Tang Dynasty

Correlative History: The Beginning of China's Porcelain Exports
Famous Kilns: Changshayao Kiln, The kilns of Tao and Huo, Xing Kiln, Yaozhou Kiln, Cizhou Kiln
Shape and Technique: Tang Sancai, Case, Ewer (Handled Pot), Fancy Glaze

The Fragmentation of china the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Famous Kilns: Chai Kiln

The Beginning of China's Porcelain Exports


China's history of porcelain exports can at least be traced back ti Tang Dynasty. In Japan, South Korea, India, Iran, Iraq and Egypt, archaeologists have discovered a large amout of China's Tang ware fragments during the sites excavations of ancient towns and cities around the 9th century. China's Ningbo, then called Mingzhou, was a major trading port linking the country wuth Japan and South Korea during Tang Dynasty. In 1974, a sunken ship of Tang Dynasty was discovered nearby the area where the Yuyao River of Ningbo met the sea at that time. On the ship were several hundred piece of celadon porcelains, porcelains with blue glaze and brown color and with black glaze made in the kilns of Yueyao and Changshayao as well as a square model brick bearing the mark "the fifth year of Qianning Reign)" (898 AD). Judged by the shapes, glaze colors and decorative patterns, they and those Tang ware discovered in South Korea and Japan were apparently produced in the same kiln. China's porcelain exports in Tang Dynasty were conducted either by land or by sea. The famous Silk Road served the former purpose, while the sea routes of porcelain transportation extended to Japan, South Korea, South Asia, West Asia, North Africa and East Africa. Some Japanese scholars have referred to them as the "Porcelain Roads."

Changshayao Kiln


An important celadon kiln situated in South China during Tang Dynasty, Changshayao Kiln is also called as "Tongguanyao Kiln" due to its discovery in today's Wazhaping, Tongguan Town, Changsha City, Hunan Province. Its porcelain production started in Tang Dynasty, peaked from late Tang to Five Dynasties, and declined after Five Dynasties. Celadon ware was its dominant product, and porcelains with white glaze, gray brown glaze, brown glaze, green glaze, and blue glaze were the auxiliary. Its products were of numerous modeling types. Daily porcelains of all kinds were made there. Pot and jar were made with the most diversified shapes. Short-mouthed pot with several angles is its typical porcelain product.

The kilns of Tao(yao) and Huo(yao)


Tao kiln and Huo kiln were believed to be the two earliest kilns in Jingdezhen. According to The Research on Kiln of All Dynasties in the fifth volume of the "The Record of Jingdezhen Pottery and Porcelain" written by Lan Pu of Qing Dynasty, "Tao ware emerged in the early Tang Dynasty. Made from while clay, they had rather thin a eggshell and glossy plain colors. They were produced by a man named Tao Yu from Zhenzhongxiuli in Jingdezhen, after him they were named. The prefecture annals recorded that in the mild Wude Reign of Tang Dynasty, Tao transported his porcelains, called as jade-like works by himself, to Guanzhong for paying them to the palace. After that, Changnan (Jingdezhen) porcelains became well-known all over the country." "Huo ware, also of plain colors, were produced by Huo Zhongchu of Dongshanli, after him they were named. According to the prefecture annals, in the fourth year of Wude Reign of Tang Dynasty, Huo and others, ordered by the imperial edict, made some works as tributes to the palace." Since 1950s, Chinese archaeologists have carried out many large scale investigations into the ancient kilns in Jingdezhen, but found no trace of kilns of Tang Dynasty. The two kiln sites of the Five Dynasties (906-960 AD) discovered in the 1950s, Shengmeiting and Shihuwan, are the discovered earliest site of Jingdezhen kilns so far. Yet according to "The Record of Tribute Works Paid by Generations of People", an annotation in the Song edition of "The Collection of Liu Zongyuan", the tributes of porcelains at that time were produced in the Jingdezhen region (Raozhou). If confirmed, the porcelain history of Jingdezhen could at least be traced back to the mid Tang Dynasty.

Xing(yao) Kiln


Xingyao Kiln is situated in today's Neiqiu County in Hebei Province, a part of Xingzhou in Tang Dynasty after which the kiln was named. The white porcelain ware was its dominant product, which could be divided into two kinds: the fine and the coarse. The former was of a fine and pure white eggshell and a regular modeling, with its unglazed place to be sleek and smooth like glutinous rice powder. The latter was often used with slip coating. Xingyao Kiln was the most prestigious white- porcelain kiln in Tang Dynasty, whose white porcelain bowls enjoyed the fame of "being used by everyone, noble or common". Its porcelain vase, referred to as "Neiqiu vase" at that time, was exceedingly renowned. Because Xingyao white porcelain had the same celebrity as the celadon produced in Yueyao Kiln situated in south China, making that period in China's porcelain history known as featuring "South celadon and North white porcelain". In the period from late Tang to Five Dynasties, Xingyao was gradually replaced by Dingyao Kiln in Quyang County as leader in while-porcelain-making.

Yaozhou Kiln


Yaozhou Kiln was thus named because it was located in today's Tongchuan City of Shaanxi Province, which belonged to Yaozhou in Song. Porcelain making in Yaozhou Kiln started in the Tang Dynasty, prospered in a period after mid-Northern Song, and ceased around the Reigns of Zhengde or Jiajing of Ming. Its leading products embraced Tang sancai, white porcelain, celadon, black porcelain, and ware in brown glaze, among which celadon was the most famous. With bowl, plate, disk, jar, vase, case, and censor as its leading ware types, zhadou and various style of small cups were also produced. Yaozhou ware featured thin and pale gray eggshell, and glaze in even color. On the bottom or around the ring foot of the celadon ware, there usually showed spots in ginger brown as a result of the iron content in the eggshell fired at certain temperature, which was the unique feature of Yaozhou celadon. Yaozhou Kiln adopted incising and printing as the leading decorating techniques, forming bold yet smooth lines on the ware. Yaozhou Kiln exerted a great impact on the porcelain industry of the Song Dynasty. Similar celadon were produced in Linru, Yiyang, Baofeng, Xin'an, Yuxian, and Neixiang, all in Henan Province, Xicun Kiln in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, and Yongfu Kiln in Guangxi Province, and thus constituted Yaozhou Type System.

Cizhou Kiln


Cizhou Kiln was thus named because it was located in today's Cixian County of Hebai Province, which belonged to Cizhou in Song. Porcelain making in Cizhou Kiln started in Five Dynasties, and prospered in Song. Its leading products embraced white porcelain, black porcelain, ware in white glaze with underglaze black color, and ware in brown color decoration. Decorations of Cizhou white porcelain covered scripting designs (including those on pearl ground), cutting designs, green spots and brown spots. Ware in white glaze with underglaze black color, and ware in brown color decoration and scripting design were the two quality products made in this kiln. Besides the household utensils like bowl, plate, vase, and jar, Cizhou porcelain pillow was another famed ware type, on the bottom of which printed marks were usually found boasting its proud origins from the prestigious potter families like Zhang's, Li's, Wang's, or Chen's. In addition to the usual flower, poultry and beast, content of the patterns on the pillow also involved those which were fresh and brisk with rich folk flavor and strong smack of everyday life. Names of ci tunes or qu tunes popular in the Song and Jin Dynasties were not uncommon printing on the pillow (ci and qu were two special Chinese verse genres popular respectively in Song and Yuan). Cizhou Kiln exerted a great impact on the porcelain industry of the Song Dynasty. Similar porcelain ware produced in Dangyangyu Kiln in Xingwu, Jiyao Kiln in Hebi, Bacun Kiln in Yuxian, Quhe Kiln in Jiangxi Province, and thus constituted Cizhou Type System. Output of large-size types of Cizhou ware was greatly enlarged in the Yuan Dynasty at the cost of that fine works were rarely made. After Ming Cizhou Kiln sank in further declination.

Tang Sancai


Tang Sancai is the general name for the color-glazed pottery produced in Tang Dynasty. White clay was used as the material for the pottery body, and the ores containing the metal elements of copper, iron, cobalt, and manganese as the coloring agent to make a low-temperature glaze over the surface of the body. The pottery could be made through one firing treatment at a comparatively low temperature of about 800, , or, alternatively, through two firing treatments: first the unglazed body and then the body after color glazing. Its color was not limited to three types as suggested by its name, but yellow, green, and white were actually the dominant. Tang sancai ware was mainly found as the funerary objects embracing ordinary vases, jars, and Bo, and pottery figurines of animals, humans, and buildings. It was originated in Gaozong Reign, peaked in Kaiyuan Reign, and after Tianbao Reign its production quantity gradually dwindled. Today, the discovered ruins of kilns making Tang sancai are of three sites: Gongxian County, Henan Province, Tongchuan City, Sichuan Province, and Neiqiu County, Hebei Province.

 Case


A vessel used for storage. The porcelain case emerged in Tang Dynasty, mostly being the articles of daily use such as mirror-case, medicine-case, the case used by ladies to keep various cosmetics such as of greasepaint, power, pigments as well as the case to store various perfume concrete. It was mainly round in shape, with cover, and the body of the case was generally taller than or similar to the cover, slightly bulging on the surface of the cover, mostly waisted near the base. It was made in all kilns in Song Dynasty, with the yingqing ware made in Jingdezhen the best. The works made in Jiajing and Wanli Reigns of Ming Dynasty varied in modeling, covering the round, peach-shaped, rectangle, square, hexagon, octagon, the one with drawer(s), silver ingot-shaped, fangsheng-shaped, ox eye-shaped, stringed bells-shaped and openwork work, etc. The varieties included qinghua and five-colors. The pattern of decoration was dominated by the pattern of dragon and phoenix, also including floral pattern, plant-and-insect pattern, pattern of child(ren) at play and such patterns. It continued to be kilned in Qing Dynasty.

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  Ewer (Handled Pot)

It was one of the wine vessels appearing in the mid-term of Tang Dynasty, also called flagon. Trumpet-shaped mouth, short mouth, very large belly, wide and flat handle(s). in the late Tang Dynasty, the neck was heightened, the mouth extended, the hole enlarged, with four sunken straight lines on the oval belly. In the period of the Five Dynasties, the spout and mouth were on the same level, the volume increased, and the base of pot was changed into ring. In Song Dynasty, the body showed the form of ridged-melon, with the spout, the mouth, and the handle's top being on the same level. In Yuan Dynasty, the Yuhuchun vase was used as the body of this kind of pot, the spout was embossed to the belly, generally being on the same level with the mouth in height and inclining to the outside. The spout and the neck was likely by a S-shaped decorative matter, and the handle was symmetric to the spout whose lower part was attached to the belly, and the height was on the same level to or slightly lower than the spout. During Jiajing Reign, there appeared a kind of work with long neck, oblate belly, stern ring foot everted outwards. The product made in the Jingdezhen kiln as the best.

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Fancy Glaze

It was the kind of glaze color with two or more glazes simultaneously decorated on the same work, which appeared for the first time in Tang Dynasty and prevailed in Song Dynasty. There were two kinds of fancy glaze from the high temperature kilning and the lower temperature kilning. The fancy glaze made in high temperature in the kiln, thus it was also called "photochromic fancy glaze", such as the fiery green and fiery red. And the fancy glaze in low temperature was the glaze made from the burning of the porcelain eggshell which was painted by glaze and put into low-temperature kiln, such as Jun muffle stove fancy glaze and so on. The decoration of fancy glaze made the layer of glaze dignified and deep, with multiple colors scolls, giving out needle-like and radioactive bright-spots, usually dazzling, eye-catching and extraordinarily brilliant.

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 Chai(yao) Kiln


One of the renowned ancient kilns, Chaiyao Kiln was said to be the imperial kiln for Emperor Zhou Shizong of Later Zhou of Five Dynasties, whose family name was Chai after which the kiln was named. By now, the sites of Chaiyao Kiln remain undiscovered, but are generally thought to be around Zhenngzhou, Henan Province. According to historical records, porcelain ware produced by Chaiyao Kiln "featured smooth, delicate outlook with fine cracks on sky blue glaze; most of the products were with foot showing the color of coarse yellow earth." Sacrificial Ding & Li in Xuande Reign, an important book written in Ming Dynasty, placed Chaiyao ware as top among all the collections in the imperial court then. A popular theory is that very few Chaiyao products still exist in the world, and thus there is a common saying that, "It takes ten thousand pieces of gold to have a piece of Chaiyao ware." Today, however, it is impossible to authenticate a Chaiyao ware because no sites of the kiln have been found so far.

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