Mao Zhengcong

01 · Lineage & Regional School

He has trained successors through both family transmission and the master-disciple relationship. His son Mao Weijie, his son-in-law Jiang Xiaohong and his daughter Mao Yizhen have already become rising figures in the making of Longquan celadon. Within the regional tradition and school record of Traditional Firing Technology of Longquan Celadon in Longquan, Zhejiang: After the bodies have dried, glaze is applied; this can be divided into several steps: swirl-glazing, dip-glazing, brush-glazing and spray-glazing. The Longquan kiln began in the Western Jin dynasty and had already taken initial shape by the Northern Song; in the mid-to-late Southern Song it entered its peak period, with porcelain-making skills reaching the highest level. The plum-green and powder-blue glazes attained the supreme realm of celadon glaze colors. The Ge kiln among the traditional Longquan kilns, together with the Guan, Ru, Ding and Jun kilns, is known as one of the Five Great Kilns of the Song dynasty. The celadon skills of the Longquan kiln promoted the development of porcelain kilns in various places; from the Southern Song to the Ming dynasty, kilns in Fujian, along the coast of Guangdong and in Jiangxi one after another fired products similar to Longquan celadon. Longquan celadon reached its peak in the Song and Yuan dynasties; in the Ming dynasty the scale of production was undiminished but quality declined; by the Qing dynasty it gradually declined, and after the late Qing firing ceased for a time, with only a few kilns engaged in archaistic production. From the Southern Song to the early Yuan dynasty, the Longquan kiln fired thin-bodied vessels with a single original glaze: one layer of glaze applied and fired once, with the thickest reaching more than ten layers.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Male, Han ethnicity, born in October 1940 in Longquan, Zhejiang Province. A national representative bearer of the Traditional Firing Technology of Longquan Celadon, a fourth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. He is a senior arts and crafts master, a Master of Chinese Arts and Crafts, and an expert entitled to the special government allowance of the State Council. In 1955 he entered a porcelain factory as an apprentice and studied porcelain-making techniques under the celadon artist Mao Mingda; he later served as director of the Longquan Celadon Research Institute. Since taking up the craft he has successfully developed China's first semi-automatic trimming machine, recovered and systematized the traditional technique of glaze formulation, heightened the artistic expressiveness of iron-red kiln transmutation, inlay, marbled clay and the crackle glaze of Ge ware, and fired pure plum-green, powder-blue and iron-body Ge ware celadons, making an important contribution to the restoration and improvement of the firing technology of Longquan celadon. His works are held in the National Museum of China, the Ziguangge Pavilion at Zhongnanhai, the National Art Museum of China, and art institutions in France, Germany, the United Kingdom and other countries. Representative works such as Meiyu Tan (Plum Rain Pool), Qianxi Ping (Millennium Vase) and Yuhu Chun (Spring in a Jade Pot) are marked by refined forms, rich glaze texture, warm colour and restrained elegance, displaying the ultimate beauty of celadon art. Within the documented technical tradition of Traditional Firing Technology of Longquan Celadon in Longquan, Zhejiang: Longquan is a famous historical and cultural city of Zhejiang Province, located in the southwest of Zhejiang and bordering Jiangxi and Fujian provinces; it is renowned for its production of celadon. Cultural relics surveys have found more than five hundred ancient kiln sites for firing celadon here, with more than three hundred and sixty within Longquan City alone; this vast porcelain-kiln system is historically known as the Longquan kiln. The Longquan kiln is the famous celadon kiln with the longest firing history, the widest distribution of kiln sites, the highest product quality and the largest production scale and export range in the history of Chinese ceramics. Longquan celadon also had a major influence abroad, being exported in large quantities as early as the Song and Yuan dynasties. Chen Qiaoyi wrote in the 'Preface to the Gazetteer of Place Names of Longquan County': 'From the various ports on the southeastern coast of China, following the sea routes all the way to the Persian Gulf, the Arabian Sea, the Red Sea and the coast of East Africa along the Indian Ocean... there is nowhere that the traces of Longquan celadon cannot be found.' The process flow of Longquan celadon consists of eight stages: material mixing, forming, body-trimming, decoration, glazing and biscuit firing, saggar loading, kiln loading and firing, of which glazing and firing are the most distinctive. Thick-glaze products usually require several layers of glaze: one layer applied and biscuit-fired, then glazed and biscuit-fired again, repeated four or five times; the most require more than ten layers of glaze before entering the final firing. The biscuit-firing temperature is relatively low, generally around 800 degrees Celsius. Glaze firing, by contrast, is at around 1,200 degrees Celsius, with the temperature raised and controlled step by step as required and the kiln atmosphere controlled, until the finished product is finally obtained. Celadon firing is not only a technology but also an art. Fine celadon is green and lustrous, crystal clear and rich in charm, possessing a 'jade-like' beauty that embodies profound cultural content. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the celadon firing craft, which had declined since the late Qing and early Republican period, was restored. However, as the function of celadon vessels has gradually been replaced by modern goods, social demand for them is not great. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Archival Records of Process Steps": The process flow of Longquan celadon consists of eight stages: material mixing, forming, body-trimming, decoration, glazing and biscuit firing, saggar loading, kiln loading and firing, of which glazing and firing are the most distinctive.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

He has received the Science and Technology Invention Award from the People's Government of Zhejiang Province and the Xinchuan Award for bearers of Chinese intangible cultural heritage, conferred by the Chinese Academy of Arts (China Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Centre).

04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier

05 · Fellow National Bearers Lineage

National representative bearers recorded under the same item code, ordered from the first to the sixth batch. Batch order is not a teacher–student relationship.

06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography

1. Mao Zhengcong · National Representative Bearer Archive