Chapter 122 Who dares to say this is a patch?
Under the bright white light, the air was filled with the distinctive astringent smell of porcelain rust.
Polishing, gluing, and piecing together—Lin Sicheng worked methodically, and the outline of the blue-and-white porcelain jar gradually took shape.
Li Zhen and the doctor assisted closely, while another person prepared materials. Feng Lin and the remaining person had nothing to do, so Lin Sicheng had them take notes.
Feng Lin's notes, another remote-controlled camera.
Instead of going directly to the stage to watch, Shang Yan projected the video onto the large screen.
Wang Qizhi leaned back lazily in his chair, unscrewed his thermos, and took a leisurely sip: "Shang Yan, your screen is pretty good, isn't it?"
Shang Yan looked puzzled: "You don't have any in your lab?"
He nodded: "Yes!"
And it was much bigger than that, but Wang Qizhi never had the chance to appreciate it.
He leaned back in his chair again: "No sofa? Thumbs down!"
Shang Yan glared at him.
Wang Qizhi pointed upwards again: "Hey, why did you stop?"
Shang Yan turned around and looked closely: Lin Sicheng took out a piece of porcelain from under the microscope and examined it carefully.
Gradually, his brows furrowed.
At the same time, Shang Yan frowned: "I'm afraid... it can't be fixed!"
Wang Qizhi was taken aback: "Why?"
Shang Yan pointed upwards: "Look!"
Before he finished speaking, Lin Sicheng raised his finger and gently scraped the edge of the porcelain shard, just like scraping a scraper blade.
Immediately, porcelain powder scattered and fell, leaving a sloping surface on the porcelain slag.
Not much, just two or three millimeters.
But Wang Qizhi immediately straightened up: "It's gone limp?"
The problem is likely caused by the acid and alkali in the soil corroding the porcelain fragment, causing the body to crumble into powder at the break. It's impossible to glue it back together; even if you manage to, it will break open within a few days.
For ordinary repairs, it doesn't matter, of course. At worst, you can apply gold leaf or even use lacquer to mold the base. Just like that white lard bowl that Teacher Bai bought, even though it was missing a third of its contents, Lin Sicheng could still fix it.
But this is a meticulous, seamless restoration; you have to restore it to its original state. If the body or the decoration is missing even a millimeter, the difficulty of the restoration will instantly increase several times: you have to repair the base body, the base glaze, the blue and white decoration, and even the surface glaze.
These are the six points that Shang Yan raised yesterday: the coefficient of thermal expansion of the base, the high-temperature resistance coefficient of the glaze, the color constancy from multiple angles, and the tactile reproduction of brushstrokes...
Besides, we're still short so much, and several pieces at that.
"It's so delicious!" Shang Yan nodded, as if murmuring to herself, "I told you, don't get any wild ideas!"
Wang Qizhi remained silent, his expression gradually turning cold.
That means all the work I did in the past half day was for nothing.
Luo Yongsheng (Wang Qizhi's former assistant at the Cultural Relics Bureau), what are you good for?
The items were found by Wang Qizhi in Beijing, but they were only intended for Lin Sicheng to practice on, so no one paid much attention to them. This included Lin Sicheng, and even more so Wang Qizhi.
Because nobody expected that, while practicing, they would actually end up applying for World Heritage status?
But what do we do now?
Of course, we should look for a new one.
Muttering to himself, Wang Qizhi took out his phone, intending to ask Lin Sicheng to change his clothes, perhaps by first touching up the delicate yellow glaze.
Then he would hurry up and search, and the item would be delivered in three to four days at most.
He had already stood up when Shang Yan waved her hand again, saying, "Wait a minute!"
Wang Qizhi subconsciously raised his head and looked at the stage: Hmm, Lin Sicheng's expression looks alright?
His brows furrowed slightly, but his expression remained relatively calm as he gently scraped away the porcelain dust until no more porcelain powder fell.
Compared to before, the porcelain shard is now more than three millimeters narrower and more than two centimeters long, and it happens to be a turning point in the blue and white pattern.
What a bad start! Such a high intensity on the very first day?
Medium-crispy, downright hellish.
It's not that it can't be fixed, but it's very difficult...
As he examined the porcelain shard, Lin Sicheng's voice deepened: "Test report!"
In an instant, the doctor's face turned red.
He did all the testing, including diagnosing the damage. He checked for cracks, fissures, glaze damage, color damage, and even color changes, but he didn't check for salt precipitation or erosion.
And then there's Li Zhen. She did the thorough cleaning, going over it three times, and yet she didn't notice anything amiss.
The two men kept their heads down. Li Zhen handed over the report, but Lin Sicheng didn't take it: "Read it!"
Li Zhen straightened his expression: "Core components of the matrix: SiO, content... AlO, content... particles... crystal structure... porosity..."
"Glaze system: elemental content...coloration effect...glaze chemical composition: formula...refractive index...coefficient of thermal expansion..."
"Microscopic characteristics: bubble structure... phase separation structure... material properties: hardness... density... dielectric constant..."
Lin Sicheng slowly rubbed the porcelain shards: a typical early Chenghua period binary formula of "Ma Cang clay + Qimen kaolin clay", with finer clay particles than those of the Yongle period.
The glaze uses a mixture of cobalt blue and other cobalt blue, resulting in a more complex formula and a more unique color.
Consequently, the repair is more difficult.
To fix it properly, you need a killer technique...
Lin Sicheng recalled the materials Wang Qizhi had found in Beijing and secretly breathed a sigh of relief: Fortunately, the preparations were quite thorough...
Overwhelmed with focus, Lin Sicheng unconsciously resorted to a habit from his past life, tapping his fingers on the table repeatedly.
"Li Zhen, clay preparation: 70% Qimen kaolin, 25% Jingdezhen Macang clay, 5% aged lotus root starch clay... Key point: Add 0.3% hair ash (a Ming Dynasty secret recipe, to enhance toughness)..."
Shao Qihua (Shang Yan's student, Master's student) assisted: pound the stone mortar 360 times, focusing on: 90 times clockwise → 90 times counterclockwise, repeat 4 times… heat and age, temperature range: 40-60 degrees Celsius… focus on: aging in a cedar barrel, stirring every ten minutes…
"Miao Xin (Master's degree), notes: 1. Add crushed porcelain powder to the clay, pass through a 100-mesh sieve, and compact with a bone press. 2. Preparation of pure clay: three kneads and nine pinches... 3. Clay slurry, filtered through a filter cloth..."
"Jiang Yuanshan (PhD), Cobalt Material Preparation: Add cobalt blue pigment to stone blue pigment in a 3:7 ratio, grind with blue and white porcelain shards... Color adjustment and verification, observe the characteristics after firing test pieces..."
"Feng Lin: Boiled tung oil and pine soot ink, in a weight ratio of three to one..."
"tool……"
After saying just two words, Lin Sicheng subconsciously stopped: Five assistants, all of them have been arranged?
Forget it, I'll do it myself.
He took off his gloves and walked toward the toolbox.
Below the stage, Shang Yan and Wang Qizhi looked at each other in bewilderment.
The former didn't quite understand; although he understood a little, the amount of information was too much and too concentrated, and Wang Qizhi's mind couldn't process it all at once.
The latter was stunned... truly stunned.
At first, Shang Yan was quite impressed, thinking that Lin Sicheng was calling her by her first name, omitting all the titles of senior brother and senior sister, but it made him seem even more sophisticated.
Upon hearing about clay, cobalt, and even tung oil, Shang Yan sighed, thinking that Lin Sicheng was deliberately making things difficult for himself: this blue and white porcelain jar absolutely had to be repaired today.
Then, seeing Lin Sicheng holding tools one by one: a diamond knife, a bamboo root chisel, a measuring compass, a fish-shaped mold... she realized what Lin Sicheng was going to do: repair the carved body.
To put it bluntly: the "mortise and tenon structure" used in woodworking was used to repair the porcelain body that had been damaged due to melting.
Not to mention knowing how, Shang Yan had never even seen it before; she had only glanced at it in ancient books.
She wouldn't have even remembered it if she hadn't seen the highly recognizable shape and fish-shaped pattern.
His eyes widened involuntarily, and he gasped again: Lin Sicheng, has the teacher really learned something new today?
She was terrified, but she reacted quickly and stepped onto the stage.
Wang Qizhi was slow to realize what was happening and followed closely behind.
Then, Shang Yan lowered her voice: "Jiang Yuanshan, you go assist Lin Sicheng, I'll handle the cobalt material... Wang Qizhi, you prepare the tools..."
Before he could finish speaking, Lin Sicheng waved his hand without even looking up, saying, "No need, you can just take notes!"
Watching him shoo away flies, Shang Yan paused for a moment, then pouted.
After stepping off the stage, Shang Yan picked up the camera remote and adjusted the distance to be closer, resulting in clearer pixels.
Wang Qizhi pretended to pick up the notebook that Feng Lin had thrown down, looking completely bewildered: "Why are you pouting?"
Shang Yan continued, "He thinks we're in the way!"
Wang Qizhi was stunned for several seconds before trying to justify his apprentice: "You rushed onto the stage without saying a word, and then started interfering and giving random instructions. If I were in your shoes, I would also find you an eyesore!"
You don't know anything!
Shang Yan chuckled and pointed at the big screen: "Do you even know what your students are planning to do? Carve a clay figure..."
Wang Qizhi paused for a moment: "Isn't this the process before glazing relief porcelain in the Qing Dynasty?"
"They're not even the same thing... How can you be so stupid?"
Shang Yan was a little anxious, speaking and gesturing, "Do you know what mortise and tenon joints are? Lin Sicheng is going to use this method to repair the missing part... Jiang Yuanshan (the PhD) doesn't know it at all... no, he's never even heard of it!"
Wang Qizhi stared wide-eyed and gaped, stunned for a long time.
"The mortise and tenon joints used in furniture and roof beams?"
"nonsense!"
Amazing, my apprentice!
Let alone Shang Yan's students, I've never even heard of her as a teacher...
Wang Qizhi took a deep breath: "How exactly do we fix it?"
Shang Yan rolled her eyes: How should I know?
If I had known, I wouldn't have been so shocked...
"Does that mean... nobody knows how?"
"Yes! Before it was Chen Wanli, Sun Yingzhou, and Feng Xianming. Now it's several of their students..."
Shang Yan spread her five fingers apart. "These are all the survivors, all in the Forbidden City... Wang Qizhi, do you know what that means?"
Wang Qizhi's eyelids twitched uncontrollably: he didn't know anything about carved ceramic restoration, but he at least knew the three people Shang Yan mentioned: a leading figure in the field of contemporary appraisal, a leading figure in the field of porcelain, and a top expert in the field of ancient ceramics research.
To put it simply: the current grading and appraisal levels for museum-collected ceramics in China are determined and established by these three individuals.
Coincidentally, all three were invited by the Palace Museum and had previously served as researchers in the conservation and restoration of porcelain. They have taught many apprentices, but the most skilled remain at the Palace Museum.
But that place has some traditions, especially in cultural relic restoration, where the apprenticeship system has been maintained. To put it bluntly: true knowledge is passed down privately, and the so-called students can only play a supporting role.
Therefore, Shang Yan said: Yes, there are only five still alive, all in the Forbidden City. She then asked, "Lin Si has grown up so much, and she's never even left Xi'an. Where did she learn that?"
Wang Qizhi said decisively: "In the book!"
Shang Yan froze, her lips trembling, and the words "Bullshit" welled up in her mouth.
Wang Qizhi wasn't worried at all: "It's not in the book?"
Of course.
However, there are only a few ancient books available: "Tao Shuo" and "Jingdezhen Tao Lu"... but they are vague and unclear, and the language is ambiguous. Let alone studying them, even those with insufficient knowledge cannot understand them.
Wang Qizhi pressed on: "None of these three have published a book?"
Of course, we've had them, quite a few.
But if one could learn it simply by reading treatises, where would the true teachings come from?
It shouldn't be that there are only five members now.
Shang Yan opened her mouth, about to say something, but then, thinking of the iron artifact, she simply closed it.
With just a few papers, Lin Sicheng was able to deduce even the core technology of the Cultural Relics Research Institute of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage. What else could he not learn?
Learning how to use something is one thing, but being able to apply it is another...
Wang Qizhi then took the opportunity to add a patch: "Besides, he's just trying, there's no guarantee he'll succeed!"
Shang Yan wholeheartedly agreed and nodded repeatedly: Mr. Sun Yingzhou once said: "Without twenty years of hard work, one cannot sculpt a body."
Moreover, it's a mortise and tenon joint.
The two remained silent, staring intently at the large screen.
Wang Qizhi basically didn't understand it and was just watching for the spectacle. Shang Yan had studied it for half her life and was one of the top students at Xida University, but even she found herself starting to struggle with it?
She knew that "tung oil mixed with pine soot ink" was a penetrating agent, which needed to be carefully applied with a brush to the edges and surrounding areas of the brittle, in order to reinforce the brittle area.
But she couldn't understand Lin Sicheng's method: first, he would soak the porcelain shards in water, and only take them out after the bubbles stopped rising. Then he would apply a penetrating agent, and each soaking was extremely fast, with the wolf-hair brush almost touching and then immediately removing it.
After thinking for a moment, Shang Yan stretched out her hand.
Before Wang Qizhi could react, his notebook and pen were snatched away, and he was handed a remote control.
When he looked up, Shang Yan was already on stage, but she was quite far away and didn't say anything.
Lin Sicheng glanced at it, then lowered his head again:
"To ensure the structural stability of the brittle zone, the penetrant needs to reach a depth of more than 3mm. However, the clay used in Ming dynasty ceramics, especially Chenghua clay, has an iron content of 0.8%-1.2%, and it easily turns gray when exposed to oil. Therefore, excessive penetration will cause the body to discolor..."
Shang Yan paused for a moment, then quickly jotted down her notes. Lin Sicheng had said so many words, and she had only used half a minute.
Then, she smiled sheepishly and said, "Lin Sicheng, you continue with your work. I'm just observing from a distance!"
Wang Qizhi secretly curled his lip. "You only observed, yet you remembered it so quickly?"
Lin Sicheng smiled and said, "It won't bother you!"
It certainly doesn't hinder it: in his previous life, he would teach while operating the equipment, which was just the norm.
It wasn't just students; often, experts and leaders would fill the lab, and it would be extremely noisy. Unlike now, where there are seven or eight people in the lab, it's quiet and completely silent.
"Therefore, the amount of penetration should be moderate: each immersion should not exceed 3 seconds, with an interval of two hours between each immersion, for a total of nine times. This is why Mr. Sun Yingzhou named it 'Three Immersions and Nine Lifts'... The key point is that the penetration depth can be controlled at 3.2 ± 0.15 mm..."
How can manual work be accurate to the millimeter level?
Shang Yan was both surprised and amazed, her pen flying across the paper: "What about the water damage from before?"
"This is the 'water reflection method' from the Yuan Dynasty, used to define the edge of the brittleness. The specific method is: immerse the porcelain in 20°C distilled water and observe the path of the bubbles... Key point: the bubbles in the brittleness area are arranged in a beaded pattern..."
Shang Yan paused for a moment: "But you have a microscope?"
Lin Sicheng nodded: "Yes, so I did some additional observations later. But if it's for applying for World Heritage status, it's better to use traditional methods as much as possible. And that should be reflected in the application materials..."
Wang Qizhi realized that Lin Sicheng had been preparing materials for the World Heritage application from the moment he entered the laboratory, which was why he was simultaneously taking notes and recording audio-visual materials.
He sighed inwardly, adjusting the camera above his head to get a little closer.
Lin Sicheng worked methodically, explaining as he went.
Solidification, fine carving, shaping... bottom layer, middle layer, surface layer.
Then, the mortise and tenon joints were used to assemble the large pot body, which was then placed in the oven for baking.
At this point, Shang Yan had no time to be shocked: just digesting the theories Lin Sicheng had presented would take her months. As for truly understanding them, who knew when that would be?
Then, he repaired the base glaze, added blue and white decorations, treated the glaze layer, and fired it again... From beginning to end, Lin Sicheng used the most traditional and retro methods: double-outline and color filling, leaving white space for water features, five colors in five washes, glazing, and blowing glaze...
All the procedures can be found in ancient books, but if you ask who knows how to use them, the whole country is probably less than two people.
Shang Yan was beyond shocked.
When the giant pot was finally taken out of the oven at the last moment, everyone held their breath.
Including Wang Qizhi, who has been doing nothing but serving food and water and providing logistical support for the past few days:
Based on the naked eye alone, who would dare say that this is a supplement?
Think back to how pathetic it was before...
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