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As its name suggests, China's history would have been different if not for the delicate chinaware it produced that 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 include in UNESCO's World Cultural Heritage List a group of centuries old kiln sites, where delicate chinaware was made in history and traces of the country's glorious past are still found today.
Among China's list of candidates to be submitted to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization are the three most widely known china kiln sites in the central province of Henan, namely the Ruyao kiln in Baofeng county, the Junyao kilnin Yuzhou city and the Huangye kiln of Tang tri-color potteries in Gongyi city.
"All the three are cultural heritage sites under top protection by the Chinese government, and their discoveries were among the major archeological findings reported in China in the 20th century," said Sun Xinmin, a china expert with the Henan provincial institute of cultural heritage and archeology.
"To a large extent, the world came to know China through the chinaware it produced and the artwork was virtually a yardstick in evaluating the Chinese civilization," Sun said.
Henan Province, as a cradle of the Chinese civilization, was a one-time production center for chinaware, too, Sun said. "It was here that we found celadon from 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 entitled "Tea Scripture" how the six largest kilns of the time produced celadon -- a pale, soft, grayish green porcelain.
According to his description, Chinese craftsmen had reached proficiency in their handiwork. His point was echoed by contemporary researchers who revealed China's porcelain productioncapacity had reached its climax in the dynasties of Tang and Song (960 - 1279).
But gone are the glories of the past. "They're all lost with 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 outlooks. "We're duty-bound to do that -- and do it well," he said.
They confirmed that in 1987 that the Qingliangsi village of Baofeng county was home to the 1,000-year-old Ruyao kiln, the largest celadon producer of the Song Dynasty. In 2000, archeologists unearthed, from what they believed to be central processing section of the ruins, 15 furnaces, two workshops, various instruments, a number of glazing materials and fragments of Ruyao porcelain pieces.
"They provided strong evidence on the official identity of the Ruyao Kiln," Sun said.
Throughout China's history, celadon pieces made at Ruyao kiln were tributes to the imperial court and were best known for their azure glaze blended with agate. But the unique technique used by the kiln artisans was lost during wartime in the late Yuan Dynasty(1271-1368), and the site of the kiln has since been a mystery for Chinese archeologists.
Experts say no more than 70 products from the Ruyao kiln still exist in the world, all of which are kept by worldwide museums and are valued at 10 million US dollars each.
While celadon dominated the Tang Dynasty, chinaware pieces became more colorful in the hands of artisans during the Northern Song Dynasty, who had learned to produce the unique red-tinged underglazed 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 himself and the imperial family. According to history books, only 36 pieces were produced each year, none of which was allowed for collection by civilians.
Remains of the imperial kiln site, known as "Junyao Kiln", was uncovered in Juntai village, Yuzhou city in 1974 and was listed as the top archeological finding of the year.
To commemorate the china civilization, a museum has been erected on the ruins of the Junyao Kiln and local artisans are working to revive the traditional craftsmanship by mimicking pieces of ancient artwork.
The kiln ruin in Gongyi city, discovered in 1957, was the first relic site spotted in China that produced famous Tang tri-color potteries, or Tang San Cai in Chinese, in the Tang Dynasty.
In 2002, archeological workers unearthed furnaces, workshops and a large number of tri-color potteries, semi-manufactured products and various tools that retold the manufacturing process of the artwork.
"Ancient Tang tri-color potteries were all heated twice, before and after they were painted," said Chang Jianchuan, director of Henan Provincial Cultural Heritage Bureau.
Chang said they also unearthed in the remains of "Qinghua" porcelain, one 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 porcelains were first made", he added.
"By applying to enter UNESCO's World Heritage List, we aim to remind the local government and people that the 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 green-light from the State Administration of Cultural Heritage for the construction."
China is home to 29 world cultural and natural heritage sites --the third largest in number following Spain and Italy.
(Xinhua News Agency June 21, 2004)
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