The Emperor Shun Zhishi

Chapter 13 Riverside Fired Pottery

Shun knelt for two full hours, and Bi Qing also sat for two hours, showing no intention of changing at all.After another hour, the stove was turned on, and Bi Qing's apprentice took out the five-eared jar of the divine beast that had been fired in the stove with an iron tong.I saw cracks all over the body of the five-ear jar, and the lines on the jar have long since disappeared, even the design of the divine beast has disappeared.

Bi Qing looked at the pottery, frowned, shook his head and sighed.

"I have been firing pottery for 50 years, and only one time I fired white pottery. Other times I failed, and this time is no exception. Why is that?"

Bi Qing looked at the pottery under his feet, fell into deep thought, remained silent for a long time, and suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood.The eldest disciple, Si Tao, hurriedly supported his master to sit on a chair beside him, surrounded by a dozen or so disciples, who kept rubbing his shoulders and beating his back, and Bi Qing slowly regained his strength.

Bi Qing picked up the cooled five-ear jar, looked at the lines on it, and was in a daze again.Fearing that he would get angry again, the apprentices hurriedly took the five-eared jar away from his hand, and advised him not to be too persistent.

Little Xingxing saw Bi Qing's actions, like an old artist who has been engaged in art creation for many years, sad that his work level cannot be improved.Thinking about his words, thinking that the white pottery he said must be porcelain. Although he is not very knowledgeable, as a modern person in the 21st century, he knows that the biggest difference between pottery and porcelain is not only the different raw materials, but also the temperature of the furnace. difference.To make porcelain, the furnace temperature must not be lower than 1200 degrees.

"It must be caused by insufficient furnace temperature."

Little Xingxing originally thought that he would arouse everyone's approval when he said this sentence, but who knew it caused a lot of scolding.

"Nonsense," Si Tao, Biqing's eldest apprentice, yelled at Little Xingxing, "Of course our master knows that the temperature of the furnace is not enough. Do you still need to chew your tongue?"

"I'm talking about the method of raising the temperature of the furnace, you don't understand it."

"Burning pottery, we Dongyi people say we are ancestors, no one dares to say anything, you Chinese people dare to come here to play wild, brothers, give me a lesson for this Chinese barbarian, so that he can learn how to behave."

Under Si Tao's order, Bi Qing's apprentices all stepped forward to drive Shun out of the courtyard.Unexpectedly, Bi Qing stopped them.

"Tell me, how to increase the furnace temperature?"

"If I can help you raise the temperature of the furnace, can the master accept me as an apprentice?"

"Don't say accepting you as an apprentice, why not just call you grandpa."

Seeing that Bi Qing was so sincere, Little Xingxing quickly put away his sloppy attitude and asked Bi Qing to give him three days.During these three days, Little Xingxing asked Master and apprentice Bi Qing to find him a complete cowhide.After getting the cowhide, Little Xingxing sewed the cowhide into a sac-shaped sphere with bone needles, filled it with some hay, and formed a simple bellows.

Little Xingxing connected one end of the bellows to the bottom of the stove, as long as he stepped on it, a gust of wind would blow into the stove, and the flame would burn even more vigorously by the wind.

Everyone watched the fire in the furnace burn more vigorously, and felt that Little Xingxing really had some skills, even Bi Qing had never seen this thing before, so they hurriedly stepped forward to ask what it was.

"The bellows is used to agitate the furnace with wind to accelerate the supply of oxygen in the air, so that the flame in the furnace will burn more vigorously."

"Air, oxygen, what's that?"

Listening to Bi Qing's words, Xiao Xingxing realized that he had said another sentence that the ancients could not understand, and hurriedly fooled him again.

"It's something used to light the fire. Anyway, as long as the wind is strong, the temperature of the furnace will naturally rise."

Seeing that the fire in the furnace turned light blue, Bi Qing knew that what Little Xingxing said was true, so he quickly put the Tao Pi that he had made before into the furnace.Continue firing for three hours.After coming out of the oven, six of the ten pottery were found to be white, while two of them were intact without any cracks.

Bi Qing looked at the two blooming white pottery, and couldn't help weeping with joy.

"I didn't expect you Huaxia people to have this ability. After living half my life, I only burned one piece of white pottery. I didn't expect to burn two today. Well, please be respected by this old man."

This Bi Qing was also a man of temperament, he did what he said, he immediately plopped down, knelt down in front of Little Xing Xing, and respectfully called him Grandpa.

This cry not only frightened the more than 20 apprentices around him, but even Little Xingxing was so frightened that he was at a loss for what to do. Bi Qing, who was full of white hair without thinking, knelt down as soon as he said it.The disciples around him, especially the eldest disciple, couldn't help being furious when they saw the master kneel down and call a young man in his early twenties grandpa. He looked at Shun, gritted his teeth, wishing he could beat him to death with a stick.

Little Xingxing is also a sensible person, although Bi Qing said so before, but after all, he is quite old, so naturally it doesn't count.He quickly knelt down on the ground and kowtowed three times to Bi Qing, which was repaying his bow.

"Master, please accept Yao Chonghua's three respects."

In this way, Shun stayed in Tao Village and became Bi Qing's apprentice.Na Biqing is a kind-hearted person. Seeing that Shun has a high understanding, he can learn it as soon as he learns it. He is very happy that he has accepted a good apprentice. He is no longer divided into Hua and Yi.After studying art for three years, Shun has learned the essence of Bi Qing's craftsmanship. His pottery skills are not as good as Bi Qing's, but compared to his apprentice's pottery worship, he is far superior and even worse.

As the saying goes, "A beautiful woman enters the house, and it is the enemy of an evil woman."Shun studied pottery with Bi Qing for three years and became an excellent potter, which aroused the dissatisfaction of Bi Qing's apprentice worshiping pottery.He couldn't bear the fact that Shun, as Bi Qing's junior apprentice, surpassed his senior apprentice in pottery crafts. Just thinking about it made him angry, and he even thought that the master had left a hand in teaching him pottery.

Whenever he saw Shun being commended by his master, Si Tao became more and more angry, and finally he made up his mind to drive Shun away.

One night, when Shun was sleeping, he suddenly felt someone whispering in his ear, so he got up and checked but didn't see anything.He continued to sleep for a while, and heard buzzing whispers again, and then he saw a few little men walking towards him with iron chains not far away, and let out a ferocious laugh, chanting words: Yao Chonghua, I want your life!
Seeing this scene, Shun was a little panicked. He didn't know how divine this villain was. There were more and more villains. Just when those villains were about to catch Shun, suddenly the mahogany sword under the pillow flashed and shot at him. To those villains, the villains disappeared immediately.

Shun was not harmed, but he couldn't figure out what was going on with these villains.As a modern person, Xiao Xingxing is more knowledgeable than Shun. He remembered the record in "Historical Records" that Emperor Wu of the Han dreamed that a wooden man beat him, and then he suffered from witchcraft.Thinking that Shun's scare must be related to witchcraft, but he still doesn't know who used witchcraft.

In order to find out the truth, Xiao Xingxing behaved himself this time, and he quietly hid the mahogany sword.One night, little Xingxing saw the little wooden man come to claim his life again.This time, Little Xingxing didn't use the mahogany sword to ward off evil spirits, but used the "Qimen Dunjia" technique left by the two immortals Xuansu to control the wooden man and let the wooden man look for the person who performed the witchcraft in reverse.

After the wooden man was controlled by the little star, he started to go back the same way.Little Xingxing followed behind with a mahogany sword.There were about twenty wooden figures, bouncing all the way to the entrance of the village, and then walked into Sitao's house.Xiao Xingxing followed the wooden man into Si Tao's house, and saw that he and the witch were holding a needle and pricking the puppet in his hand. Yao Chonghua's name was impressively written on the puppet.Every time it was pierced, the little wooden man screamed.It's just that these little wooden men all demanded their lives from the priest Tao.

Seeing that the wooden man didn't arrest Shun, but came to arrest himself, the priest Tao was frightened and froze. More than 20 small wooden figures held iron chains, tied them to Sitao and the witch, and beat them with whips. After a while, both of them were covered with scars.

Seeing that the two were dying, little Xingxing showed no sympathy, but Shun's heart softened, and he recited the incantation, and the more than 20 wooden figures stood still.

He walked up to Sitao and said:
"We are all learning from Master Bi Qing. We are members of the same family and should love each other. Why do you want to harm me?"

Si Tao had nothing to say, he hesitated, and suddenly sighed.

"Brother Chonghua, senior brother found a witch because of jealousy and hatred, and tried to use wooden figures to seduce your soul, but I didn't expect..."

"Didn't expect me to be unscathed, did you?" Shun pulled out a dark mahogany sword from his waist.

The witch had also seen the world, and recognized that it was a treasure in the sky.

"It turns out that this is a sword made by a peach tree on the Yaochi. I don't know if the gods come down to earth, the little ones have eyes but no eyes, and they still look at Haihan."

"Even if you are smart, but even if I, Yao Chonghua, don't have this mahogany sword, you can't hurt me."

Seeing that Shun was able to control the wooden man, the witch knew that what he said was true, and she and Si Tao knelt down and begged for mercy.

"I hope the gods will forgive us."

"Forgive you, it's not impossible, but if I didn't learn all the skills today, wouldn't I be harmed by you, and I can only repay him in the same way."

As he said, Shun took two talismans, drew the names of Tao and the witch on them, and told them to eat them.

"This is my ritual according to the law of Tiangang 36. In the next 20 years, if you do anything wrong, these wooden figures will come to you. If you don't do anything bad within 20 years, these wooden figures will disappear naturally."

Seeing that Shun did not punish them, Si Tao and the witch wept bitterly with gratitude.

"Thank you for the grace of not killing the living gods."

In the days that followed, Si Tao became much more honest, and took good care of Shun every day. Of course, he was afraid that Shun would do something to kill him, but it was more because he had surrendered to Shun.In order to repay Bi Qing for his kindness, Xiao Xingxing made some modifications to the kiln used by Bi Qing based on the knowledge of modern people to make it more ventilated and obtain a higher furnace temperature.At the same time, he also taught the villagers to exploit the coal on the mountain, because burning coal can obtain a higher furnace temperature, which is also a major reason for burning good pottery.

After being improved by Little Xingxing, Bi Qing's pottery art has also been greatly improved, and a lot of white pottery has been fired. Although in the eyes of Little Xingxing, these white pottery are far from being called porcelain, but their exquisiteness can be compared to ancient times. Called a priceless treasure.

The more Biqing made white pottery, the more grateful he was to Shun, thinking that he was a rare talent, so he recommended Shun to go to Longshan, the capital of Dongyi, to work in Gaotao's workshop to learn more pottery.A month later, Shun bid farewell to Biqing, rode Sixiang, and continued towards the east, starting a new exploration.

(End of this chapter)