Jingdezhen Chuantongciyaozuofang Building Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
Since the late Ming dynasty, the extent and scale of the city of Jingdezhen have remained essentially stable, and within the two-square-kilometer old city center the dense clusters of porcelain-industry buildings formed the main body of the city's architecture. The techniques of porcelain-industry architecture in Jingdezhen developed accordingly, maturing after the Ming and Qing dynasties and reaching their zenith. For example, since the Yongzheng reign of the Qing dynasty, the type most prevalent in Jingdezhen was the "zhen kiln" (zhenyao, or town kiln). The egg-shaped zhen kiln is a flat-flame kiln; it combines the advantages of the dragon kiln, the mantou (steamed-bun) kiln, and the gourd kiln, and became the most outstanding kiln type of antiquity.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Jingdezhen is the earliest porcelain-industry city, and its porcelain-industry buildings and construction techniques are truly unrivalled. Here the greenware workshops and kiln houses stand densely packed, "workshops upon workshops" (taoshe chongchong), forming one of the great sights of Jingdezhen. The distinctive shapes, structures, materials, and functional requirements of the kiln bodies, kiln houses, and greenware workshops gave rise to the unique craft of kiln-house construction. Kiln building (jieliao) and kiln repairing (xiuliao) are known in Jingdezhen as "luanyao" (kiln binding), a practice not found in any other porcelain-producing region of China. The greenware workshop (i.e., the workshop in the ordinary sense) is an important site of production that also serves a residential function, with a compact layout. Traditional Jingdezhen kiln houses are spacious and well ventilated, economical and practical, serving the threefold function of warehouse, production floor, and living quarters. This imposed high architectural standards on their builders, demanding superlative craftsmanship of a distinctive style, and thereby shaped the cityscape of Jingdezhen while establishing the craft of constructing its porcelain-industry buildings. Over the past thirty years or so, most of Jingdezhen's traditional kiln houses and workshops have been demolished in the course of industrialization and urbanization, and many veteran building craftsmen have passed away one after another.
Rows upon rows of kilns and workshops
Workshops and kilns stood row on row, each establishment laid out for forming, glazing, painting, drying and saggars.
Building and mending the kiln
Erecting and mending the kiln — luan tao, as Jingdezhen alone calls it — is a craft with no exact counterpart in other porcelain districts.
Saggar firing and inverted stacking
Saggar, inverted and cushion firing techniques depend on saggars that both protect and support the ware, so kiln, saggars and workshops condition one another.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Jingdezhen is the earliest porcelain-industry city, and its porcelain-industry buildings and construction techniques are truly unrivalled; here the greenware workshops and kiln houses stand densely packed, "workshops upon workshops" (taoshe chongchong), forming one of the great sights of Jingdezhen. The distinctive shapes, structures, materials, and functional requirements of the kiln bodies, kiln houses, and greenware workshops gave rise to the unique craft of kiln-house construction. Jingdezhen's porcelain-industry buildings are concentrated in the area of the Imperial Kiln Factory and in the belt of villages on the city's outskirts. The Jingdezhen Municipal Research and Protection Center for Handmade Porcelain Craft serves as the project's protecting unit.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The "kiln house" architecture of Jingdezhen's traditional porcelain workshops is rare physical evidence of the workshop handicraft industry in China, and possesses distinctive and rich historical, scientific, and tourism value. According to statistics, only 23 traditional kiln houses and workshops remain within the city of Jingdezhen today; the surviving luanyao master craftsmen number only three, including Hu Jiarong of the Ancient Kiln Porcelain Factory; and only a dozen or so craftsmen able to build traditional kiln houses and workshops are left. The craft of constructing Jingdezhen's porcelain-industry buildings is on the verge of extinction, and rescue and protection are urgent. Yu Yunshan (official archive record of an associated inheritor): Male, of the Han ethnic group, born in May 1942, a native of Duchang County, Jiangxi Province. Representative inheritor of the Jingdezhen Traditional Porcelain Kiln Workshop Construction Craft, a project in the third batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage. Over more than fifty years, he has taken part in the construction of more than 400 kilns of various kinds, with his work extending across Jingdezhen, Tangshan, Zhangjiagang, Zibo, and many other cities. He has actively engaged in the protection and transmission of the luanyao technique; breaking with the old guild (hangbang) customs, he has taught apprentices of other surnames, and has passed the technique on to his son Yu Zuxing and others. Hu Jiawang (official archive record of an associated inheritor): Male, of the Han ethnic group, born in November 1944, a native of Nanchang City, Jiangxi Province. Representative inheritor of the Jingdezhen Traditional Porcelain Kiln Workshop Construction Craft, a project in the fifth batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage. In 1958 he entered the Jianguo Porcelain Factory to study ceramic forming techniques; in 1962 he was conscripted into the army; and in 1968 he returned to the Jianguo Porcelain Factory to engage in administrative management. After retiring in 1999, he went to work at the Ancient Kiln Porcelain Factory. Since 2008 he has served as firing master (bazhuangshi) of the Ancient Kiln Folk Customs Exposition Area, taking part in the construction of the Song-dynasty dragon kiln, the Yuan-dynasty mantou kiln, the Qing-dynasty zhen kiln, and others, and leading the organization of their refiring.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Yu Yunshan 03-1313
- Hu Jiawang 05-2742
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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