Zhu Jianshen, the five-year-old prince of Ming Yingzong, was abolished after the change of the civil fort in the Ming Dynasty. The fate of a prince being abandoned is always tragic. At that time, only Wan Zhener, a maid-in-waiting of 17 years old, lived with him for five years. Later, Zhu Jianshen succeeded to the throne, that is, Ming Xianzong, and changed his name to Chenghua.
Zhu Jianshen was very fond of the painting "The Hen Map" in the Song Dynasty. The warmth of a hen with a chick for food reminds her of Wan Zhener's care for her when she was young, so she wrote a poem: "She snuggled up to her child and didn't faint for a day, so she called her son to accompany her at night." This "Oedipus" complex implies the cross-era and bumpy love between Zhu Jianshen and Wan Zhener. Zhu Jianshen ordered the official kiln to burn Doucai Chicken Cylinder Cup, which was handed down to later generations.
Manufacturing technology of chicken cylinder cup
The process of Chenghua Doucai is very complicated. Because of its compact shape, numerous processes, precious glaze color and low yield. "Doucai" is a color filling process. The general process is to draw a pattern on the porcelain blank after firing at different temperatures twice, and then fill it with blue and white materials suitable for high-temperature firing, but it will leave room for the later colored glaze. After the pigment is filled, white glaze is applied to the porcelain blank and the first firing is started. The temperature is about 1300 degrees.
After leaving the kiln, low-temperature colored glaze should be filled in the blank, and then the second low-temperature firing should be carried out. In these two processes, the former is called underglaze blue and white, and the latter is called underglaze color, thus forming a small porcelain with underglaze blue and white combined with underglaze color. Although there are many official kiln porcelains fired by this process, the chicken cylinder cup is the most respected, and because it is special for Chenghua, it rarely flows into the society and is quite precious.