#让世遗活起来 #
A Changjiang River, passing through the city, gave birth to the oriental charm. A piece of dirt, a hundred works into a tool, shaping a thousand years of vividness. Here is the porcelain capital of the world - Jingdezhen.
This is the opening chapter of the second season of Wanli Single Ride into Jingdezhen.
Miles Alone Ride is the first World Heritage interactive documentary program exclusively titled by Alcoholics Liquor. In the program, together with Shan Jixiang, Xiao Yang, Zhou Yun and Niu Junfeng, the "Wanli Youth Group" visited 12 World Heritage Sites in China, and Jingdezhen was one of the stops.
Shan Jixiang said in the program: "Whether a place is declared a World Heritage Site or becomes a World Heritage Site, there are three necessary conditions: First, this place must have been brilliant in history; second, this place must have declined in modern times; third, someone will excavate and carry it forward today." "And Jingdezhen is in line with the above three points, which is also where our confidence and confidence in declaring Jingdezhen as a World Heritage Site lie."
It was brilliant.
Jingdezhen is a city built on ceramics. During the Jingde period of the Northern Song Dynasty, the blue and white porcelain produced here stood out among the tributes of the kilns and was loved by The Song Zhenzong, so he gave his era name here, and Jingdezhen got its name and is still used today. Later, it gradually became the center of the national porcelain industry, which can be described as "craftsmen come from all directions, and the utensils go all over the world".
Qingbai porcelain of the Tang and Song Dynasties, blue and white porcelain of the Yuan Dynasty, glazed red products, blue and white linglong porcelain of the Ming Dynasty, enamel color of the Qing Dynasty... All are unique imprints of the city. According to historical records, Jingdezhen has become one of the largest kiln factories in the Song Dynasty, the official kiln was built here in the Yuan Dynasty, and the Imperial Kiln Factory was set up here in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, which represented the highest level of Chinese ceramic technology at that time.
Fortunately, in the 1980s, ceramic sites in Jingdezhen were excavated one after another.
One is the ruins of the Imperial Kiln Factory. Covering an area of 54,000 square meters, it was founded during the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty, and was an official administrative agency specializing in the management and organization of firing royal porcelain, which lasted for more than 500 years. More than 2,000 fine pieces of official kilns have been restored here, and more than 2,000 fine pieces of official kilns have been excavated here, and these fine works are now exhibited in the Imperial Kiln Museum. For example, the seawater cliff pattern representing the stability of the jiangshan and the exquisite hollow process prevent it from exploding when heated. The largest blue and white cloud dragon pattern cylinder in the official kilns of the Ming Dynasty, the enamel color in the official kilns of the Qing Dynasty, and the glaze color vase of the Qianlong period. Among them, the porcelain-making techniques of the Qianlong era are the most exquisite, which can be said to be the peak of the development of Chinese porcelain.
The other is the Ceramic Industry Heritage Museum. Wander through the old factories, ancient trees, chimneys, red brick buildings, these retro elements give the city a different kind of embellishment. Traces of kilns from multiple dynasties in ancient times can be seen here, and production contracts in cooperation with the Soviet Union can be seen in modern times. The most striking thing is the photo wall of the workers of the porcelain factory after the founding of the People's Republic of China, and the eyes of the pairs are printed with the enthusiasm and simplicity of the craftsmen. The factory remnants we see now were once their steaming lives, and they also contained their lifelong careers and ideals.
There is also the Kaolin National Mine Park, which preserves the ruins of the open-pit mining of that time, which is where kaolin was found. Kaolin is a clay mineral that was named after the village of Kaolin as early as possible. In the Yuan Dynasty, people used kaolin as an important raw material for making porcelain. Firing porcelain with it will be more resistant to high temperatures and less prone to discoloration, which is precisely because of it, later blue and white porcelain and some large porcelain can appear.
These once glorious histories fade in the development of modern times, and the remaining ruins will be transformed into new life by porcelain.
It has declined. Jingdezhen has experienced two declines in its history.
The first decline was in modern times. The rulers of the Qing Dynasty believed that the Heavenly Dynasty was rich in products and did not need to communicate with foreign countries. During the Shunzhi Emperor's reign, he issued a "ban on the sea", which severely restricted maritime trade and opened only one place in Guangzhou as a treaty port. On the one hand, at that time, only officials and businessmen could deal with foreign businessmen, and the profits of overseas trade were mostly squandered, and the ceramic industry that really needed financial support was limited. On the other hand, the policy of closing the country to the outside world made it impossible for the Chinese people at that time to know the development and changes of modern Western countries, lost the opportunity for modern development, and gradually lagged behind Western countries. With the development of the Industrial Revolution in the West, the ceramic industry changed from manual production to machine production, and the West significantly surpassed Jingdezhen in terms of quantity and price of production. Since the Jiaqing period, China's porcelain exports have declined. During the Daoguang years, Chinese porcelain had lost its overseas market. Later, Western countries opened the door of the country with strong ships and cannons, signed a series of treaties that humiliated the country, and gradually opened up the domestic market to the outside world, so that the sales market of domestic goods was further squeezed, and even once there was a dumping of foreign porcelain in China. Coupled with the decadent feudal rule at that time, the oppression of national industry intensified. In such an environment, the development of Jingdezhen porcelain industry is facing many difficulties. Especially after the Sino-Japanese War, foreign powers could invest in China to set up factories, they relied on machine production, using China's porcelain raw materials and labor, China's porcelain could no longer compete with foreign porcelain. At that time, in order to survive, Jingdezhen did not hesitate to reduce production costs, and even cut corners and produce inferior porcelain.
It can be said that under the dual oppression of imperial stateism and feudalism, the porcelain production in Jingdezhen fell into a desperate situation. It was not until later that the production of jingdezhen porcelain in the founding of New China continued.
Jingdezhen's second decline was in the 1980s. At that time, with the continuous deepening of reform and opening up, the planned economic system gradually disintegrated, and under the impact of the market economy, state-owned porcelain factories disintegrated, and tens of thousands of handmade porcelain workers were laid off. In order to survive, a large number of ceramic artists left Jingdezhen to find another way out in Guangdong, Foshan and other places, and the loss of ceramic skills in Jingdezhen was serious.
It's on the rise.
Its rise lies first in the inheritance of Jingdezhen's porcelain-making skills.
As early as the Qing Dynasty, there were officials with hearts doing this. During the Yongzheng and Qianlong dynasties, there was a pottery official named Tang Ying, who fired porcelain for two generations of emperors, and during his reign, the porcelain industry in Jingdezhen reached its peak. Tang Ying painstakingly studied ceramics during his time in Jingdezhen, ate and lived with the potters, created 57 new varieties of porcelain, and included them in the "Tao Cheng Chronicle". Qianlong also wrote a poem to praise him: "Guan Ru is called a famous product, and the new bottle system is even more jia." In addition, Tang Ying also wrote "Tao Ye Tu Shu", which depicts the production process of ceramics with 20 paintings, pushing the ceramic process to the extreme. Tang Ying's two monographs have become important materials for posterity to study ceramics.
Now Jingdezhen has also done a lot of work to inherit these crafts. The protection of intangible cultural heritage has been launched successively, and through field visits, a database of inheritors of intangible cultural heritage protection has been established, and the craftsmen who have won the title of "inheritors" have enjoyed government subsidies; and a handmade porcelain technology protection and inheritance base has been established... There are also many painters, sculptors and potters from other places who have come here to show their enthusiasm and set up their own studios to inherit the skills of porcelain making.
In the Wanli Walk Single Riding program, Xiao Yang went to Zhan Shaolin Studio to learn the technique of pulling. The studio is full of dedicated, attentive and quiet crafts learners. The founder of the studio is even more skilled, and the soil in his hand is transformed into a fine vase and wine vessel between the conversations. Seemingly simple objects have also been carefully designed. When talking about wine vessels, Zhan Shaolin pointed out that when making wine bottles, pay attention to external pottery and inner porcelain, so that the wine is not easy to penetrate, and the mellow aroma of the wine can be maintained very well. In this regard, the inheritance of alcoholic liquor is relatively good, the wine bottle adopts the process of external pottery and inner porcelain, and the richness of the wine has a lot to do with the design of the bottle.
Its rise lies in the transmission of the spirit of craftsmen.
In the program, Niu Junfeng, a member of the "Wanli Youth League", visited Lao Zhan, who made glazed fruits in the era. The so-called glaze fruit refers to a kind of porcelain stone used for glazing, which is the main raw material for jingdezhen porcelain glaze. The process of making glazed fruits is complicated and heavy, from selecting and cleaning porcelain stones to crushing and smashing into powder, to washing, sedimenting into mud, and finally putting into a mold to level and form. It is the process of making glazed fruits, which Master Zhan has been doing for 35 years, and is accompanied by stones, dust and mud every day. According to him, the whole older generation of the town is doing this, a really real person, one thing, one life. Just like The Tang Ying we mentioned earlier, he created the golden age of ceramic glaze with his own golden age, and they are the best interpretations of choosing a career for a lifetime.
Its rise also lies in innovation.
Jingdezhen's porcelain has wandered through history for thousands of years, inseparable from inheritance and innovation. Traditionally, Jingdezhen porcelain is more focused on daily porcelain, such as tableware, wine utensils, and stationery supplies. Now, on the basis of traditional porcelain-making techniques, they have added ideological and contemporary marks, and vigorously promoted the development of artistic porcelain, including ceramic sculpture, ceramic painting, comprehensive decoration, etc.
At the end of the second program of "Ten Thousand Miles Of Walking Alone", the "Wanli Youth League" organized an exhibition with the theme of "Porcelain Universe". Their selection of exhibits has gone beyond the scope of traditional porcelain, for example, bionic porcelain, which is both a work of art and a functional one; abstract works that are very forward-looking and biased towards modern art; and simple creations that integrate porcelain making with leisure life...
This innovation is also reflected in the embellishment of Jingdezhen city: ceramic street lights on Changnan Avenue, zodiac ceramics on the square, unique ceramic roads...
At the 2020 Porcelain Expo, Jingdezhen also broke the traditional exhibition and sales model, adopted a new model of "online + offline", cooperated with the live broadcast platform, and tried the "Cloud" Porcelain Expo for the first time, and the anchor sold ceramics to netizens around the world through the Tmall live broadcast platform. It can be said that under the epidemic situation, the sales method of the porcelain expo network live broadcast provides new opportunities for the commercial development of Jingdezhen ceramics.
Protection and inheritance is a heavy responsibility, which requires us to guard the glory of the past, remember the decline of the past, and look to the hope of the future.
I wish our Jingdezhen an early and successful application for heritage, moving towards a broader stage, from our Jingdezhen to the Jingdezhen of the world' people.