Chapter 255: He Has a Good Memory

Four teams, thirty people in total, were all transferred over.

Tian Jie took three teams to Guzhen, and the remaining team stayed on the Taidi.

Gao Zhangyi arrived covered in dust, his hair full of gray: "Teacher Lin, how should we probe?"

"You find the kiln furnace first!" Lin Sicheng pointed to the diagram he had just drawn on the ground with a probe rod, "If nothing goes wrong, it should be at the intersection of the extension lines of these three ash pits."

As he spoke, Lin Sicheng looked up, but the gully took a turn ahead and was blocked by the Taidi, so nothing could be seen.

He recalled: "Team Leader Gao, you still remember, right? After turning this bend, there is a chicken farm on the Taidi. I estimate the location of the kiln furnace overlaps with the chicken farm. You find Secretary-General Tan first and let him go communicate."

"If it can be found, let Secretary-General Tan organize personnel to clear the surface, and then you come back to probe these three pits."

"Understood!"

Gao Zhangyi immediately arranged for the team members to start work. Lin Sicheng opened his bag and took out all the data: plan views, satellite images, surveys, hydrology, various maps, and aerial photographs.

Assistant Fang Jin helped, using magnets to stick them onto the hood of the pickup truck, and Lin Sicheng held a pen and examined them.

Wang Qi Zhi looked at the maps covering the truck hood, then glanced around, and suddenly realized: he finally knew why Lin Sicheng had asked Tian Jie to look for the ancient riverbed at the bottom of a gully that had already been dug four or five meters deep.

Look at these aerial photos of the nearby Taidi:

The higher Taidi has a drop of twenty or thirty meters from the bottom of the gully, and even the shallow ones are seven or eight meters.

The drop here is only four or five meters deep, which is already as shallow as it gets.

The reason why the ash pits and kiln furnaces here were buried so deep is that the Taidi is composed entirely of loess layers. Whenever there is rain, the loess washes down with the rainwater; over the years, the Taidi gets lower and lower, and the gully bottom gets higher and higher.

Whether it is the ancient riverbed or the ash pits at the bottom of the gully, they naturally became buried deeper and deeper.

In a flash of thought, Lin Sicheng picked up his pen and tapped a few times on a plan map.

Wang Qi Zhi leaned over to look: Xipo Town, Lao Yaotou, Beiwuqin, Guduo, Guzhen.

After a slight pause, Lin Sicheng put a question mark under Guzhen and painted the triangle for Beiwuqin black.

After a little pondering, Wang Qi Zhi understood: the reason why the Beiwuqin Tang Kiln was black was that it was not in the same watershed as the others.

Including the Xipo Pottery and Sandware Site in Xiangning County, the Lao Yaotou Qing Dynasty porcelain kiln, the Guduo Yuan and Jin Dynasty porcelain kilns, and the Guzhen currently being surveyed, all were in the Zhemayu watershed.

Only Beiwuqin was in Guayu.

But the five sites were of one lineage: Beiwuqin was the earliest, Tang Dynasty. Lao Yaotou was the latest, Qing Dynasty. Guduo was in between, one site from the Yuan Dynasty and one from the Jin Dynasty.

Then what about the as-yet-unexplored Guzhen? Song, or Ming, or perhaps both?

Thinking secretly, Wang Qi Zhi watched Lin Sicheng sketch and draw; he drew for over two hours.

They didn't return to the Village Committee at noon and ate boxed lunches at the site. After eating, Lin Sicheng continued drawing.

At first, he was just drawing on maps, which was basically understandable. By the end, Lin Sicheng switched to blank paper, and Wang Qi Zhi and Sun Jiamu couldn't keep up with his train of thought.

The key was that they didn't recognize them: Lin Sicheng could divide one triangle symbol into over a dozen types—up, down, left, right, hollow, solid, half-hollow, red, green, black, blue, purple...

Besides triangles, there were squares, dots, trapezoids, dashed lines, solid lines, arrows... dozens of types in total, along with dense numbers; it felt like looking at a codebook.

After looking for a long time, Sun Jiamu frowned: "He should be calculating the locations of earlier sites, right? But this kind of algorithm... Professor Wang, did you teach him?"

Wang Qi Zhi puffed out his cheeks, wanting to curse: he couldn't even understand it himself, what the hell would he have taught him?

Just as he was muttering, Lin Sicheng's walkie-talkie rang: "Teacher Lin, the kiln furnace has been found, but the damage is very severe!"

"Hard work, Team Leader Gao, specific location!"

"Southeast corner of the chicken farm!"

"Good!"

After replying, Lin Sicheng had Fang Jin pack up the data, then turned and went up the slope to the Taidi.

Sun Jiamu and Wang Qi Zhi followed closely, but just as they reached the top of the Taidi, both were suddenly startled:

Not far away, about a hundred or eighty meters, there was indeed a chicken farm in the middle of the Taidi, and a foul smell was coming from far away.

Further south was a Catholic church.

But that wasn't the point; the point was the two Archaeological Cabins south of the church.

Hearing the commotion, a few people ran out of the cabins, took a look from afar, saw Sun Jiamu, and then "whooshed" back inside.

The two looked at each other: No... how could it be so close?

From the Neolithic Site archaeological cabin to those three ash pits just now, the straight-line distance was only three hundred meters. It was even closer to the kiln furnace location Gao Zhangyi found, just over two hundred meters.

Subconsciously, the two thought of that probe rod with which Lin Sicheng had accidentally found the Neolithic Site: if he had come even a little further north back then, he would have found this place a month ago...

Just as they were amazed, the two were stunned again: Lin Sicheng told Gao Zhangyi to get off work early, saying they would probe those three ash pits directly tomorrow.

It was almost seven o'clock, time to get off work, but what about here? Not probing anymore?

Looking up, the two suddenly understood: from here to the church, it was only a hundred or eighty meters, and over a hundred holes had been drilled densely, and the soil layer probed from each hole was over ten meters deep.

There was indeed a cultural layer of a porcelain kiln site, but it was pitifully thin: the thickest part was not even half a meter.

Especially the area where the kiln furnace was located; only a scorched bottom remained, just twenty or thirty centimeters.

Looking closely again: below the cultural layer was virgin soil, and everything above it was construction waste...

Tan Wu sighed: "I asked the old people in the village. It is speculated that a part was destroyed in the fifties when the Taidi was leveled for farming, and another part was destroyed in the early seventies when digging canals to take soil. Later, when building the church and the breeding farm, another part was destroyed..."

Sun Jiamu really wanted to ask: Then how was your preliminary research done?

But looking at Tan Wu, he swallowed his words.

Lin Sicheng only had those few people under him; they didn't even have enough for surveying and trial exploration, so the preparation must have been done by local organizations.

It was probably because the time was too distant and the difficulty too great that it wasn't done very meticulously. Moreover, given the background of the fifties, sixties, and seventies, when people couldn't even fill their stomachs, who cared about what site or what porcelain kiln?

Without documentary records, they could only ask house by house. But even from the early seventies to now, it had been nearly forty years; how many of the old people were still alive?

As for the church and the breeding farm, they probably hid it and didn't report it back then for fear of delaying the construction period. Later, for fear of being investigated and fined, they were even more afraid to speak...

Lin Sicheng was quite calm, looking at the soil layers probed one by one.

"There is more wood ash and less coal ash; the bulk of this kiln furnace should still be mainly black porcelain and ceramic pillows. Celadon-White Porcelain only accounts for a small portion..."

To put it bluntly: the kiln site for Luanbai Jade was not here, so even if it was destroyed, the loss was not very great.

The key depends on whether Tian Jie finds anything over there.

Just as he was pondering this, his cell phone rang; Tian Jie had called: no kiln site ruins had been found for the time being, but at the bottom of a gully on the terrace on the west side of Guzhen Village, traces of an ancient riverbed had been discovered.

Suddenly, the slightly heavy atmosphere eased up.

In Lin Sicheng's words: as long as the riverbed is located, no matter how deep the ruins are buried, they will be as clear as if they were transparent.

Lin Sicheng waved his hand: "Off work!"

A crowd of people bustled about, some packing up tools, others turning off machines.

Tan Wu hurriedly arranged for people to work the night shift.

Three days later, the group stood beside a large pit to the west of Guzhen Village.

And whether they were Archaeology Team members or experts from the Cultural Relics Bureau who had been given a day off by Sun Jiamu specifically to come and visit, none of their expressions were particularly good.

The good news: Lin Sicheng was absolutely certain, and the Guzhen Village ruins he had been longing for had been found.

Both the upper and lower sites were located in farmland on the hillside of the terrace next to the village; the upper one is called Shangbamu, and the lower one is called Xiabamu.

There were three kiln furnace sites alone, plus four workshops including a Washing Pool, a throwing room, and a drying yard. There were also other remains such as water wells, ash pits, stone mills, and piles of porcelain clay.

The bad news: the area is not large, just over one thousand square meters. It is still a Jin Dynasty kiln site, and the time period is even later than the breeding farm ruins, roughly in the mid-Jin Dynasty.

Although most of it is white porcelain, it is all coarse white porcelain, and the quality is not even as good as the Celadon-White Porcelain unearthed at Guduo Village.

The worse news: the ruins are severely damaged, slightly better than the breeding farm and church ruins at Guduo Village, but only to a limited extent. Especially the kiln furnace parts, only the sintering surface at the very bottom remains, making it impossible to even infer what the kiln furnaces specifically looked like.

The relatively well-preserved one is the No. 4 workshop at Shangbamu; the stratigraphic profile after excavation looks like this:

T represents soil layer, H represents ash pit, and F represents workshop.

Just at the spot marked "F" on the right, the semi-subterranean courtyard-style workshop was pressed beneath an abandoned cave dwelling. And before the cave dwelling was built, there was a small brick factory here from the fifties to the early eighties.

Then, they took soil on-site to fire bricks, digging the terrace—which was originally as high as the foundations of residential houses—into a large pit nearly four meters deep, resulting in only the bottom of the ruins remaining.

It was perfectly normal for such things to happen in that era, but what made Wang Qi Zhi angry was: why wasn't it discovered during the research phase that a brick kiln had been built here?

If the locals had been even a little more careful, just based on this brick kiln, Lin Sicheng would definitely have come to take a look, and as long as he came, he would certainly have driven a few Exploration Probes. To say nothing of more, he could have discovered it at least a month earlier.

There would have been no need for him to risk the heavy rain to go up the mountain to look at the flood gully, nor would there have been a need to infer the direction of the ancient riverbed through that Song Dynasty tomb.

Over the course of a month, how much effort did Lin Sicheng expend before finally finding this place?

Lin Sicheng's mood was actually fine; as the saying goes, the old man lost his horse, who knows if it's a blessing: if he had found this place earlier, he definitely would have missed the Neolithic Site on the south terrace. It would also have been impossible to recognize Department Head Zhao, Division Chief Sun, and so many experts.

Furthermore, although the kiln furnace ruins were relatively severely damaged, there were a great many ash pits remaining on the terrace and at the bottom of the gully, as many as thirty, with thousands of complete and restorable porcelain pieces unearthed, and as much as six tons of porcelain shards and kiln furniture specimens.

Although the unearthed white porcelain shards were all coarse white porcelain, he speculated: this was because the wars led to the flight of technical personnel, the coking technology was lost, and they were unable to control the kiln temperature.

Other technologies, such as clay refining and glaze preparation, were inherited quite completely. Even if he couldn't find an earlier porcelain kiln in the end, based on these samples, it was basically possible to restore the Luanbai Jade.

It would just mean more trial and error, and it would take a bit longer.

The most critical thing was that from the upper part of the No. 4 workshop, that is, the abandoned accumulation at the F4① and F4② positions, a large number of porcelain pillow fragments were unearthed.

These included octagonal pillows with carved flowers and black-filled peony patterns, pillows with carved flowers and black-filled text, Pearl Ground Sgraffito Waist-Round Pillows, and low-temperature glazed three-color lotus pattern pillows.

Relying on these porcelain pillow fragments, it is basically possible to prove the most representative porcelain-making crafts of the Hejin Kiln in the Jin Dynasty: Three-Color Pottery and porcelain pillows.

With a bit more time, Lin Sicheng could correct the original sites for many of the porcelain pillows collected by major museums at home and abroad.

Just from what has been checked during this period: the capital, Shaanxi History Museum, Henan Museum (Henan), Hebei Museum (Hebei), as well as the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, United States, the Seikado Bunko Art Museum in Japan... this was just the result of Zhao Xiuneng checking for a month; there are even more that haven't been checked.

But there is no rush.

First, there is a lack of a critical technical chain: since the ruins of this period are too severely damaged, then one must find earlier ruins, at least to prove the source of their technical inheritance.

Secondly, correcting the original sites of all the Hejin porcelain pillows collected by all museums combined cannot compare to that one in the Forbidden City:

Qianlong personally inscribed a poem on it, and he slept with it as a pillow for many years; the influence is imaginable.

So, ultimately, one must find the Song Kiln.

In a flash, Lin Sicheng took out the drawing he had made three days ago again. It was densely packed with symbols that no one could understand.

At the very north of the map, a large triangle was drawn, with two Chinese characters written on it: Beijian.

This was something Wang Qi Zhi had strongly requested Lin Sicheng to write, because if he didn't write it, no one would be able to understand it. They wouldn't even be able to distinguish east, south, west, or north.

Many people have seen this map, and everyone knows that this is the final location of the Song Kiln site that Lin Sicheng inferred based on the four ruins: the terraced fields, the breeding farm, and the upper and lower Shangbamu/Xiabamu.

Having gone through this so many times, no one doubted Lin Sicheng's inference and calculation abilities. If he said there were ruins in the Beijian area, he definitely wouldn't be wrong.

They were just a little worried: would it be like this place again, where they dig up a Jin Dynasty one, or perhaps even a Ming Dynasty one?

However, Tian Jie and Gao Zhangyi took four groups and went to that area. Lin Sicheng said: whether it is or isn't, there will be a result today...

"Secretary-General Tan, the follow-up excavation here will be left to you all. The No. 4 workshop needs to be a bit more careful, especially the remains on the bottom surface; you must try your best to keep them intact! If there isn't enough manpower, seek support from the city and provincial departments..."

Tan Wu was a layman, roughly equivalent to a liaison officer; she asked while taking notes: "Teacher Lin, can you be more specific?"

"I can! The No. 4 workshop should be considered a representative unit of the Hejin Kiln, and it is the original site of the most representative carved flower, incised flower, and low-temperature three-color porcelain pillows of the Jin Dynasty Hejin Kiln... Like this, you write it directly like this..."

Lin Sicheng paused slightly and pointed to the unearthed porcelain pillow fragments:

"According to the investigation by the Restoration Center, major domestic museums, such as the Forbidden City, Shaanxi History Museum, as well as exhibition institutions in the United States, Japan, etc., all collect treasures similar to Hejin porcelain pillows. Whether they were produced in Hejin still requires further verification..."

Tan Wu's pen paused, and her pupils shrank: which restoration center?

Naturally, it is the Yuncheng Branch Center of the Xida Cultural Relic Restoration Center...

A group of experts from Beijing stared with wide eyes: so many museums collect Hejin Kiln porcelain pillows, how come we didn't know?

Sun Jiamu had a strange expression: don't say you didn't know, even I didn't know?

No, it should be that all the major museums didn't know...

Just as he was about to ask, Wang Qi Zhi let out a breath: "Division Chief Sun, you haven't seen General Manager Zhao for a long time, have you? A month ago, Lin Sicheng already had him go to Beijing..."

Sun Jiamu was half-believing: at that time, the Beiwuqin Tang Kiln had just been found, and it had absolutely nothing to do with the Jin Dynasty or porcelain pillows. How could Lin Sicheng be so sure which exhibition institution collected Hejin porcelain pillows?

Wang Qi Zhi thought for a moment: "He has a good memory; he probably saw it somewhere before!"

Sun Jiamu really wanted to curse: Wang Qi Zhi, do you have no shame?

(End of this chapter)