People's Daily Sydney, March 22 (Li Hanyue) The creation process of China's intangible cultural heritage has always been accompanied by the splendid historical process of Chinese civilization, reflecting the degree of development of human civilization, highlighting the height that human wisdom can reach in thought and practice, and building a spiritual home for people of all ethnic groups in the process of Chinese civilization. Recently, wellington College Chinese Cultural Centre shared the "Ingenuity" - Chinese Intangible Cultural Heritage series of videos through the official social platform, introducing the traditional techniques of celadon firing, sword forging and Ganoderma lucidum cultivation, in order to feast on the New Zealand audience who love The Chinese Intangible Cultural Heritage and the infinite wisdom behind them.
Ancient firing techniques
The firing of Longquan celadon originated in the Three Kingdoms and Two Jin Dynasties, and has a history of more than 1700 years. In 2006, the traditional firing techniques of Longquan celadon were included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage protection list, and in 2009, the traditional firing techniques of Longquan celadon were included in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of the United Nations, becoming the only ceramic project in the world so far.
Longquan celadon glaze, the basic color is blue-green, glaze color is mainly pink blue, plum green. How to identify the quality of celadon porcelain and good or bad? In the view of Xu Chaoxing, a representative inheritor of the traditional firing technique of Longquan celadon, a national intangible cultural heritage in China, the first look at the shape, the second look at the glaze color, and the third look at the craft. Taking the unique process of Longquan Celadon - jumping knife as an example, the practitioner needs to concentrate on breathing, the heart and hand are one, and the heart is in hand to complete a good work.
Xu Chaoxing, who was also known as the "Master of Chinese Art and Art", has dealt with celadon all his life, and he has always adhered to the belief and sense of fate of "he is a craftsman", and inherited the ancient celadon craftsmanship of Longquan with a dedicated attitude and exquisite skills. It is precisely from the inheritance of ingenuity from generation to generation that Longquan Celadon has become a shining business card of the Chinese national ceramic culture, allowing the world to see the beauty of China's authentic creation.
Wood-fired dragon kiln
Longquan kiln is the kiln system with the longest firing time, the widest distribution of kiln sites and the largest output in the history of Chinese ceramics. In the process of more than 1700 years of development, Longquan celadon has formed a unique firing technique, with a total of more than 70 processes, first crushing, washing, stale and refining clay, and then pulling blanks to form, repair, decorate, glaze, install kilns, firing, etc.
In traditional firing techniques, the blank is formed by pulling the billet with a kick and a wheel. Gong Yihua, as the fourth generation of the family, the family wood-fired dragon kiln celadon has a history of more than 100 years, and now insists on kicking and pulling the billet, and has always adhered to the traditional skills of ancient law.
The firing technique of the dragon kiln plays a decisive factor in the firing of porcelain. At the bottom of the utensil, a porcelain cushion cake is placed, and the tire is placed in a bowl for protection to avoid pollution and to make the tire heated mildly and uniformly; the fuel is mainly pine wood, which is fired at a high temperature of 1300 degrees. The yield of wood kiln firing is very low, mainly by the craftsmen according to experience to control the temperature.
Behind the traditional firing techniques of Longquan celadon that have been passed down from generation to generation is the painstaking efforts and persistence of Longquan porcelain makers, which has made the thousand-year-old kiln fire enduring in the land of Longquan.
The beauty of the glaze color
The beauty of Longquan Celadon has the reputation of being as green as jade, as bright as a mirror, and as loud as a chime. The glaze color of longquan kiln firing porcelain has created a new aesthetic of Chinese celadon and brought the beauty of the glaze color of Chinese celadon to the extreme.
Lan Ningli, a master of ceramic art in Zhejiang Province, integrates traditional handicrafts with the inheritance of art utensils, innovates the traditional blue glaze combination of Longquan celadon and the firing process of high-temperature glaze decoration, and integrates the characteristics of Longquan landscape into the creation of celadon in the form of painting, and every scene and every thing is its inexhaustible source of inspiration.
The beauty of the glaze color of Longquan celadon depends not only on the precision of the glaze adjustment and the thickness of the glaze, but also on the vagaries of firing. This traditional skill that crosses history and spans the times condenses the essence of national culture, and in the change of the times, relying on the concept of inheritance and eternal innovation of craftsmen from generation to generation, it continues to create new glory, endowing Longquan celadon with endless vitality, and transmitting the beauty of classical Chinese traditional culture to the world in a unique way.