How to choose tea ware - the “five kilns”
In my first installment of this blog I covered the history of porcelain, and thanks to your support I received a lot of feedback. Of course the most concentrated of the feedback (and what most people want to know) is what types of porcelain are there? How are they different? So for the second blog I would like to start with the origins of the Five Great Kilns by expanding on the Song Dynasty in ancient China.
The term “Five Kilns” first came from the records of the imperial collection during the Ming Dynasty:
“内库所藏柴，汝，官，哥，钧，定名窑器皿，款式典雅者，写图进呈”——《宣德鼎彝谱》
“The inner treasury of the Chai, Ru, Guan, Ge, Jun, Ding famous kiln vessels, elegant style, write the map into the submission” - Xuande Ding Yi Spectrum
Picture：Xuande Ding Yi Spectrum
Song Dynasty period of course not only five kilns to manufacture porcelain, but we often mention the “Ru Yao, Guan Yao, Ge Yao, Jun Yao, Ding Yao” quality and characteristics of the most prominent, representing the highest level of porcelain at that time, and therefore the five kilns of this title has been discussed to this day.
Let's start with the Ru Kiln.
“After the rain, the clouds break” is a phrase written by Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty for the Ru Kiln, meaning that the color of the porcelain is similar to the color of the clouds that disperse after rain.
As the first of the five famous kilns, the Ru Kiln, located in Ruzhou, Henan Province, reached its peak in the late Northern Song Dynasty. Its color from agate into the glaze, forming a rare and natural color, Ru kiln porcelain basically no large porcelain, from the Song Dynasty onwards, each dynasty will use Ru kiln as the royal imperial porcelain, so the number of can be handed down to the present day is very sparse, may not be more than 100 pieces of porcelain.
Picture：RuYao porcelain
Jun Kiln
Located in Yuzhou, Henan Province, the Jun Kiln's history of producing porcelain has been documented since the Eastern Han Dynasty and was popularized during the Song Dynasty.
Its designs are among the boldest and most avant-garde, and if there was romanticism in antiquity, then its work must have been among it. Its styles were varied and its colors innovative. Its firing process specificity leads to the production of often with the sunset afterglow and deep blue lake color, there is a saying that “into the kiln a color, out of the kiln ten thousand colors,” that is, before firing is a color, out of the kiln there will be a variety of colors on the surface, let people be amazed.
Picture: Jun Yao work
Guan Kiln
The word “Guan” means government employee or noble class, so it is obvious that the Guan kiln was a kiln made for the royal family during the Song Dynasty. He has a very distinctive feature: there are traces of purple color where the mouth rim of the piece would be, and a brown part at the bottom of the piece. My personal guess is that this may have been a symbol of power and status in those times.
Guan kilns are like the state-owned enterprises in today's society. Due to the special nature of the regime, the state-owned resources possessed a relatively centralized technology, which, together with the monopoly of the technology, made it impossible for other kilns to learn from them, and so the wares of the Guan kilns have distinctive features.
Picture:Guan Yao porcelain
Ding Kiln
The Ding kiln is located in Quyang, Hebei province, and produces white porcelain. It also processed court porcelain, but its predecessor was a commoner's kiln.
Ding kiln porcelain is characterized by a very thin glaze that is not glazed around the mouth of the object, a process known as “芒口” (I have no idea to translate this unique term). In addition to white porcelain, Ding Kiln also made black, purple, green, red and other colors of porcelain, these colors also come from the color of the glaze on the surface of the object.
Picture:Ding Yao porcelain
Ge Kiln
The porcelain from this kiln was extremely shocking to me the first time I looked at it, as its appearance made it look like a defective product, which is perhaps where the ancient Chinese aesthetic of “flawed beauty” comes from. Ge kilns are located in Longquan, Zhejiang Province. Because of its unique firing process, the glaze of the porcelain will produce cracked lines, which is due to the different coefficients of expansion between the raw materials of the porcelain and the glaze. Interestingly, where the cracks are too large, there are black marks, but where the cracks are small, the gap is very small, resulting in the pigment not being able to penetrate into it, leading to an oxidizing reaction and turning it into a golden yellow color. Perhaps it is the craftsmanship and unique technique that gives the Ge kiln an antique feel even in its imperfections, which I personally think has a few similarities in connotations with the wabi-sabi style of Japanese pottery, which is very much in trend these days.
Picture:Ge Yao porcelain
Summarize: See here, people will ask: which kiln is the best porcelain? I would like to say that there is never a standard for beauty or art, it is a very subjective judgment. Some people like the preciousness of the Ru kiln, some people like the purity of the Ding kiln, some people like the Ge kiln with defects. So when it comes to the pursuit of style, there is no good or bad in any of these, just as there is no good or bad between human races. Which style, are different aesthetic attitude of choice.
(Of course the quality of modern porcelain will certainly have good and bad differences, this topic I will discuss in the future)
Thank you all for your interest in seeing this, as this content is all organized on my personal time, so the update schedule may not be regular (as I am a spontaneous person, sometimes I do a lot, sometimes I do nothing).