Riding the wind of rebirth

"For example, the Dayun Yutangchun vase was first fired during the Yongzheng reign. Its main pattern is a blue and white lotus scroll, which symbolizes 'integrity and incorruptibility'. It has an elegant and graceful shape, a pure white and delicate body, a lustrous glaze, and bright and vivid blue and white colors. The decorative pattern is clearly layered and distinct. It is a standard porcelain for rewarding officials. It was often given as a 'reward vase' by emperors of various dynasties to their officials in the hope that they would be honest and upright in their official duties."

"Because of the rigid form, fixed patterns, and large number of surviving pieces, the porcelain from the Great Yun period is the easiest to imitate among official kiln porcelains. Especially the official imitations of official porcelains from adjacent dynasties, that's even easier." Master Ma laughed and said, "So with the level of restoration of the Jingdezhen porcelain factory now, it should be able to imitate Mao porcelain to a fairly high standard. It is indeed very time-consuming to identify them."

"That's perfect, you two experts can explain the intricacies of this to us." As soon as everyone sat down, Feng Cang pointed to the small dish in front of him: "Is this the Water Drop Peach Blossom?"

Zhou Zhi picked up the plate: "The techniques are similar. The 'Water Drop Peach Blossom' is actually a type of famille rose porcelain technique, and its creator was Liu Yucen, one of the 'Eight Friends of Zhushan' during the Republic of China period. He borrowed the form of 'boneless freehand brushwork' from Chinese painting and expressed it on porcelain. It was an important step forward for the Eight Friends of Zhushan in 'incorporating painting into porcelain' and elevating the aesthetic style of modern porcelain."

"Didn't all those porcelain craftsmen in the past achieve this?"

"The technical reasons behind ceramic craftsmanship are very complex and subject to many limitations. Take, for example, the reducing environment of a kiln. The firing of Langhong porcelain, in essence, is about the precise control of temperature and the concentration of carbon monoxide and oxygen. But if the difference is even slightly off, the porcelain, which should be bright red, may become uneven in color, or even turn into liver color, brown, or even yellowish-green."

"The reason why the 'water-drop peach blossom' pattern is called 'water-drop peach blossom' is that the colors of the pattern are bright and full, with a suitable balance of light and dark. The color transition and presentation are also delicate and dewy, giving people a moist feeling. At the same time, it should achieve the effect of 'not dripping when wet and not withered when dry'."

“It takes a lot of effort to express such an effect on paper, let alone porcelain that has to be fired at high temperatures. The specific method is to first use glass white glaze to dot the petals, then use the boneless method to draw the flower shape, and then use water-mixed pigments to dot the glass white glaze a second time. The two layers are superimposed to form a transition.”

"During firing, temperature control must be extremely precise. The two pigments that form the peach blossoms must be perfectly blended during the melting process, but there cannot be even the slightest 'glaze run.' If the glaze runs, small red lines will appear on the surface of the petals, which means the firing is ruined. Every peach blossom must meet the standard of being delicate, graceful, and elegant."

"The requirements for imitations are certainly not that high. The need to control costs means that they undergo a series of simplifications from the making of the body to the glazing."

"By modern standards, this porcelain is undoubtedly excellent. It is thin, light, and fine. However, it is obvious that the fineness of the clay is much finer than that of genuine Mao porcelain. This results in an overly white and fine body. In our jargon, it is called 'stiff'."

"Of course, this is not to say that such firing methods are bad. In terms of quality and practicality alone, modern porcelain will always surpass that of the past. This is due to the progress of technology. What we are discussing here is the imitation of ancient porcelain. In my opinion, unless you truly replicate the techniques bit by bit according to the ancient process and restore it with extremely high time and financial costs, you will always leave many flaws."

"For example, in the process of making clay for the body, the ancient clay was made by roasting and aging the ore, then grinding it into fine powder in a water mill, sifting it, shaping it, and then placing it in a cool place to age for several years before it could be made into clay suitable for making clay for the body."

"Why do we do this? It's due to the limitations of the technology at the time. Particles obtained using water mills are obviously uneven in size, and the same phenomenon exists in the powder after sieving. In addition, the ancient impurity removal technology was insufficient, so we could only select ores unearthed from special locations and use simple firing and other methods to meet the requirements."

"This gives the clay very distinct regional characteristics and a certain particle size. These particles often contain impurities, resulting in extremely fine impurity particles visible in the finished porcelain body." "In addition to mineral impurities, many biological impurities are also mixed in during the clay-making process. These impurities can only be removed through aging, a long process involving biological, chemical, and physical processes. This also leads to a very complex composition of impurities in the clay. The fired body is not pure white but has off-colors such as 'mud blue,' 'glutinous rice,' and 'warm yellow.'"

"All of these will eventually form the 'characteristics of the era' of the porcelain body. The pottery body of each era has its own characteristics, which are very difficult to imitate accurately. Even if they are, it will take a long time and effort to complete them. Unless the state invests its resources to imitate the porcelain of the five great kilns of the Song Dynasty in the early days of the People's Republic of China, it is very difficult to imitate them so well that they are indistinguishable from the real thing."

After speaking, he turned the small dish in his hand: "This dish is mainly imitated in terms of technique, that is, the method of painting peach blossoms with water droplets. It can be considered an entry-level technique. However, the rest, from the body to the glaze, cannot be compared with Mao porcelain. Of course, they imitated it according to the cost of practical utensils. For a practical utensil to reach this level is already quite good."

"At least the peach blossom petals look plump and dewy." Mo Yan also turned the plate around like Zhou Zhi did: "They're quite pretty."

"These are hand-painted plates, which are much more expensive than most decal porcelain today," said Mr. Ma. "However, the pigments used are modern chemical pigments, which make the firing process much easier to control. Unlike decades ago, when the scrap rate was extremely high and only a little over four thousand pieces were ever made, only a little over a thousand have survived to this day."

"The reason why official kiln porcelain from past dynasties is difficult to imitate is that they represent the limits of craftsmanship that could be achieved under the conditions of the time. To truly imitate them, aside from the effects of time on emulsification, crackling, and luster, one must first completely restore the manufacturing environment of the time, and secondly, achieve the top-level craftsmanship of that time. Only by combining the two can one reach the level of that era."

Seeing that everyone was a little confused, Zhou Zhi smiled and said, "Let me give you a simple example. The pottery wheel used to make porcelain in ancient times, that is, the turntable, could not rotate concentrically because it could not reach the precision of modern bearings."

"In addition, since it is pedal-driven, its speed fluctuates."

“Ancient artisans needed to process standard round objects on such rough pottery wheels, which required extremely high craftsmanship. The difficulty of making them by hand on ancient pottery wheels is different from that on modern pottery wheels.”

"Therefore, ancient round vessels could not be perfectly round; there must have been a slight error. And this slight error just happens to be the 'anti-counterfeiting mark' of ancient porcelain. Now we can only make them on a high-speed, stable potter's wheel, which makes the porcelain bowls much rounder, but the mark of ancient porcelain is lost."

"Then when we make antique-style replicas, can't we just use antique-style pottery wheels to make them?" Mo Yan asked.

Liu Zhengyun had already figured it out: "Because we're using an antique-style pottery wheel, and we don't have the same superb craftsmanship as ancient artisans, the things we make on that wheel look even less authentic!" (End of Chapter)