Yaoshang Village, where traditional pottery is made in Zhenfeng, belongs to Wanlan Township, Zhenfeng County. The majestic Longtou Mountain, which runs from north to south, is located at the junction of Zhenfeng, Xingren and Anlong. It is a nature reserve integrating scientific research, investigation and tourism. The mountain is covered with dense forests, lush grasslands, beautiful flowing springs and waterfalls, charming scenery, and many rare animals and plants. More than 500 households in Yaoshang Village are scattered in the mountain basin about five miles long and two slopes in the belly of the mountain. There are layers of terraces, houses, smoke from cooking, and rows of pottery kilns. Yaoshang Village has a complex geological structure and rich mineral resources. The raw materials such as clay, coal, earth glaze, gray glaze, quartz wheel discs, and refractory stones needed for pottery making in Yaoshang are all locally sourced and have large reserves. Originally, 80% of the households were engaged in ceramic production, and their production technology was ancient and primitive. The ancient pottery making technique of Yaoshang originated during the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty, specializing in the production of pottery for folk production and life. In the eighteenth year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty (1385 AD), Zhu Yuanzhang ordered his army to conquer Guizhou and govern the southern barbarians. On the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month, Fan Feng (male, Han nationality), who had joined the army, left the army privately because he was tired of the life of killing and looting all day long after the Ming army entered Guizhou. After arriving at Yaoshang, Wanlan Township, he married He Ye, a 26-year-old young woman from Yaoshang Village. Due to the lack of land and soil, the family was poor, and the couple Fan and He tried every means to establish a family. One day, because there was a lack of bowls for food at home, he thought of the clay behind his house, which was soft and flexible when pinched. After being shaped, it would not crack after being cooled and dried, and it was hard. He pinched two earthen bowls, dried them, put them into firewood for calcination, took them out and cooled them, and filled them with water for three days. The bowls did not leak water, and the water had no peculiar smell. The couple was very happy. Later, people in the village came to Fan's house and saw that his family used earthen bowls, so they asked about their origins. Fan's wife He Ye said she made them herself. People lacked daily utensils, so they ordered from the Fan family. After many twists and turns, they discovered the pottery making with a lathe. The output increased, so their reputation spread far and wide, and more and more people came to buy. The Fan couple became professional pottery producers, and their livelihood depended entirely on the income from selling pottery. The Fan family gradually explored the production process and produced red, white, blue and purple mineral pottery. The production could not meet the needs of buyers, so they passed on the ceramic production process to their neighbors, and Yaoshang got its name from this. Later generations thanked the Fan couple, and each household wrote "Fan Gong He Ye Zhiwei" on their own shrines to worship. During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, Sichuan pottery artist Guo Sixian came to the kiln to pass on his skills, using a lathe to make bowls and lime and sugar shell ash as glaze. Later, Jiangxi pottery masters came to the kiln to make jars and pots. In the first year of the Republic of China (1912), Wu Huasheng and three other residents of Zhenfeng County went to Jingdezhen, Jiangxi to learn ceramic production technology. After returning, they established Nanfeng Ceramics Company in Yaoshang, which lasted for eight years and produced very high-quality ceramic products. The production process of ancient pottery in Yaoshang is as follows: choose kaolin with strong viscosity and no impurities. According to the amount of use, take the soil and place it flat on the flat dam or put it into the earthen pool. The thickness is kept at 35 inches. Add an appropriate amount of clean water. Use cattle to trample the soil into thin mud paste (this process is called mud kneading). Then pile the mud paste and put it into a sedimentation pool or mud tank built with stones. Then infiltrate a large amount of clean water, and then use a wooden stick to stir in the pool or tank to blend the mud paste with water. After settling for 35 days, when the water quality at the pool mouth becomes clear and the bottom can be seen through, open the pool mouth and put water into the pottery mud sedimentation layer. After the water in the pool has flowed out, open the drainage hole reserved at the bottom of the pool to filter out the water in the mud paste. Filter for 12 days until the water is cut into the mud with a finger and no fingerprints are seen and it deforms naturally (this process is called mud filtering). Then use a mud bow to cut the upper mud in the pool into blocks, pile them in the pottery room, and tighten the mud pile (this process is called stacking). After processing the kaolin in this way, the piled clay will not dry out within half a year and can be used for pottery making day and night. When making pottery, use a clay bow to cut the clay from the clay lump, and beat the clay ball into a round ball with moderate density on the wheel according to the required amount of the ceramic variety to be made. Then nail the clay ball to the center of the wheel, stir the wheel with a wooden stick, and make it rotate to the right at high speed. When the speed reaches the required speed, hold the clay ball with the left hand, press the center of the clay ball with the right hand, and lean both hands on the big feet to form a support point. Using the inertia of the wheel rotation, the clay ball is formed into the required initial pottery shape, observe the shaping, and refine it according to the first procedure. After it is made, use a bamboo strip to cut the place where the pottery is attached to the wheel to make the pottery peel off the wheel. At the same time, put a circle of bamboo on the formed utensil to fix the shape of the utensil mouth. Then, use both hands to gently hold the pottery and place it on the prepared wooden board. Do this for five to six pieces. Then lift the wooden board and the pottery and place them on the wooden rack in the cool room for drying pottery in the shade (this is the raw pottery). It takes 23 days on sunny days and 57 days on rainy days to dry the pottery. During this period, the potter uses this time to make glaze. There are two ways to make glaze: one is to pick up glaze seeds from the mountains, beat them into fine powder with a hammer, put them into the jar to seep water and stir them evenly, store them for 12 days to make the glaze powder completely penetrate the water, stir them again, and then use two layers to arrange them at the mouth of another pottery jar, pour the glaze water in the jar containing glaze water on the cloth, filter through the cloth to filter out impurities, and the glaze water flowing into the jar is the fine glaze, which is called earth glaze. Because its glaze color is purple-red, it is also called red glaze. The red glaze is applied on the pottery. After firing, the pottery is purple-red. The fired pottery is called red pottery. The second method is to use rice husks to fire into ash, put them into a jar and stir them with water, then filter them according to the first method. The filtered glaze water is grayish white on the pottery. This glaze is made of ash and is called gray glaze. Because it is applied on the pottery, it is white after the finished product, also known as white glaze. While making the glaze, the semi-dried pottery is moved out of the house and dried in the sun or air. After the water in the pottery is completely dry, put it into the glaze jar and roll it quickly. After the inside and outside of the pottery are all covered with glaze water, the pottery is taken out and gently placed on a wooden board to dry or cool. After drying, it is loaded into the kiln and fired with firewood or coal for 57 days, and then the kiln is opened for air cooling. The finished product is pottery and can be used. The finished product of firewood firing is the best, and the quality of coal firing is second. Mastering the temperature is the key to the quality of the finished product. The construction of the pottery kiln on the kiln is built with square bricks made of clay. The production of square bricks is the same as kneading clay for pottery. After kneading the clay, use brick boxes as molds to make raw bricks (brick-shaped volumes are 5 inches, 8 inches, and 2 inches). After drying, they are piled into the pre-dug earth kiln and forged with firewood or coal fire to make mature bricks, i.e. refractory bricks. After making the bricks, choose a plot with a slope of about 30 degrees to build the kiln. The kiln is in the shape of a long corridor climbing along the mountain and the top is arched. The size and length of the kiln are built according to actual needs. Each kiln has four doors: the upper door, the lower door, the left door, and the right door, which are used for loading and unloading pottery. There are smoke holes on the upper, lower, left, and right sides. After the kiln is installed, the upper door, the left door, and the right door are fully closed. When the lower door is sealed, a small hole of 1 foot square is left for putting fuel. The potters on the kiln have a kind of pious reverence for the kiln. They set May 16th of the ancient calendar as the "kiln god meeting" day. On the day of the kiln god meeting, families who share a kiln raise funds to prepare pig heads, roosters, wine, incense, candles, cannons and other offerings, and offer them at the kiln head. During the offering, they must be calm, speak less, and work in harmony, so that good pottery can be produced. There are also rules and regulations that strictly prohibit women from entering and leaving the kiln. Wu Hebin, Zhang Xichun, Peng Ziqi, Zhu Ronghua, Guo Hongdao, Zhu Huazheng and more than 10 others still remember the entire process of ancient pottery making. The ancient pottery products on the kiln are divided into two categories, divided by color: one is purple-red, called red pottery; the other is grayish white, called white pottery. The main varieties include rice jars, wine jars, water jars, wine pots, oil pots, teapots, tea bowls, rice bowls, vegetable plates, wine glasses, tung oil lamps, tea trays, incense burners, tea cups, drainpipes, large rice bowls, brine pipes, vases, pipes, cigarette holders, clay whistles, large vegetable bowls, flower pots, vegetable jars, wine bottles and more than 30 other varieties. The products are tough and durable, and the food will not change its taste over time. The ancient pottery making technology of Yaoshang must be combined with the unique clay of the area in order to produce high-quality pottery. The production of ancient pottery in Yaoshang was mainly to meet the needs of people's lives at that time. However, the kaolin used to make pottery is different from other clays, and the production process is also unique. The appearance and patterns reflect the local ethnic culture and customs, forming a unique production process with extremely high research value and ornamental value. Information source: Provincial Intangible Cultural Heritage Center Information source: Provincial Intangible Cultural Heritage Center