Chapter 243: Craftsmanship Cannot Come Out of Thin Air

The sky is high and the clouds are pale; the green fields are bathed in charming sunlight.

The ground had been simply leveled and covered with dust-proof netting. In the center stood a massive sign: Commencement Ceremony for the Hejin Ancient Kiln Project by the Shanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology and the Northwest University Restoration Center Yuncheng Sub-center.

There were many people: leaders from the Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau, heads of subordinate archaeology and cultural heritage units, and representatives from the YC City and Hejin City party committees and governments.

All told, men and women, there were forty or fifty people.

Ren Xinbo, Division Chief of the Cultural Relics Bureau's Science and Technology Division, presided. First, the Deputy Bureau Chief of the Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau spoke, followed by Lin Sicheng, then the deans of the archaeology and cultural heritage institutes, and only then the city and county-level leaders.

Watching Lin Sicheng standing in the very center, looking so young it was dizzying, Shang Yan said with emotion, "In Shaanxi, Lin Sicheng didn't even get this kind of treatment, did he?"

Wang Qi Zhi and Zhao Xiuneng exchanged a glance but said nothing.

That was just Shang Yan's perception.

Not to mention anything else, just take the Inverted Pot or the Zhang Anshi Tomb; if Lin Sicheng were willing, at the very least, a city-level department would have to hold a celebration for him.

The person presenting him with an award would be at least a department-level leader.

Because both cases were somewhat sensitive, they could not be made public for the time being. Furthermore, Lin Sicheng did not like to show off, so not many people knew.

But the credit and the favors were real and solid.

For district or city-level direct departments, if Lin Sicheng went to handle business, he would get things done faster than Wang Qi Zhi. For places like the Public Security Bureau or the Cultural Relics Bureau, Lin Sicheng didn't even need to go in person; a phone call would suffice.

Honestly, it worked better than when Wang Qi Zhi went...

The ceremony was not long, lasting about an hour, and several leaders picked up Luoyang Shovels to symbolically shovel a few scoops of dirt.

After sending the leaders off, the Archaeology Team brought out an incense table, setting up a pig's head, a whole sheep, chicken, fish, and fruit.

Lin Sicheng did not really believe in this, but as the saying goes, when in Rome, do as the Romans do; even if it was just for peace of mind.

They burned paper, lit incense, and set off three strings of ten-thousand-count Firecrackers, officially starting the work.

Lin Sicheng served as Chief Engineer and General Commander, overseeing the overall situation. Ren Xinbo served as Deputy General Commander, responsible for coordination and scheduling. Gao Zhangyi was responsible for excavation and construction, with the Provincial Institute of Archaeology and the Field Research Institute assisting.

Except for Lin Sicheng, every one of them was a veteran archaeologist with half a lifetime of experience; their professionalism and expertise were beyond doubt.

After offering a few words of encouragement, Lin Sicheng also got into the car.

He was actually just holding a nominal title; at most, he would come to check in once or twice a week, or occasionally when there was a new discovery.

His main task was to find the kiln sites from the Song and Jin dynasties and ultimately restore the Luanbai Jade.

Just as he was preparing to return to the hotel to discuss the follow-up survey plan with Tian Jie, his phone buzzed.

It was Shui Jisheng, saying he had seen the analysis report Huang Zhifeng had just finished in the lab and wanted to discuss it with Lin Sicheng.

Seeing him hang up the phone, Wang Qi Zhi clicked his tongue: "The old man is over eighty and has been retired for twenty years, yet he's still so dedicated!"

Lin Sicheng nodded.

In his memory, Chief Engineer Shui passed away in the 2020s, and even at the ripe old age of ninety, he still insisted on studying every day.

Although he had stopped doing appraisals by then, the Industrial Bureau, the Archaeological Institute, and the Provincial Museum would still invite him to give lectures from time to time.

The free kind.

"The spring silkworm may keep spinning silk until it dies; the candle may keep burning until it turns to ash"—that is exactly the kind of senior he was.

In a flash, the car arrived at the city (county) Cultural Relics Bureau.

The city had specifically cleared out two floors to serve as a research space for the various archaeological units at the Hejin Ancient Kiln. All instruments and equipment had been shipped over from Yuncheng and Taiyuan.

The Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau's Cultural Relics Research Institute, the Archaeological Research Institute, the Cultural Heritage Research Institute, and the Xida Restoration Center had all set up separate laboratories. Huang Zhifeng could be considered to have upgraded his gear, with all brand-new equipment.

After entering, a crowd of people was gathered around a computer, and Shui Jisheng was sitting to the side with several test reports spread out in front of him.

Seeing Lin Sicheng, the group greeted him one after another: "Engineer Lin... Teacher Lin... Commander Lin..."

They called him all sorts of things, all of them respectful titles.

Having held meetings together before, Wang Qi Zhi, Zhao Xiuneng, and Shang Yan all knew: the people before them, even if not the absolute top scholars and experts in Shanxi's archaeology and cultural heritage fields, were at least in the first tier.

Without real ability, these people would not be calling a twenty-something-year-old kid "Teacher" without the slightest hesitation or ambiguity.

If one were to ask what skills Lin Sicheng had?

If sticking an Exploration Probe into a pile of wood ash at Lao Yaotou was luck, then casually walking around the mountain and drawing out the entire layout of the Beiwuqin Ancient Porcelain Kiln Site could also be called luck?

In Shui Jisheng's words: Don't even talk about half a day; I'll give you half a month—can you do it?

To be honest, it was hard not to admire him.

Lin Sicheng smiled and greeted them: "Teacher Shui, hello everyone!"

Shui Jisheng waved his hand and pointed to the experimental bench nearby: "When I was passing by, I saw a few pieces of white porcelain on the table that looked like Xing Ding Porcelain, so I came in to take a look... I asked Professor Huang, and it really is from the Xing Kiln?"

As he spoke, he raised the report in his hand: "Are you preparing to trace the origins and infer the technological source of the Tang Dynasty white porcelain from Beiwuqin?"

"Yes!" Lin Sicheng nodded. "There are only a few kilns in the Tang Dynasty that could fire white glazed porcelain, and even fewer that did it well; they are either in Henan or Hebei."

"Xing, Ding, Gong!" Shui Jisheng thought for a moment, then looked at the report in his hand. "Little Lin, which one do you infer it is?"

"Part of the technology should come from the Xing Kiln!"

Lin Sicheng replied without hesitation, "For example, the lime makeup and the wood ash glaze—these techniques all originated from the Xing Kiln. Even the Ding Kiln, which began trial-firing white porcelain in the mid-Tang, had technology that also came from the Xing Kiln... The key is that they are all quite close to Hejin..."

It was indeed quite close.

It could be said that among all the ancient white porcelain kilns discovered in Shanxi, the technology basically came from these two kilns. The Ding Kiln and the Xing Kiln shared the same lineage, so there was no conflict there.

Shui Jisheng was lost in thought.

Director Yao of the Provincial Ceramics Institute, who was also a student of Shui Jisheng, looked puzzled: "Teacher Lin, why only 'part'?"

"The Xing Kiln was a wood-fired kiln; to this day, no records have been found regarding the use of coal to fire porcelain!" Lin Sicheng smiled. "It used a double fire chamber, or even a multi-fire chamber, with a kiln temperature of at most 1,300 degrees!"

The group suddenly realized:

That bowl of Teacher Shui's, as well as some of the samples collected from Beiwuqin, were all high-temperature porcelain that required a kiln temperature of at least 1,400 degrees, which could not be fired in a wood-fired kiln.

Someone had a sudden inspiration: "Could it be a firing technique created locally in Hejin, including the use of coke?"

After a brief pause, Lin Sicheng shook his head.

This wasn't pottery—just mud-smeared jars that could be fired well just by throwing them in. Beyond the most basic high-temperature requirement, it also required controlling the reduction atmosphere to an extremely precise degree: how high the temperature, how much wind to blow, and for how long—it even had to be precise to the degree and the minute.

To reach such a level, the craftsmanship could not have come out of thin air; it is impossible to say one can create it from scratch just like that.

Lin Sicheng suspected that it very likely originated from the predecessor of the Jun Kiln, the Yuzhou Kiln.