Author: M. Chen
#瓷器篇-17 #
Dear friends, thank you for your support and follow the "Museum of the World" from Egypt, India, Greece, Mexico, Iran, China to the European series of Russia and the Asian series of Turkey. Now, the highlight of 2021 , the "Porcelain Chapter" is underway ... Speed onlookers!
(Ru kiln washing, Song)
As mentioned earlier: The Song Dynasty was the golden age of Chinese porcelain, and five famous kilns emerged: Ru, Guan, Ge, Jun, and Dingyao. Among them, the Ru kiln is considered to be the first of the five famous kilns, which makes the Song people fascinated by a refreshing azure beauty, and also makes future generations of people think of it. Ru kiln porcelain is known as the highest peak of Chinese porcelain art (craft), it not only has a major impact on the development of later generations of glaze porcelain in terms of glaze color, vessel type and firing process, but more importantly, it has changed people's aesthetic habits of porcelain, people tend to taste the inner charm and artistic beauty of porcelain from the pursuit of external beauty, this change of aesthetic taste makes Ru kiln porcelain stand out in the porcelain, and successfully become the first of the famous kilns.
Today, let's talk about the most expensive and rare porcelain in the history of Chinese porcelain - Ru kiln porcelain.
(The pictures in this article are taken by M. Chen and Fu Yuan, all rights reserved.) Figure Chinese are all washed in the Song Dynasty Ru kiln in the Collection of the National Museum of China, and will not be re-annotated)
The origin of the name "Ru kiln"
Ru kiln, in the Song Dynasty because of its location in Ruzhou, got its name. Modern archaeology confirms that Qingliangsi Village, Daying Town, Baofeng County, Pingdingshan City, Henan Province, is the firing site of Ru kiln porcelain, which solves the problem that the site of the Ru kiln kiln has been unclear.
The origin of the saying "five famous kilns"
The theory of the five famous kilns of the Song Dynasty first appeared in the Ming Dynasty Imperial Collection Catalogue "Xuande Ding Yi Spectrum": "The inner library is hidden: Ru, Guan, Ge, Jun, named kiln utensils, elegant style, writing into the present", for the first time concentrated on the name of "Ru, Guan, Ge, Jun, Ding".
In addition, Xu Zhiheng (1877-1935) of the Qing Dynasty once wrote in his book "Drinking Liuzhai Porcelain": "Wuhua porcelain can be divided into three major periods: Song Dynasty, Ming Dynasty, and Qing Dynasty. There were five most famous kilns in the Song Dynasty: Chai, Ru, Guan, Ge, and Dingye. There are also jun kilns that are also very valuable, and the rest of the kilns are collectively named small kilns...", which especially illustrates the concept of "there are five famous kilns". However, his "five institutes" were not included in the "Jun Kiln". Since the wood kiln has not yet seen the kiln site, nor the physical object, people often add the jun kiln to the five, forming today's five famous kilns.
Rare Ru porcelain
The Ru kiln was not an official kiln, but only fired court porcelain for the Northern Song Dynasty during the period from Emperor Zhezong of Song to Emperor Huizong of Song. Later generations of people said that Ru kiln porcelain (hereinafter referred to as "Ru porcelain") often refers to the royal porcelain fired during this period.
Due to the short firing time of Ru porcelain (royal porcelain), it is estimated that it is only about 20-40 years, so the number of products that have been handed down so far is very small. At present, according to public information, there are less than 100 pieces (90 pieces) of Ru kiln heirlooms in the world, mainly collected in the Palace Museum in Beijing, the National Palace Museum in Taipei, the British Museum (including the Daweide Foundation), the Shanghai Museum, the Tianjin Museum, the Jilin Provincial Museum, and the Osaka Municipal Museum of Oriental Ceramics in Japan. Among them, there are 20 pieces in the collection of the National Palace Museum in Beijing, 21 pieces in the collection of the National Palace Museum in Taipei, and 14 pieces in the Collection of The Great Britain & David, accounting for the majority of the number of surviving works.
Since the ancient relics are rare and expensive, the value of the Song Dynasty Ru porcelain, which has a very small amount, can be imagined. The only few auctions have fetched staggeringly high prices, with a piece of Ru porcelain collected by the famous Japanese writer Yasunari Kawabata sold for 2.3 billion yen (about 130 million yuan) at an auction in Hong Kong in 2012.
Yasunari Kawabata also featured a photograph of the above-mentioned Ru porcelain in the cover art of his complete works, saying: "This is a celadon with both style and beauty."
Ru porcelain features
Ru kiln has become an outstanding example of Song Dynasty porcelain with its warm glaze color, elegant vessel type and unique craftsmanship, of which glazed azure is the most fascinating.
According to legend, the azure color of Ru porcelain is the color that Emperor Huizong set to. At that time, the minister asked Emperor Huizong for instructions, "Ru kiln porcelain to burn you what shai"? Huizong pointed to the sky with his finger: "Where the rain passes and the clouds break, this color will do the future." This means that when the rain passes and the clouds gradually disperse, the pure color of the sky has just emerged from the cloud break. Go, and you will do it in this color.
Oh, my God! It's easy for the emperor to move his mouth, but it's too hard to do!
How did the Ru kiln people who took over the work of imperial porcelain burn such a royal azure porcelain that "rained over the sky and broke through the clouds"?
To find out what happens next, and listen to the next breakdown!
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