Riding the wind of rebirth

"What's wrong with people in the Song Dynasty?" Zhou Zhi was amused when he heard that, "I like to nickname painters. Fan Kuan's original name was Fan Zhongzheng. Because of his carefree temperament, he was nicknamed 'Fan Kuan'. There are not many people who know the name.”

"So this seal should be stamped by Liu Songnian's disciples or admirers after he got his painting. Judging from the inkpad, the date is not far after the painting was created, and it was also in the Southern Song Dynasty."

"So it happened to be repaired with Atractylodes macrocephala honey mud, and it was really well repaired. For such a small painting, even a small flaw will be exaggerated. It really needs to be meticulous and hard work. Thank you, Fourth Aunt."

"Thank me for what. Being able to repair the masterpieces of the predecessors is a blessing that many people can't ask for. If you think you can see it, you can read the previous "Poetry of Raising a Pen", "Zitting Dragon Picture", "Shu Mountain Picture", The "Mountain Entry Map" was brought back, and we filled in the part with the seal."

"But those paintings are mostly seals of descendants? There is also "Mango Bamboo Entering the Mountain", which is directly a work of Kun Can in the early Qing Dynasty."

"This silly boy." The fourth cousin couldn't help laughing: "You are caught in the ink clay box of Ru kiln, and the rest of the things are completely invisible?"

Zhou Zhi looked at the desk, only to find that there were several ink sticks and three inkpad boxes on both sides of the Ru kiln inkpad box just now.

Mo Zhouzhi didn't research it, but the inkpad boxes were all made of porcelain, and Zhou Zhi recognized them at a glance. The first one was Wanli blue and white in the Ming Dynasty, and the pattern was a pattern of Gaoshi playing chess. The second one was Kangxi cowpea red glaze. Natural beauty; the third is Qianlong blue and white dragon pattern, standard official kiln utensils, quite satisfactory.

"They're all porcelain boxes, I like them." Zhou Zhi picked them up one by one and admired them, "I said that I'm going to buy some blue and white age vessels this time, and these two blue and white pieces are just right."

"The small pieces of Wanli blue and white official kiln wares have fine and dense carcass and white mud, but overall they are inferior to the previous Yongxuan blue and white in terms of craftsmanship and texture."

"In the early stage of blue and white, Huiqing was mostly used, and in the late period, Zhejiang materials were mostly used. The glaze of this inkpad box is fine and thick, with a strong sense of luster. The glaze is bright green glaze, and the glass texture is excellent. The blue and white hair color is thick and gorgeous, and the blue is purple. It is the early Wanli blue and white porcelain. standard feature of the device."

Uncle Si Biao smiled and pushed the Qianlong blue and white flowers over: "Tell me about it."

"Qianlong blue-and-white official kiln wares must first have a base. The early base is a six-character square seal script. The blue-and-white is made of high-quality Zhejiang materials. The shape of the vessel is regular, and the glaze is as white as paper." After Zhou Zhi finished speaking, he compared this inkpad box with the previous Wanli blue-and-white Putting it together: "It is almost impossible to see the bluish, reddish color cast, but when you look closely, there is an extra layer of orange peel. This is actually a shrinkage glaze, but it has created the special beauty of some ancient porcelains in our country."

"Zhejiang blue and white hair color is gorgeous, but it also has a similar smudge effect of Yuan blue and white, which shows that the performance of Zhejiang material was not stable at that time, and it is suspected of imitating the effect of Soviet material."

"Early Qianlong blue and white imitated Yongzheng and Kangxi all the way, but the tire quality was not as hard and dense as Kangxi blue and white, and it was not as uniform and delicate as Yongzheng blue and white. The kung fu was all done on the surface, but the kung fu of pattern drawing can be traced to Yongxuan. Of course, because of the materials used The relationship, but the hair color is not as good."

"Generally speaking, Qianlong blue and white is characterized by thick tires, fine workmanship, and inferior materials. In the early stage of blue and white, the pen was light and elegant, with smudges and purple stains; Outlining and coloring techniques; in the later period, the shape of the utensils became rigid, the painting began to be rough, and the blue and white were dark in the blue. It is still easy to distinguish."

"There is another feature that everyone knows." Zhou Zhi turned the ink clay box over: "The bottom of the Qianlong official kiln, the year character must be broken. It was originally a rigid requirement of the style of the inner palace, but later it became one of the distinguishing features. .”

"It's a rare opportunity to go to the capital this time, and there are many good things there," the fourth cousin nodded: "Just remember one thing, 99 is genuine but there is doubt, it will be treated as a fake."

"Things beyond one's own vision, even if others blow them up, they won't be moved."

"It's better to miss it, don't kill it wrong. With your current eyesight, you shouldn't suffer a loss in the field of porcelain."

"Yes." Zhou Zhi accepted the teachings of his fourth cousin: "But I'm just getting started with calligraphy and painting..."

"Your starting point is really too high." Uncle Si Biao said with a smile: "Open all the boxes, and today I will tell you about the doorway inside the ink pad."

Zhou Zhi opened the four inkpad boxes of Song, Ming, Kangxi and Qianlong one by one.

"The legend of the ink clay box began in the Tang Dynasty. It is recorded in "Gezhi Jingyuan". There are thousands of miles of incense. It is almost the earliest record of cinnabar ink pad."

"However, there are only a few of them. Until the Song Dynasty, ink was mostly used for seal seals. In the Yuan Dynasty, green was used more, and it was not until the end of the Yuan Dynasty that it was widely used."

"The original inkpad was mixed with Atractylodes atractylodes juice and cinnabar, because the cinnabar would fall off after the water dried up. In the Southern Song Dynasty, it was prepared with dehydrated honey to increase the viscosity of the inkpad. In the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, inkpads that were really mixed with oil began to appear. .”

"Finally, it was found that castor oil, which has been exposed to the sun for more than six years, fully dehydrated, and has stable macromolecules, is the best."

"However, the oil is easy to smudge on the paper, and the cinnabar also spreads along with it, so people began to find a way to add fibers to the ink pad to achieve the effect of not leaving the mud."

"I tested many fibers of cotton and willow flower stool, and finally found that moxa and lotus root silk are the best."

"Moxa velvet and moxa leaves are boiled, filtered, dried, and beaten to obtain extremely fine fibers. A catty of wormwood leaves can only get three or four dollars."

"The shredded lotus root is the filament pulled out by breaking the stalk of the lotus root. Only [-] catties of lotus root stalks can get two taels of five dollars for the shredded lotus root, which is only enough to make ten boxes of ink pads."

"Therefore, it is recorded in "Hui Shi Suo Yan" in the Qing Dynasty: 'Those who want to combine ink and color should first make oil, then make moxa, and then make sand. The three are prepared and the color is completed'."

"As for what you said just happened to be porcelain boxes, that's also a layman's term. Gao Lian's "Yanxian Qingshangjian" in the Ming Dynasty made it clear: porcelain is the best for printing color pools, and jade is not the best. Therefore, today Guange kilns are very expensive."

Zhou Zhi was satisfied: "That's because they couldn't get to the Ru kiln's printing pool... but ten thousand catties of lotus root stalks and ten boxes of ink pads... This cost is too scary."

"Porcelain is the best because pottery and jade will 'eat oil', and rhinoceros teeth will be soaked in color, and enamel will be corroded by cinnabar, making gold and silver even more vulgar." The fourth cousin continued. : "However, if you think that [-] catties of lotus root stalks and ten boxes of ink pads are the ultimate, it is the boar who has never eaten fine chaff."

"Uncle Si Biao's words are true..." Zhou Zhi thought about Guoli who had just started to turn his head: "I'm afraid no one will eat such fine chaff in a hundred years?"

"It's also..." The fourth uncle opened the ink pad boxes one by one: "This is the honey-made cinnabar of the Song Dynasty, this is the oil-mixed cinnabar in the early years of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty, this is the silk screen printing pad of Longquan lotus root in Changzhou, Kangxi, and this is the Jingyutang of Qianlong. Eight Treasure Ink Pad."