasty tomb at Baiquan Farm in Wuhan's Dongxihu District. The whole body is glazed with a mellow glaze and a regular shape. It is both a practical wine container and a beautiful decoration. Through another "shadow blue glazed porcelain pillow" excavated in 1996 in Husi Town, Jiangxia District, we can also feel the unique "human fireworks" given to porcelain by porcelain craftsmen in the Song Dynasty. This porcelain pillow is in the shape of a pavilion, the roof is a pillow surface, and the windows on the walls are tightly closed. Inside the pavilion, there are two people playing against each other, two people watching the battle, surrounded by green trees outside the pavilion, and the artistic conception is elegant and pleasant. The porcelain pillow shape is unique, the texture is delicate, and the carving, plastic, skeletonization and other processes are integrated, which is a fine product in the Husi kiln porcelain.
In order to better highlight the content and characteristics of this exhibition, the Wuhan Museum has transformed the original treasure hall and reproduced the firing scene of the Husi kiln, so that the audience can more intuitively understand the process and process of firing in the Porcelain Kiln of the Song Dynasty. In the selection of exhibits, in addition to displaying the complete pieces excavated from the Husi kiln site group, the curators also selected a large number of specimen porcelain, as far as possible to present the characteristics of Husi kiln porcelain in glaze color, vessel type, decorative techniques and other aspects, and strive to enable the audience to have an intuitive, real and rich understanding of the Wuhan Husi porcelain kiln site group.
The exhibition will last until May 2022, and the public can get close to Husi Kiln and feel the unique charm of Wuhan's local historical development.
Editor-in-Charge: Liu Mei (Beijing)