陶瓷之谜第 6 课

The kiln was opened after cooling for 36 hours. 冷却36小时后才能打开窑门
But they had to wait yet another 36 hours before the pots were cool enough to handle. 但窑工得再等上36小时 才能取出陶罐而不至于烫伤
As early as the Shang dynasty, 早在商朝
potters unpacking the kilns noticed that ash had fallen on the pots and formed spots of shiny glaze. 窑工从窑内取出成品时 便注意到 灰烬掉落在陶瓷上 形成闪亮的釉斑

They experimented to produce glazes that would evenly cover the whole surface of ceramic and stoneware vessels when fired. 他们于是尝试制作釉料 将其均衡地涂抹在 烧制的陶瓷器皿表面
By the time of the rise of the Roman empire, 罗马帝国兴起之前
the Chinese were coating pottery with clear tinted glazes, colored by the addition of metals, 中国人便以透明釉料添加金尸 作成色釉
that became glass-like when fired. 烧制出玻璃般的效果

These colored glazes were also used to cover burial figurines, 色釉陶也用来制作 人俑和各式用品
and models of everyday necessities that accompanied the nobility into the afterlife. 供作贵族世胄等阶层的人 殉葬之用

This is a model of a stove that the deceased would have used in their lifetime. 死者生前可能使用过这类灶台
Um, it was believed that these possessions would be taken into the afterlife by the deceased 中国人相信 死者会将陪葬物带到冥府
and they wanted to insure that they had just as good a time in the afterlife as they did in their previous lives. 他们希望确保生前死后 同样享有荣华富贵

And it's lead-glazed - 这是铅釉陶
You can see here on the top of the stove the cooking pots, the raw ingredients like the fish, and the prawns, the dumplings, the hook and the ladle, 灶台上有两个锅子 还有各种食材 鱼，明虾，饺子，镰刀和杓子
perhaps a turtle or a chicken, 这可能是龟或鸡
and a stoke-hole to stoke the fire. 外加添柴的灶口
And a small figure of a lady stoking the fire.'' 还有个煽灶火的婢女

And these lead glazes were also in use at the height of the Roman empire, in Rome further west. 罗马帝国鼎盛时期 罗马和其以西地带 也使用这种铅釉
And it's debatable whether lead glazes could have actually could have been introduced from the west.'' 但铅釉是否由西方传入 却还是众说纷纭

Some experts think Chinese potters learned to make lead glazes 有些专家主张中国陶匠的铅釉
by watching Taoist alchemists proto-scientists, who were obsessed with the secret of immortality. 乃是由热衷长生不老术的 道家炼丹术士所启发
Since the earliest times, 早在远古时代
Taoist alchemists in their search for immortality 探究长生不老术的炼丹术士
developed potions involving the use of smelted lead. 便利用熔铅制作药剂