Jingdezhen: An Ancient Porcelain Capital Rediscovered from Porcelain Shards

News 2022-06-14 20

Jingdezhen: An Ancient Porcelain Capital Rediscovered from Porcelain Shards

Rediscovering the Codes of the Millennium-Old Porcelain Capital from Discarded Porcelain Shards

Sharp Ancient Porcelain Shards Everywhere: Millennium-Old Kiln Remains Buried Underground

It is said that in Jingdezhen, every child once had to learn a “bloody” lesson – never walk barefoot there. From the seemingly soft riverbed sediment, sharp porcelain shards would occasionally protrude and cut people’s skin. These porcelain shards buried underground were once a huge headache for the locals. They are the porcelain waste left by kilns from past dynasties, thousands of years ago. Although porcelain is made from clay, fired porcelain is non-decomposable. Throughout thousands of years of history, for every exquisite piece of porcelain produced in Jingdezhen, a corresponding amount of discarded shards were left behind. Some of these came from folk kilns, while others were from official kilns. Especially for porcelain fired in the imperial kiln factory, if they were found to be substandard after firing, they could not be circulated among the people and had to be destroyed on the spot. These porcelain shards turned the underground of Jingdezhen into a huge porcelain shard recycling station. However, in the 1980s and 1990s, these shards were rediscovered for their value and began to circulate in the markets of Jingdezhen.

Collectible Value of Ancient Porcelain Shards: Replicating Lost Glazes and Techniques of Ancient Porcelain

Although they are just fragments of porcelain, not complete utensils, these shards have authentic ages. They are all products of ancient kilns, and many of them can even be traced back to very distant dynasties. Porcelain shards from after the Qing Dynasty are everywhere in the local area and are no longer rare. People are looking for more precious shards from before the Song Dynasty. Their value lies in enabling local ceramic artisans to see what real ancient porcelain looks like. During the long course of historical development, with the replacement of kilns, the textures and colors of many ancient porcelains have been lost. However, imitations of ancient porcelain have always had an irreplaceable charm for ceramic enthusiasts. Therefore, those authentic fragments – even just a small piece – are of great value to those who are eager to see the true colors of ancient porcelain.

The Craze for Collecting Porcelain Shards and the Chaos of Illegal Excavation: Piecing Together the Complete History of Jingdezhen from Fragment

When these porcelain shards were first unearthed, a gold-rush-like “porcelain shard collecting craze” swept through Jingdezhen. People from all over flocked here to dig for porcelain shards, either for personal collection or to sell in the local ghost markets. However, in the ghost markets, it is very rare to find real ancient porcelain shards. There are many reasons for this. Firstly, most of those who can distinguish the value of porcelain shards are themselves makers of imitations of ancient porcelain. They will take the real ancient porcelain shards they find as samples for study and reference, and naturally will not sell them easily. In addition, although Jingdezhen has long been known as the porcelain capital in history, most of the documentary records have been scattered and lost. Coupled with factors such as dynastic changes and wars, the specific locations of many ancient kilns in the local area are no longer traceable. As a result, in those years when the legal order was relatively imperfect, many people took risks to dig for ancient porcelain shards, either through illegal exploration and excavation, or by privately dealing with ancient porcelain shards. Some even lost their lives in collapses during the excavation process. On the other hand, since finding these ancient porcelain shards requires going through a lot of records about ancient kilns, gradually, in the process of excavating ancient porcelain shards, these records have pieced together a more complete historical map of Jingdezhen.

Establishment of the Ancient Ceramic Gene Bank: Porcelain Shards Transformed from Industrial Waste to Evidence of Time

Today, relevant museums and a unique ancient porcelain shard gene bank have been established in Jingdezhen to preserve and study the porcelain shards unearthed in Jingdezhen. These shards have been transformed from industrial waste into precious fragments of time. The history of Jingdezhen has also formed a complete story starting from these discarded porcelain shards.

Tracing the Origin: From the Barren Changnan to Xinping Town, the Ceramic Industry Originated in the Han Dynasty

Origin in the Han Dynasty: Porcelain Making in Xinping, Porcelain Production in an Early Barren Land

In the history of porcelain making in the Jingdezhen area, the earliest record comes from a local county annals of the Qing Dynasty, which states that “porcelain making in Xinping began in the Han Dynasty”, proving that the porcelain industry had emerged in the Jingdezhen area at that time. However, at that time, the Jingdezhen area was still far from being a porcelain center. It was just that among the many industries in this town, ceramic manufacturing was born.

In the early days of Chinese history, Xinping was a barren land. It seemed to have no special resources or geographical advantages. From the Qin Dynasty to the Jin Dynasty, it was divided among various administrative regions in a chaotic manner. The local people either engaged in agriculture or worked as carpenters or blacksmiths. Among them, a small group of people, by chance, tried to fire porcelain and found that the firing effect in the local kilns was very good. Thus, they started to make porcelain sporadically.

Evolution of Place Names: Changnan Renamed Xinping, the Unique Kaolin Deposits

Its earliest name was Changnan (because it is located on the south side of the Changjiang River). It remained unknown throughout history, and few relevant historical records can be found. In the Jin Dynasty, this place was still relatively barren and even beyond the control of the Jin government, with bandits running rampant. In the fifth year of Xianhe in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the Jin government ordered General Tao Kan to lead his troops to suppress the chaos. Tao Kan quickly cleared the local bandits. To commemorate the pacification of this place, the name was changed from Changnan to Xinping.

In the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the people of Xinping Town continued to make porcelain as they had started in the Han Dynasty. The local people had long discovered that the local soil was very suitable for making porcelain, but they did not know the specific reason. According to modern geological research, although the Xinping Town area looks barren, it actually has unique resource treasures. This area was once a vast ocean billions of years ago, with unique rock formations formed by volcanic eruptions and lava deposits over thousands of meters. Later, the entire area was in a zone of crustal compression. Eventually, with the changes in crustal compression, this area acquired special soil resources. The most important magma rock mass, after a long process of weathering, formed “kaolin” deposits, providing the most important raw material for porcelain making here.

Difficulties in the Kiln Industry in the Jin Dynasty: Unstable Kilns, Ghost Expulsion Rituals and Legends of the Kiln God

However, having excellent raw materials does not necessarily mean that exquisite porcelain can be fired. At that time, the ceramic industry had very little experience. After sending the clay blanks to the kiln, whether they could be fired successfully and what they would look like basically depended on luck. Many practitioners watched helplessly as they spent a lot of effort purchasing raw materials and making clay blanks, only to have accidents during the firing process, turning them into a pile of fragments and losing all their investment.

The people of the Jin Dynasty had not yet found the scientific reason for this. They first thought that there must be ghosts causing trouble in the kilns where porcelain could not be fired properly. Therefore, in the Jin Dynasty, a special profession emerged here. The local people invited Taoist priests to expel ghosts from the kilns. Before opening the kiln, the local people would invite a sorcerer to perform rituals. The sorcerer would carry out a series of complex ceremonies, including drawing talismans, dispatching troops, sacrificing to the kiln god, and sometimes offering sacrifices.