Without the invention and development of fine porcelain, China's
history would have been decidedly different, as the country's
internationally known name suggests. The delicate chinaware it
produced gained the giant oriental land worldwide fame as early as
the 700s.
To preserve the time-honored industry and its birthplace, China
is seeking to get a group of centuries-old kiln sites, where
delicate chinaware was made centuries ago and where traces of the
country's glorious past are still found today included on the
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's
World Cultural Heritage List.
Among China's list of candidates to be submitted to the United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
are the three most widely known china kiln sites in the central
province of Henan; namely, Ruyao kiln in Baofeng County, Junyao
kiln in Yuzhou City and the Huangye tri-colour pottery kiln in the
city of Gongyi.
"All three are cultural heritage sites under top protection by
the Chinese government, and they are ranked among the major
archaeological finds in China in the 20th century," said Sun
Xinmin, a China expert with the Henan Provincial Institute of
Cultural Heritage and Archaeology.
"To a large extent, the world came to know China through the
chinaware it produced and the country's porcelain was virtually
used as a yardstick in evaluating Chinese civilization," Sun
said.
Henan Province, one of the cradles of Chinese civilization, was
at one time a production center for chinaware, too, Sun said. "It
was there that we found celadon glazed pottery made more than 3,600
years ago and the world's earliest white porcelain."
A writer of the Tang Dynasty (618-907) wrote in his book "The
Classic of Tea" how the six largest kilns of the time produced
celadon: a pale, soft, grayish green porcelain.
His description indicates that the Chinese porcelain artisans
had already perfected their techniques. Contemporary researchers
have corroborated the claims of the ancient classic, and state that
China's porcelain production processes were perfected in the Tang
and Song dynasties (960-1279).
But gone are the glories of the past. "They have all been lost
through the passage of time: the craftsmanship and even the kilns
are now mysteries of the remote past," said Sun.
Sun and his colleagues have over the past decades tried to find
out the whereabouts of the ancient kiln sites, figure out their
production processes and restore their original appearance. "We're
duty-bound to do that, and to do it well," he said.
They confirmed in 1987 that Qingliangsi village in Baofeng
County was the location of the 1,000-year-old Ruyao kiln, the
largest celadon production site during the Song Dynasty. In 2000,
archaeologists unearthed, in what they believe to be the ruins of
the main processing section of the facility, 15 furnaces, two
workshops, various instruments, a number of glazing materials and
fragments of Ruyao porcelain pieces.
"They provided strong evidence on the official rank of the Ruyao
kiln," Sun said.
Throughout China's history, celadon pieces made at Ruyao kiln
were sent as tribute to the imperial court and were famous for
their azure glaze blended with agate. But the unique technique used
by the kiln artisans was lost during wars in the late Yuan Dynasty
(1271-1368), and the site of the kiln remained a mystery to Chinese
archaeologists until recent times.
Experts say that no more than 70 pieces from the Ruyao kiln
still exist, all of them in museums around the world and valued at
US$10 million each.
While celadon dominated the Tang Dynasty, chinaware became more
colorful in the hands of artisans during the Northern Song Dynasty,
who had learned to produce a unique red-tinged underglaze for
porcelain with the red derived from copper.
In the early 12th century, an imperial kiln was set up to
produce colorful porcelain pieces - mainly bowls, dishes, cooking
vessels, vases and figurines - exclusively for the emperor and the
imperial family. According to historical records, only 36 pieces
were produced each year, none of which went into the collections
outside the court.
Remains of the imperial kiln site known as "Junyao" were
uncovered in Juntai village, in Yuzhou City, in 1974, and it was
listed as the top archaeological find of the year.
To commemorate the development of the culture of chinaware, a
museum has been erected on the ruins of the Junyao kiln and local
artisans are working to revive the traditional craftsmanship by
copying ancient pieces from the kiln.
Kiln ruins found in Gongyi City in 1957, made the site the first
one discovered in the country that had produced the famous Tang
Dynasty tri-color pottery, or tangsancai in Chinese.
In 2002, archaeological workers unearthed furnaces, workshops
and a large number of tri-colour pieces, half-finished pieces and
various tools that revealed some of the manufacturing processes of
the art.
"Ancient Tang tri-color pieces were all heated twice, before and
after they were glazed," said Chang Jianchuan, director of the
Henan Provincial Cultural Heritage Bureau.
Chang said they also unearthed remains of pieces of "Qinghua"
porcelain, a type of ancient Chinese porcelain featuring
blue-and-white designs, made in the Tang Dynasty. "The finding has
settled a long-standing dispute about when Qinghua porcelain was
first made," he added.
"By applying to be included on UNESCO's World Heritage List, we
aim to remind local governments and people that our inexhaustible
cultural heritage is the lifeline of the Chinese civilization and
deserves to be protected well," said Chang.
He revealed a plan to build a museum on the ruins of the Ruyao
kiln in the near future. "We've got the go-ahead from the State
Administration of Cultural Heritage for the construction."
China is home to 29 World Cultural and Natural Heritage Sites,
the third largest number in the world, following only Spain and
Italy.
(China Daily June 26, 2004)