In the history of the development of ceramics in my country, there is a kind of porcelain that not only has the word "secret" in its name, but its true glaze color has also been controversial in the industry for a long time and has almost become a secret. This is the secret-color porcelain described by Lu Guimeng, a famous poet of the Tang Dynasty, as "the green color of a thousand peaks".
The use of porcelain became more popular in the Tang Dynasty, and porcelain firing technology developed rapidly. Almost everything is available, including porcelain tea sets, tableware, wine sets, stationery, musical instruments, and practical bottles, pots, and jars. The ceramic shapes of the Five Dynasties mostly followed the style of the Tang Dynasty. Documents from the Tang, Five Dynasties and Song dynasties frequently contain records of "secret-color Yue ware". According to legend, the Qian court of the Wuyue Kingdom in the Five Dynasties ordered the Yue kilns to burn the sacrificial vessels. Ordinary people were not allowed to use them, so they were called "secret-color porcelain". But what exactly the "secret color" is, there have been different opinions for a long time. The name "Secret Color Porcelain" was first seen in a poem "Secret Color Yueqi" by Lu Guimeng, a famous poet in the Tang Dynasty. In the poem, "The jade dew blooms over the kiln in the nine autumns, capturing the green color of thousands of peaks. It is good to bloom at midnight, ** *Jizhong Sandaou Beibei". From this poem, people can clearly see that the poet pointed out that the secret color porcelain was produced by the Yue kiln, but specifically what is the secret color? Although the poem is beautiful, it makes it difficult for people to understand the depth of the glaze color of the secret color porcelain. Xu Yin of the later Ming Dynasty also wrote a poem in his "Gongyu Secret Color Tea Cup": "The emerald green melts into the new green and auspicious color, the pottery is made first to pay tribute to my king, the bright moon is skillfully cut out to dye the spring water, and the thin ice is lightly swirled to fill the green clouds." According to reports, until the above In the 1980s, after an excavation, archaeologists clarified what the secret color was.
In 1987, archaeologists from Shaanxi Province unearthed more than a dozen pieces of Yue kiln celadon in the Tang Dynasty underground palace of Famen Temple Pagoda in Fufeng County, Shaanxi Province. In the book, this batch of porcelain is clearly recorded as "secret color porcelain". Among the secret-color porcelains unearthed, except for two pieces that were green-yellow, the rest had green glazes. The surfaces of the vessels were crystal clear and moist, as clear and green as the surface of a tranquil lake. The unearthing of the secret-color porcelain from Famen Temple not only solved the long-standing controversy in the ceramic industry about the color of secret-color wares, but also showed that secret-color wares had been fired since the Tang Dynasty. By the Five Dynasties, the production of secret-color porcelain had gradually form a peak. To put it simply, secret color porcelain is celadon produced in Yue Kiln.
This secret-colored eight-sided water purification bottle was produced in the Tang Dynasty. It is 22 cm high. The bottle has a round mouth, a long neck, and a round belly. The bottom of the neck is decorated with three-week stepped eight-square mysterious patterns, and the shoulders and abdomen are vertical. It is embossed with eight ridges and encircled feet. Because the firing technology, formula and craftsmanship of secret color porcelain are not passed down from person to person, very few authentic pieces of its porcelain have been handed down from generation to generation.