The color of excellence

"No one showed any interest as they all mistakenly thought they were new pieces," Wang says. "The seller was desperate as he didn't have enough money to return home, so I bought the cups from him to help him out."

When he later showed his purchases to Gong, the expert immediately identified them as Qingbai porcelain from the Song Dynasty kiln in Jingdezhen. "This sparked my interest in Qingbai and prompted me to start paying attention to it in the market," Wang says.

He began frequenting museums across the country to study examples of the porcelain, cementing his lifelong love for the style. "I saw many beautiful pieces in museums and gradually, I began to understand and appreciate them," he says.

Experts say that the aesthetic of Song Dynasty Qingbai porcelain is more elevated than that of Ming and Qing ceramics, due to its simplicity, elegance, exquisite craftsmanship and naturalism.

Influenced by the refined tastes of Song scholars, the style embodies tranquillity and harmony, making it both a pinnacle of ceramic art and a significant influence in the history of porcelain.

Wang also started to look into ancient kiln sites, conducting examinations both inside and outside the kilns to improve his knowledge of the history and characteristics of Qingbai porcelain. "There were still many well-preserved examples in the Nanhe and Xiaonan river basins in Jingdezhen," Wang says.

His investigations were extensive, including detailed analyses of kiln structures, production processes, material collection and preparation, as well as workshop layouts. It laid a strong foundation for his effort to restore the crafting process of Qingbai porcelain.

Since the original Qingbai porcelain workshops had long disappeared, and the techniques for making it were lost during the Ming and Qing dynasties, there were almost no traces left in terms of the techniques used to mold, carve and sculpt the clay.

Wang dug into historical documents, such as the Tao Ji (Records on Ceramics), from the Song Dynasty, that elaborated on the raw materials and formula for Qingbai porcelain, and used what he learned to practice, trying over and over to re-create pieces based on the characteristics of Song artifacts.

He also sought out natural weathered porcelain stone, clay, and other materials from Jingdezhen, such as burned wood ash and limestone, that were recorded in the ancient books, to further his experiments.

"Using what I learned from museums, kiln site investigations, and ancient ceramic samples I found, I practiced the refiring techniques used to make Qingbai porcelain," Wang says.

Through trial and error, Wang was able to come up with an equivalent of the original formula.

In 2001, Wang built a Song-style stepped bricked kiln on a sloped hill, with an inclination of around 21 degrees. Using pine and other miscellaneous wood as fuel, the kiln can reach a maximum temperature of 1,330 C, and remains in use today.

Then, he found a source of premium clay several meters beneath the surface of the mountains surrounding the Xiaonan River, based on his knowledge from his research and readings of the historical documents concerning the related ancient kilns.