Colored Glass Firing Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
This craft originated in Dazhuang Community, Lucheng Subdistrict, Qufu City, Jining City, Shandong Province. It has been passed down through the generations by the Zhu family, and in the course of its survival and development it spread continually to the surrounding areas of Yanzhou, Zoucheng, Sishui, and Tengzhou. During the Dazhong Xiangfu era of the Song dynasty (1008), the imperial court ordered that a number of Shanxi Zhu-family kiln households be relocated to the border between Qufu and Yanzhou, where a kiln yard was established to fire yellow glazed tiles to meet the need for expanding the Confucius Temple. In the third year of Hongwu of the Ming dynasty (1370), the Confucius Temple was expanded and renovated twice, and the court ordered the Zhu-family kiln households to move to Dazhuang Village on the outskirts of Qufu City. In the seventh year of Zhengde of the Ming dynasty (1512), the Zhengde Emperor specially conferred upon the Zhu-family kiln households the name 'Yushenggong Kiln Yard,' and the Zhu family's craft of making glazed tiles was thus passed down through the generations. In 1949, the 'Yushenggong Kiln Yard' was restructured and established as the 'Qufu Glazed Tile Factory,' which continues to the present day.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Qufu glazed-tile craft is a traditional hand-made craft of producing glazed tile-ends (wadang) and their architectural ornaments that has survived for over 600 years. The main products of the Qufu glazed-tile craft include finials (baoding), large roof beasts (da wen), roof-animal figures, ridge tiles (fangji), eave-trough drip tiles (goutou dishui), connecting bricks, dragon ornaments (chilong), and wangjungui (a type of rooftop figure), as well as garden and architectural ornaments such as flowers, grasses, pines, and bamboos. The craft has fully preserved the traditional hand-firing process. Its technological process includes selecting earth and preparing clay, forming the body and shaping it, making the glaze, bisque-firing and glazing, and color-firing, among other steps. It then shapes the body according to requirements. The wheel-tile method is used, based on the kiln-building method set out in Volume 15 of the Yingzao Fashi (Treatise on Architectural Methods), which can shape tile pieces of the second through ninth grades; the mold method is used, shaping, mold-making, and forming according to the dimensions of the ridge beasts and animal ornaments. It then blends and mixes uniformly the ingredients for different colors to make the glaze in proportion, places the shaped body into the kiln for bisque-firing at a temperature as high as 1200°C. After cooling, the fired and shaped tiles are glazed. Finally comes the color-firing: the glazed tiles are placed into a color-firing kiln and reheated to induce kiln transmutation, requiring a color-firing temperature of 1000°C. The distinctive feature of this craft lies in its strict procedures, precise ingredient ratios, and meticulous firing; it is a typical representative of China's ancient architectural art, embodying the ingenuity of its bearers and representing the collective wisdom of the working people. The Qufu glazed-tile craft has fully preserved the traditional hand-made process, and it holds strong reference value for the research and utilization of ancient architectural decorative materials, providing technical parameters that can be drawn upon for the conservation of cultural relics.
Archival Account of Craft Procedures
Its craft process comprises selecting earth and preparing clay, forming the body and shaping it, making the glaze, bisque-firing and glazing, and color-firing, among other steps.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
First, local white earth, black earth, and pink-colored shale are selected, crushed fine with a stone roller in proportion, passed through an 80-mesh silk sieve, and soaked and settled into a smooth, greasy clay paste.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Colored Glass Firing Craftsmanship · Colored Glass Firing Craftsmanship · Colored Glass Firing Craftsmanship.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The application of ridge beasts and tile-ends in ancient architecture provides a basis for studying the institutions and regulations of antiquity, and holds considerable socio-cultural value.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Jiang Jianguo 03-1347
- Ge Yuansheng 03-1348
- Wang Shubao
- Su Yongjun
- Liu Kaibao
- Zhao Changan
- Sun Yunhao
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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