*Firing Technique of Fengxi Porcelain

89.*Firing Technique of Fengxi Porcelain

Nominating Unit: Fengxi District, City of Chaozhou

Chaozhou is a famous historical and cultural city where the ceramics making has a long history. The Kiln of Bijia Shan in the Song Dynasty, a key cultural relics under state protection, has unearthed many porcelain figures and porcelain animals. Fengxi Town, which is only a few miles from the ancient city Chaozhou, with its deep accumulation of regional porcelain making techniques from the Song Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty, rose to be the porcelain center of Chaozhou and remains to be today.

Fengxi Porcelain has complete categories. There are 4 series: household porcelain, art porcelain, architectural porcelain, and porcelain for special use. Art porcelain is the most famous and has the greatest influence. Since it is mainly used for displaying and appreciation, the art porcelain is also called artistic display porcelain. It consists of several kinds: figure porcelain, animal porcelain, Tong Hua porcelain(flower porcelain), Ci Hua porcelain (porcelain flower), vase painting, etc, among which Tong Hua porcelain and Ci Hua porcelain are the outstanding representatives of the firing technique of Fengxi Porcelain. The making of the two is masterly delicate and integrates all kinds of techniques. The name of “Tong Hua” originated in Chaozhou fagoting (a method of decorating cloth by pulling out horizontal threads and tying the remaining vertical threads into hour class-shaped bunches), and later was used to stenciled porcelain. The Kiln of Bijia Shan in the Song Dynasty already had such a technique but Fengxi Porcelain applies it to the extreme. Tong Hua porcelain includes vase, altar, jar, Zun (an ancient drinking vessel), Tong (tube-shaped), basket, plate, ball as well as Tong Hua bird, Tong Hua common carp, Tong Hua kylin, crab basket, etc. The smallest is as short as 5.7cm tall, while the biggest 1.8m tall and the longest 4m long. The complicated stenciled parts can be up to as many as 5 layers. Tong Hua porcelain can be made with enamel painting, or combined with Fu Diao(relief carving) and Li Diao(cubic carving), or decorated with colorful clay and acid gilding. They are elegant and exquisitely carved with artful conception, intricate structure, and delicate workmanship. Ci Hua technique, the original creation of Fengxi Kiln in the Song Dynasty, thrived after 1950s. The manually-created porcelain petals of plum blossoms and peach blossoms are surprisingly as thin as cicada’s wings and as light as paper scrap. Being unsinkable and unbreakable, they are considered to be made with marvelous techniques. Ci Hua technique also contains several types such as bonsai Ci Hua, fl at porcelain with cubic porcelain flowers, etc. The most characteristic one is the vase with cubic porcelain which integrates Tong Hua technique and Ci Hua technique. The representative “Spring Porcelain Basket of Flowers”, a large palace lantern-type porcelain with 3 layers of porcelain flowers, is pasted with dozens of kinds of Ci Hua(porcelain flowers) in its 82cm-wide basket surface. The flowers, with complete branches, stems and leaves, are wonderfully scattered, with almost 500-600 flower buds, showing vividly the brilliance of Spring. The craftsmanship involveed is superb, reaching the highest state of the Fengxi Porcelain technique.(https://www.daowen.com)

The process fl ow of Fengxi Porcelain involves 8 steps: selecting material, washing mud, molding, rolling over, casting, glazing, burning, painting, baking. The molding step boasts many techniques: piling, carving, engraving, pasting, shaping, printing, pressing, squeezing, etc. while the glazing step includes: dipping, bedashing, pouring, brushing, etc. According to glaze’s different requirements of temperature, burning can be divided into oxidation and reduction. If painting is added, further baking in the baking kiln is needed before completing the whole process.

Fengxi Porcelain not only inherits the highlight of Chaozhou porcelain techniques since the Tang and the Song Dynasties, but also absorbs the techniques of folk art like Chaozhou clay sculpture, festival lantern, woodcarving, embroider, fagoting, etc. It has formed a whole set of firing techniques with completeness, uniqueness, diversification and fine division of labour. Fengxi Porcelain has an important position in the history of Chinese ceramics. During the past 50 years, the unique technique of Tong Hua porcelain pasted with cubic Ci Hua(flower porcelain) is unmatched in porcelain field. Its valuable products have been given to the foreign leaders as national gifts, or display in Ziguangge, Zhongnanhai and the Great Hall of the People as national treasures, or are collected by National Art Gallery, or won the gold medal in Plovdiv International Fair. It has gained worldwide reputation for its breathtaking beauty and superb craftsmanship. The Firing Technique of Fengxi Porcelain was enlisted into the list of the second batch of state-level intangible cultural heritage in 2008.

Today, there are over 4000 ceramics companies in Fengxi with over 80000 employees. Fengxi remains to be an important base of China’s ceramics production and export. However, the art porcelain production gradually declines, due to the change of supply and demand of the ceramics market both domestic and abroad as well as the sharp-increased demand of household porcelain, architectural porcelain and sanitary porcelain. Coupled with the death or venerable age of old craftsmen with special skills and the loss of the young and middle-aged craftsmen, The fi ring technique of Fengxi Porcelain is faced with crisis of no succession. It will be lost if effective measure are failed to take.