Jianyao kiln, a Famous Kiln of the Song Dynasty in China, its ruins are located in the area of Houjing and Chizhong Village in Shuiji Town, northeast of Present-day Jianyang City, Fujian Province. During the Song Dynasty, the development of Jianyao reached its peak, and Jianzhan and Jiancha became the royal tea utensils and tea products together.
Jianzhan not only became a tea fighting artifact in the Song Dynasty, but also became an object of imitation by major black porcelain kilns. So, what was the initial stage of the kiln? How was Jianyan's past life?
1. The origin of the name of the kiln
According to the convention of naming kilns in the Tang and Song dynasties of the mainland, the name of the kiln mouth is generally named after the state and county where it is located, such as the Yuezhou kiln is called Yue kiln, the Dingzhou kiln is called Dingyao kiln, and the name of the kiln is derived from Jianzhou, which is called Jianzhou kiln.
However, there is no historical document that directly writes that Jianzhan came from Jianzhou.
Northern Song Dynasty Cai Xiang (1012-1067) "Tea Record": "The tea color is white, and it is advisable to blacken." The creator of Jian'an is black and has a stripe like a rabbit. ”
Southern Song Dynasty Zhumu (?) -1255) Fang Yu Sheng Lan:"Rabbit Milli Dian, out of Ou Ning's water ji." ”
The Records of the Northern Song Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty are different, Jianzhan out of Jian'an, Ouning, and did not mention Jianzhou; and then look at today's encyclopedia out of the jianjian kiln is located in Jianyang City, trace the source, where is the connection between the kiln and Jianyang?
▼ Jianyao location, the base map is a map of the Northern Song Dynasty in 1111 AD
First of all, the Northern Song Dynasty Cai Xiang (1012-1067) "Tea Record" was prefaced in the first year of Zhiping (1064), and the jian kiln developed and matured during the reign of Emperor Renzong of Song (1049-1054), during which Jian'an County was under the jurisdiction of Jianzhou, because of the "Jian'an".
And in the Southern Song Dynasty Zhu Mu (?) -1255) The preface to the Fang Yousheng (方意见胜楞) has Jiaxi Jihai (1239) Lü Wuluo, written during the reign of Emperor Lizong of Song (1224-1264), during which Ouning County was divided from Jian'an County for more than 173 years.
▼ The administrative planning area of the Northern Song Dynasty was established in 1111, as early as the third year of Zhiping (1066), Ouning County was divided from Jian'an County, and the two county offices were located in Jianzhou. Zhu Mu further refined the origin of Jianzhan
In the second year of the Republic of China (1912), Jian'an and Ouning counties were merged, each taking the first character called Jian'ou County; during the Republic of China period, Shuiji, where the kiln ruins were located, was once a special district, established as a county in 1940, and shuiji county was abolished in 1956, and Shuiji and other townships were merged into Jianyang County.
In 1994, Jianyang County was established as a city, and the remaining townships were divided into Jian'ou County (present-day Jian'ou City) and Pucheng County, so today the Fajian kiln is located in Jianyang.
In fact, the kiln ruins have always been located in Shuiji Town, but due to the division of administrative areas, there will be many versions of the kiln ruins located in Jianyang, Jian'ou, Nanping, Wuyishan and so on...
Official entry: Jianyao ruins, geographically located in Shuiji Town, Jianyang City, Fujian Province, China. (The construction of kilns referred to here is the scope of kiln construction in the narrow sense, and the scope of "building kiln systems" in the broader sense is wider, and I will not discuss it here.) ）
2. When will the kiln be built? What are the kiln sites? What are the characteristics of Chuang-fired porcelain?
According to the data of 4 archaeological excavations, the initial stage of the kiln was traced back to the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties period, and the excavated cultural relics were mainly celadon and black porcelain, followed by sauce glaze ware.
The scale of kilns built in the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties period was not large, and there were only three kilns: Anwei Mountain, Luhuaping, and Cowhide Ridge. There are 8 main ruins of the kiln at the peak of development: Luhuaping, The Back Gate of the Road, Cowhide Ridge, Anwei Mountain, Source Pit, Shuiwei Lan, Battalion Commander Qian, and Qili Lan.
From the piled up fragments of excavated cultural relics, there are a large number of celadon and black porcelain accumulations in Anwei Mountain, Luhuaping and Cowhide Mountain, and a small amount of sauce glazed porcelain.
▼View of Mt. Anwei from a distance
Anwei Mountain is the earliest kiln site in the age of the kiln, and its products are mainly celadon porcelain. The kiln dates back to the Tang Dynasty. Among the fragments piled up on Mt. Anwei, many celadon fragments were found.
▲The green glaze ware fired in the early days of the kiln
Three dragon kilns with a length of more than 70 meters have been excavated in Anwei Mountain, which is extremely rare in the Tang Dynasty. It can be seen that the scale of firing and the flourishing of firing technology of the kiln at that time have laid the foundation for the prosperity of the Song Dynasty.
▲Late Tang Dynasty Aoikou painting five white glazed petal celadon bowl (Anwei Mountain)
▲Tang Yue kiln lotus leaf cup and tonto Ningbo Museum collection
In the early days of the kiln (ancient kiln), the kiln workers asked the Zhejiang Yue kiln workers to imitate the "Jianyao - Yue kiln celadon", so it can be seen from the excavated celadon bowl that the celadon produced by the kiln in the late Tang Dynasty was similar to the Yue kiln celadon.
▲Late Tang Dynasty Jianyao - Yue kiln type Double-series plate celadon pot (Anwei Mountain)
The fetal bone of the ancient kiln blue glaze is generally gray or grayish white, because the porcelain clay washing is not fine enough, the carcass contains more granular impurities, the surface feel is rougher, and some even appear cracks after roasting.
▲ Late Tang Dynasty Five Dynasties Jian kiln blue glaze flower mouth dish Fuzhou folk collection, gray and white tire is lighter, green and yellow glaze ice crack bottom foot exposed tire, insole left 6 nail marks. The glaze color of the kiln celadon is green, greenish yellow, green gray or yellowish brown, and the exposed tires are often seen
▲Late Tang Dynasty Five Dynasties Built kiln green glaze
In addition to the blue-glazed porcelain excavated from Anwei Mountain, the firing of celadon is also seen from the fragments piled up in Luhuaping and Niugang mountain.
3. What was the opportunity to build a kiln to fire black porcelain? What does the originator of Jianzhan look like?
In the late Tang Dynasty, Lingnan Jianzhou tea came to prominence; the term "Jianming" ("Jiancha") can be found in Wang Renyu's (? ~ 956) "Kaiyuan Tianbao Testament Volume I" during the Five Dynasties period of the late Tang Dynasty.
"Knocking on ice to cook tea": "Yiren Wang Xiu, living under the Taibai Mountain, the sun and the monks and monks go back, every winter, take the creek ice, knock its crystal to boil the tea, and drink it with the guests."
Then lu Yu (c. 733 – c. 804) in the Tea Sutra contains:
"Lingnan sheng Fuzhou, Jianzhou, Shaozhou, Xiangzhou ... Eleven states are unknown, but they are often obtained and have an excellent taste. ”
According to the "Tea Recipe" of Shu Mao Wenxi after the five dynasties of the late Tang Dynasty, "Jianzhou Beiyuan pre-spring dragon roasting. ”
Tea production in the late Tang Dynasty has moved from coarse tea cake to steamed green cake tea; five generations and ten kingdoms, the royal Yang Envy Tea was changed to Gong Beiyuan Tea, which made Jiancha even more famous and laid the foundation for the birth of Jianzhan in the Song Dynasty.
▼ Most of the black-glazed porcelain excavated from Theanwei Mountain at the kiln site is a bowl, as shown in the late Tang Dynasty, painting five white glaze petals light black glazed bowl (Anwei Mountain)
With the intervention of Jianzhou tea and the southward shift of the tea drinking center, people's tea drinking methods gradually shifted from the "Sencha method" of the Tang Dynasty to the "tea ordering method", and people's evaluation of tea tasting and the pursuit of tea foam function have also changed:
Taking the foam color and delicacy of the fine cake tea soup as the quality standard, the whiter and finer the foam of the tea soup of good tea, the more layers and the longer lasting.
The performance effect of Jianzhou tea is better than that of other teas, so "tea ordering" has slowly become the mainstream. Tea utensils followed the continuous reform and innovation of tea drinking methods, and in order to cater to the foam function of tea, kiln black porcelain was born.
▲ Late Tang Dynasty Kuikou painted five white glaze petals light black glaze bowl (Anwei Mountain), the kiln workers no longer imitate the Yue kiln celadon porcelain, but innovated the "painting five white glaze petal light black glaze bowl", which is the earliest creation (originator) of the iron tire jianzhan .
▲ At the end of the fifth dynasty, the northern Song Dynasty, the early Northern Song Dynasty, the Kwaikou sauce glaze cup (Anwei Mountain), the sauce glaze excavated during the initial period of the kiln, its fetal bone is gray, the glaze layer is slightly thick, the sauce is brown, the hair color is gray and dark and the glaze phenomenon is more common, and sometimes the green color flashes in the seed layer, but it has not yet reached the effect of the Song Dynasty Jianzhan without grain change
From the late Fifth Dynasty to the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, the kiln craftsmen further improved the loading and firing process, using a funnel-shaped convex bottom box bowl and a black glazed bowl placed upright.
▲Five dynasties of the Northern Song Dynasty, the first kiln (Anwei Mountain) black glazed bowl and box bowl burning situation Fuzhou folk collection
During this period, the kiln site was mainly located in Anwei Mountain, and a kiln from the early period was used to repair and paint the kiln walls, and specially fired into black glazed bowls.
The black glazed bowls of this period are characterized by thin tire glaze and shallow belly insole bulge, although it is very different from the thick glaze type of jianzhan that was popular in the Song Dynasty, but it has opened a precedent for jianzhan.
In contrast, the jianzhan in the prosperous period of the Song Dynasty is different from the glaze color and fetal bone in the initial period. In the early days, the fetal bones of the kiln bowl were gray or gray-brown, the carcass was light and thin, the glaze was light black or sauce black, and the glaze layer was uniform.
The most similar thing between the two is that the glaze on the outer wall of the vessel is not as good as the bottom, and the foot is "exposed", which is also the glazing method imitated by the major kilns in the later period.
▲Five dynasties of the early Northern Song Dynasty Jianzhou kiln black glazed bowl Fuzhou folk collection
In this period, the type of vessel is a mouth bowl, there are two kinds: one is a straight mouth, a shallow abdomen, a slightly raised medial center, a short circle foot; the other is a mouth micro-fold, shallow ventral oblique arc wall, the inner sole is slightly thicker and raised, and the short circle foot.
▲At the end of the five dynasties and the beginning of the Northern Song Dynasty, the kiln (Anwei Mountain) was built to glaze the sauce
Although the black glaze porcelain glaze color of the kiln in the initial period was not as good as the cyanosis of the mature period, the raw material used for the tire was the local red Fe O clay and quartz sand grains, which laid the foundation for further glaze color optimization in the later period.
▲The composition test of the Song Dynasty Jianzhan, the glaze containing a certain amount of Fe O In the firing process, the iron-rich iron of the liquid phase between the calcium feldspar crystals is cooled to a certain temperature, that is, the liquid phase separation occurs, resulting in a colorful glaze effect
In 1022, Emperor Renzong of Song ascended the throne, and in 1046 (the sixth year of the Qing calendar), Cai Xiang (1012-1067) served as an envoy to Fujian Road, and remodeled the Dragon And phoenix tuan tea into Xiaolong Feng Tuan tea, which was called a treasure.
Ouyang Xiu(1007-1072) "GuitianLu" said: "Its quality is exquisite, called a small group, where twenty cakes weigh one pound, its value is two or two gold, but gold can be obtained but tea is not available." ”
Cai Xiang's contribution to Jianzhan was great, and the "Tea Record" written between 1049 and 1053 AD not only introduced Beiyuan tea, making it more prestigious, but also praised Jianzhan and laid the consensus that Jianzhan was the most suitable tea and the most compatible with Beiyuan tea, so that Jianzhan and Beiyuan tea paid tribute together.
▼ The National Museum collects the "Tea Record" to expand the book
"Tea Record" said: tea color white, should be black, Jian'an made of black, grain like rabbit, its billet is slightly thick, hot and cold for a long time, the most important to use. Those who come from other places, either thin or purple, are not as good as they are.
At this time, jianzhan entered the mature stage and became a royal tea cup. In terms of firing techniques, appearance and practicality, it has become the leader of black glazed porcelain, and it is also the first choice for ordering tea bucket tea.
In the Song Dynasty (1082~1135), he personally wrote the tea book "The Theory of Daguan Tea", which further consolidated the status of Jiancha and Jianzhan:
"To the point where tea is a thing, good at the beauty of Ou Min... The prosperity of this dynasty, the tribute to the construction of the creek, the dragon group phoenix cake, the crown of the world, and the product of the source of the valley, has also flourished since then. ”
▼ The Discussion of "The Great View of Tea"
However, the use of "offering" to the jianzhan tribute has a short period of time, and the selection of products is strict, and if it is not qualified enough to pay tribute after leaving the kiln, it must be broken on the spot.
▼ Song for the Imperial Cup specimen
In addition, most of the imperial cups used by the Imperial Family of the Song Dynasty were destroyed in wars, there were very few surviving complete vessels, and most of the kiln sites were fragments or fragments, and the soles of the feet of the lamps were also defective.
▲ Song for the Imperial Cup cushion cake
It is precisely because of the rarity of the "Imperial Supply" Jianzhan that in 2019, a remnant of the "Imperial Supply" Jianzhan on the auction floor of the Xiling Printing Company was able to sell for 5.98 million yuan (including commission), setting a record for the 2019 Jianzhan auction and ranking sixth in the Jianzhan list so far. (Extended reading: "For the Royal" rabbit cup defective parts 5.98 million sold, setting a record for the 2019 Jianzhan auction )
Jianzhan is a vessel born of tea, from the early days of the kiln to the mature period of more than 100 years to stand out as a symbol of the song dynasty black glazed porcelain, but also completed another landmark milestone in the history of Chinese ceramics.
The restoration, inheritance and innovation of today's Jianzhan techniques are not only a respect for the tea drinking culture of the Song Dynasty, but also a contribution to the development of Chinese ceramic culture.
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