Colorful Ceramics of the Yuan Dynasty

China Yuan dynasty is deemed important in the development of Chinese ceramics industry in that it played an extremely important place on ceramics development in Chinese. The establishment  of the Yuan dynasty ended up the situation of war and split, united the domestic market, which was good for economic prospering and also stimulated further development of handicraft   industry. In addition, transportation on ocean was developed in the Yuan dynasty, large quantity of porcelain were sold out, so ceramics industry was further developed from the base of the    Song dynasty. Especially, ceramics industry in Jingdezhen kiln, Jiangxi Province was developed in great speed and its unique style was formed, it gradually became the cen-ter of ceramics in China. As the technique developed and mature, the porcelain of blue and white, underglaze red became very importantinnovation in Chinese ceramics history. These techniques produced many   exquisite, fine, colorful, unique style, and high-grade porcelain.Such as, blue-and-white flask with design of phoenix, blue-and-whiteflask with bundled lotus design in pear shape, blue-and-white plate in sunflower shape with design of pine tree and  bamboo, all of them were unearthed from Yuan Dadu site in Beijing; some porcelain in the Yuan dynasty kilns unearthed from Baoding, Hebei Province and Gaoan, Jiangxi Province.The porcelain   of underglazed red was a new innovation in the Yuan dynasty, it was called sister technique and shared a similar producing procedure with blue-and-white porcelain. Underglazed red was   produced through the following procedure: the design was painted with red copper material and covered with transparent glaze, then under high temperature formed the underglazed red.

Underglazed red needed stricter kiln temperature than that of blue-and-white, so it was more difficult to produce than blue-and-white. Therefore not many underglaze red porcelain relics in

the Yuan dynasty are now collected throughout whole China. Such as Yi-vessel with design of reed and goose, stem cup collected in Gaoan Museum, embossed covered jar with design of four

pagoda shape unearthed in Jingdezhen, blue-and-white lidded covered jar with underglaze blue and red un-earthed from Yuan kiln in Baoding, they all belong to exquisite and precious

porcelain of underglaze red in the Yuan dynasty.

In Jingdezhen kiln, the bright-colored and beautiful color glazed porcelain, such as zaffre, copper red glaze, and egg white glaze etc.
was the symbol of mastering the techniques on colorful porcelain production in Chinese ceramics industry. So it ended up the situation of blue glaze and white glaze were the main color for

porcelain glaze before the Yuan dynasty, it became the technique and material base for successful of different color glaze in the Ming and Qing dynasties, therefore it was magnificent page

in history of Chinese ceramics development. Blue glaze plum vase with design of white dragon collected in Yangzhou Museum in Jiangsu province and Summer Palace in Beijing, blue glaze Yi-

vessel with golden color, small cup ofdiamond blue and golden color unearthed from Yuan kiln in Baoding, all belong to the best wares of zaffre in the Yuan dynasty.
Another color glaze in the Yuan dynasty was copper red glaze, itwas produced by mixing oxidizing copper into glaze material and applying on surface of wares, then putting in kiln. Though

the tech-nique procedure was different from that of underglaze red, they all difficult to made and so they were precious. Such as red glaze flask in pear shape, red glaze plate with design

of flower and cloud and dragon, their glaze color was bright, colorful and fine, they were rare in copper red glaze wares in the Yuan dynasty.
Egg white glaze in the Yuan dynasty was named from its color similar as duck egg. The wares of egg white glaze were mostly bowl,plate, stem cup with design of flower. The representatives ofegg white glaze wares in the Yuan dynasty were “Wangbai”name stem cup unearthed from Yeluzhu tomb in Summer Palace and egg-white glazed tripod burner with two top handles unearthed from  Zhanghonggang tomb Dahongmen in Beijing. Because the tombs had accurate time record, so the wares could be used as time standard for dynasty determination, they were very valuable.
Jingdezhen kiln in the Yuan dynasty inherited the tradition of the Song dynasty and continued to produce bluish-white glaze. In the Yuan dynasty, the color of bluish-white glaze was more

like celadon and not so pure, not so transparent as in the Song dynasty and theshell was thicker than the Song dynasty. Large quantity of bluish
white glaze porcelain were unearthed from Yuan Dadu site and tombs in Beijing, they were beautiful in shape, fine in glaze, rich in design.
Some porcelain styles were the first time to find and became the unique in China. Such as bluish-white glazed sitting image of Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, bluish white glazed brush rest,

bluish white glazed tripod burner with two handles and ogre(Taotie) design, bluish white glazed duomu hu-pot, bluish white glazed hu-pot in theshape of monk, cap, bluish white glazed tripod

burner with design of nipple and lotus scroll, bluish white glazed yi-vessel and cup. These new found bluish white glaze porcelain greatly increase the research collection of porcelain in

the Yuan dynasty, they become the very precious material object.
In the Yuan dynasty, Longquan kiln was the most famous porcelain production site. It established in the North Song dynasty and became prosperous in the South Song dynasty to Yuan dynasty,

declined in the Ming dynasty. Except continued to produce plate, bowl, basin, and jar such common wares in the Song dynasty, Yuan dynasty produced more big size wares and it became the

achievement of ceramics industry in Yuan dynasty. Such as big vase with impressed peony design, cover and jar with lotus leaf design etc. unearthed from Yuan Dadu site in Beijing, Yuan kiln

in Huhhot in Inner Mongolia and sank boat in sea bottom in Xin’ an Korean, these porcelain wares were typical products of Longquan kiln of the Yuan dynasty with characters of big in size,

and thick in shell.Longquan kiln integrated celadon design from different dynasties and innovated many new techniques. Except techniques of carving, scratching, picking and embossed sculpture, especially

famous for the techniques of impressed decoration, applied design, and appliedcolor decoration. Such as pear-shaped vase with banana leaf design collected in Summer Palace and a vase with

design of raised floral, sea, cloud and dragon unearthed from Liu Tong tomb of the Yuan dynasty in Beijing. They were the representative wares produced by impressed decoration technique.
The decoration design of Longquan kiln porcelain of the Yuan dynasty had significant characters, except words and simple figure of popular lotus flower, lotus petal, cloud and goose, many

new de-sign styles were innovated by Longquan kiln. Especially in middleand end of the Yuan dynasty, it was the golden time for porcelain design development in Longquan kiln, the content

was rich and diversity, most of them were welcomed by common people. However, there were some figures about ideology of Buddhism and Taoism, words about longevity and precious, longevity

longer than southern mountain, name of workers and kilns, and words about Basiba language.
Ding Kiln and Yaozhou Kiln were among the four most famous kilns in north of the Song dynasty, but they had declined in the Yuan dynasty. Though Cizhou kiln still continued producing, the

quality and technique level was far behind the Song dynasty. Cizhou kiln was established in the Northern Song dynasty and ended in the Yuan dynasty, lasted about 400 years. It was the

famous traditional folk
kiln in northern area and its porcelain product was used by common people, so the style was practical and design was vivid with full of living flavor. The underglaze painting porcelain in

Cizhou kiln was the unique and exquisite art in Chinese folk porcelain kiln. The main wares included plate, bowl, basin, jar, cup, box, pillow, vase and different toys. In addition, it also

produced different heavy and bigsize of jar, basin, vase, plate, and rectangle pillow, which was rare in Cizhou kiln in the Song dynasty. Such as four handled big jar withunderglaze black

slip painting, big jar with underglaze black slip painting of phoenixes, big basin and plate with underglaze black slip painting of fish and water weed, they were unearthed from Yuan Dadu

site in Beijing and all of them were big wares produced in Cizhou kiln in the Yuan dynasty. These products were rough, simple, firm, durable, beautiful, natural and dignified with a heavy

local flavor, they were typical wares of Cizhou kiln.
Though decoration design for Cizhou kiln in the Yuan dynasty was not so rich as that of in the Song dynasty, the contents in the design were also varied, such as dragon, phoenix, floral,

fish and weed, also few flower and bird, figure, and word. Especially the technique of scratching the fine part with sharp tool after ink and color painting, it was called scratching on

black-and-white color, its art effect was similar with that of picking on white glaze and black color and giving people feeling of three-dimensional and simple. It became the unique product

among the porcelain of white glaze and black color in Cizhou kiln in the Yuan dynasty, well known on domestic and abroad.
Another kiln in the north of Song dynasty was called Jun kiln, though it still produced porcelain in the Yuan dynasty, the quality was not as good as that of the Song dynasty. Comparing

with in the Song dynasty, the porcelain in the Yuan dynasty had the folowing characters: the shell was softer, some holes on glaze, lustre was not so shine, the glaze colors were sky blue,

moon white, but mainly was moon white; the types of porcelain were common wares like bowl, plate, burner, brush washer, etc. But some common wares in the Songdynasty were not found anymore,such as basin, lian, brush washer, and zun. The size of wares increased, such as sky blue glazed vase with two handles, open work base and animal mask applied, unearthed in Yuan Dadu, in  Beijing, three leg burner with two handles with rings unearthed from Yuan kiln in Huhhot, they all big wares and produced by Jun kiln in the Yuan dynasty, the style was heavy and strong   with purple red color scattered on sky blue glaze, the color of red and blue formed a dazzling tone and showed a luxurious andexquisite. Kiln workers in Yu county in Henan province, the   Song and Yuan Dynasties were very skillful with great intelligent, they produced such exquisite copper red glaze, that was the only red among all the other colors, so it looked unusually  beautiful and appreciated by people.The varied achievements on porcelain in the Yuan dynasty greatly enriched the treasure house of Chinese porcelain, porcelain wares in the Yuan dynasty had also become precious and well  known by domestic and abroad.