Dingci Firing Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
Ding porcelain began in the Tang dynasty and flourished in the Northern Song dynasty; it is one of the famous porcelain wares of the Song dynasty. It is named 'Ding porcelain' because its place of production, Quyang County in Hebei Province, belonged to Dingzhou in ancient times. Among the five great famous kilns of the Song dynasty—Ding, Ru, Guan, Ge, and Jun—only the Ding kiln was renowned for its decoration. Ding porcelain was called 'the finest porcelain under heaven' during the Song dynasty. At that time, besides supplying the imperial court for its own use, it was also exported in large quantities to Egypt, Persia, India, Japan, and some African countries. Since the 1970s, the Ding porcelain craft has been gradually restored and developed, and a number of imitation Ding-porcelain products have been produced, such as the child-shaped pillow (hair'er zhen), the plum vase (meiping), and the five-footed incense burner (wuzu xunlu), which have won high praise from all quarters.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Ding porcelain has a dense, fine, and delicate body, a transparent glaze, and a soft luster rivaling jade; besides white, it also comes in red, black, purple, green, and other colors. The traditional firing process of Ding porcelain is extremely complex. Before firing, raw materials such as local quartz, feldspar, and clay must first be dug up, processed into a clay body in fixed proportions, aged, then thrown on the wheel to form the shape, after which the body is trimmed and carved decoration applied. After glazing by the immersion method, the ware body can be placed into the kiln for firing. The Ding kiln was the earliest to use the upside-down firing method (fushao), which became an invention in the history of ceramics. The Jin–Song war in history caused the highly influential Ding porcelain of that time to decline rapidly; many craftsmen moved south due to the changing situation, and Ding porcelain production never recovered. By the Yuan dynasty, the fine-porcelain craft of Ding porcelain had already been lost, with only the coarse-porcelain firing process surviving among the people.
Archival Account of Craft Procedures
Yet the Ding porcelain firing craft has been lost for many years; its production process is highly complex, and a full recovery is no easy task. The rescued Ding porcelain craft still requires active protection today so that it may be carried on and developed.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Ding porcelain firing craft is centered on Quyang County in Hebei Province, extending to the areas of Zhuozhou and Lingshou. Quyang has been under the jurisdiction of Dingzhou since the Northern Wei dynasty; the kiln sites are distributed along the hills, and in the Ming and Qing periods the remaining branches of the Ding kiln continued to fire white porcelain locally. The Quyang County Cultural Center of Hebei Province is the protecting unit of the item, and the Ding kiln ruins and the contemporary Ding-porcelain workshops are located in the same place, with the ancient kiln sites providing a standard for the craft's restoration.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Yet the Ding porcelain firing craft has been lost for many years; its production process is highly complex, and a full recovery is no easy task. The rescued Ding porcelain craft still requires active protection today so that it may be carried on and developed. Chen Wenzeng (per official inheritor archives): Representative inheritor of the Ding porcelain firing craft, a national-level intangible cultural heritage item of the third batch. Master of Chinese Arts and Crafts, an expert enjoying the special government allowance of the State Council, and a National Model Worker. He devoted forty years to the research and restoration of the Ding kiln, bringing the millennia-lost famous historical kiln porcelain back into the world. He excels at Ding-porcelain form design and its decorative art, combining the Ding kiln's carved and incised floral art with Chinese calligraphy, and invented the three Ding-kiln carving knives—the single-line knife, the double-line knife, and the group-line knife. His works use fine white Ding-kiln clay; the vessel bodies are decorated with the Ding kiln's traditional carving, with practiced, steady knife work, swaying branches and flowers, revealing the mind's method within the carving. Using the traditional wheel-throwing forming method, between release and gathering there seems to dwell a rhythm; once turned and cut, vivid life emerges. His work 'Sihai Chengxiang' (Auspiciousness Spreading Across the Four Seas) was permanently collected by the Great Hall of the People as a national-treasure-level precious item. He has published several monographs including 'Research on the Ding Kiln.' Male, Han ethnicity, born in March 1954, died in June 2016, a native of Quyang County, Hebei Province. In 2006 he received the Special Achievement Award for the Restoration and Development of Famous Chinese Ceramic Kilns, issued by the China Ceramic Industry Association.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Chen Wenzeng 03-1349
- Pang Yonghui
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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