An Imperial Commision for Ming Porcelain Pottery
An Imperial Commision for Ming Porcelain Pottery
Fictionalized account of a Ming porcelain dragon flask.
From the diary of Shanyuan Lu, the head of a pottery workshop located near Jingdezhen, 3rd year in the reign of Emperor Yongle (1405 AD)
Day 1: Our workshop has just received a commission from the imperial court! Our great emperor has decided we shall produce the pottery gifts for an important diplomatic mission.
I have sent most of the apprentices to the hills to gather dead wood.
We must take no chance that we might run short and there is no time to cut and season new wood. I will supervise the youngest ones as they gather the clay. We will use the fine light gray clay from the Gao-ling ridge, the clay that fires so pure a white.
Day 3: The apprentices are cutting the clay from the pit I prefer at Gaol-ling. At last they have found the proper way to use their spades to cut the pieces off in neat rectangles. The brash young ones tried to cut too much at first and got their spades mired. At least we should be done gathering clay tomorrow. We must begin the work, and soon!
Day 5: It was a hard trip back. One of the oxen has damaged a leg. Cleaning the clay has begun at last, however. The new apprentices are learning to mix the clay with water in the pit-vats so that the slurry is not too thin, but still fluid enough to go through the sieves. By this afternoon, all of this clay will be ready to be sieved into the next set of pit-vats.
Day 6: New apprentices! Having sieved out the worst of the rocks, pebbles, twigs, roots, and such, they thought they were done!
Hai, one of the older apprentices, caught them loafing in the kitchen yard and got them back to work in a hurry. I will have to keep an eye on him; he may make a good team leader as he grows in our profession.
Preparing the Porcelain Clay Body
I have checked our stores of petunze, the chinastone feldspar rock. We have enough for now, but I must make arrangements to have more crushed by the water-powered hammer mills down at the river. And this time I must remember to check it when it arrives. It must be as fine as silk from the imperial looms this time, or I will have the mill master’s mustaches.
Day 7: The clay was been sieved several times now.
I have told the young ones to allow the clay to settle now, then empty as much water as possible out of the pit-vats. I will check on its fineness of texture as soon as that is done. I may as well have them bring the petunze to the pit-vats now. The clay will be ready to mix with the powdered stone either today or tomorrow.
Day 8: I set Li to continue the refining of a small portion of the clay for use in our glaze. I have him using the big kettle-pots in the western yard.
The clay and petunze were being mixed this morning, and one of the silly apprentices wanted to ride the water buffalo as it tread the stone and clay together. As if the creature weren't already working hard enough. At least I caught them and before they put the beast into the pit-vat without cleaning its hooves first! Straw and dung in the clay? Bah! Foolish youth!
Day 9: The apprentices gathered the clay into balls last evening and covered them with cloth. Guan-Yin preserve me and please grant me patience! The ignorant youths were complaining about how the clay smells of swamp.
Do they not have a thought in their empty heads? How can they have lived in this village all their lives and not known the best of the white clays stink when they are ready to be worked on the wheel?
In any event, the clay is ready now to be made ready. I must be certain that each apprentice knows how to wedge the air out of the clay and prepare it for the potters. This will be today’s work.
Throwing the Pots in the Workshop
Day 10: At last the throwing has begun on this commission! Renshu broke the stick he uses to set his wheel spinning, and has been complaining about the new one all day. Wencheng and Gen are ready to throw him into the hammer mill’s pounding pit. Personalities aside, the throwing is going well. By tomorrow or the day after there will be pots for the painters to begin working on.
I have set Hai and Feng to grind the precious cakes of cobalt that arrived last season from the Ottomans far to our west.
Journeyman Delun is overseeing them, and he will prepare the cobalt stain for the painters to use.
Day 11: The weather has been good to us; the pots thrown yesterday had dried enough to be trimmed this morning and given to the painters. I am especially pleased with several of Wencheng’s flasks. I believe these will especially please the diplomats. I have asked Ai to paint them, to use her skills at painting dragons to create gifts worthy to have come from our Emperor.
Day 12: Renshu continues to complain. He says his wheel does not feel the same. I watched him for a time. He should be able to throw twenty bowls from one lump of clay in just about as many minutes. Instead, his fussing has him throwing the same amount in nearly double the time. I have warned him to get used to the new stick, and quickly. Next you know, he will complain that his wheel has dropped further into the floor.
Bah! At least Ai’s work is going exceptionally well. There is one large flask I particularly like. Two three-toed dragons striding with energy through flowing lotus.
It is as lovely as she is; I pray the kiln is kind to it. Ai has also been taking Cuifen under her wing and showing her the various painting techniques.
I must remember to send Li for more bamboo and the soft goat hair for more brushes. We will make new brushes after this commission has been completed.
Day 14: The throwers have completed enough pots that we will have a full kiln this time. That is good. Even for the Emperor, it pains me when we have to fire a kiln half empty. It is so much effort, I want to use every speck of space.
I have inspected our saggers and I have told Renshu and Delun to throw new ones using the coarser clay. How many times must I explain to Renshu that the saggers are to protect the pots from the flame and ashes; they cannot do that if their lids, floors, or walls are cracked and broken?
Day 16: The painters are now working on the last of the pots for this kiln load. It is good, given our deadline, that all these pots are being decorated with only the cobalt stains, with the transparent glaze over it. This way, they only need to go through the fire once instead of twice.
I am guardedly pleased. Even the apprentices are doing well. Not a one of the new young ones has lost his grip on a pot as he has dipped it into the vat of glaze that Bingwen and Fuhua have mixed under my direction. We must now wait for the pots to dry completely.
Day 23: We have had much sunshine; the pots are now dry and ready to be fired. The apprentices are placing the pots into the saggers, and the journeymen are loading these into our hill-climbing kiln. I have told everyone to take this evening and light joss sticks at our kiln's shrine to supplicate Feng Huo Hsien (and any other kiln gods who may look in on our work) for a good firing. I have laid the beginning tinder and logs in the main firebox and have ensured the firebox and stoke holes running along the sides of the kiln have plenty of wood at hand.
Tonight I will light the tinder and beginning the slow warming period. Too much heat too quickly and the pots will shatter... something the young ones never seem to realize, no matter how often they are told, until it is too late.
Day 24: It has been a long night, but of course this is just the beginning. I have sent young Jing home for some sleep, as he was with me stoking the kiln all night. We will need his youthful energy over the next two or three days; it is best for him to replenish it now.
The kiln is beginning to warm up nicely. Hungry dragon that it is, it will eat well over these next few days! We will be feeding it through the firebox and stoke holes for two or more days.
For its part, our dragon will gobble the wood and consume it in a burst of flame and noise.
Only when I see that color I have come to know, that fierce yellow-white glowing, will I say to those of us clustered around our dragon, "Enough, our dragon has eaten enough." And we will light more joss sticks and drink cool water and most likely fall asleep where we sit.
But that is yet to come. For now, I must return to my ever-so hungry dragon.
Day 27: The firing seems to have gone well. We now have to wait for the kiln to cool before we can open it and unload the ware. As I have had to explain, yet again, to the young ones, if we don’t let the kiln cool off slowly, the pots will break and the glaze will crack and craze. I keep telling them, "If you are to be a potter, you must have the patience of a potter."
I have sent them to collect the straw we need to pack the pottery when it is ready. I told them to bring more than twice the amount we will really need.
Day 30: We unloaded the kiln today, and not a moment too soon.
We are to deliver the diplomatic pottery tomorrow, down in the town at the Old Street where the street tiles we potters of the city made are shaped and placed as if a flood of blue turtles were coming up from the Chang River.
Ai’s large dragon flask came out beautiful. I will point that one out to the emissary especially. May the Emperor be pleased!
Fictionalized account of a Ming porcelain dragon flask.
From the diary of Shanyuan Lu, the head of a pottery workshop located near Jingdezhen, 3rd year in the reign of Emperor Yongle (1405 AD)
Day 1: Our workshop has just received a commission from the imperial court! Our great emperor has decided we shall produce the pottery gifts for an important diplomatic mission.
I have sent most of the apprentices to the hills to gather dead wood.
We must take no chance that we might run short and there is no time to cut and season new wood. I will supervise the youngest ones as they gather the clay. We will use the fine light gray clay from the Gao-ling ridge, the clay that fires so pure a white.
Day 3: The apprentices are cutting the clay from the pit I prefer at Gaol-ling. At last they have found the proper way to use their spades to cut the pieces off in neat rectangles. The brash young ones tried to cut too much at first and got their spades mired. At least we should be done gathering clay tomorrow. We must begin the work, and soon!
Day 5: It was a hard trip back. One of the oxen has damaged a leg. Cleaning the clay has begun at last, however. The new apprentices are learning to mix the clay with water in the pit-vats so that the slurry is not too thin, but still fluid enough to go through the sieves. By this afternoon, all of this clay will be ready to be sieved into the next set of pit-vats.
Day 6: New apprentices! Having sieved out the worst of the rocks, pebbles, twigs, roots, and such, they thought they were done!
Hai, one of the older apprentices, caught them loafing in the kitchen yard and got them back to work in a hurry. I will have to keep an eye on him; he may make a good team leader as he grows in our profession.
Preparing the Porcelain Clay Body
I have checked our stores of petunze, the chinastone feldspar rock. We have enough for now, but I must make arrangements to have more crushed by the water-powered hammer mills down at the river. And this time I must remember to check it when it arrives. It must be as fine as silk from the imperial looms this time, or I will have the mill master’s mustaches.
Day 7: The clay was been sieved several times now.
I have told the young ones to allow the clay to settle now, then empty as much water as possible out of the pit-vats. I will check on its fineness of texture as soon as that is done. I may as well have them bring the petunze to the pit-vats now. The clay will be ready to mix with the powdered stone either today or tomorrow.
Day 8: I set Li to continue the refining of a small portion of the clay for use in our glaze. I have him using the big kettle-pots in the western yard.
The clay and petunze were being mixed this morning, and one of the silly apprentices wanted to ride the water buffalo as it tread the stone and clay together. As if the creature weren't already working hard enough. At least I caught them and before they put the beast into the pit-vat without cleaning its hooves first! Straw and dung in the clay? Bah! Foolish youth!
Day 9: The apprentices gathered the clay into balls last evening and covered them with cloth. Guan-Yin preserve me and please grant me patience! The ignorant youths were complaining about how the clay smells of swamp.
Do they not have a thought in their empty heads? How can they have lived in this village all their lives and not known the best of the white clays stink when they are ready to be worked on the wheel?
In any event, the clay is ready now to be made ready. I must be certain that each apprentice knows how to wedge the air out of the clay and prepare it for the potters. This will be today’s work.
Throwing the Pots in the Workshop
Day 10: At last the throwing has begun on this commission! Renshu broke the stick he uses to set his wheel spinning, and has been complaining about the new one all day. Wencheng and Gen are ready to throw him into the hammer mill’s pounding pit. Personalities aside, the throwing is going well. By tomorrow or the day after there will be pots for the painters to begin working on.
I have set Hai and Feng to grind the precious cakes of cobalt that arrived last season from the Ottomans far to our west.
Journeyman Delun is overseeing them, and he will prepare the cobalt stain for the painters to use.
Day 11: The weather has been good to us; the pots thrown yesterday had dried enough to be trimmed this morning and given to the painters. I am especially pleased with several of Wencheng’s flasks. I believe these will especially please the diplomats. I have asked Ai to paint them, to use her skills at painting dragons to create gifts worthy to have come from our Emperor.
Day 12: Renshu continues to complain. He says his wheel does not feel the same. I watched him for a time. He should be able to throw twenty bowls from one lump of clay in just about as many minutes. Instead, his fussing has him throwing the same amount in nearly double the time. I have warned him to get used to the new stick, and quickly. Next you know, he will complain that his wheel has dropped further into the floor.
Bah! At least Ai’s work is going exceptionally well. There is one large flask I particularly like. Two three-toed dragons striding with energy through flowing lotus.
It is as lovely as she is; I pray the kiln is kind to it. Ai has also been taking Cuifen under her wing and showing her the various painting techniques.
I must remember to send Li for more bamboo and the soft goat hair for more brushes. We will make new brushes after this commission has been completed.
Day 14: The throwers have completed enough pots that we will have a full kiln this time. That is good. Even for the Emperor, it pains me when we have to fire a kiln half empty. It is so much effort, I want to use every speck of space.
I have inspected our saggers and I have told Renshu and Delun to throw new ones using the coarser clay. How many times must I explain to Renshu that the saggers are to protect the pots from the flame and ashes; they cannot do that if their lids, floors, or walls are cracked and broken?
Day 16: The painters are now working on the last of the pots for this kiln load. It is good, given our deadline, that all these pots are being decorated with only the cobalt stains, with the transparent glaze over it. This way, they only need to go through the fire once instead of twice.
I am guardedly pleased. Even the apprentices are doing well. Not a one of the new young ones has lost his grip on a pot as he has dipped it into the vat of glaze that Bingwen and Fuhua have mixed under my direction. We must now wait for the pots to dry completely.
Day 23: We have had much sunshine; the pots are now dry and ready to be fired. The apprentices are placing the pots into the saggers, and the journeymen are loading these into our hill-climbing kiln. I have told everyone to take this evening and light joss sticks at our kiln's shrine to supplicate Feng Huo Hsien (and any other kiln gods who may look in on our work) for a good firing. I have laid the beginning tinder and logs in the main firebox and have ensured the firebox and stoke holes running along the sides of the kiln have plenty of wood at hand.
Tonight I will light the tinder and beginning the slow warming period. Too much heat too quickly and the pots will shatter... something the young ones never seem to realize, no matter how often they are told, until it is too late.
Day 24: It has been a long night, but of course this is just the beginning. I have sent young Jing home for some sleep, as he was with me stoking the kiln all night. We will need his youthful energy over the next two or three days; it is best for him to replenish it now.
The kiln is beginning to warm up nicely. Hungry dragon that it is, it will eat well over these next few days! We will be feeding it through the firebox and stoke holes for two or more days.
For its part, our dragon will gobble the wood and consume it in a burst of flame and noise.
Only when I see that color I have come to know, that fierce yellow-white glowing, will I say to those of us clustered around our dragon, "Enough, our dragon has eaten enough." And we will light more joss sticks and drink cool water and most likely fall asleep where we sit.
But that is yet to come. For now, I must return to my ever-so hungry dragon.
Day 27: The firing seems to have gone well. We now have to wait for the kiln to cool before we can open it and unload the ware. As I have had to explain, yet again, to the young ones, if we don’t let the kiln cool off slowly, the pots will break and the glaze will crack and craze. I keep telling them, "If you are to be a potter, you must have the patience of a potter."
I have sent them to collect the straw we need to pack the pottery when it is ready. I told them to bring more than twice the amount we will really need.
Day 30: We unloaded the kiln today, and not a moment too soon.
We are to deliver the diplomatic pottery tomorrow, down in the town at the Old Street where the street tiles we potters of the city made are shaped and placed as if a flood of blue turtles were coming up from the Chang River.
Ai’s large dragon flask came out beautiful. I will point that one out to the emissary especially. May the Emperor be pleased!
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