Porcelain Edge, from Dalin to Zhushan Bay (Rose Garden Operation)

Whispering water to make wine, kneading soil to make porcelain, this is our Liling porcelain. When I was a child, I was a girl’s little aunt. We grew up together. Every fate will write a story. Our relationship with porcelain began in a place called Dalin...

(1)

Jianzhong Porcelain Factory is a state-owned enterprise, and it is where my grandparents have worked all their lives. The place was in Dalin, located in the current Dongbao Township of Liling. However, my little aunt repeatedly emphasized that at that time, it belonged to Dalin Commune, Dalin Brigade, and Xiaolin Production Team. It was a good place with beautiful mountains and green waters. Yanzi, do you still remember? I feel that I have a very good memory. The childishness and happiness before I entered school were like a bowl of stars, falling into the warm embrace of my grandparents, falling into the tranquility of the flowing water on the bridge and the halo of white porcelain and jade. Of course I remember it.

My father was an educated youth who was sent to Beixiang and settled down there to get married. I was brought to the porcelain factory by my grandma when I was more than one year old. Later, when the policy was implemented, my father got a job and went to work at the small town grain station, and my mother had to do housework and farm work. Soon I had a younger sister, so I stayed with my grandparents and my aunt. Grow up until you go to school. Later, when the topic of childhood was brought up, everyone always said that I was very easy to take care of, and I was obedient and would not sit on the ground. My snow-white clothes did not get dirty after being worn for several days, and I looked like a quiet porcelain doll.

My little aunt, who is only eleven years older than me, was born in Jianzhong Porcelain Factory, so her name has the word "Jian" in it, so I call her Jiangu. Jiangu said that the Jianzhong Porcelain Factory was originally located in a place called Tangjiaowan in Beixiang, where she was born. Later, the entire factory was moved to Dalin.

Why do factories need to be moved from north to east? It’s not very clear, but the earliest memory I have in my mind is a watercolor painting about Jianzhong Porcelain Factory. Everything is transparent and flowing, bright and warm, soaked in the light and shadow of my childhood. The porcelain factory is very large. There is a large cement flat at the entrance, surrounded by single-family or row houses. When the time comes to get off work, workers from various workshops are filing in and out, wearing uniform work clothes and work hats. To the left of the porcelain factory is a small river. There is a row of houses built along the river. They are the dormitories for the employees of the porcelain factory. My grandparents' home and my home are the first. There are railway bridges and highway bridges across the river, and the loofahs grown by grandpa are hung on straw ropes across the river. The shallow river water is crystal clear, and the white, brown, and light green pebbles are smooth and delicate gems, quietly and randomly inlaid on the light yellow gravel, and small fish come and go happily. The sun shines over and reflects on the water, and the shadows of fish and loofah ripple with the waves. Summer time started when my grandpa put me on his shoulders, rolled up my trouser legs, and went into the water to pick loofahs and catch fish and shrimps. When the afterglow dyed the large factory buildings and low adobe dormitories, Jiangu, with a thick black ponytail, walked across the bridge with a military green schoolbag: "Dad, I'm so tired after a long day in the drying room. Yes, you are still humping Yanzi! Come on, little Yanzi, Auntie will hug you!”

“You’re not tired, we Yanzi are tired. Let’s go home for dinner!” Grandpa put me down and asked Jiangu! bag.

"Grandpa, what is written in red on the schoolbag?" I was curious.

"It says: Serve the people. You will recognize it if you read." Grandpa was dark and thin. When he smiled, his eyes narrowed into slits. Then he said to Jiangu: "Jianming, next You will have graduated from high school in a few months. Dalin Primary School is looking for a teacher, and you are suitable.”

At that time, primary school was a five-year system, and Jiangu started studying early and became enlightened at the age of five, so even though she graduated from high school, she was actually a teacher. She's just a 16-year-old girl. Just as we arrived at the door of the house, Jiangu put me down and said, "Dad, I don't like to be a teacher. I like porcelain. I'll go work in a factory."

Clay, stacking clay, spinning blanks, printing blanks, washing, painting, glazing, loading blanks, kiln firing, packaging, which workshop is not manual work, and it also works in three shifts, look at the day when your father and I are not Covered in mud and gray? It’s a rare opportunity to be a teacher. How wonderful it is to teach, be obedient!” Grandma said to Jiangu as she put the dishes on the small wooden table.

Jiangu is the youngest daughter in the family. She is good-looking and naturally spoiled in front of her parents. She pouted and said, "I really don't want to teach. Those children are not as clean as the swallows in my house." She is so beautiful! There are so many people in the factory, so why not worry about being dirty? There are porcelain bowls, porcelain cups, and vases of Buddha, they are so beautiful, I like them all!"

When grandma saw her obsession, she just started. Coaxing: "Then you teach first. If you really don't like it, we will join the factory.

"Jiangu nodded and scratched my face with her index finger, her dark eyes shining with joy again.

They say that falling in love with a place is because someone you like lives there. In fact, it is not the case. I fell in love with a place when I was young, fell in love with an object, fell in love with an atmosphere, and a fate that touched my soul happened quietly and casually, even I didn’t know it. Love will leave some regrets as time goes by, and we will go to different ends of the world without betraying or relying on each other. However, the relationship will be carefully washed away by the feelings of the bridge and the flowing water, and moistened by the stories of the world, and will always be there, even if I am mediocre. People will feel grateful, cherish everything more and become a person with a rich heart but a simple heart.

Ceramics, whether they are daily-use porcelain or arts and crafts porcelain, are the condensation of human wisdom. Suitable water and soil, a long history of porcelain making and continuous exploration by generations of ceramics people, make Liling underglaze porcelain increasingly demonstrate the beauty of creation with a long history and the unique artistic charm of light color porcelain. , it can be used and hidden. However, the work environment of ceramic workers has always been dirty and tiring.

My childhood was spent in various workshops of the porcelain factory. I have worked in many types of work, including spinning, glazing, and assembling. The long workshop is cold in winter and hot in summer, and the humidity is high. Grandma has a chronic headache, which is probably related to the working environment. In my memory, my grandfather’s job was to bake the drying room. And the kiln. In winter, my grandfather likes to take me to work. It is hot all year round. No matter what season, my grandfather only wears a blue cloth overalls or a blue cloth sweatshirt with black spots on his shoulders. He picked up a big shovel, shoveled a shovel full of coal and quickly put it into the red furnace door. He half stood and half squatted, and shoveled hard. One shovel after another. Within a few minutes, beads of sweat covered each kiln door one by one. Grandpa could wipe the sweat and rest for a while. At this time, I handed him the military water bottle and he opened the pot. Lifting the lid, he raised his head with the bottom of the pot facing the sky, and poured cold water into his mouth impatiently. The top of his head was slightly bald, and his face was covered with wrinkles. His trembling throat and the sound of gurgling water made him laugh. When I was young, I could never forget it. I would take out two candies from my pocket and peel off the paper: "Grandpa, you are tired, you eat candies!" "Every time, grandpa shook his head: "Grandpa won't eat, leave it to our swallows, and grandpa will tell you a story!" "

"My grandfather used to burn kilns in the Tangjiaowan factory. It was still a dragon kiln, burning firewood. It was tiring and smoky. After working all day, his face was as black as black. My eyes are about to explode. Your Jiangu, who was your age at that time, said that I looked like a bull devil. "Grandpa made a grimace and faced me, which scared me so much that I backed away.

"Now we are burning coal, what is the kiln called? "I asked. "This is a bread kiln, also called a round kiln. Don't you see there are several round earthen bags outside? Inside are the porcelain blanks with flowers and glazes. Grandpa shovels the coal and burns them. The bowls we used to eat and the cups we drank tea from were removed. The round kiln is great because it can fire a lot of porcelain at one time. "Grandpa treats me as an adult and talks to me about everything. I was very proud when I was a few years old. I painted the bowl and cup with simple blue flowers and grass as white as jade, but they were all made by my grandfather.

The kiln fire has been burning continuously for thousands of years. The clay, color, and glaze slurry interact with each other, reheating and refining. When I open the kiln door, I finally see the crystallization of the expected transformation - porcelain. A controlled kiln fire can not only produce beautiful porcelain, but also produce happiness.

I still remember one winter when Jiangu and I slept in the same bed, and we heard the sound of rats racing under the bed early in the morning. I was so frightened that I yelled for my grandparents to come over. As soon as the door was closed, things were moved, and there was no way to escape in the small room. They were caught alive. "Come with me to work and see how I punish them." , how dare you scare the little girl and my good granddaughter in my house! "Grandpa tied the tails of the two mice with a hemp rope and swung them out. Jiangu and I followed happily. When we arrived at the kiln burning workshop, grandpa opened the kiln door and threw the mice in. They "Zhizhi" screamed for two seconds, then curled up into a ball, turned red again, and then turned into a handful of red ashes in the kiln. Grandpa magically shoveled out two roasted sweet potatoes from the ashes. Jiangu and I clapped our hands, jumped and laughed, forgiving us for being cruel and for basing our happiness on the burning pain of small animals. Rats were one of the three pests at that time, and the roasted sweet potatoes were too fragrant.

Jiangu, who held me in her arms and played around outside the factory gate, actually became a teacher in the fall after graduating from high school.

She takes me to work every day, and I am the youngest auditor in her class. Her almond-shaped eyes were more majestic, and her words were more patient. However, her thoughts were not on the three-foot podium.

A year later, my grandma was discharged from the hospital early due to a persistent headache and returned to our hometown in Beixiang. Jiangu left school and walked into Jianzhong Porcelain Factory. She started an apprenticeship in every position, from clay to porcelain, every complicated process was a combination of heavy physical work and meticulous work, a transformation in the suffering before emerging from a cocoon and becoming a butterfly. Jiangu is smart, lively, and agile, and she can quickly become competent in various tasks in the porcelain factory.

I am Jiangu’s little follower, whether she is at work or after she gets off work. She and many young girls like to go to the bridge in front of their house to enjoy the breeze after get off work. I can’t understand what they are chattering about. Their hair is flying in the wind, their faces are like jade porcelain, and the smiles in their eyes are reflected. Out of the picturesque distance.

(2)

In the 1980s, when I was a child, the distance was more than eight miles away. For example, grandma's house, or the porcelain factory where grandpa and Jiangu work.

In 1982, Jianzhong Porcelain Factory moved again. This time, I moved to the city. On the outskirts of the city, a short walk from Shiziling to Beixiang, there was a place called Zhushan Bay, where my grandfather and Jian Guxin’s workplace was located. It was no longer called Jianzhong Porcelain Factory and was renamed. It is a daily-use craft porcelain factory in Liling City. This also means that the new factory will not only produce daily-use porcelain such as bowls, cups and saucers, but also ornamental arts and crafts porcelain.

Jiangu came to the new factory with great joy. Like all girls in their youth, she longed to grow up and get out of the family, integrate into society, and be independent. She moved into a dormitory, sharing a room with seven other girls. Jiangu likes reading and singing, and can play the electronic keyboard. People with a literary and artistic flair love to dream, love the fragrance of a flower, the soft green of a leaf, and the gentleness of a piece of porcelain.

I went home to school and was no longer the follower of Grandpa and Jiangu. As a state-owned medium-sized enterprise in Zhuzhou City, the new porcelain factory is larger and more competitive. It also has new attractions for me. As soon as summer arrives, I begin to look forward to the summer vacation. In my mind, there is no free lunch, but there are free snacks. I would go there for various reasons: I missed my grandpa, so I went to fan him, I missed Jiangu, and she promised to take me to the street to buy a new dress, and I also wanted to see the flowers blooming in the flower bed of the new factory. How beautiful it is...

"You want to eat popsicles, right?" The kind grandma guessed what I was thinking. Sugar ice, banana ice, mung bean cake, the coldness and sweetness that can be had in the hot summer, for me, like a greedy cat, the magic is boundless to tempt me. There are three ice tickets per person a day, and the factory gives out high-temperature benefits. Grandpa said he won’t eat if his teeth can’t stand it, and Jiangu said she can’t finish the three ice tickets a day. So, when my sister and I went there, a thick stack of ice tickets printed in black on white paper were already waiting.

I am familiar with every part of the factory. To the right of the factory gate is a row of red brick offices on the first floor, and next to it is the basketball court. Walking further inside, you will see a large area of ??workshops. If you walk straight in, the aroma of food will be wafting out from this house. Don't ask, it's a big dining hall. Above the cafeteria is Grandpa's dormitory, and below is Jiangu's dormitory.

Every time I go there during the summer vacation, I live on the second floor of Jiangu’s simple two-story building. The room was very crowded, with four bunk beds and eight girls. It is said that a girl's heart lasts ten thousand years, which is nothing more than her love for beauty and letting the fragrance of flowers fill her path. The only table was placed by the window. There were two slender white porcelain vases on the table. The fragrance of gardenias inserted randomly overflowed, resisting the scorching sun and the dull sound of cicadas outside the window. I picked up the vase, looked at the porcelain, and smelled the flowers. "The bottles are beautiful, they are made in the factory. Next time you take a few home to arrange flowers!" A girl teased me. I said, "Can I just take it?" "Of course not, silly, it's a waste of money!" "Waiting" means it's bad. I looked carefully and saw that the mouth of one bottle was slightly chipped, and the waist of another bottle was stained with sesame black. Beautiful porcelain has such strict requirements on beauty.

Those who like porcelain also like me. I have a sweet mouth, and all the aunts and uncles in the room shout sweetly, so the more I eat, the more ice tickets I get. By the way, where is the ice factory? It’s so easy. I carry a thermos with a plastic shell to fill the popsicles every day. There is a hut a hundred meters to the right opposite the factory gate, which is the ice making factory. When I got tired of staying in the dormitory, I would run to the Jiangu workshop, and the rumbling sound of machines drowned out my voice calling her. The workshop is very large and long. Although it is not stuffy, the wind blown by the multiple vertical blowers is like a flowing heat wave, rushing around the workshop.

Jiangu sat next to the assembly line, skillfully applying decals. It is said that 30% of the talent is 70% of the grooming. The beauty revealed by the young and serious look cannot be concealed by a blue work clothes. The Lushui River is long and the glaze color is subtle. People who are associated with porcelain yearn for beauty in their hearts.

Grandpa’s job is still to burn kilns. In the summer, he is darker and thinner than before due to sweating. When I was a child, I had never been to a kiln on a hot day. Now I realize what it means to be hot and stuffy. When I first entered, my throat felt dry and my breathing became tight. I asked him: Grandpa, it will be so hot that it kills you. Can you bear it? The bun kiln has such a big appetite that it eats so much coal. ”

“There is no need for a bread kiln. This is a push plate kiln. It is advanced. The throughput of ceramic blanks is larger, and it can be pushed continuously without stopping the kiln. Grandpa is 58 years old. He can no longer work for another two years and it is time to retire. "Grandpa wiped his sweat, his face was glowing red from the kiln fire, and his sparse hair and beard were all gray. Grandpa said that burning a kiln may seem like a physical job. It only requires shovelfuls of coal to be fed into the furnace. In fact, it is It is an out-and-out technical job. You must know how to measure the fire, grasp the kiln temperature changes, and determine the ceasefire time. Our Li porcelain is a high-temperature underglaze porcelain, with a temperature of 1380 degrees. You must know that when it reaches 1200 degrees, the temperature rises and becomes It is extremely difficult.

From putting a pile of mud into the clay refiner to opening the kiln door and holding out a piece of porcelain, the complicated process is the key to linking up the past and the future. If any link fails, the porcelain will be presented. It breaks the perfection it should have. There is a saying in the porcelain making industry: "Born on mud, life and death on the kiln." It means that the mud is the basis for making good porcelain, and the kiln fire is the guarantee for whether the porcelain comes out to be amazing. . If the kiln fire is not well controlled, all the previous efforts will be in vain, so kiln firing is also called "treasure in fire"

Porcelain charm. It spreads all over the world, and the kiln fire lasts for a whole day and night. The deepest promise hidden in the heart of an ordinary kiln maker is: Give me a whole day, and I will give you a thousand years. /p>

The young and fashionable me began to vaguely understand that the porcelain, which is as white as snow and as colorful as the rainbow, condenses many pairs of dream-seeking eyes, from the Jianzhong Porcelain Factory in Tangjiaowan to Dalin Jianzhong. From the porcelain factory to the daily craft porcelain factory in Zhushan Bay, it was not only a simple change of factory location, but also a series of improvements and breakthroughs in ceramic production scale, production equipment, and production techniques.

At that time, Japan. The porcelain produced by the craft porcelain factory is very popular. In addition to domestic sales, the daily-use porcelain and craft porcelain are also exported to Southeast Asia.

(3)

Survival of the fittest is a market economy. According to the law, the sustainable development of an enterprise must have good market competitiveness, otherwise, depression will occur overnight. The two neighboring large state-owned factories, Guoguang Porcelain Factory and Qunli Porcelain Factory, are in their heyday, and some private enterprises have also begun. In 1986, the leaders of the porcelain factory decided to no longer produce daily-use porcelain and craft porcelain, and invested 90 million to plan and put into production new products. The main equipment was from. Italy introduced the world's most advanced glazed wall and floor tile production line, with an annual output of 1 million square meters, ranking first in the country. The factory was renamed again: Liling Great Wall Glazed Tile Factory

Daily use porcelain. From craft porcelain to architectural ceramics, to Beixiang, Dongxiang, and to the suburbs, a group of ceramics people followed closely. Grandpa retired, but Jiangu was still there.

The equipment for the new production line must first be imported. Study. The Italian equipment factory sent installation and commissioning personnel. Jiangu is a high school student and a highly educated employee. I was transferred to participate in the first batch of on-the-job training.

I have also been to the new workshop. The appearance is very different from before, clean and elegant, and the machine is shiny and new. Jiangu said that the foreigner with blue eyes, tall nose and curly hair is extremely serious in his work, quite polite and kind, and also quite humorous. After work, he knows how to do things. Participate in their drawing of lots and contribute money to buy snacks according to the rules of the game.

Jiangu worked hard and learned quickly. At only 23 years old, she soon became the workshop supervisor. Glazed bricks are a new type of architectural brick decoration after radial stone and terrazzo. Their quality and appearance are more popular in the market. The conversion to colorful glazed bricks brings infinite vitality and vitality to the porcelain factory.

As I grew older, my studies became more intensive, and I didn’t have enough time to go to Jiangu. The factory where Jiangu works no longer makes porcelain for daily use, but porcelain is everywhere in my hometown in the countryside. In addition to ordinary tableware and spoons, at that time my family had fruit bowls with gold rims, oval fish plates with pure white or blue flowers, and soup bowls.

A flat square blue chopstick holder hangs at the door of the kitchen, hollow and carved, extremely exquisite. The goddess Guanyin on the shrine, with her gorgeous clothes and beautiful eyes, the smiling Maitreya Buddha, and her earlobes reaching her shoulders, was being worshiped by my grandma on the first and fifteenth day of the lunar month. I watched quietly from the sidelines, feeling at ease and warm at such a moment. My favorite thing is to play with the Seven-Rank Sesame Official on the desk in my father’s room. He has a red robe, a black belt and a black hat. His head keeps swinging from side to side, and the hat wings tremble up and down. I remember that there is a line of thin lines at the bottom of the porcelain doll. Words: If you don't make decisions for the people when you are an official, it is better to go home and plant sweet potatoes. As for some pots and flower bowls, there are even more. Grandma uses them to make pickles, tea oil, and some make rice bowls for cats, dogs, and chickens. There is a small vase, either all-over white or white? Asakusa, soft and translucent, and slender in shape, with a long neck and a small mouth, like a graceful girl. Grandma always likes to use it as a container for collecting vegetable seeds. She said: This It's easy to use, and the cotton stuffing on the opening is tight. So, a row of small vases stood on the cabinet with small notes attached, including loofah, pumpkin, winter melon, rich melon, sword beans, and dried autumn beans.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the material life in the countryside was poor. The empty house only has the necessary tables, chairs, benches and beds, which are similar to every house, and decoration is non-existent. The wooden window sill of my sister and I's room is different. A wooden comb and a metal-framed round mirror are placed on the left, and a pot of orchids is placed on the right. A white porcelain plate holds a square light yellow flower pot, covered with smooth pebbles. The soft and slender leaves of the orchid are lightly green, and two or three small blue-purple flowers fly lightly like two or three butterflies. Lingering. I woke up in the morning, combed my hair, and took a look at the orchid grass. Through the glass window, I could see dogs crowing and roosters crowing, and the mist was misty in the morning. Time was like a line, like porcelain...

It was 1993 in the blink of an eye. One time, Jiangu came home and said, "We haven't been paid for two months. I guess the factory can't survive!" Grandpa asked why, and Jiangu said, "The factory has a heavy historical debt and the price of its products cannot be lowered. Foshan architectural ceramics factories are springing up like mushrooms after a rain. Our equipment is facing replacement again, where are the funds?”

The next year, the Great Wall Glazed Brick Factory declared bankruptcy. Later, it was acquired by Guoguang Group and still launched architectural ceramics. The wave of reform is changing with each passing day, and a land that was associated with porcelain has now ended its porcelain-making career. I have driven by it many times, and it has inevitably been involved in the trend of real estate development. The 1380-degree flames of Zhushan Bay are no longer the noisy roar of machines and the crisp echo of porcelain tiles. The high-rise buildings are filled with the fragrance of birds and flowers. , the wind is sunny and sunny.

(4)

Five years ago, I read a new novel by Genki Kawamura: "If There Are No More Cats in the World". There is this sentence: Everyone has the ability to easily transfer treasures. The ability to become rags.

Do I have any treasures? How could I turn it into rags?

One day, I was chatting with Jiangu, who was over fifty years old, and we talked about the Jianzhong Porcelain Factory, the Daily Craft Porcelain Factory, the Glazed Brick Factory, and the porcelain in our house. She said: "A piece of porcelain from the Dongbao ancient kiln is now very valuable. A Qunli hanging plate cost two or three yuan a piece at that time. Now some people pay eight or nine thousand for it. In the past, the porcelain from our factory was older and became more and more difficult to find." "I deal with ceramic manufacturing machinery and ceramic people every day, and I have also heard that the beauty of porcelain that has accumulated over the years is marked with a high price. This is the case with everything. Only when it faces disappearance does it become precious and become a treasure in the heart.

Think about it, what about the porcelain from my hometown in the countryside decades ago? He broke her into pieces casually and threw her away casually. Being moved around, I don’t know where I am. Treasures easily turn into tatters, covered in dust and dust over the years.

Craftsmen come from all directions, and their tools travel all over the world. Fortunately, Liling ceramics, with its unique charm of underglaze colors, can serve as the cultural business card of the Chinese nation and communicate with the world. My grandparents have been with porcelain all their lives, just to survive. Jiangu and I have an inescapable bond with porcelain. Even though we have nameless, beautiful and precious porcelain in our hands, from Dalin to Zhushan Bay, we have long been connected with porcelain in our hearts. Or maybe the time spent walking with porcelain in my memory is a priceless treasure that I enjoy privately.

I always believe that in the fleeting moment, a woman who has experienced wind and rain and remains as beautiful and elegant as porcelain knows how to use a quiet and humble heart to build a frank and clear mind after the new rain.

(Teacher Chu) "巜鴴 porcelain" "巜西三" platform