Riding the wind of rebirth

Ru kiln wares have a thick glaze, with a small amount of air bubbles in the glaze, which appear and disappear under the light, like morning stars twinkling.

However, unlike the mouth of Guange Kiln, these sparse air bubbles are embedded in the middle and bottom of the glaze layer, and another part of the air bubbles is hidden in the bottom of the glaze layer, which is even difficult to see through the glaze surface.

On the other hand, the bubbles of Guange porcelain are very clear, and often overflow to the surface of the porcelain to form "brown eyes", while Ru kiln has "brown eyes in the juice, hidden in crab claws", which is not only very different from the same generation of porcelain, And it has caused the extremely high difficulty that the imitations of the past dynasties are difficult to copy.

This is also a special phenomenon unique to agate glaze, because the viscosity of agate is so strong that the air in the glaze and the carcass cannot overflow normally during the firing process, and most of it is sealed in the lower layer of the glaze. The feeling is not strong enough, so that these bubbles are loomingly mixed in the cracked ice texture, which adds another layer of mysterious beauty to the porcelain.

"The green is like the sky, the face is like jade, the few are like morning stars, and the patterns are like cicada wings." Zhou Zhi has now gained great confidence: "Feng Lao, the former president of the Chinese Ancient Ceramics Research Association, once said: 'The glaze color of Ru kiln is the most difficult to imitate. , is much more difficult than Ding, Jun, Yao and other kilns, so there are no authentic works handed down from generation to generation.'”

"So this is a Ru kiln from the Southern Song Dynasty."

In fact, there is another important distinguishing feature, which is the "Baoguang" on the utensils.

This is the age characteristic of old porcelain, which is called "Baoguang restrained" in the jargon.

The so-called porcelain is actually pottery covered with a layer of glass glaze for protection and decoration, which greatly enhances the use value and appreciation value of pottery.

Porcelain that has just come out of the kiln, this layer of glass glaze is transparent and bright, and it is extremely smooth, but in the eyes of the literary and entertainment circles, this is a sign that things are not old, so the glaze surface at this time reflects light, which is called "thief light".

During the years of use and display, the surface of porcelain will also be slightly weathered, causing the glaze color of the porcelain to appear bright and gradually disappear, and the porcelain will become more and more "sense of age".

In the jargon, it means "stolen thief". The thief's light has gone away and turned into "Baoguang", and the porcelain has also become a real expensive antique.

Therefore, for later generations of porcelain counterfeiting, throwing away the stolen light is also an inevitable routine, and there are only a few techniques, the physical one is polishing, and the chemical one is pickling.

However, these two methods can only deceive laymen, because the real old porcelain has different degrees of weathering in different parts, such as the bottom body, the edge of the mouth, the raised belly, and the concave belly.

Fake frosting generally leaves regular wear marks, and the depth is basically the same, which is different from the scattered wear marks left by nature.

The bite marks on the glaze surface brought about by chemical methods are also the same. Not only the roughness is the same, but the scratches and the depth of the cracks are very different.

For Ru Kiln, the difficulty of counterfeiting is even deeper.

"The eyesight of the elbow has been cultivated." The fourth cousin finally smiled with satisfaction this time: "Now there are only nine and a half pieces of Ru kiln collections known in the world that are scattered among the people. Although yours is a little small, it is rare. It’s separate, and it’s both up and down, and it’s a split product, and it’s even the only one among the nearly [-] pieces of porcelain in the world, including museums.”

"So don't look at a small box as big as a palm. Its value is no worse than your Longquan Kiln and Yuan Qinghua jars with lotus leaves, or even more."

"Unexpectedly, never expected that there will be such a leak..." Zhou Zhi couldn't help but be very happy: "Uh... what should I call this thing? It's a weird shape..."

"You don't know how to open it and take a look?" Fourth Aunt laughed.

"Oh yes," Zhou Zhi quickly and carefully opened the porcelain box, and found that there was a kind of red paint inside, which had dried up due to the age, "This is... cinnabar?"

"Zhu Xun, I mixed it with honey." The fourth aunt reproachfully said, "You are also an expert in calligraphy, so it is not a joke to say that."

"Then this is... inkpad?"

"Yes, old inkpad."

There are two kinds of ink pads, namely cinnabar and cinnabar.

The so-called cinnabar ink pad is made of the cinnabar that precipitated at the bottom layer when the cinnabar was bleached. The seal printed is red with purple, thick and calm;

The so-called cinnabar ink pad is made of fine cinnabar floating on the upper layer.The seal slough is reddish-yellow, elegant in color.That
Relatively speaking, cinnabar inkpad is suitable for stamping white seals; Zhufa inkpad is suitable for stamping Zhuwen seals.

Seals were widely used in the Qin and Han Dynasties, but those seals did not use ink pads, but were covered on wax cakes and mud cakes, called "wax seals" and "mud seals".

From the Southern and Northern Dynasties to the Tang Dynasty, people began to mix cinnabar with water, mainly Atractylodes macrocephala, and brushed the bottom of the seal with a brush to cover the silk and paper, and began to have the most primitive "ink pad".

But after the water dries, the cinnabar is easy to fall off, so people began to look for curing agents.

The initial curing agent was what Zhou Zhi mixed into this box of ink pads - honey.

After the honey itself has been concentrated, the cinnabar itself is also highly poisonous, so even though it has been preserved for thousands of years, the box of ink pad in Zhou Zhi's hand is still a beautiful "palace wall red" besides being severely dehydrated.

"So it's an ink pad box." Zhou Zhi laughed.

"That's right, it's still the earliest honey mud." The fourth aunt said, "Look, this is the fan I repaired with the Zhu Lin in this hard box, isn't it perfect?"

The fan is a small painting, in the shape of a round fan, with a silk base, and the painting is a scene of a corner by the lake, lush forests and bamboos, beautiful mountains and rivers, and the brushstrokes are extremely delicate and exquisite.

There is only one line of Zhong Yao-style lowercase script and a seal on the picture scroll. The lowercase script is written on the willow tree trunk by the lake in the picture, and the content is "Jiading Xinwei Liu Song New Year Painting".

The seal is a small seal in Zhu Wen, and Zhou Zhi carefully identified it, but it turned out to be the words "Qingbo Menxia".

"Who is this?" Zhou Zhi was not very familiar with this person.

"It's time to memorize "Xuanhe Painting Book"." Uncle Sibiao said, "At any rate, you are also a collector of famous calligraphy and paintings in the Song Dynasty. You should memorize "Xuanhe Painting Book"."

"Is he famous?"

"He is a famous court painter in the Southern Song Dynasty. He experienced the three dynasties of Xiaozong, Guangzong and Ningzong. He was also a painter of green and green landscape figures in ink and wash. Scenery, known as 'Xiaojing Shanshui'."

"He is Zhang Dunli's apprentice, and together with Li Tang, Ma Yuan, and Xia Gui, they are also known as the 'Four Masters of the Southern Song Dynasty', and he must be remembered in the future."

"I know about the latter two, ah, I also know about Zhang Dunli, Yingzong's son-in-law, right? Liu Songnian is still his apprentice?"

"Yes, that's Zhang Dunli."

"Then I can add a few chapters to "Su Chef". The two princesses are good friends of the heroine, and the son-in-law Zhang Dunli can be regarded as a relatively important supporting role in it." Zhou Zhi smiled happily.

"If this can help you remember more knowledge, I agree." The fourth cousin said angrily.

"Elbow, look at this seal." The fourth aunt said, "It was repaired with old ink pad, how about it?"

"There is indeed no color difference, so the Qingbo disciple is Liu Songnian's name?"

"That's not true." The fourth aunt said: "In the early years, Liu Songnian and his brothers lived in Qiantang Qingbo Gate with his father, so he called himself Qingbo. 'Secret Door Liu'."