Recently, "opening a kiln and building a lamp" has become a new favorite for online live broadcasts.
Netizens are happy to enjoy the happiness of opening the blind box through the screen: I saw the workers move a stack of saggers from the kiln, pry them open on the spot, take out the tea cups, and the anchor identifies the "kiln treasure" on the spot, and then let netizens "pick up the leak" at a low price.
● The live broadcast room of Jianzhan on Douyin
In the live broadcast room, I often hear the anchor emphasizing in a super exaggerated tone - the beauty of "Kiln Treasure" is rare, and then give a super shocking price: Don't want 998, take it home tonight at 98.
Many netizens think that they have earned a treasure, but they don't know the depth behind this: many "kiln treasures" in the live broadcast room are cheap products mass-produced by Dehua.
The real building lamp is not so easy to come by.
When the Japanese next door mentions Jianzhan, their eyes often light up: National treasure! Very precious!
It is said that there are only three and a half pieces of the most beautiful Yaobian building in the world - only half of them in China and three in Japan.
How did China's Internet celebrity tea bowl become a national treasure of Japan?
Jianzhan originated in Shuiji Town, Jianyang District, Nanping City, Fujian Province, and belongs to one of the eight famous porcelains of the Song Dynasty.
Its shape is like an inverted hat, with a wide mouth and small feet, full and soft contour lines, and a bit of dexterity and grace in the atmospheric stretch.
What is particularly different is the color of the firing of the building lamp - different from the light color of the blue and white porcelain, the building lamp is dominated by black.
Due to the different content of glaze components in the glaze, after firing at high temperature, different glaze patterns and colors will be naturally formed, and each piece is ever-changing and unique.
On the dark glaze, some are dotted with large and small spots, such as the feathers of a partridge bird with scattered white spots on its chest;
Some are finely carved with a trace of brown or rust-colored stripes, like rabbits;
Others resemble oil droplets, glowing silver in the light......
As the saying goes, "one color into the kiln, ten thousand colors out of the kiln", the natural beauty of Jianzhan not only collided with many categories such as "partridge spots", "rabbit hair" and "oil drops", but also harvested countless followers in the Song Dynasty and became the royal tea.
Song Huizong was particularly fond of it, and once wrote a poem to praise: "The rabbit can cook the cloud liquid, which can relieve the red face and enter the drunken country." ”
Among the varieties of Jianzhan, the "Yaobian Jianzhan" belonging to the Southern Song Dynasty is the most rare.
In Japan's 1511 published "Juntaiguan Left and Right Accounts", the beauty of "Yao Change" was recorded as follows:
"Yao Change, the supreme divine product of Jianzhan, is a rare thing in the world. Its ground is black, there are small and thin star spots, and the jade white halo surrounds it, which is as beautiful as a brocade, and ten thousand things are also. ”
● Xiang Ami's "Juntai View Left and Right Accounts"
Due to the extremely difficult firing of Yaobian Jianzhan and the extremely low yield of the finished product, the price was high and difficult to find as early as the Song Dynasty.
Later, with the loss of the Yaobian Jianzhan firing technology, it became more precious and became an insoluble mystery in the field of firing.
In 2009, when the site of the original "Southeast Chemical Plant" in Shangcheng District, Hangzhou City excavated the fragments of Yaobian Jianzhan, it instantly caused a sensation in the industry. Dreamy and gorgeous markings, like the vast starry sky - although incomplete, it is still shocking, and has been rated as "the closest to the Song Dynasty Yaochang divine object".
● The "three-quarters" of the Song Dynasty Yao Chang building lamp unearthed in Hangzhou
In Japan, where the tea ceremony is highly valued, the Yaobian Tsukuhan is a national treasure.
During the Song Dynasty, many of the temples flowed eastward to Japan, whether they were shoguns or family chaebols, they were carefully kept - to this day, the world's three most complete Yaobian Jianzhan are all stored in Japan.
The first is the "Inaba Tenmu" in the collection of the Seikado Bunko Museum of Art in Japan, which is called "the first bowl in the world" by the Japanese, and was introduced to Japan as early as the Kamakura period.
● In 1951, the "Inaba Tenmu" was recognized as a national treasure by the Japanese government, and has the reputation of "the universe in a bowl".
There are concentrated spots of obsidian on the inner wall of the building lamp, and with the flow of external light, these blue spots are also constantly changing colors, white, purple, blue, indigo...... The overflowing colored light is lined with a blue and black background, like a deep starry sky hidden in a small bowl, so bright that people can't take their eyes off it.
● 日变建盏 "稻叶天目" local department
The second piece is the collection of the Fujita Museum of Art in Japan, which is famous for its colorfulness. Legend has it that in 1918, the Fujita family paid a full 50,000 yen for the cup, and the value is now immeasurable.
Chen Xianqiu, an ancient ceramicist, once described its amazement: "At first, it didn't attract my special attention, but after a few minutes, the sun suddenly burst into space dazzlingly...... The glaze inside the bowl radiates a glow. ”
● The Changing Lamp from the Fujita Museum of Art, Japan
The third piece of Yao Chang Jianzhan is collected in the Ryuko-in Temple of Daitokuji Temple in Japan, which is said to have been introduced to Japan in the Wanli period, and has been used as a Buddhist vessel in the temple since 1606.
● Kyoto Daitokuji Ryūkoin Yokōin 1990, 2000 Exhibition
Although the color of this Yao Chang building lamp is dark, it has a different kind of "mysterious beauty".
It is hard to imagine that the "Made in China" that prevailed in the Song Dynasty would one day become a national treasure of Japan.
What happened to Jianzhan, which was once all the rage, so that it fell silent for a long time in China?
At the beginning, Jianzhan could become a popular tea ware in the Song Dynasty, which was closely related to tea culture.
During the Tang and Song dynasties, there was no current roasted tea, and tea processing was still in the cake tea stage.
In the middle of the Tang Dynasty, both the court and the market liked sencha - first make tea cakes into tea cakes and dry, and before drinking tea, take an appropriate amount of tea pieces and crush them in the tea mill, sieve the residue, and set aside. There is a poem: "Ground into gold powder, light and tender like pine flowers." ”
● Song Dynasty Liu Songnian "Tea Drawing"
After preparing the end of the tea, the other end of the frying water is also very particular: first pour the water into the kettle and boil, and when the blister the size of a fish's eye emerges in the container, add salt to taste; When "the edge is like a spring", scoop out a scoop of water for later use, and pour the tea powder into the boiling water and stir, and at the same time slowly pour in the scoop of water that has just been scooped out separately to increase the "soup flower".
Lu Yu's "Book of Tea" records the moment of soup like this: "There is a moment, like a rushing wave splashing foam, stopping it with the water that comes out, and cultivating its flower." ”
After this series of operations, the tea was drunk with a full sense of ritual - the mood, vision, and taste were all enjoyed. Liu Yuxi also wrote poems to record his happiness of drinking tea: "The sound of the showers and pines is coming, and the white clouds are full of bowls of flowers. Melodious snorting nose wakes up, clear and bone-boring. ”
However, this way of drinking tea has a big "flaw" - it is complicated, cumbersome, and too slow...... It is not suitable for busy workers.
So in the Song Dynasty, the common people began to secretly poke and probe to improve, and the new style of ordering tea gradually spread from Jianyang, Fujian.
What is tea? It's a bit like a stripped-down version of sencha – the tea leaves are crushed into the dust, placed in a cup, and then poured into boiling water several times and stirred until the surface of the tea broth forms a soup flower.
● Song Dynasty "order tea" step diagram
Take a closer look, and now Japanese matcha is borrowed from a similar way of eating.
Interestingly, the Song people attached great importance to the color of the soup, thinking that the tea was better than the white one, and they didn't know where the desire to win came from, so they set off a tea fight craze - compared to whose soup color is brighter, whose tea soup is more fragrant, and whose tea soup "latte art" is better.
● Song Dynasty Zhao Mengfu "Tea Fight"
This kind of tea fighting atmosphere that respects white tea soup will naturally affect people's choice of utensils.
In order to make it easier to observe the color of the tea soup, the dark black glaze Jianzhan stands out from the crowd of light-colored tea ware.
The type of building pot with a wide mouth and a narrow bottom also alludes to the needs of tea buckets: there is enough space to stir and foam, and the mouth edge is soft and slightly wide, which is conducive to comparing the duration of tea soup and biting cups.
● A white tea soup made by ordering tea
In addition, there is no need for too much manual depiction in the production process, relying on the magic of nature to randomly generate patterns, and there is an all-encompassing mystery hidden above the deep background - in the square inch, the artistic conception is far-reaching. This coincides with the plain, minimalist and otherworldly aesthetic tastes of the Song Dynasty people.
"The outside is dry and the middle is creamy, like light and beautiful", the simplicity and calmness of Jianzhan struck the heart of the Song Dynasty people who conform to nature and do not pretend to carve and decorate aesthetics.
As a result, Jianzhan entered thousands of households in the Song Dynasty, and even became the royal family, and Song Huizong was the number one fan of Jianzhan.
● Image source: Stills from "Crane Pavilion".
However, after the death of the Song Dynasty, Jianzhan quickly went into decline.
The reason for this is closely related to Zhu Yuanzhang.
Zhu Yuanzhang, as a grassroots emperor, was very disgusted by the extravagance and glitz of the royal family. Soon after he came to power, he ordered the abolition of group tea, forbade the use of large pots and large pots to drink tea, and actively promoted the drinking of loose tea, advocating that tea should be drunk directly after simple decoction.
The ruler's "thrifty" proposition quickly dissipated the trend of ordering tea, and Jianzhan became a "rootless tree", lost its usefulness, and gradually faded out of the historical stage.
Jianzhan went from Jianyang to the royal family because of ordering tea; Also because of the tea, from glory to decline.
During the Ming Dynasty, when the method of ordering tea was completely abandoned, the kiln was quietly extinguished the last fire in the furnace - a generation of tea stars has since fallen, and no one cares.
In this way, Jianzhan hid in the long river of history and was silent for seven or eight hundred years.
It was not until 1981 that China's specially established public relations team, after three years of technical exploration, successfully re-fired the imitation Song Rabbit Jar, and Jianzhan was able to return to the public eye.
● The site of the dragon kiln in Shuiji Town, Jianyang
In 2009, the firing technique of Jianzhan was officially included in the third batch of intangible cultural heritage list of Fujian Province.
In 2011, this technique was included in the third batch of national intangible cultural heritage list.
With the increase in the attention of Jianzhan, the price of the auction market has also risen. In September 2016, at Christie's in New York's "Linyu Shanren Collection" auction, a "oil drop Tianmu" building lamp was auctioned for a high price of 10.3 million US dollars (about 74 million yuan).
● Sold for $10.3 million
In September 2017, at the Jianzhan auction held in Jianyang, Fujian Province, the intangible cultural heritage inheritor Li Ximei's Jianzhan work "Ten Thousand Mountains Can Be Dyed" was also auctioned for 26 million yuan, setting a new record for the sale of modern Jianzhan works.
● Li Ximei's work "Ten Thousand Mountains Can Be Dyed"
The emergence of sky-high Jianzhan not only attracted the attention of more collectors, but also drove the rapid development of Jianyang's Jianzhan industry.
Ten years ago, there were less than 20 manufacturers in Jianyang, and now, one-tenth of Jianyang people rely on Jianzhan to make a living.
● Source: Jianyang News
Jianzhan began to appear in all kinds of boutique teahouses, tea shops, collection markets and gift recommendations, and more and more tea customers want to have a "unique" Jianzhan in the world.
There are also many blind box live broadcasts of "building a kiln" in the live broadcast room - netizens can't help but wonder what kind of color and adventure will be in the newly opened kiln. I can't help it, I want to place an order for the unknown of this "kiln color".
● The live broadcast room of Jianzhan on Douyin
However, the emergence of a large number of live broadcast accounts did not really pass on the Jianzhan culture to the audience, and the main firepower was focused on marketing - even the Jianzhan with a unit price of 9.9 yuan was searched on the Internet, and it abounded.
The real kiln building lamp, the firing process is complicated, from the selection of porcelain ore to the crushing of porcelain ore, batching, and then to mud training, blank drawing, glazing, roasting, before and after the full 13 processes, any one is a test of the craftsman's craftsmanship.
Is it possible to sell such a refined building lamp in bulk at a price of 9.9 yuan?
In May 2024, Jianzhan entered the list of the top 100 regional brands in terms of value with 16.335 billion yuan, which is extremely eye-catching among many intangible cultural heritage porcelains.
The hotter the market, the more likely it is that there is a hidden crisis.
If the revived Jianzhan culture cannot be integrated with the needs of the public, and only stays at the superficial level of opening a kiln to buy excitement, then the fans who like Jianzhan will be lost sooner or later.
Perhaps, there are still many thorns to be removed on the road of exploration and protection of Jianzhan culture.
Over the years, many craftsmen who love Jianzhan have been "overcoming obstacles" in their own way.
Sun Jianxing, a national intangible cultural heritage inheritor, responded to the call of the state as early as 1979 and joined the first batch of scientific research groups for the restoration of Jianzhan Temple.
The whole team overcame many difficulties and tried hundreds of recipes, and finally succeeded in re-firing the imitation Song rabbit jar.
● Sun Jianxing
After that, due to the exhaustion of funds, the scientific research team was forced to disband, leaving many unsolved mysteries.
When faced with a dilemma, Sun Jianxing chose to pay out of his own pocket and continue the experiment.
After more than ten years of hard work, he has successfully restored more than 30 kinds of glaze water formulas such as various oil droplets, tea powder, rust, persimmon, etc., and has contributed greatly to the revitalization of Jianzhan.
Lu Jinxi, another inheritor of the building lamp, spent 19 years of continuous waiting to restore and burn the 700-year-old Yaobian building lamp, and was awarded the Outstanding Contribution Award for Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO.
● Lu Jinxi
Que Meijiao, as the only woman among the 23 inheritors of intangible culture in Jianyang Jianzhan, with her unique aesthetic pursuit and unremitting efforts, has created many amazing oil droplets Jianzhan and established her own brand.
● Que Meijiao
In addition to them, there are many, many names who have become pioneers on the road to the revival of Jianzhan.
The perseverance of a group of people, in exchange for a broader avenue.
Nowadays, the firing technique of Jianzhan is moving from the unknown in the early stage to an increasingly mature inheritance and bold re-creation.
One kiln, one world, one vessel and one flower.
The small cup, coming from the distant Song Dynasty, has gone through the ups and downs of the years, and has been rejuvenated.
Made in China, which once crossed the sea, is regarded as a national treasure by Japan, but the roots are in China after all.
The revival of Jianzhan is the perseverance of craftsmen and the deep watchfulness of culture.
Made in China, after thousands of years, has become an exclamation point. Text/Yu Yezi