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The Legend of the
brothers' kilns -- the Ge Kiln and the Di Kiln
The Ge Kiln and the Di Kiln
The meaning of Ge and Di in Chinese is older and younger
brothers. The two kilns were established by two brothers in
Longquan, Zhejiang Province in the Song Dynasty: Zhang Sheng'yi
and Zhang Sheng'er.
These two brothers were sons of a very skilled porcelain
craftsman. When their father died, they built up their own kilns
for themselves. However, the older brother Zhang Sheng'yi was
very diligent and used most of his time to study how to improve
the quality of his porcelains, white the youger brother wasted
his talent on entertainment and feast. By and by Zhang Sheng'er
had lost his market to his brother. He was jealous. One day when
he passed by his older brother's kiln he sneaked to the kiln and
poured some water into the kiln through a small gap. The glaze
of the porcelains all cracked by the sudden cold. When Zhang
Sheng'yi opened the kiln several days later, he was so suprised
and bewildered by this disaster, but he didn't give up. He tried
to fix the problem instead of trash his failed products. He used
a darker colored glaze to fill the crackles, then put them in
the kiln again. Another month passed, when Zhang Sheng'yi opened
the kiln again, a miracle happened: all the crackles became a
special and astonishing decoration -- a new porcelain style was
invented. Zhang Sheng'yi sent his porcelains to the market and
immediately it became so famous and it brought him a big profit.
Zhang Sheng'er heard his brother's story. He thought his brother
was successful because he put the water inside the kiln, so he
did the same thing to his own kiln. He didn't know his brother
used another glaze to fix the problem. When he sent his products
to the market, he was laughed by the customers and he lost all
his investment. Frustrated and upset, Zhang Sheng'er was sick in
the bed. Zhang Shengyi heard his young brother was sick then
bought many gift to see his brother. Zhang Sheng'er bursted in
tears, he confessed himself to his brother. Zhang Shengyi didn't
not blame his brother, he tried to console his brother. Zhang
Sheng'er was very touched and encouraged. He became as
hard-working as his brother. Soon he created his own style and
became famous too.
Later, Zhang Sheng'yi's Kiln was called the Ge Kiln, it was one
of the Five Famous Kilns in the Song Dynasty. Zhang Sheng'er's
Kiln was called the Di Kiln or the Longquan Kiln, it was one of
the largest nongovernmental kilns in China.
Related Links:
The Ge Kiln
The Longquan Kiln
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