Liu Ping (left) and Zhao Feng (right)
Mega
In 1975, Wang Dongxing, director of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee, informed the Jiangxi Provincial Party Committee that Jingdezhen should develop a set of porcelain tableware and stationery for Chairman Mao Zedong, based on the highest realm of porcelain praised in ancient times, such as "white as jade, thin as paper, bright as a mirror, and sound as loud as enough" as the standard. The Jingdezhen Municipal Party Committee and the Municipal Revolutionary Committee of the CPC entrusted this glorious and arduous task to the Ceramic Industry Research Institute of the Ministry of Light Industry.
The so-called "white as jade, thin as paper, bright as a mirror, sound as loud as a sound" is the highest evaluation of Jingdezhen porcelain. "White as jade" refers to porcelain whiteness; "thin as paper" refers to the thickness of porcelain tires; "bright as a mirror", referring to the transparency and moisture of enamel; "sound as exhausted", referring to the musical sense of porcelain.
After accepting the task, the ministry dispatched more than 40 technical backbones to form a research team to be responsible for specific implementation. Many famous ceramic artists have participated in this task in the past. Among them, including Wang Xiliang, Wang Guiying, Liu Ping, Xu Yafeng, Dai Ronghua, Li Yucang, Shu Huijuan, Peng Zhaoxian, Zhang Bingxiang, Hong Guozhong and so on. This task is codenamed "7501". "7501" has thus entered the annals of modern Chinese porcelain.
Liu Ping, the protagonist of this article, ranks third in the above list. Liu Ping was born in July 1944 in Poyang, Jiangxi Province, in Huangshan City, Anhui Province. A descendant of Liu Yucen, one of the "Eight Friends of Zhushan". Master of Chinese ceramic art, vice president of Zhushan Calligraphy and Painting Institute in Jingdezhen. In 1997, the Jiangxi Provincial Government awarded Liu Ping the title of "Master of Arts and Crafts". His father, Liu Yucen (1904-1969), was a famous ceramic artist and Chinese painter in Jingdezhen, and one of the "Eight Friends of Zhushan" in Jingdezhen. In 1994, Liu Ping was awarded the "Ceramic Family" by the Jingdezhen Municipal Government, a top professional and technical talent of the Jingdezhen Municipal Government, and was elected as a director of the China Arts and Crafts Society, a member of the Jiangxi Provincial Fine Arts Association, a member of the Jiangxi Provincial Arts and Crafts Series Senior Title Review Committee, the vice chairman of the Jingdezhen Artists Association, and the director of the Chinese Painting Art Committee of the Jingdezhen Artists Association. It can be seen that his position in China, in Jiangxi, in the Jingdezhen ceramic art circle.
He was drawn out at the age of 31 to participate in the "7501" mission with other ceramic masters, which shows the organization's political trust and recognition of ceramic skills. He also lived up to expectations and played an active and important role in the development of "7501".
I met Liu Ping by chance. It was January 13, 2019, and I went to Jingdezhen to "Taobao" with a few friends and ceramic enthusiasts. Speaking of which, this has become our tradition, and every year we take time to get together to go to Jingdezhen, visit teachers, treasure hunting, eat local vegetables, and drink new tea. Among them, the main content is to investigate the ceramic production technology, visit the famous ceramic artists, and learn to appreciate the knowledge.
Porcelain is a symbol of Chinese culture, reflecting the aesthetic tastes, aesthetic concepts, aesthetic pursuits and aesthetic values of Chinese. The Chinese people's love of porcelain, porcelain, And Tibetan porcelain has a long history, and China's porcelain production process is world-class, and through the ancient land and sea Silk Road, it has long been spread around the world.
My understanding of porcelain first came from the English class in junior high school. China is called "china" in English, and "china" is China. Porcelain is also called "china", China and porcelain are inseparable, porcelain has also become the country's business card. When it came to studying geography, I learned that Jingdezhen was the "porcelain capital" of China. In my childhood memory, there is a large bamboo basket under my bed, which contains several very strong porcelain plates and porcelain bowls that are usually tied with grass rope, and every New Year's Festival, my father took it out and used it, and then carefully collected it, I was deeply impressed by blue and white porcelain. Later, I learned that it was porcelain collected by my father in Jingdezhen in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China. As a result, I also became interested in porcelain. But in the past, I was busy at work and had a lot of housework, so I couldn't take care of this hobby. In recent years, under the influence of several friends who love this way, interest has slowly ignited, followed them to Jingdezhen several times, visited many porcelain museums, private collections, visited many famous teachers, indeed increased a lot of knowledge, deepened the feelings of this traditional Chinese culture, and improved cultural self-confidence. Among them, the visit to Master Liu Ping's home was particularly impressive.
January 13 is Sunday. We arrived at Master Liu Ping's house as promised, which was an independent courtyard, and he personally greeted us at the gate, with a head of one meter and eight, a burly figure, and a hearty laugh, which immediately attracted us. Taste the good tea he cooked, listen to him talk about ceramic art and ceramic life. It can be seen that he has a love for ceramic art and pride in personally participating in the "7501" mission. He also specially found the design manuscript of the "7501" of that year, spread it on the desk, and explained the design concept of that time to us one by one, reveling in the memory of the past.
It can be said that a history of ceramics, thousands of pottery artists. From neolithic red pottery, black pottery, and faience pottery, gray pottery and white pottery of Xia Shang Zhou, hard pottery of the Warring States of Qin and Han, and even the original celadon of the Warring States, white porcelain of the Five Dynasties of Sui and Tang Dynasties, Song Yingqing and Yuan Shufu, to the Ming and Qing dynasty official kilns, each era has its own brocade and color. This is the comment of ceramics expert Zhan Qi'an. I think so. So in the twentieth century, in the contemporary era, what is the masterpiece of ceramics? I've always been curious about that. At Liu Ping's home, in his narration, I gradually found the answer.
At that time, in order to make Mao Zedong's special porcelain reach the world-class level, "the ministry repeatedly experimented and demonstrated, and decided to use high-quality kaolin (that is, talc) in Linchuan, Jiangxi As the basic ingredient, and the semi-thin tire high-white glazed porcelain made of this kaolin clay was translucent under the illumination of light, and its whole body was crystal clear, white as jade, and beautiful. In the design of the apparatus, Chairman Mao's habits are fully considered, for example, in order to keep warm and sanitary, most of them have made harmony utensils; the chairman likes calligraphy and likes to smoke, so he designs stationery and smoking utensils, etc., so as to achieve a perfect combination of beauty and practicality.
When choosing the picture design and color tone, according to the atmosphere of the times at that time and Chairman Mao's romantic feelings, it was finally decided to choose the red plum underglaze color, and at the same time use the 'water point peach blossom' decoration scheme on the glaze. These decorations 'cuizhu red plum' under the glaze color pattern, the composition is unique, the flower bud posture is different, the form is vivid and beautiful, the water separation technology is skilled, the color is appropriate, there is a sense of space before and after, the plum bamboo proud frost fighting spirit temperament performance to the fullest, with the white as jade porcelain tire, it appears particularly bright and dazzling, elegant and clean. ”
It is not surprising that the red plum was chosen as the composition. Chairman Mao liked red plums, which were well known in the 1960s and 1970s. In the winter of 1962, China and the Soviet Union were at odds with each other, and the international and domestic environment was difficult. Mao Zedong composed a poem, "Seven Laws of Winter Clouds": "Snow presses the winter clouds white and flies, and the flowers are rare for a while." The sky is high and the cold is rushing, and the earth is slightly warmed and blowing. There are unique heroes who drive tigers and leopards, and there is no Haojie who is afraid of bears. Plum blossoms rejoice in the snow, and it is not surprising that flies freeze to death. Using the plum blossom metaphor, it expresses Chairman Mao's thoughts and feelings of being calm and relaxed in the face of difficulties at home and abroad, confident, optimistic and upward, and full of pride. The character of Hongmei proud of frost and snow and not afraid of the cold properly reflects Mao Zedong's broad mind of "fighting with the sky and having endless fun, fighting with the earth endlessly, and fighting with people with endless fun".
The "7501" creation technique uses glazed "water dot peach blossom" decoration technique, which is derived from the creation and invention of Liu Ping's father, Liu Yucen. This has to mention the story of the famous "Eight Friends of Zhushan Mountain".
I have long heard of the legend of the "Eight Friends of Zhushan Mountain". In the early days of the late Qing Dynasty, many artists who created porcelain prints gathered in the area of Jingdezhen, Jiangxi. By chance in 1928, a merchant booked a porcelain print, porcelain print artists Wang Qi and Wang Dafan contacted their friends Deng Bishan, Wang Yeting, He Xuren, Cheng Yiting, Bi Botao, Liu Yucen, each painting a porcelain print, after the painting, many people were very surprised and liked, and asked the eight of them to continue painting. In this way, they later set up a porcelain art society, taking the meaning of "good flowers, full moon, life", and called it "full moon society". Meet every month to see the day, the full moon ya gather Zhushan, to paint friends, to gather friends, to exchange painting art, known as "Zhushan Eight Friends". In fact, there were ten people before and after the "Eight Friends of Zhushan Mountain", in addition to the above eight people, there were Xu Zhongnan and Tian Hexian. "Zhushan Eight Friends" painted on porcelain plates with porcelain and tires as paper, thus producing a new pastel with rich luster. These porcelain plates are painted on porcelain, drawing on the nutrition of Chinese painting, and the landscape figures and flowers and animals painted are all glorious and vivid, and their brushwork, ink rhyme, color and contemporary Maritime Painting School works have the same magic. Jingdezhen porcelain painting was able to enter the new era of literati painting.
In the "Eight Friends of Zhushan", Liu Ping's father, Liu Yucen, is one of the youngest and most talented artists. In his early years, he graduated from Jiangxi Pottery School and made a living from porcelain plate painting. After liberation, as an old artist in Jingdezhen, he was invited to enter the Ceramic Research Institute of the Ministry of Light Industry to engage in ceramic art creation.
Experts commented that Liu Yucen's porcelain paintings are unique in terms of materials, composition, and color. Absorbing the literati painting style into the field of ceramic art, the entire work integrates poetry, books, paintings and printing into one, so that ceramic art works stand out from the cumbersome decoration of late Qing dynasty ceramics and become works of art with interest, life and novelty. In particular, Liu Yucen's revolution in pastel techniques was new, creating the "water point technique", directly using "glass white" to point out the image of flowers, and then using water pens containing color to dye, the color is thick and light, the flower head is more lively and natural, and has a great impact on the art of pastel flowers and birds. The establishment of this technique is not only the innovation of craftsmanship skills, but also puts forward a new proposition for the art of pastel flowers and birds, that is, the solid foundation of Chinese freehand painting and the innovation of combining pastel ceramic craft skills.
It is the master who inherits his father and receives the true transmission. In the process of participating in the creation of "7501", Liu Ping continued to innovate on the basis of inheriting and carrying forward his father Liu Yucen's "peach blossoms". The works have been newly improved in terms of artistic exploration, aesthetic taste, and the use of art forms. The "7501" works are fresh and elegant in color, the picture is full of rhythm, full of flexible breath, fascinating, presenting a wonderful and peaceful scene. And in this creative process, it has gradually formed its own characteristics.
People who play porcelain know that Jingdezhen's porcelain is divided into official kilns and folk kilns. The so-called "official kiln" refers to the establishment of the imperial demand for Jingdezhen porcelain by the ruling class of the Yuan Dynasty from the establishment of an official ceramic institution in Jingdezhen, thus changing the way the Song Dynasty selected tribute from the people. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, with the continuous changes in royal demand, and the continuous improvement of the official kiln system, the huge investment of state power laid the foundation of the official kiln and the ceramic production structure, thus clearly dividing the porcelain produced in Jingdezhen into a binary division - the official kiln and the folk kiln. The official kiln is to serve the royal needs, so the official kiln is strictly produced, and the production of the civil kiln is much looser, and there are not too many rules and regulations.
After the Republic of China, although there is no such thing as "official kiln", the porcelain named "official kiln" represents the meaning of nobility, beauty, rarity and high quality. "7501" is also built by the official family, which can be regarded as a modern "official kiln".
"7501" in addition to the perfect artistic effect, but also a strict health and safety guarantee. The new underglaze porcelain is fired at a high temperature of 1400 degrees, the glaze is wear-resistant, corrosion resistant, and free of lead poison hazards, allowing the chairman to use it safely. It represents the highest level of China's porcelain-making technology in the last century, it is an organic combination of high-tech achievements and the highest level of craftsmanship, and it is a reproduction of the superb artistic achievements accumulated by Jingdezhen's thousand-year history of porcelain making. Therefore, it is also known as the "generation of heavenly pride, porcelain treasures" in ceramics, and is known as the "Red Official Kiln".
Bidding farewell to Master Liu Ping, we happily embarked on the return journey, but the master's last words were meaningful. He said that a good porcelain must go through 72 processes such as material selection, modeling, pulling embryos, drying, vegetarian firing, glazing, natural kiln change, etc., in order to be formed, no matter which process is slightly careless, it will be abandoned. "Making porcelain is like being a person, and every step must be done steadily." Being a man is like making porcelain! It's worth pondering.
January 7, 2020 in Beijing
Responsible Editor: Xu Yunqian Editor-in-Chief: Cheng Kai