Pottery Firing Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
The history of the Dezhou black pottery firing craft is said to trace back over 4,000 years to the Stone Age. According to historical records, Dezhou already had lineage-based transmission during the Qing dynasty, using the black-pottery carbon-infusion method to fire vessels such as basins, jars, and li tripods. In the 19th century, the local Kou family carried forward the Dezhou black pottery firing craft through family-based transmission.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Dezhou black pottery firing craft is a traditional black-pottery firing technique characterized by high-temperature firing with carbon-infusion reduction. Dezhou black pottery uses locally distinctive fine-textured red clay as its raw material, and through traditional skills such as hand-wheel shaping, hand burnishing without glaze, hand carving, high-temperature firing, and carbon-infusion reduction, produces fine black pottery as smooth and lustrous as black jade. The Dezhou black pottery process consists of eight steps: selecting the raw material, forming, trimming the body, burnishing without glaze, carving, natural shade-drying, and loading the kiln for firing. To fire black pottery as black as lacquer, as bright as a mirror, and with the texture of black jade, three steps are especially important. First, selecting the raw material: one should choose Dezhou red clay from along the canal section, which is high in iron content, moderately sticky, and strongly plastic, and rich in elements such as iron oxide, silicon oxide, and lead oxide. Second, hand burnishing without glaze: using smooth tools made of animal bone and shell to burnish the surface rhythmically, so that particles of mica, quartz, and other substances in the material align parallel to the body surface, increasing light reflection, which makes the black pottery surface shine brilliantly. Third, firing: after 48 hours of sealed-kiln smoldering, the distinctive black color of black pottery is produced. The distinguishing feature of the Dezhou black pottery firing craft lies in its high-temperature firing with carbon-infusion reduction: it controls the heat according to kiln conditions, shifting from an oxidizing flame to a reducing flame. Because of the oxygen deficiency in the kiln, the iron oxides in the clay convert to ferrous iron, producing the black appearance of the pottery. This craft is mastered only through verbal instruction and personal demonstration between master and apprentice, together with an ineffable comprehension and the insights gained from long-term practice. With the appearance of bronze wares, the official use of black pottery was replaced, but among the people pottery continued to circulate and be used. The Dezhou black pottery firing craft is a treasure of Chinese pottery art, embodying humanity's wisdom and skill in the use of fire, and has contributed to the development of the world's arts and crafts.
Documented Process Record
The Dezhou black pottery process consists of eight steps: selecting the raw material, forming, trimming the body, burnishing without glaze, carving, natural shade-drying, and loading the kiln for firing.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Dezhou black pottery firing craft centers on the Decheng District and Ling County areas of Dezhou City, Shandong Province, where the Yu River flows and the earth is deep black. Dezhou was a key northern land-and-water junction; black pottery has been unearthed there since antiquity, and since the Ming and Qing dynasties local kiln households have specialized in glaze-free burnishing and carbon infusion. The black pottery produced was mostly sold to the three provinces of Hebei, Shandong, and Henan, so the Dezhou black pottery crafting skill has been transmitted in many parts of North China.
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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
This craft currently centers mainly on Dezhou City, Shandong Province, radiating to a dozen or so surrounding counties and districts. In the 1970s, the third-generation Kou-family inheritor founded the Luzhuang Black Pottery Factory in Dezhou, later renamed the Dezhou Black Pottery Research Institute, which has further developed this craft to the present day, and its current status is good. The smooth black-jade-like black pottery produced using its distinctive hand-wheel shaping and hand burnishing without glaze possesses irreplaceable practical, artistic-aesthetic, and socio-cultural value as an important component of Chinese traditional pottery.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Li Renping 03-1355
- Sun Nuoqilin 03-1356
- Baimaqunjia 04-1877
- Zhang Hongliang 05-2785
- Zhang Wenliang 05-2786
- Li Shoucai 05-2787
- Xie Hua 05-2788
- Lu Jingping 05-2789
- Liang Xiancai 05-2790
- Luo Tianxi 05-2791
- Zhang Luqi 05-2792
- Dangzhenpichu 05-2793
- Chen Shaokang 05-2794
- Geli
- Cengqinghong
- Zhang Yancheng
- Liu Yuhua
- Xiao Wenhuan
- Yuan Yingde
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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