Although this big dragon jar is not as big as the big dragon jar that is often seventy or eighty centimeters tall in the Kangxi and Yonggan periods, it is also a big weapon. At least among all the porcelains found today, the size of this big dragon jar is the largest.

The function of this large dragon jar and the blue and white jar painted with other patterns is actually a water storage device for fire fighting and extinguishing fire in the palace and upper class.

"Jingdezhen Pottery Record" says that "there are many jars painted with cloud dragons or blue and white, so they are generally named after dragon jars", which points out the origin of the name of the artifact, which is a special item for feudal emperors. As early as the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty, the Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Factory had a dragon jar kiln, which specialized in firing the big dragon jars. During the Xuande period, the dragon jar kiln once reached 32. By the Zhengde period of the middle and late Ming Dynasty, in the Jiajing period, due to the small number of green kilns and the dragon jar kilns were idle, the dragon jar kiln was converted into sixteen green kilns, and the sixteen big dragon jar kilns were still there.

During the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, fires were often caused by eunuchs setting off fireworks and accidentally using fires. Therefore, Emperor Jiajing attached great importance to fire prevention and sent people to Jingdezhen to burn large dragon tanks for water storage and fire prevention. But more often, the large dragon tank was idle and became a de facto large fish tank. At the same time, the large dragon tank was strong and durable, and was also used in the palace to store grain, oil, and water.

After Wanli, as the imported green materials were gradually exhausted, the craftsmen in the Imperial Kiln in Jingdezhen could only use domestic green materials, but the color of the fired dragon jar could no longer be compared with the Jiajing period. The Jiajing blue and white dragon jar became a rare object. Although Emperor Wanli was the emperor, his tomb had to use the "Made in the Jiajing Period of the Ming Dynasty" model.

The cylinder blocks of Jiajing blue and white dragon jars are large and rustic, with a solid and simple style, and a bright and green color. The blue and white are brighter than Yongxuan blue and white, brighter than Zhengde blue and white, and more colorful than Chenghua blue and white. Therefore, it is both specialized and multi-powerful, strong and durable, elegant and round, and pleasing to the eye. Therefore, in the Ming Dynasty, only Jiajing blue and white dragon jars were the best dragon jars.

Although this big dragon jar is not very big, it is not small anymore. It is definitely a rare top-quality blue and white dragon jar. Just this big dragon jar is definitely a national treasure-level existence.

But, the big dragon jar was filled with thatch. At first, Yang Jing thought that these thatchs were to protect the big blue and white dragon jar. But after cleaning it, he found that there were still some small porcelain hidden in the belly of the big dragon jar.

These small porcelains are not big in size, and they are all wrapped in cotton paper. When Yang Jing opened the cotton paper of one of the porcelains, his eyes suddenly widened.

"Damn! My buddy won't have such good luck, right?"

Looking at the small cup floating quietly in the space, Yang Jing almost screamed! The small cup in his hand is not big, with a diameter of less than seven centimeters, a base diameter of less than three centimeters, and a height of less than five centimeters. But just such a small cup, a cluster of bright peonies were drawn in five colors!

This pattern immediately made the name of a porcelain piece burst into Yang Jing's mind - the colorful Twelve Flowers Cup!

And this first opened cup is painted with peony flowers. This should be the fourth cup of the twelve cups of the Flower God!

As for the base, it is the six-character and two-line regular script style "made in the reign of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty".

"Is it possible that the legendary twelve cups of colorful flower gods hidden in the belly of this blue and white dragon jar? Or the twelve cups of colorful flower gods from the Kangxi period?"

When Yang Jing thought of this, he was really excited. If there was a set of Kangxi Five-Colored Twelve Flower God Cups here, the harvest would have been really great.

Yang Jing took out all the hidden cups in the big dragon jar. Sure enough, there were only twelve ones!

Now, Yang Jing's breathing became a little rapid.

In the Chinese ceramic industry, there were many sets of porcelain. The sets of porcelain were popular around the Eastern Jin Dynasty. At that time, according to living habits and needs, different varieties of daily porcelain were combined, such as cups, pots, cup holders, etc. as a group of tea sets, but at that time, there were relatively few varieties combined.

During the period when the sets were becoming increasingly rich, the Ming and Qing dynasties were the largest set of 200 pieces.

But the most precious thing among the sets is the Chenghua Doucai Chicken Gate Cup. But in fact, it is not the only one in the Ming Chenghua Doucai Chicken Gate Cup. The Qing Dynasty Kangxi Five-Colored Twelve Flowers God Cup and the Qing Dynasty Kangxi Blue and White Twelve Flowers God Cup are also peerless works that can be compared with the Chicken Gate Cup.

In the 19th year of the reign of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty, Zang Yingxuan entered Jingdezhen under the order to serve as the chief pottery supervisor and the production of official kilns, marking the official kilns officially began production in the Qing Dynasty. At that time, Liu Yuan was specifically responsible for designing porcelain styles. He was versatile and presided over the design of various imperial porcelains, and was good at firing colorful and doucai products, and achieved remarkable achievements. Among the hundreds of porcelain samples designed by Liu Yuan, the Twelve Flower God Cups were unprecedented.

The December Flower God Cup designed by Liu Yuan is themed with daffodils, magnolia, peach blossoms, peony, pomegranate, lotus, sunflower, osmanthus, chrysanthemums, hibiscus, roses and plum blossoms. One flower and one moon. These twelve flowers represent the twelve famous women in Chinese history. They are regarded as the "flower god" and are decorated with corresponding poems and essays.

The twelve flower gods worshipped are: the daffodils of the first month, the Luo god of the Luo god in February, the apricot blossom god Yang Yuhuan in March, the peach blossom god Xi in April, the peony flower god Lijuan in May, the pomegranate flower Gongsun in June, the lotus god Xishi in July, the sunflower god Li, the osmanthus god Xu Xianfei in August, the chrysanthemum god Zuo Guipin in September, the hibiscus god of October, the hibiscus god of flower wise in October, the rose god Wang Zhaojun in November, and the plum blossom god Princess Shou in December.

There are different poems on each cup. The poems of the Daffodils in January are: The spring breeze makes the sun come and the sun comes, and the night moon rises to the waves on the dam.

The poem by the Magnolia Flower God in February is: The golden and green calyx are in the cold spring, and there are several yellow flowers.

The poem of the peach blossom god in March is: Fenghua Xinshe Yan, the season is old and spring is thick.

The poem of the Peony Flower God in April is: The golden palm dew is dispersed in the morning, and the fragrance in the evening stirs the wind of the jade hall.

The poem of the Pomegranate Flower God in May is: Dew-colored pearls are reflected, and fragrant wind is covered by the pink wall.

The poem of the lotus flower god in June is: The root is jade in the mud, and the heart is filled with dew and beads.

The poem of the Sunflower God in July is: The fragrance of the vast palace is light and the chant is blowing from a distance on the high platform.

The poem of the August Osmanthus Flower God is: The branches grow infinite moons, and the flowers fill the natural autumn.

The poem of the chrysanthemum flower god in September is: Wine in white for thousands of years, and the fragrance of a green girl in her life.

The poems of the hibiscus flower god in October are: the fragrance and the rain, and the beauty is beautiful and the sunny smoke.

The poem by the God of Rose in November is: Don’t follow the thousands of species, but bloom red for a year.

The poem of the God of Plum Blossoms in December is: The plain snow condenses the trees, and the branches are filled with fragrance.

The front of the cup is a flower, the back is a regular script blue and white poem, and the seal with the word "加" is placed on the end.

The Twelve Flower God Cup was the first time in Chinese history that "poetry, calligraphy, painting, and seal" were used together on the same vessel. Therefore, Emperor Kangxi loved it very much and brought it with him several southern tours. He not only liked the craftsmanship of the Flower God Cup porcelain, but also liked the cultural artistic conception of flowers and Tang poetry.

"This is an absolutely good thing, it's really no worse than the set of Chenghua Doucai Chicken Cup I just discovered! It's a pity that this set of Flower God Cups should not be the set used by Kangxi, but the fine official kilns that were later imitated." Yang Jing looked at the bottom of this set of Flower God Cups and thought without regret.

It is said that the set of colorful twelve flower god cups used by Kangxi was the "Made in the Chenghua Period of the Ming Dynasty". The reason why such a strange base model appeared was precisely a major feature of Kangxi's early porcelain.

In the early Kangxi porcelain, there were very few styles written in the porcelain. The reason was that Kangxi believed that the style could not be written on the porcelain. If it was broken, it would not be allowed to be written. However, there was a special phenomenon on many of Kangxi's porcelains, which was to write a large number of sustenance monuments. For example, writing "The Xuande period of the Ming Dynasty", "The Chenghua period of the Ming Dynasty", and "The Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty", these three dynasties wrote the most.

This is a taboo in our imagination. Anyone who reads history knows that the literary inquisitions in the Qing Dynasty were very powerful, especially during the Kangxi period, when a large number of Han people proposed "anti-Qing and restoring the Ming Dynasty", which can be seen in TV dramas. At that time, you had to have a slight tendency to rebel against the Qing Dynasty and restore the Ming Dynasty, and you would be beheaded. However, the patterns written on the porcelain were all from the previous dynasty. This has to be said to be a major feature of the porcelain in the early Kangxi period.

Even if the official kiln was reopened in Jingdezhen in the 19th year of Kangxi, most of the early official kiln porcelains had no basic style, or the basic style was just some sustenance style.

The set of colorful twelve flower cups used by the old man of Kangxi were fired and the 25th year of Kangxi's reign. This set of twelve flower cups also contains the commemorative significance of Kangxi for Chenghua Doucai porcelain. Because Kangxi likes Chenghua Doucai porcelain very much, it is not surprising that the base of this set of cups is written with the "Made in Chenghua Year of the Ming Dynasty" on it.

During the middle and late Kangxi periods and later Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, the official kilns and folk kilns had imitations of the Twelve Flower God Cups, with slightly different sizes. The base also used the words made in the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty. However, the quality of the imitations of the descendants was not as good as the set of Emperor Kangxi.

This set of Twelve Flower God Cups was obviously imitated in the middle and late Kangxi period, but even the imitation products were fine products of the official kiln and were rare sets.

You should know that the entire set of Kangxi five-color twelve flower god cups is only one collected by Kaifeng Museum in Henan Province. In addition, Mr. Liu Yiqian also has a complete set of Kangxi blue and white twelve flower god cups. Even the Palace Museum has only a few single ones, not a complete set. It is conceivable how rare this set of twelve flower god cups is.

And this time, I actually got a set of Kangxi five-colored twelve flower god cups from this Jiajing blue and white dragon jar. This is simply a pie falling from the sky!

"Could this set of colorful twelve flower god cups is the set that the Japanese plundered from the country back then?" Yang Jing thought to himself.

According to legend, during World War II, the Japanese had searched a set of Twelve Flower God Cups in China, intending to transport them to Japan and offer them to the Japanese Emperor. Unfortunately, they sank with the Ahmaru halfway, and this part of the precious porcelain and some precious cultural relics sank into the sea together.

Now it seems that the precious porcelain shipped with the set of Twelve Flower God Cups was not loaded on the Awa Maru, but another ship, and then transported to the Philippines. It is just that there is no way to know why the Japanese had to transport it to the Philippines first rather than to the mainland of Japan.

Of course, it is also possible that this set of Twelve Flower God Cups is not the one obtained from China, but has a different source, but Yang Jing has no way of knowing where it comes from.

But no matter what, no matter where the Japanese snatched this set of Twelve Flowers God Cups were stolen from then on, they are now theirs!
Chapter completed!