Longquan celadon firing technique

Zhejiang
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Longquan is a famous historical and cultural city in Zhejiang Province. It is located in the southwest of Zhejiang Province, bordering Jiangxi and Fujian Provinces. It is famous for producing celadon. A survey of cultural relics found that there are more than 500 ancient kiln sites for firing celadon here, and there are more than 360 in Longquan City alone. This huge porcelain kiln system is known as Longquan Kiln. Longquan Kiln is the famous celadon kiln with the longest firing period, the widest distribution of kiln sites, the highest product quality, and the largest production scale and export range in the history of Chinese ceramics. Longquan Kiln began in the Western Jin Dynasty and had begun to take shape in the Northern Song Dynasty. It entered its heyday in the middle and late Southern Song Dynasty. The porcelain making skills reached the pinnacle. The plum green and powder green glazes reached the highest level of celadon glaze color. The Ge Kiln in the traditional Longquan Kiln is known as the five famous kilns in the Song Dynasty together with the Guan, Ru, Ding, and Jun kilns. The celadon skills of Longquan Kiln promoted the development of porcelain kilns in various places. From the Southern Song Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty, porcelain kilns in Fujian, coastal Guangdong, and Jiangxi successively fired products similar to Longquan celadon. Longquan celadon also has a significant impact abroad. It was exported in large quantities during the Song and Yuan dynasties. Chen Qiaoyi said in the "Preface to the Place Names of Longquan County": "From the ports on the southeast coast of China, along the sea route to the Persian Gulf, Arabian Sea, Red Sea and East African coast along the Indian Ocean, there are traces of Longquan celadon everywhere." Longquan celadon reached its peak in the Song and Yuan dynasties. The scale of production did not decrease in the Ming Dynasty, but the quality declined. It gradually declined in the Qing Dynasty. After the late Qing Dynasty, it was once stopped, and only a few kilns were engaged in antique production. The Longquan celadon process consists of eight links: ingredients, molding, blank repair, decoration, glazing and bisque firing, box loading, kiln loading, and firing. Among them, glazing and firing are very distinctive. After the blank is dried, glazing is applied, which can be divided into several steps such as glazing, dipping glaze, glazing, and spraying glaze. Thick glaze products usually need to be glazed several layers, one layer is bisque fired once, and then glazed and bisque fired again. This is repeated four or five times. The most glazed ones need to be glazed more than ten layers before they can be fired. The temperature of unglazed firing is relatively low, generally around 800 degrees Celsius. Glazed firing is around 1200 degrees Celsius, and the temperature is gradually raised and controlled as required to control the atmosphere in the kiln, and finally fired into a finished product. From the Southern Song Dynasty to the early Yuan Dynasty, Longquan Kiln once fired thin-bodied original glaze objects, applying a layer of glaze once, and the thickest layer can reach more than ten layers. Celadon firing is not only a technology, but also an art. Superior celadon is verdant and moist, crystal clear, full of charm, and has a "jade-like" beauty, reflecting a deep cultural connotation. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the celadon firing process that had declined since the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China was restored. However, since the functions of celadon vessels have gradually been replaced by modern items, there is not much social demand. At present, some skills in celadon production have been gradually forgotten, and with the intervention of modern machinery, traditional handmade porcelain making skills are facing serious challenges and are on the verge of extinction, and urgently need to be saved and protected.

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