celadon culture
Longquan celadon, famous for its jade-like glaze and elegant shapes expressing the greenth and moist from nature, is one of the most exquisite artworks among all kinds of celadon wares. In the history of Chinese porcelain, Longquan kiIn center was one of the porcelain centers with the most age-old history, broadest kiln scope, largest production and largest export sale. It learned techniques from both north and south celadon wares and developed in the communica-tion between both official and non-official kilns. Therefore, it synthesizes all kinds of celadon craftsmanship and repre-sents the peak of Chinese celadon. In the history, Longquan celadon as a symbol of the great Chinese culture was shipped globally, admired and appreciated by the people all over the world.
On September 30, 2009, the fourth meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage of UNESCO reviewed and approved 76 projects listed in the "Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity" from 111 declared projects. Longquan celadon traditional firing techniques are listed, making it the world's first and only ceramic project selected.
History of Longquan Kiln
Longquan kilns started its production from Three Kingdoms Period and the Jin Dynasty which have a history of 1600 years.They didn't form their features until Five Dynasties period and truly had their distinctive styles and the production scale until Northern Song Dynasty. It reached its peak in Southern Song and Yuan,still had large production in Ming and declined in Qing but never stopped production. At its peak the techniques was gorgeous, and there was a big kiln system with hundreds of kilns surrounded Longquan. According to the archaeology excavation 500 kiln sites were found.Among them, more than 380 sites are in Longquan, so it is said that all the kilns smoked on both sides of Ou River, and the ships for transporting celadon wares were up and down displaying the prosperous scene. At that time, Longquan became the Capital of Porcelain in China.
longquan celadon production scheduling:
CHOOSING CLAY
GRINDING CLAY
WASHING
PUGGING CLAY
POTTING
DECORATION
GLAZING
FIRING
Symphony of Earth and Fire
The Procedure of Making Longquan Celadon and Its Characteristics:
Porcelain is the art of earth and fire. The craftsmen in Longquan made use of the rich natural materials invented the famous Longquan celadon displaying the intelligence and creativity of ancient Chinese people. The procedure of Longquan celadon has 20 complicated courses including grinding clay, choosing ingredient, washing, potting, decorating drying, firing biscuit and glazing, and so on. Each course is very essential for making a celadon. In the thousands years after hundreds and thousands experiments and insistent efforts, the craftsmen successfully mastered the techniques of making celadons and produced the most beautiful porcelain Longquan celadon.
The temperature in kiln was kept from 1200℃ to 1300℃. The celadon glaze is mainly determined by the cooling method composition of gases and their density. The great success of,the glaze of Longquan celadon demonstrated the outstanding technology of temperature-control and gas control that the craftsmen mastered.
Longquan celadon has a gentle and calm finish which fit the pursuit of moderation of Chinese Confucianism. Its jade-like glaze is also consistent with the aesthetics and morality of Chinese jade culture. Therefore, the courts and literati love it in history. Longquan is indeed the treasure among all kinds of Chinese porcelain. A book describing the international trade between China and western countries expressed a kind of opinion that Longquan celadon is the most beautiful thing people have invented,and it looks much lovelier than all the gold, silver and crystal. When Europeans saw the) Longquan celadon first time in Mid-Ming, they love it as precious as gold. The whole Europe admired it greatly.
Go to See the World
The Longquan celadon had a great fame domestically and internationally. The foreign archaeologists proved that more than ten thousands Longquan porcelain wares and shards were found in Asian, African and European countries. This large amount of porcelain, especially in Song and Yuan, was exported through Merchant Shipping Departments of the court in Guangzhou, Wenzhou, Mingzhou (Ningbo) to other countries, so the volume of Longquan celadon was the biggest one in export products.According to the statistic data of export porcelain at 44 ports mentioned in A Brief History of Island Countries written by Wang Dayuan, an author of Yuan Dynasty, the export quantity of Longquan celadon was the biggest. It is like the famous geographer Mr. Chen Qiaoyi said “in the last one thousand year, a county like this earned a huge wealth and a great honour for our country from the whole world.