Basic Introduction to Jun Ware
Jun ware is one of the five famous kiln types of the Song Dynasty, a precious traditional porcelain craft of the Han nationality, and is known as a national treasure. It is renowned worldwide for its unique glaze transformation art and has long been hailed with the saying “Gold has a price, but Jun ware is priceless” and “A fortune is not worth a piece of Jun ware.” It is a unique national treasure porcelain from Shenhoushen Town, Yuzhou City, Henan Province. With its primitive shape, exquisite craftsmanship, complex glaze formula, and the magical glaze transformation that yields myriad colors from a single color, along with the ever-changing patterns and colors resembling lakes, mountains, clouds, mists, people, beasts, flowers, birds, insects, and fish, it is acclaimed as the top of China's “Five Great Porcelains.” After the founding of the People's Republic of China, under the direct care of Premier Zhou Enlai, work began on the restoration of Jun ware firing techniques, leading to rapid development of Jun ware. Especially since the reform and opening up, the production techniques and quality of Jun ware have seen epochal improvements, frequently being presented as state gifts around the world.
In 2008, the firing technique of Jun ware was included in the national intangible cultural heritage list.
Product Characteristics
The milky appearance and glaze transformation are two key characteristics that define the aesthetic appeal of Jun ware. The milky appearance refers to the beautiful, milky, sky-blue state of the Jun ware glaze, which resembles jade or opal, producing a range of blue hues from light to dark while imparting a restrained luster and elegant texture, reducing the gaudy gloss that comes with vitrified glazes. Glaze transformation refers to the intricate changes in the coloration and opacity of the glaze when it melts and flows at high temperatures, resulting in a rich array of colors where purple, red, blue, and white intermingle, evoking the beauty of nature's fleeting moments.
The artistic beauty and effects of Jun ware's milky glaze and glaze transformation are closely related to the chemical composition and production process of the glaze. The formation mechanisms of the milky appearance and glaze transformation, the distinctive features of the chemical composition of Jun ware glaze and its relationship with microstructure, as well as the correlation between the external features and the production process, have attracted many ceramic researchers both domestically and internationally. Investigating these unresolved issues holds significant theoretical guidance value for ceramic technology and the production of Jun ware.
The artistic achievement of glaze transformation in Jun ware lies in the successful creation of copper-red glaze, which vividly displays the traces of glaze flow at high temperatures, creating a lustrous glaze with special aesthetic appeal and artistic charm. The blues are like the sky; the moon-white is more beautiful than fine jade; the purples resemble ripe grapes or blooming roses; the reds are like blooming peonies or deep-red crabapples; the interplay of blue and purple is like purple waves emerging from blue waters, rich and varied; the interplay of purple and red is like lustrous carnelian, thick and solemn. This glaze transformation art of Jun ware transforms the glassy texture of traditional celadon into a fusion of the natural beauty, artistic beauty, and sublime ideal beauty of ceramics, creating a colorful and uniquely styled artistic masterpiece.
Although Jun ware belongs to the northern celadon system, from a strict scientific perspective, it is not just ordinary celadon. Traditional Chinese celadon glazes are colored by ferrous oxide, whereas the milky blue glaze of Jun ware is achieved through the scattering of short-wave blue light by droplet-like dispersed particles in the glaze. This breaks the boundaries of monochrome glazes and ingeniously utilizes the effect of cupric oxide, transforming traditional high-temperature colored glazes from a single celadon to a multicolored glaze. Famous glaze colors of Jun ware include rose purple, eggplant purple, grape purple, lilac, hibiscus red, cinnabar red, bloodstone red, rose red, carmine red, flame red, sky blue, egg blue, plum blue, sea blue, moon white, fish-belly white, among others, with cinnabar red being the most valuable. The glaze transformation flower glaze of Jun ware is rich in color, with a crystal-clear glaze layer. The red color contains purple, the purple contains blue, the blue contains white, and the white contains red, with various colors competing in brilliance and beauty.
The shapes of Jun ware are ancient and dignified, with uniform body thickness. Porcelain craftsmen rationally use various raw materials to make blanks and generally master the firing shrinkage properties of the materials, coupled with superb forming techniques, ensuring that the vessels produced are of uniform specifications and consistent dimensions. In terms of raw material usage, they can be used reasonably to ensure basic consistency in the firing temperature and expansion coefficient of the body and glaze. The vitrification degree of the glaze is good, promoting the formation of a calcium feldspar intermediate layer between the body and glaze, thus achieving a high level of adhesion between the body and glaze, with no peeling off of the glaze layer. The glaze formulation contains elements such as phosphorus, titanium, copper, and tin, providing the necessary conditions for the formation of multicolored glaze transformation flower glazes. Jun ware craftsmen also use various raw materials containing different metal oxides, applying multiple layers of glaze in stages to create a variety of colorful and naturally vivid glaze transformation streaks. Ceramic researchers using instruments to observe Song Dynasty Jun ware specimens have found that the structure of Jun glaze is extraordinarily complex, roughly divided into four layers: the first and second layers closest to the body have the same structure as sky-blue glaze, with the upper boundary of the blue layer exhibiting a highly variable wave pattern, and there are many bubbles beneath the glaze surface; the third layer is an irregular layer of purple and red colors intersecting; the fourth layer, the surface layer, is a neat and uniform light blue copper oxide layer. This layered structure of the glaze allows selective absorption and reflection of various wavelengths of light, making the glaze layer luminous and beautifully captivating. Coupled with the stirring effect of bubbles within the glaze layer on light, this forms a unique cross-sectional structure and a rich and colorful appearance: some are as blue as the sky; some are as red as morning clouds; some have blue and white streaks flowing over a purple-red background, resembling waterfalls in ravines; some have a mixture of blue, blue, purple, and red colors intertwined, akin to various rapidly changing natural landscapes; some resemble the bold brushstrokes of the Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou, created with a splash of ink; some are ethereal and dreamlike, inspiring endless imagination. They truly present an ethereal landscape, changing according to the viewer's perception, captivating the eye and soul, displaying the utmost richness of colors, with a marvelous charm akin to the work of a master craftsman.
Historical Folklore
Shenhoushen Town, Yuzhou City, is known as the capital of Jun ware. Jun ware is a famous Chinese artisanal treasure with over a thousand years of production history.
Jun ware originated during the Tang Dynasty, flourished in the Song Dynasty, was revived during the Jin and Yuan Dynasties, and continued to be imitated through the Ming and Qing Dynasties, enduring for a thousand years and forming a vast Jun ware kiln system, ranking alongside the Ruyang, Guan, Ge, and Ding kilns. To date, over forty Song Dynasty Jun ware kiln sites have been discovered within Yuzhou, with the most concentrated area being at the foot of Mount Daliu in Shenhoushen Town.
The earliest surviving local chronicle of Yuzhou, the “Annals of Jun Prefecture,” states: “The porcelain kilns are located at the foot of Mount Daliu in the west of the prefecture.” In villages like Xiabaiyu in Shenhoushen Town and Changzhuang Township, black and brown-glazed high-temperature transformed flower porcelains have been unearthed, referred to by ceramic scholars as “Tang Jun,” which is the precursor to Song Dynasty Jun ware.
After the “Jingkang Incident” (1126) of the Song Dynasty, the imperial court moved south, and the official Jun ware kilns ceased production, causing a temporary setback for Jun ware. During the Jin and Yuan Dynasties, Jun ware experienced new developments, with widespread imitation across the country, becoming popular for a time. The Jun ware tradition spread throughout the nation.
By the late Yuan Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty, due to wars and disasters, Jun ware production gradually declined. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties