Cuilan's Vessel

Cuilan’s Vessel

(Vessels in Dispute)

(Authentic Massacre of the Innocent Image Painting # 70)

Cuilan, the eldest daughter of Jing-de was in fact a Bhubezi Woman.  By jumping into the kiln, she changed the molecular structure of iron oxide forever, thus ensuring, with the most careful consideration and attention to detail, that potters thereafter would be able to reproduce the blood red glaze.  Why?

I’ll leave you to think about that.

The origins of red-under glaze porcelain

Was red-glazed porcelain invented as the result of a happy accident?

OF course not!   In the Tang Dynasty (618-907), bronze was widely used in Changsha kilns to make porcelain green, and it was discovered that different firing temperatures made some porcelain red.The technique was improved in the Song Dynasty (960-1279), when large quantities of porcelain with red under glaze were produced in Jun kiln in Henan Province.

However, the craftsmen's skills were not yet very advanced and there were usually some other colors in the red under glaze.

In the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), craftsmen began to intentionally make porcelain with red under glaze in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province, known as the capital of ceramics (called Jihong porcelain).  Looking at the entemology of the name, Ji means to sacrifice and hong means red.

Because of the difficulty in producing this fine ware, the success rate was quite low.                                                 

A popular local legend says even their blood was sacrificed for their craft. The craftsmen were consequently whipped and thrown into prison, some even put to death by the emperor.

Cuilan, daughter of an elderly kiln worker, was very upset when her father was jailed. Enraged at the atrocity, she jumped into the fiery kiln. Two days later, when workers opened the kiln, they were surprised to find the porcelain inside was blood red. People thought Cuilan's blood dyed the porcelain red and this is how the porcelain came to be called Jihong.

In 1982, an ancient imperial kiln with many pieces of red under glaze porcelain was accidentally found. Archeologists found many of the pieces could be glued together to make complete items. It seemed that these pieces were destroyed intentionally. Closer examination showed no obvious defects, some pieces were extremely skilled and still lustrous even after hundreds of years.