The days when I pretended to be a cat in the Forbidden City[Comprehensive]

The presence of hot springs is not all favorable to the locals in this day and age.

Excessively high geothermal resources can easily cause cold-loving plants to fail to germinate here. After the temperature drops in autumn and winter, the temperature above the surface is too low, and plants cannot grow well even after they germinate.

Later, as long as several greenhouses were built to protect the foliage of the plants, off-season vegetables could be harvested here in winter, and the profits would more than double.However, it is obvious that the technology of making greenhouses could not be used in the Western Han Dynasty.

Therefore, to the locals, the geothermal resources here are nothing more than "you don't need to boil water when you take a bath, come here to carry a bucket", nothing more.

To be honest, Xia Anran doesn't remember whether there are hot springs in Hebei.But in his memory, there is a royal hot spring in Xi'an. As a place for the frail Emperor Han Jing to recuperate, it is naturally well-decorated.As the little prince, Liu Sheng was also taken there to play.

Of course, in the Western Han Dynasty when medical technology declined, even if there were hot spring pools, local people would choose to soak in summer and autumn.Hot springs in winter?That is absolutely impossible.

One cold and one hot are easy to catch cold. If you catch cold, it is very difficult to treat.

But for Xia Anran, who is a southerner and has lived in the north for a long time, afraid of catching a cold?Just bring the hot spring indoors, isn't it just a big bathhouse?What is the difficulty.

Everyone can take a bath together and rub their backs together!It's so comfortable!

The reason is very simple, but the reason why Emperor Jing did not enjoy it was because Emperor Jing was frugal and naturally would not spend extra money to build individual courtyards, and there was also a technical problem, that is, the pipe processing technology for water diversion was not up to standard.

After Xia Anran's on-the-spot investigation, the hot spring here should not be a sulfur spring, but probably a carbonate spring or something like that.Of course, whether it is a sulfur spring depends on his nose, it depends on the results of the sampling research, and also to study whether the water can be soaked - this question was resolved after Xia Anran saw a soaked monkey appearing in the downstream water temperature confirm.

In this regard, wild animals are always more sensitive than humans.

The little prince silently rubbed his hands and paws unobtrusively, his whole body became excited!

I'm about to have a private hot spring! !

Of course, before that, we have to spend money to build Zhuangzi and resettle the affected people. This requires a lot of brains.

Xia Anran asked if the housekeeper Zhuangzi could use the money allocated by his father for the construction of the palace.After getting a negative answer, he swiped his small coffers and showed a poor smile.

In addition to funds, there is another serious problem is how to bring up the hot springs.

The spring here is a gushing spring, and it is also a plain area. To draw the water up, only a pump is needed in modern times, but it doesn't work now.In this regard, after visiting several springs and confirming with the craftsmen, Xia Anran planned to artificially create a gap and then use a waterwheel to divert the water.

It's just that the water temperature here is high, so it must be possible to dig first and then pass through.Fortunately, because of the geothermal heat here, the soil is still soft and will not freeze even in autumn and winter.

Therefore, under the advice of the craftsmen, he planned to start construction in winter to reduce risks and possible injuries.And winter is also the slack time for the people. At this time, it is different from later generations. In later generations, there is a festival in winter. People who work overtime during the New Year are really going to be scolded as unscrupulous foremen. However, the Chinese New Year in the Han Dynasty is in October, and winter is true. I have nothing to do.

To divert water, there is another key factor, which is the connection of pipelines.

When it comes to pipes, he immediately thought of using bamboo.It just so happened that the surrounding area was the Taihang Mountains, and there was no shortage of bamboo and wood resources, but after careful consideration, he found that it was a bit difficult.

Regardless of whether it is outdoors, if these bamboos are used indoors, in order to facilitate replacement, only open wires can be used.

Moreover, the temperature of the spring water here is very high, to the point where an egg can be boiled into a confectionery. Xia Anran estimates that the water temperature is about [-] degrees or more.The most durable bamboo is no more than ten years, and it has been soaked in hot water for a long time, so it is estimated that its usable time will not exceed one year.

The batch is changed every year, and no matter how fast the bamboo grows, he will probably cut it down.

Coupled with processes such as connecting bamboo joints and splitting the mouth for occlusion, the estimated cost is not low if the elimination rate is high, and supply problems are prone to occur.Furthermore, if the soil erosion is caused by cutting down bamboo, the loss outweighs the gain.

Most importantly, once the bamboo bursts, if the scalding hot spring water splashes on a person, he is very likely to be directly scalded.

In Western Han Dynasty, the infection after scalding is almost irreversible.

Therefore, Xia Anran wanted to burn out pottery pipes.

In the Qin Dynasty, there was the largest group of pottery figures in the world. By the time of the Western Han Dynasty, pottery art had developed extremely maturely. He remembered that an emperor in the Eastern Han Dynasty built a pipe that could be buried underground to complete the underground drainage of the entire palace. It is made of pottery.

Although the emperor had a funding gap in order to complete this huge process, and thus started the road of selling officials to win titles... But the achievements in the sewer are still great.

That's right, it was Cao Cao's father who directly led to the collapse of the Eastern Han Dynasty and provided him with huge funds.

In any case, as far as the records left over from history and archaeological discoveries are concerned, it is entirely feasible to make pipes out of pottery. Xia Anran tried to make a set.However, in order to complete the delivery of hot water, private customization is necessary, and extended pipes are also necessary.

Especially the latter, he visited today's pottery kilns, and found that basically none of them could meet his requirements.Xia Anran felt that at least a pipe as long as the arm span of two people was needed, otherwise it would be ugly when teleporting in a straight line.

But even the kiln itself is not that long, let alone the finished product.

So want to order pottery?Let's start with the kiln.

That's why he made people burn bricks with relatively high refractoriness.After the quality inspection of the first batch of finished products, these bricks can basically withstand the temperature that can be forged by burning iron.

Out of the need to make long pottery, Xia Anran asked people to make a long steamed bun kiln this time.

He had seen this kiln when he visited the Shanghai Museum when he was a child. Because the shape was too similar to a French baguette, he was firmly remembered by Xiaopang Xia, who was hungry at the time.

The advantage of the "long stick" is that it adopts the step-up method. Ignite the fire at a low place, and the hot air will go up continuously and gather at the fired porcelain. This physical method can be used to raise the temperature without additional oxygen injection. The crystallization of the wisdom of the working people.

Ah!

By the way, this one seems to be made of porcelain!

He finally found out what was wrong.But on second thought, that's all. After all, pottery and porcelain are brothers. The only difference is temperature and clay embryo, and the other skills are roughly the same.Moreover, it is so easy to burn out porcelain. Porcelain clay is hard to find, and the temperature cannot be reached, so we can work hard in this area in the future.

He remembered that there seemed to be relatively poor celadon unearthed at the end of the Han Dynasty. The development of celadon in the Jin Dynasty was not too far away, and it could still be developed.

Porcelain is much easier to sell than pottery. If you can really make porcelain, you can sell it to the Huns... Hey, hey hey.

Xia Anran awakened himself with beautiful dreams, and he told himself that he had to keep his feet on the ground. In short, he should get the plumbing done first.

The Lord of Zhongshan sent someone to invite the most prestigious pottery craftsman in Zhongshan.When the craftsman saw the picture drawn by the young king on the paper, he was stunned.

What Xia Anran painted was the prototype of the sewer, including the steering pipe, connecting pipe and diversion pipe.These graphics look very weird now, especially after hearing the length, width and height requested by the little king.

In order to show the size of the image, Xia Anran also specially prepared a wooden ruler to draw with the craftsman.

The professionalism of the craftsman quickly made him understand the requirements of the employer, and then he showed embarrassment.

"Your Highness." The craftsman carefully chose his words, "The pottery embryo can be made, but the kiln can't be fired..." Then, he saw the new cave dwelling named "Long Kiln" by Xia Anran.

The craftsman was tongue-tied for a while, and when Xia Anran said, "As long as you sign a contract with me, this is yours", he immediately showed a wavering expression.

The craftsman expressed that he would go back and think about it, and he would come back in a few days, Xia Anran agreed.

After all, once the employment contract is signed, the identity of the craftsman will change, and he will lose his freedom to a certain extent.Although the salary offered by Xia Anran is not bad, but for such a famous craftsman, maybe it is just a matter of making a few more works?

The little prince hesitated for a moment.What he didn't expect was that within two days since the craftsman left, he visited again, and this time he brought a small clay model made by himself.

But these models of his gave Xia Anran a huge surprise - because the clay is white and extremely smooth to touch.

This, this is very likely to be porcelain clay!

He has touched pottery clay and porcelain clay before, and his only memory is that porcelain clay is smoother than pottery clay, and pottery is more grainy than porcelain, and it is easier to "stand" on it, so he will show this craftsman I was shocked by the small objects made of porcelain clay.

What does it mean to find porcelain clay here?

Windfall!

Xia Anran's only thought was this.

The little prince couldn't sit still immediately, he sent someone to drive, and followed the potter to the place where he took the "clay".Then, he saw a scene that took his breath away.

——A lot, a lot, a lot of porcelain clay, white porcelain clay!

Then he also saw the finished product in the craftsman's studio. The "pottery" made of this white porcelain clay presents a gentle milky blue color, warm and delicate at the beginning, smooth on the surface, with a soft luster.

This is porcelain.

Xia Anran knew the difference as soon as he got it, especially after he hit it with the back of his armor, he was sure of it.

Porcelain is a completely sintered product with a compact texture, so there will be a metallic sound when knocked, which is why the important feature of porcelain is "sound like a chime".

The firing of this kind of porcelain must have happened by accident. Maybe the craftsman did not control the temperature well this time, or maybe this utensil was placed in the area where the heat is most concentrated, which made this Lunu porcelain come into being.

It is a pity that craftsmen used to add glaze color when firing. If transparent glaze is used, then this is white porcelain.

There is a batch of Tang Dynasty white porcelain in Shanghai Bo, which is colorless but breathtakingly beautiful.

Everything happened when the craftsman was caught off guard, Xia Anran almost summoned the prime minister with lightning speed.

Since then, almost all local pottery craftsmen have gathered here to discuss the technological points needed for porcelain firing and glaze making, and all the raw materials and fuels are provided by the state lord.

Xia Anran not only provided raw materials, but also wrote several recipes of raw materials that could be used to make glazes, and handed them over to these craftsmen.

Why would he know this?

Because he is the meow of the Forbidden City.

In this ancient palace complex, there is a unique piece of porcelain, which is placed in the Porcelain Hall of Wenhua Palace.This piece of Jingdezhen porcelain made during the Qianlong period was made by combining the characteristics of different eras and technical difficulties.

Xia Anran, who was wandering around in every corner of the Forbidden City, naturally did not miss the explanation about this porcelain mother.

The guides of the Forbidden City are divided into two categories. When they are for ordinary tourists, their explanations are more based on the value, difficulty and thrilling scarcity of the manufacturing process, so as to better arouse the interest of the visitors.

In the face of more professional colleagues, or porcelain lovers, their explanations will be more professional.

As the treasure of the town hall, coupled with the "National Treasure", the porcelain mother later became the focus of visitors.In order to cope with this group of more professional fans, the commentary of the Forbidden City was naturally updated immediately, and the content was more scientific.

Thanks for the commentator brother.

Xia Anran thought in her heart, when he goes back, she must give this little brother some gifts!

The author has something to say:

Shanghai Blog, the author's cultural origin.

Children in Shanghai can pay attention to the "Shanghai Museum" official account... Now that you have followed, please pay attention to the "Shanghai Museum of Natural History", and by the way, "Nanjing Museum" is also strongly recommended.

Follow the official account to see tweets and exhibition arrangements.

Rub your hands together.I suggest that if you go to the museum, you must borrow the explainer, otherwise you will lose a lot of technical points for traveling!

When I was a child, there was rubbing mud in the ceramic museum of Shanghai Expo (hey). At that time, I went on a three-day spring and autumn tour. The author has been very interested in this since I was a child, so I went to play.And I played very late, so my uncle at the time told me that Tao and Ci are brothers, and then he let me feel the difference between clay and porcelain clay.

How to describe...

Porcelain clay is like plasticine that has been rubbed and pliable, or slime, which is very popular now, and its water content is relatively small, it does not absorb water, and it is difficult to shape.

Clay is like plasticine with sand sprinkled in it, it can feel grainy, and its plasticity is very strong, it can be rubbed casually when it is wet.Silly and strange shapes can be placed.

That mantou kiln is still there, the long one, the one that couldn’t be photographed (hey!) In fact, that is not a long mantou kiln, nor a French stick kiln. The official name should be Longyao (wait for me in two days Go and see if it's right) Xia Miao made a mistake, the author needs to correct it.

This cave uses the principle of hot air rising, which is the same as that of the chimney in the Three Kingdoms, and it drives the oxygen delivery by itself.

There is a white glaze from the Tang Dynasty in Shanghai Expo. I remember it was a Bodhisattva or something. Wow, the lights are so beautiful.

Lunu, the state of Zhongshan, is now Dingzhou City, and Dingzhou's Ding porcelain is very famous.

In the Song Dynasty, the high light period of porcelain.Ding porcelain itself occupies one of the eight major systems in the northern Ding kiln system. Among the five famous kilns, Ruge Guan Dingjun's Ding is the designated kiln.Of course, in addition to making white porcelain, they also make other colors, such as black (TB has a picture, it looks really good)

PS: China White can only be the white of white porcelain. To be precise, it is the watery white when the glaze of white porcelain is white, not the snow white of bone china.