Time: 2006
Category: traditional handicraft skills
Region: Jiangsu
No.: VIII-32
Reporting area or unit: Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province
Brick is an elegant name for generous brick. According to the ancient book "Brick Land", brick is a fine-grained square brick specially fired for the court, with fine particles and dense texture, which is called the sound of stone. It is also called "Beijing Brick" because it will be shipped to Cang Jing, Beijing, for the exclusive use of the Palace.
The Golden Brick Imperial Kiln is located in Imperial Kiln Village, Lumu Town, Xiangcheng District, Suzhou City. For thousands of years, the villagers here have specialized in kiln burning. During the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty, Judy, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, moved the capital to Beijing to build the Forbidden City. On the recommendation of craftsmen from Xiangshan School in Suzhou, the Ming Palace sent officials to Suzhou Land Tomb (now Lumu) to supervise the production of gold bricks. Because the yellow mud in Lumu Town is suitable for making bricks, and the technology is exquisite, the firing is excellent, and the technology is unique, and the gold bricks made are delicate and hard, "knocking loudly and breaking without holes", so Emperor Yongle named Lumu Brick Kiln as "Imperial Kiln". The Hall of Supreme Harmony, the Hall of Zhonghe in Beijing and the Tiananmen Gate in the Forbidden City are all paved with official kiln bricks.
The production process of imperial kiln brick is complex, with more than 20 processes, among which the main processes are mud selection, mud refining, blank making, kiln loading, firing, drainage, kiln discharge and polishing. The progress of the road is closely linked, and the previous work will be abandoned. Imperial kiln brick is a wonderful work in China kiln brick firing industry. Since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it has been favored by emperors of past dynasties and has become a special product of court buildings. By Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty, brick burning had reached its peak. After the end of the Qing Dynasty, due to years of war, the production of BRICS was intermittent, and it was not until 1984 that the production was fully resumed. Nearly 600 years have passed since 14 13 imperial kiln fired gold bricks. The Golden Brick of Imperial Kiln has high practical value and ornamental value, and it is a bright pearl in our national architectural culture. The ground paved with bricks is smooth, wear-resistant, bright, non-slip and non-wet, which can not only prevent the underground moisture from rising, but also set off the palace more magnificently and decorate the ancient residence more magnificently. With the acceleration of modernization and urbanization, not only palace-style buildings have become history, but also folk classical hall buildings are dying out, giving way to high-rise buildings. The market demand of BRIC countries is very small, which makes it impossible to expand the production scale. Burning bricks is a complex and high-skilled manual labor, with long study period, large labor input and low economic benefit. Young people have no intention to get involved, and the whole industry lacks successors. At present, there is only one imperial kiln in Suzhou, and there are more than 20 brickmakers. Therefore, it is urgent to take protective measures for the ancient folk handicraft skill of making bricks in official kilns.