When Li Xiang followed his father to the official kiln of the Xiunai Division, he was still shocked by the huge kiln site in front of him1

On the hills that are not more than 100 meters high, there are more than a dozen kilns, these kilns are built against the mountain, as if a long dragon is entrenched on the hillside, under the hillside, there is a large workshop, and many potters can be seen in the distance. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

This meeting really shocked Li Xiang, but he didn't expect this official kiln of the Song Dynasty to be so large.

However, since the imperial court has the official kiln of Xiu Neisi and the official kiln under the suburban altar, why did it send officials to supervise the burning of "offerings" in Longquan and other places? Now Li Xiang guessed the general reason, the main reason is likely to be that the local porcelain clay resources in Lin'an are not ideal, and the ancient porcelain industry is very dependent on the geographical environment and resources.

Judging from the fact that the residue rate of this batch of celadon tea cups supervised by my father is almost nearly 100%, the quality of Lin'an's porcelain clay is indeed not good, and the fetal quality of the Southern Song Dynasty official kiln is relatively loose and easy to break, and there is an open piece, the so-called "no piece is not an official", and the open piece is a major feature of the Southern Song Dynasty official kiln porcelain. But whether it is ice cracks or plum blossom slices, beauty is beautiful, but it is not practical, just imagine, the porcelain full of open pieces as porcelain for daily life will inevitably have health problems. Just like the tea cup, the tea dirt left after drinking tea is not easy to clean if there is an open piece, so this batch of tea cups is required not to produce cracks.

In the Southern Song Dynasty, the shape of this tea cup resembles a bucket that is turned over, so people call it "bucket hat", and its characteristics are mainly: the proportion of caliber and bottom diameter, compared with the caliber and bottom diameter of the five generations of inclined wall bowls, the proportion of the bottom diameter has increased, and the shape is more delicate than the inclined wall bowl of the five dynasties, more upright, lighter, and more chic.

However, it has several shortcomings: first, the mouth of the bowl is large, the bottom is small, the height is slanted, and the wall is sloping, which occupies more space, resulting in a corresponding reduction in the capacity of the bowl. The second is that the circle foot of the bowl is too small, and the center of gravity is not stable enough. The third is that the distance between the mouth and the bottom is too large, and it is inconvenient to take it. Why was the Southern Song Dynasty tea cup designed in this shape?

This was probably to meet the needs of people drinking tea at that time. The processing methods and drinking habits of tea in the Song Dynasty were different from those of later generations. In later generations, people made tea leaves into filaments or flakes, soaked the tea leaves with boiling water before drinking, and only drank their juice and discarded their leaves when drinking. In the Song Dynasty, people liked to add borneol, paste or wolfberry puree, mung bean, fried rice, sesame, Sichuan pepper, and yam to the tea leaves before drinking tea, mix and crush, or cook or boil, and eat the tea juice and tea powder together when drinking.

In order to adapt to this tea-drinking habit, the potters designed the kind of porcelain bowls with skimming, sloping walls and small bottoms. Using this style of porcelain bowl to drink and grind tea can get the effect of easy drying without leaving residue. If the Song people used the teacup with a larger bottom diameter and a straight wall that was popular in later generations to drink and grind tea, then the tea powder would stick to the inner wall and not be easy to pour clean, and it would be impossible to receive the effect of "easy to dry and not leave residue". This kind of porcelain, which appeared in the Northern Song Dynasty, was still produced until the Southern Song Dynasty.

Compared with the official kiln, the fetal quality of Longquan kiln celadon is relatively careful and hard, especially the white tire thick glazed celadon, the glaze is smooth and clean, which is both beautiful and practical. Of course, the most important achievement of the porcelain kiln firing technology in the Song Dynasty is the invention of the overfiring method and the "fire illumination technique". The advantage of this firing method is that it maximizes the use of vacant space, which can not only save fuel, but also prevent the deformation of the utensils, thereby reducing the cost and greatly increasing the output, which has had a great impact on the porcelain kilns in both the north and the south.

However, the official kiln does not consider the cost and output too much, and the most important thing is the quality! If you can't fire the fine porcelain you need in the palace, it's a failure! You must know that this is in ancient times, the so-called companion of the king is like a companion tiger, if the emperor is unhappy, the loss of the official hat is light, and in serious cases, the whole family may be exiled, and it is possible to kill the head!

Li Xiang estimated that the area of the official kiln is no less than two or three hundred acres, and in the center of this workshop, there is a house with blue tiles and red walls, which is about the "administrative office building" of the official kiln!

Li Kang smiled and said, "Xiang'er, this is your first time here, let your father take you to have a good visit!" Today is also the last time to fire the celadon tea cup that the palace wants, if it doesn't succeed again, the father will probably have to take off this official uniform and become an ordinary person, Xiang'er, will you blame your father? ”

Li Xiang shook his head, looked at his father seriously and said, "Father, I promise that this time will be successful!" Moreover, even if you lose your office, the child has nothing to complain about, because the father is a good official, and even more so a good father! ”

Hearing his son say such words that made him feel relieved, Li Kang couldn't help laughing and said, "Okay, well said!" Let's go! ”

The whole official kiln yamen sits west and faces east, there is a white marble marble lion more than one meter high on both sides of the gate, as soon as you enter the door, first there is a high courtyard, the courtyard like a courtyard, there is a pentagonal pavilion facing the gate, the five pillars of the pavilion, the steps and the round table in the pavilion, the stone drum are all made of white marble, and there is a white marble stele of more than one meter wide and four or five meters high carried by a turtle on both sides of the pavilion.

The thick blue bricks of the four walls are as large as four red bricks of later generations. The thick blue tiles of the roof shimmer in the light like the scales of a black fish, and the high eaves are carved with delicate patterns of flowers and birds, showing solemnity and beauty.

There were soldiers guarding the gate, and when they saw Li Kang striding over, the soldiers also hurriedly saluted.

Originally, this official kiln of the Xiu Nei Division was actually a combination of two yamen, in addition to Li Kang was the supervisor of the Xiu Nei Division, who was responsible for supervising the production of porcelain in the official kiln, and there was also a supervisor Liu Xuan sent by the Imperial Internal Division.

In fact, the potters of the official kiln were subordinate to the Imperial Interior Division, but since the official kiln was established in the camp of the Xiu Nai Division, and many soldiers of the Xiu Nai Division also served in the official kiln, in fact, the official kiln of the Xiu Nai Division was managed by two institutions of the same pole.

Naturally, the friction between these two institutions is not small! And the two eunuchs, Ping Suli is also at odds with each other, then Liu Xuan has long been looking forward to Li Kang's accident, and the batch of celadon teacups that the palace wants this time is in charge of Li Kang, so the continuous firing failed, so Liu Xuan was already watching the joke on the side.

Liu Xuan is naturally happy to see Li Kang fail, in that case, he will have one less powerful opponent, maybe the entire official kiln will fall into his grasp at that time, of course he knows that if he can't make the porcelain that the official family wants, the lightest will be dismissed, and when the time comes, he will be promoted to Xiu Neisi and send another person, who is not familiar with anything, then he has to listen to him for everything?

Li Kang didn't know that at this time, his old opponent Liu Xuan was waiting for him to lose his position!

The soldiers at the door are all people who promote the cultivation of the inner division, Li Xiang can see that these soldiers respect his father from the bottom of his heart, and he is thinking in his heart, it seems that his father is not only a good father, but also a good boss, and there are thousands of soldiers in this official kiln, and they are all his father's subordinates!