Speaking of Sichuan ancient ceramics, the first thing that comes to mind is the Qiong kiln, because it is the most influential and well-known ancient ceramic kiln in the Sichuan Basin and even southwest China. Moreover, led by the Qionglai Shifangtang kiln, plus the Dujiangyan Yutang kiln, the Chengdu Liulichang kiln, the Leshan Dipingshan kiln, the Ya'an Lushan kiln, the Suining Longfeng Town kiln, etc., form a huge Qiongyao kiln system.

Since the beginning of the Sui Dynasty, Qiongyao has dominated the southwest ceramic industry for more than 700 years with its milky green glaze, copper red glaze, underglaze multi-color painted porcelain and high-temperature Tang Sancai, leaving many ancient ceramic treasures to future generations, among them, the high-temperature Tang Sancai is the beautiful and wonderful that Qiongyao left us.

It is not difficult to see that the high-temperature Tang Sancai water bowl in Qiongyao is colorful, the glaze flash is fine, the tire repair is fine, the carcass is light and thin, and the shape is like gold...... These are the main external characteristics of the high-temperature Tang Sancai in the Qiongyao. Why are they still as beautiful as ever after more than a thousand years? It depends on their intrinsic characteristics, the secret of which lies in the recipe of the glaze and pigment.

According to the determination of Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, the composition of this transparent glass glaze in Qiongyao is as follows:

Transparent green glaze: silicon dioxide 59.91%, aluminum oxide 10.11%, ferric oxide 2.56%, titanium dioxide 0.73%, calcium oxide 17.52%, magnesium oxide 4.27%, potassium oxide 1.54%, sodium oxide 0.32%, manganese oxide 0.47%, copper oxide 1.48%, phosphorus pentoxide 1.87%.

Transparent yellow glaze: silicon dioxide 59.92%, aluminum oxide 10.76%, ferric oxide 2.96%, titanium oxide 0.72%, calcium oxide 16.54%, magnesium oxide 4.50%, potassium oxide 1.38%, sodium oxide 0.43%, manganese oxide 0.37%, copper oxide 0.08%, phosphorus pentoxide 2.34%.

Due to the high temperature of the kiln, Tang Sancai does not contain lead oxide, there is no "pan lead" phenomenon, and the firing temperature is more than 1100 °C. This greatly increases the chemical stability of the glaze, so it can be used as a variety of high-grade practical utensils to replace the gold and silver ware with a sharp increase in demand. Many of the Qiongyao Sancai ware with foot rings or even high foot rings are the products of the Tang Dynasty and no later than the Five Dynasties.

The Tang Dynasty's high-temperature glass green glaze water bowl is white, glazed and green, moist like a gem, and has a great visual impact. It is slightly flattened and spherical in shape, and has a graceful body. Water bowl, inkstone, washing, water injection or inkstone drops and other scholarly utensils are a major category of Qiongyao high temperature Tang Sancai, most of these utensils are small and exquisite, beautiful and lovely, plus lead-free and non-toxic, people can't put it down.

Tang Sancai holds the pot and water injection, and is used as wine utensils and study utensils. They are intensely colored and are composed of many colors such as yellow, green, and brown. Although the carcass is brownish-red, the thick white masquerade soil forms a white substrate, which makes the color particularly vibrant.

Tang Sancai's flower mouth folded wall wash body posture is smart, the color is gorgeous, giving people a sense of brilliance. These high-temperature Tang Sancai scholar's utensils and treasures are probably not made for ordinary people, but specially made for high-ranking officials, wealthy businessmen or literati and scholars who entered Sichuan due to the Anshi Rebellion.

Judging from the unearthed situation, this can also be illustrated, Qiongyao high temperature Tang Sancai is almost unearthed in the center of Chengdu and Qionglai City, and it is rarely found in other areas, even in the Qionglai Shifangtang kiln site high temperature Tang Sancai specimens are rare, and other products of Qiongyao are widely distributed, throughout the Sichuan Basin, the western surrounding provinces and the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, which shows that the supply range of Qiongyao high temperature Tang Sancai is very narrow at that time.

The high-temperature Tang Sancai of the Qiongyao kiln is often distributed in the same stratum as the milky green glazed porcelain, and the firing age is mainly from the Middle Tang Dynasty to the late Tang Dynasty, which may last until the Five Dynasties. As we all know, the Tang Dynasty had two emperors enter Sichuan, because of the rebellion of the history of Tang Xuanzong entered Sichuan in the first month of the Common Era, and stayed in Sichuan for one year and two months; 124 years later, in 881 AD, Tang Xizong avoided the Huangchao uprising and entered Sichuan, and stayed in Sichuan for four years.

It is likely that it was this kind of major event that brought the opportunity for the kiln to fire high-temperature Tang Sancai. The high temperature of the Qiongyao Tang Sancai reflects the firing level of the prosperous period of the Qiongkiln, and is one of the representative works of the Qiongyao.

The feet of Tang Sancai's five-legged furnace are in the shape of a beast's head, which adds a bit of mystery. During the Tang and Song dynasties, the incense burner was not only used to worship Buddha, offer to ancestors, drive away evil spirits, and avoid disasters, but also was widely used for the incense of the scholar class for self-cultivation. The late Mr. Liu Liangyou, a famous scholar in Taiwan, studied incense very carefully, and when he saw that there were many exquisite incense burners in the Qiong kiln of the Tang Dynasty, he could not help but sigh that Tang style incense was so prevalent.

Perhaps it was the prevalence of incense that created so many cultural giants in the Tang and Song dynasties. Figure 6-1 shows Tang Sancai's pure bottle incense with yellow ground and green spots, and the color is beautiful. It has a peculiar shape, shaped like a net bottle, with two symmetrical perforations on the abdomen, and it can be seen from the bottom that it is bottomless. What is the purpose of this peculiar shape? Is it the top half of the diffuser or the incense insert? Or is it both? Further research is needed.

Tang Sancai dolls and Tang Sancai Hu people riding lions are excellent pinched sculpture works. The head is molded with a mold, the whole body is pinched and molded by hand, and then carved after combination, and the whole body is covered with high-temperature transparent glass glaze, which is very vivid and expressive. Since the glaze does not contain lead, there is no need to worry about lead poisoning, whether it is used as a desk ornament or a children's toy.

The bearded man riding the lion has a long coat and a small hat, which looks like a Central and Western Asian. The glaze of the glass-green glazed Hu Ren Ding lamp holder is extremely bright, and the Tang Sancai Hu Ren Ding lamp holder is rich in color. The Hu people of both are deep-eyed and high-nosed, with long hair and shawls, and are rarely dressed, looking like South Asians, which is obviously different from the Hu people riding lions.

This shows that at that time, Sichuan not only had economic and cultural exchanges with Central Asia and West Asia through the Silk Road in the north, but also maintained close economic and cultural ties with South Asia through the Southern Silk Road. The image of the Hu people is mighty, like a strong man. I am afraid that such luxurious lamps and lanterns are not affordable for ordinary people.

The Tang Sancai squatting dragon is not only 37 centimeters tall, but also shaped and carved with meticulous detail. A dragon squatting on a round lid with a royal head held high. The body of the dragon is hollow, and the round hole at the bottom communicates with the open mouth of the dragon, and it appears that it is the upper part of a large luxury fragrance.

The social status of those who are able to use this top-notch incense is probably extraordinary. So far, only this one such dragon ornament has been found.

Recently, the Sichuan Qiongyao high-temperature Tang Sancai Begonia Cup discovered in Gansu Province not only painted with bright green spots and brown spots on the golden background, but also pressed out nine patterns at the nine spots on the inner surface, with patterns such as flowers, birds, branches and leaves, fruits, etc.

This is a Qiongyao Tang Sancai boutique. If you look closely at the central part, you will find that there are three small dots evenly distributed, which are the traces of the three sesame nails. In addition to these three points, the whole utensil is full of glaze. Many high-temperature Tang Sancai bowls, plates, cups, etc. in Qiongyao use this method of branch firing, and many of them are overburned. In the Tang Dynasty, the Qiongyao kiln used a large number of technical means such as sagger, temperature scale, three sesame nails, and overburning, showing the advanced nature of the Qiongyao technology.

Even in Sichuan, except for Chengdu and Qionglai, it is difficult to see the shadow of Tang Sancai in Qiongyao, why does it appear in Gansu? Is it related to the accession of Tang Suzong Li Heng to the throne in Lingwu in Ningxia in 756? Although this is difficult to know, it at least shows that the Shu road leading from Sichuan to the northwest in the Tang Dynasty was not "difficult to reach the blue sky", and it also absorbed the cultural nutrition of the northwest desert in the process of the development of Shu culture. Qiongyao ceramic culture is undoubtedly a part of the great Chinese culture.

Tang Sancai, referred to as Tang Sancai, is a kind of low-temperature glazed pottery produced in the Tang Dynasty with kaolin as a tire, yellow, green, blue, brown and other colors of glaze firing. Tang Sancai is fired by using the color mechanism of metal oxides in minerals, using lead oxide as flux, adding copper, iron, drill, manganese and other substances as colorants in the glaze, at a temperature of 900 °C, the oxide of copper is green, the oxide of iron is yellow or yellow-brown, the oxide of diamond is blue, and the oxide of manganese is purple-black. On the basis of these glazes, orange yellow, dark green, ochre, eggplant purple and other colors were successfully fired, reflecting that the colorful pottery of the Tang Dynasty was developed on the basis of single-color pottery.

Tang Sancai, it can be said, is not only a glorious chapter in the history of the development of ancient Chinese ceramics, but also a shining point in the history of human ceramics. However, due to the age difference in aesthetics, Tang Sancai's performance can be said to be unsatisfactory in recent years. Of course, there are also factors such as scarcity of numbers, strict national control, and the rarity of overseas sights.

However, in any case, in the Song porcelain, Yuan blue and white glaze red, Ming and Qing official kilns and other porcelain repeatedly hit the situation of sky-high prices, Tang Sancai still did not get the value of its identity in the market. If we look at the general trend in the future, Tang Sancai, I believe it is still a very worthy of everyone's attention to the type of collectibles.

Tang Sancai is ill-fated, at the beginning of the discovery of many people not only did not pay attention to it, on the contrary, it was destroyed, because these colorful Tang Sancai are almost all funeral pottery, many people think that it is an unlucky vessel, so a large number of Tang Sancai was smashed on the spot after being unearthed, in order to avoid evil spirits, from the scientific point of view of today's people, it is simply a violent thing.

Compared with other antiquities and artworks, the history of Tang Sancai's discovery is not long, and its influence in the Tibetan world is naturally much smaller, especially in China throughout the twentieth century, it has been in social turmoil for a long time, and the concept of collecting is almost a blank in the minds of the vast majority of people, so the systematic collection of Tang Sancai is rare.

And this is also an important reason why Tang Sancai has little influence in the antique market, after all, many people did not know the existence of Tang Sancai until the mid-to-late eighties of the last century, but the real boutique on the market has been difficult to find.

Tang Sancai began to burn in the Tang Gaozong period, Xuanzong Kaiyuan, Tianbao period is the peak period of the development of Sancai, at this time Sancai is varied, the shape is vivid and beautiful, the glaze is gorgeous and colorful. The most Tang tombs have been unearthed in Chang'an and Luoyang, and they have also been unearthed in Yangzhou, Shanxi, Henan and Gansu in Jiangsu. After Tianbao, the three-color ware gradually decreased, and due to the gradual firing and maturation of porcelain, the three-color ware in the late Tang Dynasty was almost replaced by porcelain.

Thick burials prevailed in the Tang Dynasty (compared with modern burials, not compared with the Han Dynasty), and there were many three-color vessels unearthed in the large and small Tang tombs, which were all-encompassing, reflecting all aspects of social life in the Tang Dynasty. For example, daily necessities mainly include bottles, pots, jars, bowls, cups, plates, bowls, candlesticks, inkstones, pillows, etc.; models, including pavilions, pavilions, imitation wood cabinets, housing, warehouses, toilets, cattle, horse-drawn carriages, etc.; Figurines have a variety of figures and animals, such as noblewomen, dignitaries, male and female attendants, samurai, heavenly kings, Hu people, horses, camels, pigs, sheep, chickens, dogs, etc.

After Tang Sancai was discovered, it naturally attracted the attention of the Chinese and world art circles, especially since the 80s of the last century, Tang Sancai's research is in full swing, and many experts have made the research results public. Because the firing temperature of Tang Sancai is about 1100 degrees at the highest, the production process is not complicated, and the raw materials are not very rare.

Can you imagine how much difference there will be between the imitation and the real thing that connoisseurs have "cloned" with modern technology? The answer is yes, the basic characteristics of the genuine Tang Sancai are possessed on the imitation of Tang Sancai. It can be said that the similarities between the two are almost 99% or more, and the remaining less than 1% of the more special characteristics cannot be imitated at present, because this special feature can only be formed in thousands of years, and human power is not able to do it for the time being. But such a close identical approach makes it very difficult for collectors to discern them.

Although Tang Sancai imitations emerge in an endless stream, the collection community must not give up its collection because of choking. From the trajectory of the development of Chinese painted pottery, Tang Sancai is based on the low-temperature lead glazed pottery process in the Han Dynasty, through long-term practice and exploration, intelligent craftsmen have a new understanding of raw materials containing different non-ferrous metal elements, and the targeted use of materials and production success, during which it has gone through a slow firing development process from coarse to fine, and finally fired into the famous Tang Sancai pottery in the Tang Dynasty.

It is worth mentioning that the Silk Road of the Tang Dynasty also made Tang Sancai go to the world. At that time, after some countries imported Tang Sancai, they imitated the similar style of Sancai pottery, such as Iran's "Persian Sancai", North Korea's "Silla Sancai", Japan's "Nara Sancai" and so on.

Although the three-color pottery made in these countries is different from the Tang Sancai pottery in terms of style, the basic style of Tang Sancai can still be seen from these pottery. This has also become a strong evidence for the study of China's trade with other countries during the Tang Dynasty, and its great influence on world culture at that time can be seen, so the historical value is extremely important, and this is why after the original excavation, it was valued by foreign antique dealers and collectors, at least they saw the origin of their own Sancai pottery from Tang Sancai.

Since the value of Tang Sancai has been low in recent years, the investment opportunities bred in it are huge. However, many people are helpless to marvel at the fact that they cannot essentially master less than 1% of the discernment skills, so they naturally have to abandon this coveted investment goal. So how do you master this screening technique? Here are two of the more useful methods.

The shape, color style, chemical elements and physical characteristics of the glaze are all available in imitation of Tang Sancai, and it is difficult to distinguish them, so collectors need to look at these aspects:

Look at the old feeling: the real old feeling is natural, rich in layers and deep into the muscles, with a hard object lightly, you can see the old feeling infiltrated into the fetus, if possible, you can gently tap one or two fetal surfaces in an inconspicuous place, you can find that the old feeling is penetrated from the fetal surface to the inside. Imitation of the three-color tire, although there is a sense of obsolescence after the old treatment, but there is no genuine tire through the erosion of the years and revealed the natural sense of vicissitudes of life, the old only in the fetal surface does not enter the muscle, the new feeling is vaguely recognizable, and there will be no phenomenon of the old feeling infiltrating into the fetus. Tap the fetal table to see that the "old" is only a layer of the fetal surface, is the "clothes" of the fetus, unlike the real old feeling and the tire are one and inseparable.

Look at the new section of the fetus soil: the real Sancai due to the long time, part of the new section of the fetal soil after the air, the color of the fetal soil will gradually change from white to black, this process is generally about 3 months, and some of the genuine Sancai washed after the fetal surface will also appear this phenomenon. The new section or surface of the imitation three-color tire is three or five years, and its white tire soil will not change significantly.

Look at the rust: In order to minimize artificial flaws, most imitation Sancai almost do not do rust. When it comes to rust, many people understand rust as a dirty layer of soil that can be washed off with water on the surface of the soil. In fact, the so-called rust is the product of chemical changes in matter, such as rust, patina, etc., it is inseparable from the original.

Tang Sancai's glaze is essentially a kind of bright glaze, just fired into the time bright and dazzling, brilliant luster, after a hundred years of luster gradually faded, warm and crystalline, the glaze gradually became soft and natural, the essence of the light is contained, the treasure is overflowing. Tang Sancai's glaze according to the artifacts unearthed in the tomb so far, its glaze is always soft and warm, except for the serious glaze corrosion, otherwise the Sancai genuine will not lose its soft luster.

Most of the Tang Sancai glaze will appear Harry light due to the long time, it is the shadow of the millennium wind and moon left in the Tang Sancai table, and no imitator can let his imitation pass through the millennium. Harry's light is colourful on any colour of glaze, and colour is the same regardless of the colour it is exposed to.

The treasure light of the whole body of the genuine three-color utensils is in a trance, like a dream floating on the gorgeous and colorful glaze, and all the imitators will feel helpless about this dream light. In addition, the real Harry Light can be photographed with a regular camera, while the imitation cannot be photographed. Therefore, whether there is Harry or not is a strong criterion for distinguishing the real and fake Tang Sancai. Of course, not all Tang Sancai have Harry light, so it cannot be ruled out that Sancai ware without Harry light is also genuine.