our story
origin
There are many interpretations of the word "glazed". "Book of the Later Han Dynasty·Biography of the Western Regions·Daqin" says: "The land is rich in gold and silver treasures, including night-light jade, bright moon pearl, chicken rhinoceros, coral, tiger soul, glazed glass, emerald green, red and blue." Glazed glass refers to a kind of colored translucent jade. Hu Zhonggong's poem "Presenting to Friends on Mid-Autumn Festival" reads: "The sky is full of glazed glass, and the ice wheel rolls on the golden palace." Glazed glass refers to the clear sky. Nalan Xingde's poem "Written with Jiang Ximing after the Early Spring Snow" reads: "Ten thousand pieces of glazed glass, reflecting the Sanggan River." Glazed glass refers to snow. [1]
In the fifth century AD, the palace of Pingcheng (now Datong, Shanxi) in the Northern Wei Dynasty had already used it, and it was still used in the Northern Qi Dynasty. After the Tang Dynasty, green trimmed colored glaze was used. The colored glaze used in the reconstruction of the Holy Mother Hall in Jin Temple in Taiyuan, Shanxi in the second year of Chongning in the Northern Song Dynasty (1103) was mostly made during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty. The Amitabha Hall built in the third year of Huangtong in the Jin Dynasty (1143) in Chongfu Temple in Shuo County has colorful colored glaze beasts and warriors on it, which are majestic and vivid, and the color glaze is thick and bright. There is a Yuan Dynasty colored glaze top on the mountain gate ridge of Baifu Temple in Dongquan Town, Pingyao. Its shape is centered on the standing sign, with a boy with his hands clasped together inside. The sign uses two spiral green glaze lions, carrying a lotus pedestal vase, and there are two east-west swallowing ridge kisses on the left and right of the sign. It has a rough cylinder body, yellow, green, white, and black glaze, and the glaze is relatively thick. It is an important work among the current chronological colored glazes. The colorful colored glaze sculptures on the four halls of Yongle Palace in Ruicheng are works of art with superb artistic level and relatively complete preservation. The palaces of Ming and Qing dynasties were decorated with yellow glaze.
Glass was honored , and the scale of sculpture decoration exceeded that of the past. The remains of temples were also rich. Such as Jinci in Taiyuan, Wumiao, Chenghuang Temple in Pingyao, Houtu Temple in Jiexiu, Chenghuang Temple, Wuyue Temple, Guangsheng Temple in Zhaocheng, Guandi Temple in Jiexian, Shousheng Temple in Yangcheng, Haihui Temple in Jincheng, etc. In addition, there are glazed pagodas, pavilions, memorial archways, screen walls, incense pavilions, shrines, etc. In the Qing Dynasty, glazed sculptures gradually recovered and developed since Kangxi. For example, the glazed tower of Yun Temple in Linfen Temple has six levels in a square shape, and the four walls of each level are inlaid with three-color glazed Buddha statues and patterns. Jieti Houtu Temple is a building complex with five or six courtyards, all decorated with gorgeous glazed sculptures. It gradually declined during the Xianfeng and Tongzhi periods.
Artistic Value
The commonly mentioned colored glaze, also known as Liuli, colored glaze, and colored glaze, is known as the first of the five famous Chinese instruments (gold, silver, jade, colored glaze, ceramics, and bronze) and the first of the seven treasures of Buddhism (colored glaze, gold, silver, glass, giant clam, red pearl, and agate).
Colored glaze is a very important category in the history of Chinese ceramics. The green glazed pottery of the Han Dynasty, the three-color pottery of the Tang Dynasty, and the colored glaze used in architecture and decorative enamelware all belong to the same system, but they have different names due to their different uses and appearance times. Low-temperature lead-glazed pottery appeared in Shanxi in the Han Dynasty and continued to be popular in the Northern Dynasties. However, its scope of use has broken through the scope of daily utensils and burial objects, and began to be used in building roof decoration. The Book of Wei, Western Regions , written by Wei Ming of the Northern Qi Dynasty (550-577), records: "During the time of Emperor Shizu, the people of that country traded in the capital, claiming that they could cast stone into five-color glass. So they mined in the mountains and cast it in the capital. When it was finished, its luster was more beautiful than those from the West. So they ordered a temporary hall to be built that could accommodate more than a hundred people. The luster was so bright that everyone who saw it was astonished and thought it was made by the gods. From then on, Chinese glass became cheap and no longer treasured." This is the earliest record of glass being used in buildings, and it also shows that this type of ceramic has a wider range of uses and greater practical value.
It is said that the ancient colored glaze was discovered by Fan Li (LI) when he was forging a sword in 493 BC , and was named "Li" by the King of Yue. Fan Li visited skilled craftsmen and made exquisite jewelry with "Li" as a token of love for Xi Shi. In the same year, because of the war, Xi Shi went to the State of Wu to marry, and Xi Shi had to give up her love for justice, and returned the "Li" before leaving. According to legend, Xi Shi's tears fell on this "Li", and the heaven, earth, sun and moon were moved by it. Tears can still be seen flowing in it today, and it is called "Liu Li" (a homonym of colored glaze) by later generations.
The development of metallurgical technology in the Spring and Autumn Period provided good technical conditions for the firing process of colored glaze. The temperature of the blast furnace at that time could reach 1200 degrees, while the firing temperature of ancient colored glaze was about 1050 degrees. Different from the lost wax cast glass, the traditional ancient method of glass is to melt the raw materials such as silicate and other metal oxides at high temperature and pull them into various specifications of material sticks. The artists roast the various colored material sticks over the lights, and quickly mold them after softening, giving full play to the gloss, colorful, soft and mysterious characteristics of the glass material. Compared with glass, the ancient method of glass has no base, and the production depends entirely on human experience and craftsmanship. It is improvised in the flame of the blowtorch and is also called "sculpture in fire". The purely handmade production process also makes the works produced unique and highlights its preciousness.