Thousands of years ago, it left an imaginative description in Tang poetry that "the autumn wind in September drove through the kiln, winning the green of Qianfeng"; From the late Tang Dynasty to the early Northern Song Dynasty, it has been a rare porcelain in the royal family for nearly 200 years. However, in the following years, the records about it became more and more vague and lacked convincing objects. People can only imagine its color and craft, and even think it is a legend. It was not until 1987 that the archaeological discovery of the underground palace of Famen Temple officially appeared in front of the world. In the past two years, archaeologists have further uncovered its mystery through the excavation of the site of Housi Aoyao in Shanglin Lake-this is the "secret colored porcelain".
Regarding the texture and color of secret color porcelain, the Qing people said that "its color is like a vessel, but it is clear." Judging from the typical secret color porcelain unearthed, its texture is delicate and the raw materials are carefully treated, mostly gray or light gray. Thin sidewall, smooth surface, regular shape and uniform glaze color. In terms of glaze color, yellow was still the main color in the early Five Dynasties, which was moist, shiny and translucent. But the proportion of turquoise is higher than that in the late Tang Dynasty. After that, it is mainly turquoise, with little yellow.
Before the underground palace of Famen Temple was opened, secret porcelain was always a mystery in the eyes of modern people. People only know from the records that it is a royal special product, which was specially fired by Yue Kiln, and the whole process from formula, blank making, glaze application to firing is confidential. Its color can only be imagined from the description of the Tang poem "Nine autumn winds show off the kiln, which is better than ten thousand peaks and green". Porcelain bowls, plates and plates unearthed in the underground palace of Famen Temple are known as "secret colored porcelain" from the inscription on the treasure account of the underground palace! The collection of these domestic first-line auction collections:1310/713004 secret porcelain is bluish yellow in color, glittering and translucent and moist, especially two secret porcelain bowls with silver ribs, 7 cm high, 23.7 cm in diameter, five sunflower-shaped mouths, flat-bottomed inclined walls, yellow glaze inside and outside. This makes people see the elegant demeanour of secret color porcelain. 13 pieces of palace porcelain found in the underground palace-secret porcelain is the earliest and most exquisite palace porcelain found in the world, and it is confirmed by inscriptions.
The discovery of these secret porcelains has a breakthrough significance in the archaeology of Chinese ceramic history and provides a standard for identifying the age and characteristics of secret porcelains.
After years of research by experts and destructive and non-destructive X-ray spectrum tests, it is confirmed that secret porcelain is completely different from celadon in tire bottom, tire glaze and firing process.
The mysterious veil of the secret porcelain was finally unveiled. The experts suddenly realized that we are no strangers to secret porcelain. It was originally the best celadon in Yueyao, but we just met before, but we didn't know each other. The octagonal bottle was unearthed in the tomb of Tang Dynasty in Shaanxi Province, and was later collected by scholars at Yueyao site in the Forbidden City. The secret colored porcelain unearthed from Qian Tomb in Wu Yueguo, Hangzhou, has richer, more exquisite and more elegant glaze. The secret porcelain unearthed from Famen Temple and a plate decorated with gold and silver foil are called gold and silver pints in jargon. In ancient times, gold and jade were regarded as the most advanced materials, and the status of porcelain can be imagined. It was burned in jade color, plus gold and silver.
The reason why the secret colored porcelain is carried to a mysterious position is because it is technically extremely difficult. The glaze color of celadon depends almost entirely on the temperature of the kiln except the glaze formula. Glaze color will change greatly with the temperature and atmosphere. In order to make the glaze green and uniform, and burn the same glaze color stably, that difficult technology must be kept secret. Secret porcelain was successfully fired in the late Tang Dynasty. Soon after, Wu Yueguo, a family of the Qian family in the Five Dynasties, put the kiln mouth where secret porcelain was burned under the government office and ordered it to burn tribute porcelain exclusively. It is indeed "no official use". Of course, it is far away from the people and high above. As for its name, it happened that celadon was unknown, and unlike the Song Dynasty, which used the word "secret" to call it green beans, it really teased future generations for thousands of years. And when you think about it, the word "secret" contains a lot of real and virtual content. Such a meaningful name, I'm afraid only those smart people immersed in the ocean of poetry in the Tang Dynasty can come up with it.