Riding the wind of rebirth

Chapter 800 Continuous Innovation
In future generations, these are all problems that can be solved by raising one's hand on Baidu, but today, being able to talk about it here is a real effort.

When Zhou Zhi talked about these professional knowledge, it was like a different person, with a calm and wise temperament, which also made the bosses forget his age.

On this special occasion, at this special moment, only learning is the most important thing. In front of Zhou Zhi's current aura, even Goro Sakamoto had to bow his head.

"Elbow, drink some water." Lin Wanqiu was very proud, and then kicked Li Lehai who was already dumbfounded.

The appraisal consultants of various auction houses are themselves a manifestation of the soft power of the auction houses. Zhou Zhi has already calmed down a group of people, and behind him, there are still Mr. Wang, Mr. Qi, the Forbidden City, the National Expo, and the Chinese University of Shu. Department, Department of History, Institute of Ancient Books Restoration and other state-level units...

What is a fox pretending to be a tiger?This is called a fox pretending to be a tiger!

Li Lehai had a bit of a taste, but he had to rush to pour water for Zhou Zhi.

When he came back with the water, Zhou Zhi had already started to explain the knowledge of Kuilong to everyone.

"The record of Kuilong first appeared in the "Shan Hai Jing Da Huang Dong Jing"-"There is Liu Po ​​Mountain in the East Sea, which enters the sea for seven thousand miles. There is a beast on it, which looks like a cow, with a green body and no horns. Then there must be wind and rain, its light is like the sun and moon, its sound is like thunder, and its name is "Kui". The Yellow Emperor got it, and used its skin as a drum, and the prongs used the bones of thunder beasts. .”

"Some ancient documents say that Kui is a snake-like monster. For example, in the "Shuowen Jiezi" written by Xu Shen in the Eastern Han Dynasty, he explained: 'Kui, the spirit of the gods, has one leg like a dragon.'"

"According to the ancient classics, it looks like a dragon with one foot, which is the characteristic of Kuilong."

"However, on porcelain, the expression of Kuilong is not like this. On the contrary, it is a changed image of Capricorn fish, which is infinitely close to the Yinglong pattern at that time."

"The fundamental reason is that the Kuilong pattern appeared too late. It did not appear in the Song and Yuan dynasties and Ming Hongwu and Yongle official kilns. It did not appear on porcelain until the Xuande period."

"Judging from the decoration of the utensils, the shape of the Xuande Kuilong is very clear - no scales, animal-like feet, a pig's mouth, small wings on the side of the feet, and a curly tail."

"The difference from the Yinglong pattern at that time is that the dragon body is shorter, without fish-like scales, and the mouth is full of passionflower."

"Therefore, Kuilong also had an interesting common name at the time, called 'Hanhualong', which is also the biggest feature that distinguishes it from Yinglong patterns."

"In addition to the standard classical animal-footed Kuilong, three-clawed Kuilong began to appear in the Chenghua Dynasty, that is, the two legs changed into three claws in the shape of a horned dragon. By the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty, the imperial factory also produced five-clawed Kuilong."

"After the mid-Qing Dynasty, the Kuilong as the main pattern on porcelain dropped sharply, and more appeared as auxiliary decorations. This kind of Kuilong small decoration also has a common name, called 'kidnapper dragon'."

"As we said just now, the difference between Kuilong and Yinglong lies in the fact that they contain flowers, including Ganoderma lucidum, but we have to distinguish them from another type of dragon."

"There is a type of dragon that later evolved the characteristic of containing Ganoderma lucidum in its mouth, and that is Chilong."

"In ancient legends, Chi is a kind of dragon without horns. The "hornless Chi" mentioned in "Shuowen" refers to this."

"However, just as the reflection of Kuilong pattern on porcelain is quite different from the one-legged feature in ancient books, the performance of Chilong pattern on porcelain is also completely different from that recorded in ancient books."

"Most of the chilong patterns on porcelain are single-horned, occasionally double-horned, and almost never have no horns."

"The dragon pattern was also produced very early. It can be traced back to the primitive society at the earliest. It was one of the totem symbols at that time. It often appeared in ancient buildings, bronze, jade, ceramics and other handicrafts."

"In the early literature, Chi is a kind of beast, like a tiger, and it is more commensurate with 'Chihu'."

"For example, it is recorded in "Song Shu·Zhi Eighth": 'When the first emperor entered the customs, he got the Lantian jade seal of the first emperor of Qin, and the Chihu button. The Imperial Seal, and the White Snake Sword are both treasured by Chengyu."

"The use of Chi patterns on porcelain has not been found in Hongwu and Yongle imperial factories. Chi pattern porcelain only appeared in the Xuande Dynasty, which is roughly the same time as the first use of Yinglong and Kuilong patterns."

"The dragons on Xuande porcelain are all four-legged, and the number of claws can be subdivided into three categories: three-clawed, four-clawed and five-clawed. Overall, its strong and vigorous body shape is very similar to the popular dragon patterns at that time. The body lacks scales, the head is single-horned, and the tail is in the shape of curly grass. At that time, the images of chilongs were mostly holding Ganoderma lucidum in their mouths, which should be inspired by the shape of Kuilong's mouth containing fan lotus."

"After the establishment of the image of the Xuande chilong, it did not change much for a long time. It was not until the Qing Dynasty that the chilong with dragon whiskers on its lips and the chilong with animal feet began to appear in official kiln porcelain. Later, even animal feet Chilong and Chilong with dragon claws appeared on the same porcelain, and in the Qianjia period, there were often Chilong patterns such as Zuanhua and claws carrying Ganoderma lucidum."

"Finally, let's talk about the bald-tailed dragon. The bald-tailed dragon is very recognizable, that is, the broom-shaped tail is removed from the image of the horned dragon, and it becomes a small or even bald tail."

"This pattern is unique to official kiln porcelain in the Qing Dynasty, especially in the Kangxi Dynasty. It is mainly related to a legend."

"This legend is recorded in "Zibuyu" written by Yuan Mei in the Qing Dynasty."

"There was once a dragon in the sky who was punished to the world and was reborn in the womb of Bi's wife in Wendeng County, Shandong Province. After giving birth, he turned into a small dragon. His father cut off its tail with a knife, so it became a bald-tailed dragon. After the tail was cut off, the dragon flew to the northeast. Settled in Bailongjiang, alias Heilong."

"When the black dragon grew up, he fought several times with the white dragon who endangered the people in the river, and finally won and became the master of the river. Since then, the weather along the coast has been smooth, and the black dragon has also been honored as 'Bald Tail Li Longye'."

"To commemorate his achievements, the local people renamed 'Bailongjiang' to 'HLJ', which is still in use today."

"The HLJ River Basin has a very special status for the rulers of the Qing Dynasty, and has always been regarded by the Qing government as the 'Land of Prosperity of Dragons'. Therefore, the bald-tailed dragon pattern was widely used in Qing Dynasty official kiln porcelain, and it became a propaganda tool for the change of the dynasty. .It was not until the Qianlong dynasty stabilized that it gradually disappeared and returned to the normal shape of the horned dragon."

"To sum up, aside from the horned dragon and the tailless dragon which are easy to identify, the shapes of the other three dragons on the porcelain can basically be summarized as Chi and Kui, which have no scales and animal feet. Among them, the wingless one is Chi; The one with wings is Kui; the foot is optional, it can be two or four, but the one with scales and wings is suitable.”

"Among the auxiliary features, those containing passionflower are basically Kui; those containing Ganoderma lucidum are basically Chi."

"Judging from the use of dragon patterns in the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, since the Xuande period of the Ming Dynasty, three novel shapes of Chilong, Yinglong, and Kuilong have appeared at the same time, which shows that the innovation and transformation of imperial porcelain at that time was great."

"Although the porcelain industry in the royal factory in the later dynasty prospered for several times, the main body of the shape is still based on the Xuande Dynasty."

"So the status of porcelain making in the Xuande Dynasty in the development process of the imperial factories in the Ming and Qing Dynasties can also be reflected through the dragon pattern, that is, inheriting the past and ushering in the future, laying the foundation for future generations, which is of epoch-making significance."

"The subsequent changes and development of many different dragon patterns even caused difficulties in identification for museums and auction houses. It also reflects that the design of imperial factory patterns is constantly evolving and adapting to traditional Chinese culture when absorbing and inheriting it. Innovation."

(End of this chapter)