Scientific Research On Bluish White Porcelain From Zhonghe Kiln In Guangxi

Zhonghe kiln has a history of 200 years producing the bluish white porcelain. It emerged in late northern Song Dynasty, flourished between Northern Song Dynasty and Southern Song Dynasty and declined in late Southern Song Dynasty. Zhonghe kiln became a National Cultural Heritage Conservation Unit in 2013 because of its importance. Domestic and foreign researchers had been keeping strong interest on Zhonghe kiln since it was discovered. The recent studies mainly focus on the some traditional aspects such as the range and shape of kiln, the transmission and exchange of ceramic technology, the trade, and the reason of thriving and declining of local porcelain industry. Few works has been done about the scientific research of Zhonghe kiln.In this paper, The physical property, firing temperature, chemical composition, micro-structure have been studied by Hydrostatic Weighing,Thermal expansion instrument,Scanning Electron Microscope an d X-ray Energy Dispersy Spectrum. Multivariate statistical analysis is employed to analyze the chemical composition characteristic of t he porcelain.The main conclusions of this paper are as follows:1. Firing temperature of the bluish white porcelain of Zhonghe kiln is about 1200?, water absorption is 0.3%~1.69%,thickness of glaze is between 100?m~250?m.2. The concentration of Al203 is 23.44~27.32%. The chemical composition is similar between the bluish-white porcelain samples an d porcelain clay, the glaze belongs to calcium glaze in which plant ash was added. From early stage to late stage,the technology of material processing on early stage was more carefully than middlestage and the place of extraction of the raw materials on late stage had been changed probably.3. The chemical composition of the porcelain from Zhonghe kiln is similar to Chengguan kiln and Guiping kiln.However, we can distinguish Zhonghe kiln, Chengguan kiln and Guiping kiln by the content of Sr O and ZrO2. The porcelain from Zhonghe kiln has a high concentration of Al2O3?K2O?MnO2and low concentration of SiO2. Using the discriminant function of 1.179SiO2-4.315K2O-6.643Fe2O3, we can distinguish the porcelain from guangxi and other regions in China. If the function value is less than 52.113, we can infer that the sample belongs to Guangxi instead of other places.4?There are complements for the research of the Rise and Fall of the kiln, sources of technology, sales from the perspective of field research, the analysis of science. The quality of raw materials may be one reason for prosperity and decline. Production technology may come from early kiln in Guangxi Province.Religion of longmu and tianfei may be associated with export.