Notes from the Sea of Clouds

This book begins with a starlit journey to Jiuxian Mountain and tells of the adventures Hu Lian and Jia Wei encounter in Dehua, the Porcelain Capital. They drive an SUV nicknamed the “Tin Whale,” following weather data and ancient legends deep into the sea of clouds in the Daiyun Mountains.

In a wooden cabin nestled among rhododendrons at an elevation of 1,658 meters, pine needles and shards of porcelain whisper of the past. In the old kiln shrouded in mist at Songtao Cliff lie three generations of Jia Wei’s family ties to ceramics: his grandfather’s unfinished Guanyin statue, his grandmother’s glaze formula from before she fell off a cliff, and the observation records his father guarded for half a lifetime. They gradually emerge through the interplay of mist and fire. From the moonlight glaze of the Yueji Kiln to the blood-red glaze of the Honggu Kiln, from mist porcelain that can reveal memories to the “Three-Person Bowl,” imbued with generations of warmth, each piece of porcelain is a vessel of time, holding the kiln god’s incantations, the family’s whispered secrets, and confessions left unsaid.

When the kiln fires blaze at Songtao Cliff on the winter solstice, the sea of clouds and the glow of porcelain collide to cast three overlapping shadows. At last, they understand: the mists of Jiuxian Mountain remember everything, just as Dehua porcelain forever holds the warmth of fire. This is a lyrical tale of local heritage and promises, in which every porcelain shard becomes a star trail connecting past and future.