The Jingdezhen kilns in Jiangxi Province have been outstanding in ceramics production. Wares produced at these kilns from the Late Tang period include celadon and white porcelain. But they were rather coarse. It was not until the Northern Song Dynasty that Jingdezhen began to receive public acclaim. The ware of this period is known as “misty blue” or “clear blue” porcelain. Its unique glaze falls somewhat between blue and white, more bluish green and had a better luster compared with Song white porcelain. The ware is so delicate, and its swiftly etched design and paperlike surface so fine that “white as jade, thin as paper, bright as a mirror, ringing like a stone chime “are epithets applied to this famous ware. Unfortunately the Southern Song period saw the decline of the Jingdezhen ware though the decline continued only a short period.
Besides the wares mentioned above some other porcelains of the Song Dynasty were also well-known, such as Cizhou (the present-day Handan area, Hebei Province) ware. The most outstanding achievement of Cizhou porcelain which came in many glaze colors — white, black, yellow, brown, green, and also a blended glaze —was its applying of the traditional Chinese art of painting on porcelain, which paved the way for a still better decoration of porcelain vessels in the future.
The Song porcelain surpassed its predecessors in variety, quantity and quality as well. So it is not at all exaggerated to say it reached the zenith in the ceramics history of feudal China if we take it as a whole, though the wares in the Ming and Qing dynasties developed to a higher level in some ways.
At the end of the Song Dynasty, even some years after the founding of the Yuan Dynasty, wars continued for many years. Song porcelain schools in the north went downhill one after another. But areas south of the Changjiang River suffered comparatively less from the wars. In some respects some porcelain wares surpassed those of the Song Dynasty. Take for instance Jingdezhen porcelain. What is most worth mentioning is that from the early Yuan period potters in Jingdezhen kilns were experimenting with new techniques and variations of their wares. Besides incised, engraved and impressed decorative designs, the more complicated technique of molded decoration had developed to a higher level and a new underglaze painting technique had been invented, that is, blue decorative designs painted under the glaze of white porcelain. Thus decorative blue-arid-white porcelain was produced.
The emergence of this kind of underglaze blue decoration is significant in the bistory of Chinese ceramics. The underglaze iron painted white ware of the Cizhou kilns had appeared much earlier, but it was a monochrome ware. The new blue-and white ware represented a move toward polychrome decoration with green, purple, yellow, and red enamels. Its appearance marked the first step toward a transition from a classical absorption with glaze lone to the modern concept of expressive painting.
In the Ming period, the Jingdezhen wares were the only ones to show a steady development though there were, of course, other types of ware being produced at the same time. Jingdezheii became the national porcelain centre and nearly 300 kilns were set up in the town. “White smoke covered the sky by day and flames rose into the air at night. “ This description provided us with an unprecedentedly flourishing scene of that time.
There was also a great advance in producing technique. One of the prime factors was the establishment of official kilns.
First of all, white porcelain surpassed that of any previous time. White porcelain of different periods in Ming had its own predominant characteristics. In the Yongle reign it had a thin paste and lustrous glaze known as “sweet while” glaze for its soft and pleasant whiteness. It was, in the Xuande reign, praised as “moist and smooth as lard and lustrous as fine jade.” that of the Jiajing reign (L522— 66) as “pure without blemish” while the Wanli white porcelain was lauded as “translucent and bright. " Secondly, blue-and-white porcelain ranked first and predominated during the Ming Dynasty, with that of the Yongle and Xuande periods at its best. The high-quality smalt imported from Persia was used as pigment and the clay was improved. Corresponding to these was the refinement in painting techniques and decoration. Motifs in the sophisticated literati style increased : large plates decorated with a painting of trees and rocks surrounded by grasses, vases on which are depicted birds perched on trees and so on. Some were so wonderfully painted that one could feel a musical tempo in them: water plants quivering in a running stream, and floral scrolls undulating in a rhythmic pattern across the surface of a vessel, which was none other than a valuable work of art. Thirdly, a true polychrome enameled ware called “contending colors” was invented in the Chenghua reign (1465—1487). In producing this ware, an outline of designs in an underglaze blue was sketched onto the unglazed surface of a vessel, and the whole was coated with a transparent overglaze and then fired until the vessel was firmly contacted. The next step was to paint designs of yellow, green, purple and red enamels with the blue-and-white outline and fire them again. These multiple layers of colors “contended for beauty” and created an exquisitely elegant effect. Just on this basis a type of five-color ware made its appearance during the reign of Hongzhi.
In the Qing Dynasty, the reigns of Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong, from 1662 to 1795, were the golden age of Chinese ceramics. The Qing laws demanded that the employer and the employee be equal. This change in productive relations provided good conditions for developing the productive forces. Ceramics, as other trades, took a step ahead of what the Ming Dynasty had achieved. Beginning from the Kangxi reign (1662 — 1722 ) Qing resumed porcelain-making at Jingdezhen and striking progress was made in porcelain craftsmanship, which reached its ultimate peak in Yongzheng and Qianlong period. Besides the development of the blue-and-white, “contending colors,” and other traditional wares a number of fine varieties were created, such as famille rose. It is usually assumed that famille rose began to be produced in the last years of the Kangxi period and attained its peak in the Yongzheng era. It developed from the “contending colors.” Common famille rose painting subjects include birds and flowers, grasses and insects, trees and rocks, and landscapes and scenes with human figures. Bird and flower, and grass and insect motifs were apparently considered the most suitable for the famile rose enameling technique. They were in fact most finely executed. Their startling reality is such that one tries to brush away the insect on a vessel before realizing that they are only painted on.
During the Qing Dynasty, monochrome-glaze porcelain was also greatly improved. In Jingdezhen alone, there were porcelains of powder blue, red glaze, furnace transmutation, crabshell green, eel yellow, aubergine, turquoise and many other glaze colors.
Since the 1840's because of political darkness and imperialist aggression. Chinese porcelain began to decline. The founding of the new China in 1949 brought about new life to ceramic art, and producing centres have been set up all over the country. Chinese pottery and porcelain play an important role in the economic, cultural and friendly exchanges which have long existed between China and other countries. Entering the international market very early, they were well known to the world for their exquisiteness and usefulness so that the word china had become synonymous with ceramics itself. As early as more than 2.000 years ago, the silk road was opened and China's pottery, porcelain and silk fabrics were transported west. At about the same time, Chinese north south coastal shipping lanes linked China with many countries via the sea. After Emperor Wu Di of the Han Dynasty, sea voyages between China and Japan became more frequent, while in the south, sea navigation developed between Chinese and Indian Ocean ports and also pointed west. Many vessels of pottery and porcelain of the Han period or earlier have been discovered and unearthed in Japan, Korea, the Middle East. Southeast Asia, and even Europe.
Since the early Tang Dynasty, Chinese ceramics began to be exported in large quantities to almost the whole world. Foreigners were so fascinated by Chinese ceramics that they felt great pride in owning beautiful Chinese porcelain ware and they were also spurred to learn and emulate the art of Chinese porcelain making. The wares carried the wisdom and friendship of the Chinese people to the people of other countries and added splendor to the civilization of mankind.