Why the best Jun china is called Chicken Blood?

   Jun china is made at Jun Kiln in Yu Zhou city. It is one of the top 5 kilns in China. The best quality is called the Chicken Blood, with very bright red glaze on the surface. There is a story about the Chicken Blood.

  In the end of the Ching Dynasty (1616 - 1911 A.D.), there was a potter whose name was Wang Jin. One day, Wang Jin was sleeping at night, suddenly he heard someone said "wake up!, wake up!" He opened his eyes, there was a beam of red light in the room, an old angle was sitting on the edge of the bed. He told Wang Jin: "You have been working hard for the whole life. You dedicated yourself for making beautiful china for the people. However, you haven't get the secret of making fine arts. I will tell you the secret, hopefully you can understand it later." Then he wrote down two words on the ground and disappeared. Wang Jin looked at the two words, it was "heart blood".

  Wang Jin was very good at making nice china, the only disadvantage was the color of the glaze. He thought over and over, finally he decided to jump into the kiln, sacrifice himself with his "heart blood" to create the most beautiful china.

  Wang Jin had a foster son whose name was Wang Xiao ("Junior Wang"). Hearing the news, Wang Xiao cried and begged his father not to die. But his father was not so easily persuaded, so Wang Xiao decided to watch and protect his father.

  One day, they were making another batch of china, the fire had been burning in the furnace for three days.  Wang Jin told Wang Xiao: "I am hungry, go get a piece of cake for me." When Wang Xiao was fetching the cake, Wang Jin prayed to the god and then jumped into the fire.

  When Wang Xiao came back, he realized that his father had sacrificed himself to the kiln. He cried so badly that he fainted at last. His soul flied over to a mountain, on the top of the mountain he saw the old angle and his father talking together. He ran to the old angle and kneeled down, begging him to save his father.

  "It is too late," the angle said, "You father misunderstood me, I just suggested that he should be more dedicated and use some kind of blood. Anyway, you father has created the most beautiful glaze of china. In the future, if you want to make the same product, it is unnecessary to sacrifice human lives. Chicken blood is enough."

  Wang Xiao succeeded his father's job and taught the secret to all his colleagues. After that, the potters used chicken blood as the sacrifice for the kiln, the glaze became very beautiful. The best color was "chicken blood red", there are also some other colors like auroral, pale red and aubergine purple, all of those are new fine colours of Jun china.

  To remember Wang Jin, people set his statue in front of the kiln, he is worshiped as the god of the kiln. It is said that if you keep the fire burning for three days, you will see Wang Jin appearing in the kiln.