Yuan Dynasty Ceramics

Chapter 07 (pp.
330-385)_Layout 1 7/7/10 5:42 PM Page 330
This scan is 175%

Chapter 07 (pp. 330-385)_Layout 1 7/7/10 5:42 PM Page 331
chapter 7
This scan is 180%
Yuan Dynasty Ceramics

l au r i e e . b a r n e s
T
he surrender in 1276 of the Southern Song capital Lin’an (now Hangzhou)
to the inexorable forces of Khubilai Khan marked the conquest of an ex-
traordinarily sophisticated cultural group by nomadic tribesmen whom most
Asians regarded as barbaric. The Yuan dynasty ceramics that emerged from
this period of Mongol rule, however, are as significant as the classically ele-
gant Song ceramics that preceded them and the refined Ming works that fol-
lowed. Even before all the Song territories were annexed, Khubilai’s own
imperial kiln was established in 1278 at Jingdezhen. Perhaps foremost, Mon-
gol dominance spurred the creation of one of China’s most sought-after
products, blue and white porcelain (known in Chinese as qinghua ciqi).1
Ceramics were a highly prized exchange item during this last period of
overland Silk Road trade. The terminus of the Silk Road was the great capi-
tal of Dadu, partial ruins of which can still be seen in Beijing. This city was
the economic and cultural center of the Mongol empire, forming the hub of
Khubilai’s four Khanates: the Golden Horde ruled Russia; the Il-Khanate
presided over Persia and the Middle East; the Chagatai Khanate held sway
over western Asia; and the Great Khanate controlled Mongolia and China.
According to Marco Polo (1254 –1324), who is a worthwhile source despite
recent controversy about the veracity of his travels in Asia, the population
Details, figure 7.48 (opposite) and figure 7.51 (above)
of the new and prosperous city center was “so twelfth and thirteenth centuries with its olive color
vast . . . that it seems quite past all possibility. . . . To the celadons (discussed more fully later). The Chinese elite
city . . . are brought articles of greater cost and rarity, and continued to esteem green-glazed wares through the
in greater abundance of all kinds, than to any other city in Yuan dynasty and into the Ming dynasty.
the world . . . no day in the year passes that there do not
enter the city 1,000 carts of silk alone.”2 longquan celadon
Some of the cultural exchanges most significant to the Once favored by the Song imperial court for their
Yuan imperial court were with the subordinate Il- sumptuous jade-like tribute wares, the Longquan kilns
Khanate of Persia, initially run by Khubilai’s brother expanded production in the fourteenth century to in-
Hulegu (r. 1256–1265). The khanate included present- clude an ever-increasing number of large, sturdy, molded
day Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Armenia, wares for domestic and foreign markets. Early Yuan
Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, and Western Pakistan. For- Longquan potters continued to employ production tech-
mal exchanges with this khanate and others probably be- niques used at the Southern Song imperial Jiaotanxia
gan when Khubilai Khan adopted the dynastic title of kilns, such as application of multiple coats of glaze and
Yuan in 1271. During the Yuan dynasty, Chinese art and slight underfiring, which gave the items a rich, lustrous,
culture were subjected to a wide range of foreign influ- jade-like surface (Figs. 7.2, 7.3). At the Jiaotanxia site in
ences, including the tastes and preferences of its Mongol Hangzhou, for instance, potters focused on making imi-
rulers, while the rulers themselves gradually became more tation Song Guan and Yuan Ge wares with elegant forms
sinicized (Fig. 7.1). and jade-like glazes. A particularly fine example is a ewer
Our current understanding of the ceramics of this pe- in the Sir Percival David Collection at the British Mu-
riod synthesizes information from historical events, extant seum (Fig. 7.4). It has a translucent gray green glaze
ceramic masterworks, and revelations from dated and un- whose color, but not necessarily date of production, lies
dated archaeological discoveries, along with the work of between the kingfisher blue glaze of the temple vase held
Liu Xinyuan on early imperial wares of Jingdezhen.3 by the Detroit Institute of Arts and the glassy pea green
glaze often seen on other works more likely made toward
the end of the Yuan dynasty; later in the Yuan dynasty,
Beyond Blue and White: Other Wares unctuous sea green and glassy pea green glazes were
and Kilns dominant.4 It is interesting that educated art collectors of
this period may have preferred the earlier “kingfisher
In the realm of Chinese ceramics, the Yuan dynasty devel- blue” glazes: Cao Zhao expresses this opinion in his Es-
opment that has most captivated the world is blue and sential Criteria of Antiquities (Gegu yaolun).5
white (qinghua ciqi). When it first appeared, however, this Along the major transport arteries of the Oujiang and
type of ware was created for only a select few and its ac- Songxi rivers in southern Zhejiang province, hundreds of
ceptance by Chinese patrons and connoisseurs was gradual. kilns produced green-glazed wares with tough, gray
Meanwhile, other wares such as celadons (qingci), Jun ware, porcelaneous bodies. These wares varied in quality from
unglazed and lead glazed pottery, Cizhou ware, Jizhou grand to humble, and were created for both domestic and
ware, and other types of white ware and porcelain contin- foreign markets. The largest kiln complexes were at
ued to be made throughout the eighty-nine-year period. Dayao and Jincun. Archaeological evidence suggests that
more than fifty new kilns making Longquan wares sprang
Celadon, or Qingci up around Dayao during the Yuan dynasty to satisfy in-
During the preceding Song dynasty, the prevailing creased demand for these highly sought-after and com-
taste was for stonewares with green glazes (known in monly traded wares.
Chinese as qingci and usually translated as “celadon”), Maritime trade in pottery initiated by the Southern
which were often used in imperial court ceremonies. For Song government to obtain much-needed revenue ex-
a brief period during the early twelfth century, the rarest panded in the Yuan dynasty, with wares moving down-
celadon known as Ru ware was made, then widely imi- river to the nearest seaport of Wenzhou. Meanwhile,
tated at the Yaozhou, Tangzhou, Dengzhou, and increased demand for humbler trade wares led Longquan
Longquan kilns. potters to adjust their production techniques by stan-
The Yaozhou kiln in particular, located in Tongchuan, dardizing their methods and using larger kilns. The
Shaanxi province, enjoyed great prosperity during the Longquan kilns vied for market dominance with the
332 Yuan Dynasty Ceramics

7.1. Khubilai Khan Hunting, hanging scroll made with ink

and color on silk by Liu Guandao, 1280, Yuan dynasty,
182.9 cm x 104.1 cm. National Palace Museum, Taipei.
This scan is 120%.
Northern Song kilns producing Cizhou-type wares (dis- and a glassy pea green glaze attributed to the second to
cussed later), and the other Yuan kilns producing wares third quarter of the fourteenth century and now in the col-
other than white porcelain. Production at the Longquan lection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (Fig. 7.6). Aus-
kilns declined greatly during the Ming dynasty, in part due tere Song Longquan wares were slowly transformed to
to the loss of imperial patronage and heavy taxes. By the more lively works, often embellished with exuberant or ca-
Qing period, only a handful of kilns were supplying low- sual decorations such as the occasional use of copper red
quality ceramics to local clients.6 Indeed, production at or the more common application of iron brown spots, as
Longquan has only recently revived.7 seen on appliqués, animal or bird handles, or a pear-shaped
Of 239 ceramics discovered in the largest cache of Yuan (yuhuchun) bottle (Fig. 7.7). Floral designs dominated, and
ceramics unearthed in China to date, at Gao’an in Jiangxi were incised, stamped, or molded and applied to the sur-
province, 169 were Longquan celadons widely believed to face of the vessel (Fig. 7.8).12 New applied motifs, such as
be a princely hoard buried between 1341 and 1351.8 The the dragon, joined that of the Southern Song fish, still in
most significant find of Yuan celadons outside of China is use early in the Yuan period. Sometimes applied motifs
the Sinan (sometimes Shinan) shipwreck discovered in 1976 were left unglazed, with reddish biscuit-fired molded ap-
off the coast of South Korea. Again the number of pliqué or unglazed reserve designs complementing the
Longquan wares surpasses that of other ceramic works. Of olive green glaze so often seen on Yuan wares. Often these
20,611 pieces brought up from the shipwreck, 12,359 were early Yuan Longquan celadons had stockier proportions
celadons, and most of these were from Longquan (see Fig. than those of the Song period.
7.2). The style of these celadons is much like that seen in a The use in Longquan wares of iron brown underglaze,
gorgeous jar with lotus-leaf cover as well as a stunning vase which is most commonly applied in generous randomly
(Fig. 7.5; see also Fig. 7.3). The shipping tags indicate that located spots, may have begun as underglaze decoration
this vessel sailed from China in the year 1323.9 became popular at Jingdezhen in the 1320s. It is possible
At the early fourteenth-century Baita village site within that one kiln influenced the other or that underglaze dec-
the city limits of Huhhot in Inner Mongolia, too, a variety oration in use at both kilns reflected a popular taste for
of large Longquan temple vases were recovered, some more ornamentation. Field studies at various Longquan
with incised decor and others with carved and molded de- kilns have also yielded examples of characters written in
signs.10 The finest and most published examples of iron pigment under the celadon glaze, some of which
Longquan celadons from this site are baluster vases with conveyed auspicious wishes for long life, happiness, and
carved or molded decorations much like those on the su- wealth. Vessels with inscriptions in Phagspa script, an al-
perb example pictured in Figure 7.3. A well-known exam- phabet created for Khubilai Khan by the Tibetan Lama
ple from Sir Percival David’s collection, a massive temple Phagspa, have also been found, indicating that Longquan
vase with the ground carved away to leave the peony scroll wares continued to be used in the Mongol court.
in low relief, bears a dedicatory inscription that refers to a There do not appear to be any surviving intact exam-
year equivalent to 1327.11 ples of underglaze cobalt decorated wares to comple-
The shift at Longquan from Song classicism to Yuan ment these examples of underglaze iron and (less
exuberance was gradual, and culminated with a gorgeous commonly) copper-spot glazes. Rare finds of cobalt dec-
octagonal vase with biscuit panels of the Eight Immortals orated wares at Longquan kilns have been noted, but the
Yuan Dynasty Ceramics 333

7.2. Longquan ware celadon vase with handles

shaped like phoenix heads, Yuan dynasty, 15.5 cm
tall. Recovered from the Sinan shipwreck of 1323.
National Museum of Korea, Seoul.
7.3. Celadon temple vase with molded peony appliqués probably

made at the Dayao Longquan kiln, Yuan dynasty, early fourteenth
century, 72.5 cm tall, 32.1 cm diameter. Detroit Institute of Arts.
7.4. Longquan ware celadon ewer with cover, Yuan dynasty,

21.1 cm tall. Sir Percival David Collection at the British
Museum.
Re-scan at this size
7.5. Longquan ware celadon jar with lotus-leaf cover, Yuan dynasty, 30.5 cm tall with cover.
Topkapi Palace Museum.
origins of these wares could not be verified.13 A crackled, era Longquan wares. Other related vases such as the ex-
rice-yellow glaze on a unique Ge-type bottle with under- ample with a dated inscription in the Sir Percival David
glaze copper red phoenix decoration, however, appears Collection and those in datable finds in Inner Mongolia
similar to that seen on Yuan Ge-style wares recovered at (1309) and from the earlier-mentioned 1323 shipwreck
the Dayao kiln site.14 Like the eleventh-century under- near Sinan, Korea, point to a wide variety in motifs and
glaze blue ceramics of the Belitung shipwreck, this bottle decorative techniques, from molded to incised, as well as
had also found its way to Indonesia, where a preference quality that ranged from ordinary to spectacular.16
in the fourteenth century for underglaze decorated wares Over time, the exquisite, icy “kingfisher” blue green
is well documented in early fifteenth-century travelogues. glaze that Cao Zhao preferred was eclipsed by the less aes-
In 1349, Wang Dayuan wrote about the ceramic prefer- thetically pleasing olive green wares associated with the
ences of various places he visited, and over the next Yuan dynasty. This popular, thick-walled style was the re-
eighty-seven years, both Ma Huan (fl. 1413–1451) and sult of using cheaper, less-refined raw materials, a single
Fei Xin (ca. 1436) recorded the desirability of blue and thin coat of glaze, and larger, less carefully regulated kilns.
white in present-day Java, Sumatra, Arabia, Thailand, and Decorated and undecorated bowls were the main
India, with Ma Huan noting it was most prized in pres- products of the Yuan Longquan kilns, which used an
ent-day Java, where a Yuan underglaze red bottle made in unglazed ring in the well of the kiln for stacking and to al-
the Ge style is preserved in the Pustat Museum.15 low the firing of large quantities of pottery at one time.
Remnants of large, finely potted “baluster” vases with The most common bowls, which were both exported
lustrous blue green glaze, and which are a type thought to and purchased by the domestic public, were of coarse
have been used as temple vases, have been excavated quality, and their decorations included stamped designs
around the Dayao kiln, which apparently had the most of chrysanthemums and peonies. Other products of the
skilled artisans and best materials in the area. The color Longquan kilns included familiar bottles and incense
of some, such as the little-known but beautifully fired ex- burners, as well as stem cups and stem bowls, which were
ample in the Detroit Institute of Arts, rivals that of Song- new shapes possibly influenced by Jingdezhen wares.17

This scan is 241%
7.6. Longquan ware octagonal vase with biscuit panels of the Eight Daoist Immortals, Yuan dynasty, mid-fourteenth century, 25.4
cm tall. Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Excavations of considerable quantities of Yuan flower pots, and figurines. Until quite recently, it was a
Longquan wares along overland and maritime trade custom in Indonesia, specifically the island of Sulawesi,
routes provide evidence of the types of wares made for to include Longquan wares in burials. Archaeological finds
various markets. The most common forms found in the in another part of Indonesia, Sumatra, show a demand
Philippines and Indonesia are small jars, small and large for utilitarian wares, such as those for serving rice or con-
dishes, and bowls. Less frequently seen are vases, large tainers for use in ritual ceremonies. The people of this
bowls, tea or sauce pots, stem cups, incense burners, area were particularly fond of various sizes of Longquan

celadon jars and bowls with appliqué fish.18 Most of the

ceramics found at the important fourteenth- and fif-
teenth-century trade port of Hormuz, which was then a
kingdom and now part of Iran, are Longquan wares, in-
cluding wares unglazed inside the footring, and thick-
walled bowls with everted rims. Of these, 59 percent are
bowls decorated with molded lotus petals on the exterior
walls.19 In excavations at Fustat, near Cairo, mid-thir-
teenth- to early fourteenth-century strata contain large
numbers of celadon stonewares from various sites in
Zhejiang province, including Longquan.20 It seems that
during this era, Longquan wares continued to be popular
among local people even as various Jingdezhen products
were becoming sought after by the outside world.
ge ware
According to a popular folk tale, special types of
celadon wares (qingci) were made by an older brother (ge),
his younger brother (di), and younger sister (mei), with
those “Ge” wares made by the older brother being most
famous. Crackle-glazed celadon with fine “gold” and
thicker dark “iron wire” lines, known as Ge ware, is first
mentioned in 1363 by the Yuan scholar Kong Qi (ca.
1310 –after 1365) in Plain Records of the Zhizheng Reign
(Zhizheng Zhi Ji); next by the early Ming connoisseur Cao
Zhao in his Essential Criteria of Antiquities (Gegu Yaolun) of
7.7. Longquan ware celadon yuhuchun bottle or vase with iron 1388, where he remarks that green-glazed Ge wares with
brown spots, Yuan dynasty, late thirteenth to early fourteenth an iron-colored foot and “purple” top a list of the most
century, 27.3 cm tall, 14.3 cm diameter, 7.8 cm mouth diameter.
desirable ceramics; and again in the Manual of Xuande Rit-
Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
ual Vessels (Xuande Ding Yi Pu) of 1428, where it is referred
to as a new ware that equaled or surpassed the older
Guan ware.21 Ge wares are also inventoried in the impe-
rial collection in 1428, the third year of the Xuande reign.
Both Guan and Ge wares, which are long believed to
have been inspired by Song Guan wares, feature thick
crazed glazes over thin gray stoneware bodies. It has been
suggested that the dark crackles were produced by stain-
ing the wares with a black pigment while they were still
hot from the kiln, whereas the secondary lighter crazing
occurred as the pieces cooled.22
Archaeologists working in Hangzhou now think that
the imperial kilns at Laohudong, which were active dur-
ing the Southern Song making Guan ware, were re-
opened as a private venture during the Yuan dynasty to
produce Ge ware.23 Information gleaned from the 1996
excavation of the Laohudong site suggests that the stra-
tum containing Ge ware lies above those containing
7.8. Longquan ware celadon ewer with
incised peony decoration, Yuan dynasty, Southern Song Guan ware, which would seem to indicate
fourteenth century, 32 cm tall. Shanghai a post-Song date and at the same time to connect Ge
Museum. ware to the earlier Guan ware of the Southern Song.24

some Yuan Ge-style wares were produced at the

Longquan Dayao kiln site, and that most Ge-style wares
were produced at Jingdezhen during the Ming and Qing
dynasties.27
Yaozhou Ware
Located in Tongchuan, Shaanxi province, the Yaozhou
kilns, whose history can be traced back to the Tang and
Five Dynasties eras, enjoyed great prosperity during the
Song and Jin dynasties. At that time, the twelfth and thir-
teenth centuries, the Yaozhou kilns were particularly
noted for their olive color celadons with carved and
molded designs, although other types of wares were also
made at this kiln, including black-glazed wares and works
7.9. Ge ware glazed stoneware censer, Southern Song to Yuan
dynasty, late twelfth to early thirteenth century, 8.3 cm tall, 11.7 with painted decor related to the Cizhou tradition. Dur-
cm mouth diameter. The Asia Society. ing the Yuan dynasty, production of these types of ce-
ramics continued in a bold, unconstrained style. The
color of the celadons is typically referred to as ginger yel-
low and wares became coarser, with minimal carved or
stamped decoration. Although the quality of workman-
ship declined and production moved from the Tang and
Approximately twenty pieces of Ge ware dishes have Song Huangbo site to Chenlu, the Yaozhou kiln retained
been recovered at Yuan and early Ming sites, too, with a market presence in northern China. Black-glazed,
none from Song sites, which supports the opinion that celadon, and painted wares dating to the Yuan have all
much if not all of this ware was created after the Song. In been recovered from this site, where production contin-
this regard the presence of Ge ware in the Sinan ship- ued during the Ming dynasty.28
wreck, which is known to have sunk around 1323, is sig-
nificant. Well-known examples of heirloom Ge wares are Jun Ware
in the collections of the Shanghai Museum and the Perci- Jun ware was an outgrowth of the celadon tradition,
val David Foundation of Chinese Art, and the Asia Soci- particularly those works produced at the Ru kiln at
ety of New York (Fig. 7.9).25 All were formerly Qingliangsi in Baofeng county, Henan province, circa
considered to be Song dynasty wares, but the presence of 1086–1106. For the most part, Jun wares were produced at
Ge wares in the Sinan shipwreck of 1323 along with the kilns located in the central Henan province counties of
new archaeological evidence at Laohudong points to a Linru, Yuzhou, and Yu. Dozens of other kiln sites, how-
Yuan date for these artifacts as well. ever, have been discovered in Henan, Hebei, and Shanxi
Ge wares were described vividly by Ming scholars. Lu provinces as well as in Jinhua county, which produced
Shen, in the sixteenth-century work Brief Notes from the rather common types some of which have been recovered
Hall of Spring Wind (Cun feng Tang suibi) writes that they from the Sinan shipwreck (see Fig. 10.5).29 Four kinds of
were “pale white with crackles,” and Gu Tai, the late Jun ware glazes are generally noted and considered to be
Ming writer of Important Criteria for Studying Ancient Objects early Ming: greenish blue, light blue with copper oxide
(Bowu Yaolan) comments that Ge wares have “minute splashes, light milky blue, and deep reddish purple fading
crackles like masses of fish eggs.” These Ge masterpieces to blue. Some of these varieties were also made in the
were prized by Ming and Qing emperors, and many at- Yuan period; examples include a ruyi lappet-shaped pillow
tempts were made to reproduce them: the resulting with copper oxide splashes held by the National Palace
works include a Ming dynasty Yongle bowl (1403–1424), Museum in Taipei, and a tripod incense burner (censer)
a small group of Xuande (1426–1435) celadons, as well as with an inscription interpreted as referring to 1309 that
excavated and heirloom Chenghua (1465–1487) imperial was recovered from the early fourteenth-century Baita vil-
wares.26 Based on current archaeological evidence, it lage site in Huhehaote, Inner Mongolia (Figs. 7.10, 7.11).30
seems that Ge ware was initially produced during the Production of everyday Jun wares such as bowls and
Yuan dynasty at the Laohudong site in Hangzhou, that plates probably started as early as the late Northern Song

period, which ended in 1126, and continued into the

Ming dynasty, when the renowned numbered-flower ves-
sels are thought to have been made.31 The numbered Jun
wares are believed to have been produced at a single kiln
site near the Juntai Terrace, inside the north gate of the
administrative seat of what was formerly known as
Yuzhou prefecture, Henan province. But although un-
numbered Jun works have been found in many tombs
and among several caches of buried treasure, including
datable finds from the Jin (1115–1234) and Yuan dynas-
ties, none of the numbered Jun wares have been found in
any datable context.32 The mystery surrounding when
these numbered Jun wares were made has aroused con-
siderable discussion among scholars. There is no men-
tion of Jun ware in Cao Zhao’s Essential Criteria of
Antiquities published in 1388, noted earlier, which makes
mention of all of the popular and famous wares of the
7.10. Jun ware ruyi lappet-shaped pillow with azure glaze and
Song and Yuan periods. And although a numbered Jun
purple splashes, Yuan dynasty, thirteenth century, 13.4 cm tall,
ware is represented in a 1437 painting, the earliest men- 30.8 cm maximum face length, 19.7 cm maximum face width, 19
tion of Jun ware in a Chinese text appears to occur in a cm maximum base width. National Palace Museum, Taipei.
book published in 1504.33
Excavations at the Juntai kiln site in 1974 yielded a
mold for a “Xuanhe” (1119–1125) coin and vessel bear-
ing an inscribed Fenghua mark, which at the time was
considered a reference to the Fenghua Pavilion within
the Northern Song Palace at Kaifeng. Further study,
however, indicated that the mold was actually for making
counterfeit coins and was made sometime after the Yuan
dynasty. The Fenghua-marked vessel is related to wares
now considered to be Qing dynasty imperial reproduc-
tions and actually refers to the name of a palace hall asso-
ciated with the reign of the Southern Song emperor
Gaozong (r. 1127–1162).34
A milestone in Jun ware studies began with further ex-
cavations at the Juntai kiln site in 2004. At that time,
some numbered Jun wares were found in a pit along with
turquoise-glazed wares and stem cups, both characteris-
tic of Yuan dynasty wares; consequently, a Yuan date for
numbered wares began to be considered by some who
had previously given them a Song or Jin date.35 Thermo-
luminescence tests as well as archaeological evidence,
however, point to a late Yuan to early Ming date for num-
bered Jun wares.36 7.11. Jun ware tripod incense burner or censer with milky or sky
Many unnumbered Jin and Yuan dynasty Jun wares blue glaze and inscribed date equivalent to 1309 (a Jiyou year
cyclical date), 42.7 cm tall. Excavated in 1970 at Baitai village,
can be distinguished from Song wares by their shapes.
near Huhehaote, Inner Mongolia. Inner Mongolia Autonomous
The pillow in the form of a ruyi lappet is considered a fine Region Museum.
thirteenth-century Jin or early Yuan example, since its
outlines are simpler and more distinct than Song dynasty
examples. And the incense burner recovered in Baitai vil-
lage, Inner Mongolia, also has a Yuan form. Its molded

decoration is more typical of Jun wares associated with turquoise glaze from the Egyptians. The Syrians and
the Yuan dynasty, too, and the inscription reserved Babylonians formulated colored lead glazes by mixing
within a cartouche on the neck of this vessel states that it in metallic oxides such as copper, iron, and manganese.
was made by Xiao Song for himself.37 Some of their ceramics, notably large architectural tiles
Yuan Jun wares with raised moldings are in some ways and reliefs such as on the Babylonian Ishtar gate
reminiscent of those Longquan wares that featured ap- (700 –500 b.c.e.), represent a highly sophisticated level
pliqués—a type also found at this site in Inner Mongolia. of glazemaking.41
The tripod incense burner, too, is rather similar in quality During the Yuan dynasty, too, peacock blue glaze,
to those produced at the provincial kilns at Jinhua (see Fig. which had been used sparingly in previous periods, be-
10.5) in Zhejiang province, which were part of the cargo of came popular and was combined with yellow ochre, olive
the ship that wrecked in 1323 off the coast of Korea near green, iron brown, and aubergine to create liuli (fluid
Sinan. Indeed, the Jinhua kilns were not far from the port glass) wares. In addition, architectural elements such as
of Ningbo, from which the ill-fated ship sailed.38 bricks and roof tiles were made at local kilns known as li-
Some of the provincial Jun kilns also produced a vari- uli yao (kilns that fire glazed tiles). Four kilns in the vicin-
ety of Cizhou-type and northern black wares. The 1309 ity of Dadu (now Beijing) are mentioned in the literature
incense burner recovered in Inner Mongolia, other Yuan as providing both white and glazed polychrome liuli
dynasty Jun wares recovered in Beijing, and those from wares to the Yuan imperial court.42 A Yuan kiln in north-
the 1323 Sinan shipwreck all have coarsely molded bodies west Beijing, excavated in 1983, is believed to be one of
and murky glazes that may mean that during the Yuan dy- these four kilns.43 The traditional art district in Beijing
nasty such wares were intended for customers of more known as Liuli Chang (for “glazed tile factory”), which is
modest means. As Jun ware became more popular, too, it today located southwest of Tiananmen Square, is thought
seems that other kilns in Zhejiang and Guangxi to be the former site of another.
provinces began to produce it, which perhaps con- Some of the glazed architectural fragments unearthed in
tributed to declines in quality.39 Beijing are decorated with dragons and phoenix designs,
A more refined type of Jun ware seems to have oc- and assumed to be from the Yuan palace. These are vari-
curred later in the fourteenth century, during the early ously identified in publications as stoneware or porcelain.44
Ming dynasty. Standout examples include exquisite num- These motifs and the glaze technique correspond to those
bered garden pots, as well as a vessel in the shape of a on a yellow-, green-, and turquoise-glazed liuli-ware in-
bronze zun in the National Palace Museum, Taipei. The cense burner excavated at another Yuan site in Beijing
vessel is covered with an uneven moon-white glaze (Fig. 7.12). It was probably created onsite or at a local kiln
marked by distinct bubbles that run down to the base. during a temple building project, given archaeological evi-
On the concave underside, covered in an ochre slip with dence for this practice.45 The flamboyant colored glazes on
blue details, is carved the Chinese character for “five” this incense burner and on liuli-ware ridge tile figures at the
(wu). Despite its likely creation in the early Ming, its lively early fourteenth-century Daoist temple Yongle Gong in
form is quite Yuan in spirit.40 Shanxi are testaments to the popularity of dramatic surface
ornamentation during the Yuan period.46
Liuli, Fahua, and Related Architectural Wares Another way of achieving visual opulence was to lavish
By the Yuan dynasty, cobalt and copper mineral oxides hand-finished details on architectural elements such as
had long been employed in the production of large archi- seen on a brick in the form of a dancing figure (Fig. 7.13).
tectural tiles and reliefs in the region that is now Iran. In It was probably part of an elaborate composition akin to
Mongol times, copper and cobalt oxides were used in the those seen in the carved stone reliefs of the Yuan Buddhist
production of ceramics at Kashan, about 125 miles from site Juyong Guan (Fig. 7.14). Both the rich color used on
Teheran. Special reference to Kashani wares was made in liuli wares and the lively designs on related unglazed archi-
a list prepared for Khubilai Khan’s brother, Hulagu, upon tectural ceramics attest to the Mongol love of visual com-
the capture of Baghdad in 1258. And the earliest use of plexity. The Yuan imperial kiln at Jingdezhen also indulged
turquoise glaze with underglaze cobalt occurred in Egypt, in lavish colors: it used a peacock blue low-fired glaze over
where it was produced as early as the Middle Kingdom, fired porcelain, which was sometimes embellished with
including the seventeenth dynasty of the Second Inter- underglaze blue or gilt motifs (Figs. 7.15, 7.16).
mediate Period (about 2030 to 1540 b.c.e.). Indeed, Starting in the ninth and tenth centuries, sancai wares
it is believed that Syrians learned how to make had been made using lead glazes that fused to the surface

7.12. Liuli ware tripod incense burner with carved dragon, 7.13. Brick in form of modeled dancing figure (or actor), Yuan
phoenix, and peony decoration and colorful peacock blue, dynasty, 39 cm tall. Excavated from a tomb in Jiaozuo city,
yellow ochre, and grassy green glazes, Yuan dynasty, 37 cm Henan province. Henan Provincial Museum.
tall, 22 cm mouth diameter. Excavated in 1964 from a site in
Beijing. Capital Museum, Beijing.
at a low temperature; the underlying clay body, by con- Fahua wares were developed further during the suc-
trast, was fired at a temperature more typically used for ceeding Ming dynasty, when they began to be produced
stoneware. This technique, which made the works more in the south, at Jingdezhen. A feature of Ming dynasty
durable, was used again during the Yuan dynasty at fahua wares is the use of white slip trails to create cloi-
northern kilns in Shanxi province to produce fahua sonné wire-like boundaries between different colors of
(bounded pattern) wares. In addition, glaze colors on glaze. Early Ming remains suggest that both liuli and fahua
fourteenth-century liuli and fahua wares were deliberately wares were Yuan dynasty outgrowths of the architectural
separated, in a process much like the resist technique tile work industry.48 Large glazed and unglazed ceramic
used during the Yuan dynasty on the Longquan and Jun architectural elements have been found at early Ming
wares, as well as on Jizhou ware to reserve unglazed areas sites such as Fengyang and Nanjing. The most elaborate
and create a demarcated contrasting color (discussed and complete is the liuli-ware Nine Dragon Screen at Da-
more fully later). Sometimes, as seen on the liuli-ware in- tong in Shanxi province, which was constructed in 1392
cense burner, motifs are reserved and glazed white, a in front of the mansion where the thirteenth son of the
technique and color associated with lead alkaline glazed Hongwu emperor lived. Significantly, the glaze and mo-
fahua wares. The development of fahua wares seems to tifs on a liuli-ware jar in the collection of the Asian Art
have been spurred by experimentation with separation of Museum of San Francisco are closely related to the Nine
zones of color, usually by incising or carving, on liuli. Af- Dragon Screen. On this jar, a pierced “screen” of open-
ter another Yuan incense burner, related to the one re- work dragon and phoenix motifs is placed over a cylin-
covered from the Beijing site, was linked to a kiln site in drical clay container (Fig. 7.17). Similar construction
Shanxi province, a number of fahua wares were reattrib- methods are found on fahua jars in the British Museum
uted to the Yuan period.47 attributed to the fifteenth to early sixteenth centuries.49

7.14. White marble bas-relief of the Heavenly King of the East playing a pipa with dragon and phoenix motifs, Yuan dynasty,
ca. 1342–1345, approx. 280 cm. Juyong Guan, Changping district, Beijing. Image courtesy of A. Chester Ong.
Painted and Carved Cizhou Ware for producing practical utilitarian ceramics with lively,
Since at least 925, a large group of kilns, located along carefree designs.50 Although sometimes overlooked be-
several hundred miles of territory spanning several cause of their prominence during the Song and Jin,
provinces in Northern China, produced what is generally Cizhou kilns were very important during the Yuan. Just
termed Cizhou ware, named after an important kiln site as an example, excavations in 1998 and 1999 conducted
in Hebei province. These kilns flourished during the at the Yandian site in Pengcheng township, Handan, re-
Northern Song, Jin, Yuan, and beyond and were known vealed a Yuan dynasty (1279–1368) kiln and thousands of

7.15. Jingdezhen imperial inkstone with peacock blue glaze and 7.16. Jingdezhen peacock-blue-glazed shard and imperial
traces of gilt dragons, Yuan dynasty, reign of the Wenzong inkstone with underglaze cobalt dragon design before
emperor (1328 –1332), 11.8 cm tall, 32 cm diameter. Excavated application of peacock blue glaze, Yuan dynasty, reign of the
from Doufulong, Zhushan district, Jingdezhen. Jingdezhen Wenzong emperor (1328 –1332). Partially shard-restored
Institute of Ceramic Archaeology. inkstone cover has 26.7 cm diameter. Both pieces excavated in
1988 at Doufulong on the “northern foot” (bei lu) of Fengjing
Road, Zhushan district, Jingdezhen. Jingdezhen Institute of
Ceramic Archaeology.
This scan is 185%
7.17. Fahua ware polychrome porcelaneous jar with openwork dragon and phoenix motif and a solid cylinder core,
Yuan dynasty, 46.4 cm tall, 50.8 cm diameter. The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.
7.18. Cizhou ware jar with white slip under clear, colorless glaze and polychrome overglaze decoration, early
fourteenth century, 31.1 cm x 33.7 cm, 20 cm mouth diameter. Saint Louis Art Museum.
porcelain shards and kiln implements, findings that con- (1115–1234) and Yuan dynasties. A jar with a transparent
firmed the efflorescence of Cizhou production at this site glaze excavated from the Jin dynasty imperial tomb com-
during the Yuan.51 plex is considered a prime example of Jin dynasty Cizhou
Several decorative techniques now associated with the production.54 During the Yuan dynasty, the major Cizhou
Yuan era were invented or perfected in these Cizhou complexes were located at Fengcheng (near the city of
kilns. The stoneware created there was embellished with Handan) and Guantai (in Cihu county), both in Hebei
overglaze or underglaze as well as incised and carved de- province. Other Yuan dynasty Cizhou kiln sites have
signs (Figs. 7.18, 7.19, 7.20, 7.21, 7.22). In fact, overglaze been excavated in Tangyin and Yu counties in present-
enamel wares decorated with iron red and copper green day Henan province, in the city of Yangquan in Shanxi
were first produced by this family of kilns (see Fig. 7.18). province, and in Lingwu county of the Ningxia au-
This overglaze enamel technique was ultimately adopted tonomous region.
by Yuan potters at Jingdezhen where use of low-fired The Jingdezhen kilns were also producing at this time,
overglaze enamels developed during the early Ming pe- and competed with the Yuan Cizhou kilns for market
riod at the imperial kilns and private kilns.52 In the share. The Cizhou potters responded to the competition
eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth centuries the theme of by making their production more efficient and economi-
boys playing had been popular in a wide range of ceram- cal. In the previous Song and Jin periods, for example,
ics (Fig. 7.23). And this motif continued to be popular potters covered vessels with white slip, then black slip,
during the fourteenth century not only on ceramics, in- incising the black layer to expose the white layer before
cluding Cizhou ware, but also in textiles and paintings.53 coating with transparent glaze. During the Yuan dynasty,
Underglazed iron brown wares with peacock blue glazes, this process was simplified by cutting through one layer
as well as brown- or black-glazed wares now known as of brown glaze to expose a beige clay body before firing;
“Cizhou type,” became popular during the Jin dynasty as seen, for example, on the jar with a design of a boy

7.19. Cizhou ware jar with white slip ground and iron-painted 7.20. Cizhou ware storage jar with iron-painted dragon and
design of child at play in vegetation, Yuan dynasty, 27 cm tall. phoenix design under peacock blue (turquoise) glaze, Yuan
The Municipal Museum of Arts, Tianjin. dynasty, 28.6 cm tall, 17.5 cm diameter at top. Detroit Institute of
Arts.
7.21. Cizhou ware bottle or vase (meiping) with painted decoration 7.22. Cizhou ware jar with brownish black iron glaze and
under peacock blue (turquoise) glaze, Yuan dynasty, fourteenth featuring a carved boy and flowers, Yuan dynasty, inscribed with
century, 22.7 cm tall, 12.2 cm maximum body diameter, 4.0 cm date equivalent to 1305, 25.5 cm tall. The British Museum.
mouth diameter, 7.2 cm base diameter. Musée Guimet, Paris.
C&C: Silo image
7.23. Ding ware molded dish or plate with design of boys playing in a garden, Jin-Yuan
period, thirteenth century, 2.7 cm tall, 22.1 cm diameter. Sir Percival David Collection at
the British Museum.
among flowers bearing a dated inscription equivalent to phoenixes, and human or animal figures in landscape set-
the year 1305 (see Fig. 7.22). tings that are framed by an ogival window.
Utilitarian vessels were the specialty of the Cizhou The fish motif was used during the Yuan dynasty not
kilns. Slip-painted inscriptions on surviving Jin and Yuan only at the Cizhou kilns but also at the Longquan,
wares give dates or contents, such as “good wine,” re- Jingdezhen, and Jizhou kiln complexes (Fig. 7.24). At this
vealing their main use as containers for food or drink. time, the carp symbolized being of good descent, modest
Cizhou wares make up 40 percent of all wares excavated and incorruptible.56 Several paintings dated to the late
at Yuan Dadu (located underneath parts of Beijing). Of Song and early Yuan dynasties—including a handscroll
those excavated, 80 percent were painted with underglaze dated to the twelfth century and attributed to Liu Cai,
iron brown or black pigment. Cizhou wares were popu- now in the St. Louis Art Museum, and another dated
lar, particularly among people living in the affluent non- 1291 by Zhou Dongqing in the collection of the Metro-
Chinese residential districts. A Cizhou-style wine bottle politan Museum of Art—allude to the subtle meaning of
bearing the inscription “inner palace” (neifu), however, this motif for Sung loyalists, who under alien rule felt like
reveals that they were also used in the imperial palace as fish out of water. Any learned man upon seeing such an
wine and storage jars.55 image would connect it with Confucius’ comment,
Yuan Cizhou wares feature a decidedly looser painting recorded in the “Dazongshi” chapter of Zhuangzi, that
style than do Song wares, and the Mongol preference for “Fish are born in water. Man is born in the Tao [Dao].”
dense patterns is evident on many surviving examples. Since the transformation of the carp into a dragon was
The most common types of Yuan Cizhou wares feature also a symbol of passing examinations to become a Chi-
black to blackish brown iron oxide slip painting on a nese official, the image of fish was a particularly poignant
beige clay body coated with a transparent or peacock blue one for Chinese scholars deprived of the opportunity to
glaze. Common motifs were fish, flowers, dragons, serve as officials.57

At the Cizhou kilns, peacock blue glaze was first used

during the Jin dynasty, although rare occurrences of this
copper-based glaze are seen on an unusual Han vessel and
on a few Tang sancai wares.60 During the Yuan dynasty,
Cizhou’s painted vessels with turquoise underglazes were
apparently emulated at the imperial kilns of Jingdezhen
during the reign of the Wenzong emperor (see Figs. 7.15,
7.16). There may be a link between Chinese turquoise-
glazed wares and those of Kashan (in present-day Iran)
produced during the Seljuk (1055–1256) and Il-Khanid
periods (1256–1353; Fig. 7.25).61
Turquoise-glazed wares with underglaze decoration
had long been made in Mesopotamia and Egypt, and al-
though Cizhou wares are not one of the dominant Chi-
nese wares found at Asian archaeological sites to the west
of China, they have been recovered in these regions.
From the late thirteenth to early fourteenth centuries, the
Mongols’ superintendent of taxes in Iran and Iraq, Jamal
al-Din Ibrahim ibn Muhammad al-Tibi, ran an extensive
trading operation from his base on the island of Qais
near Hormuz in the Persian Gulf—an enterprise that
7.24. Jar with cover in the shape of a lotus leaf and painted with supposedly ran so efficiently that produce from the re-
underglaze iron slip, Southern Song dynasty, thirteenth century, motest regions of China was consumed in the farthest
22.8 cm tall, 24.1 cm diameter. Probably made at the Jizhou kilns
at Yonghe near Ji’an, Jiangxi province, The Art Institute of West.62 A letter of 1309 preserved in the papers of the Il-
Chicago. Khan vizier Rashid al-Din (1242–1318) notes the receipt
of Chinese wares from Ala al-Din Muhammad Shah I,
During the Ming dynasty, Cizhou kilns continued to

create works with a peacock blue glaze applied over black
slip painting. In fact, it is not always easy to distinguish
early Ming works of this type from similar Yuan works.
In some instances, the shape of an object or style of
painting can be a clue to a work’s more likely Ming date,
as in the case of a meiping with peacock blue glaze in the
Musée Guimet sometimes attributed to the Yuan, but in
this author’s view more likely to be early Ming (see Fig.
7.21). The Hongwu emperor favored the chrysanthe-
mum motif and secondary motifs on the meiping resemble
those on works recovered from dated early Ming tombs
and on blue and white wares popular in that era. In addi-
tion, related bottles with peacock blue glaze, especially
those with painted figures, are now also generally consid-
ered to be Ming.58 By contrast, a meiping with more tightly
C&C: Silo image
painted motifs of lotus (rendered in a style seen on a
Hongwu imperial bowl) and secondary floral bands is
more akin to the denser, more exuberant style associated
7.25. Frieze tile with composite body, molded phoenix design,
with Yuan ware; in addition, the meander motif banding and overglaze painted luster, ca. 1270 –1280, 37.5 cm tall, 36.2 cm
is similar to that on the British Museum Cizhou jar with wide. Probably made in Kashan, Iran, The Metropolitan Museum
an inscription equivalent to 1305 (see Fig. 7.22).59 of Art.

sultan of Delhi (r. 1295–1315). In addition, a faithful thirteenth-century Jin-Yuan dynasties, including a dish
copy of a manuscript compiled during his lifetime depicts showing children at play on a garden terrace overlooking
two-lidded bottles, a large jar, architectural tiles akin to a pond with mandarin ducks (see Fig. 7.23). In fact, this
the Kashani tile, a spouted lāvard bowl possibly of Chi- scene, with its popular Yuan motifs—garden scenes,
nese origin, and a pear-shaped (yuhuchun) metal bottle mandarin ducks in a lotus pond, and children at play—
(Fig. 7.26).63 Other evidence confirms the connection be- may be a candidate for an early Yuan date. In 1388, too,
tween turquoise Kashani wares from the Il-Khanate and the early Ming author Cao Zhao took note of Ding ware,
peacock blue Cizhou wares. In the ruins of a palace in commenting that ancient white, as well as rarer persim-
Delhi destroyed in 1398, remnants of many fourteenth- mon and black, versions commanded prices higher than
century blue and white wares were discovered.64 And a imperial wares from Jingdezhen (he ranked them eighth
fourteenth-century text confirms that the amount of among fourteen types of ceramics).70 He noted as well
goods conveyed between countries and kingdoms was that, by contrast, Ding ware of the late fourteenth cen-
substantial, and mentions a devastating loss of Egyptian tury was poorly crafted and not considered valuable by
and Chinese cloth and wares.65 serious collectors.71 Craig Clunas has suggested that Cao
Zhao’s use of the term “ancient” may indicate that newer
White Wares: Ding, Huo, Dehua, and Others Ding kilns were still in production at that time.72 In either
From the tenth through the thirteenth centuries, parts case, the expanded edition of Cao’s book, published in
of northern China came under the control of non-Chi- 1462, notes that Hezhou ware (at the bottom of Cao’s list)
nese nomadic or seminomadic peoples, a change that af- and called “Ho-chou” ware in Percival David’s translation
fected ceramic production. First the Khitan (Qidan in was called “new Ding ware” in an effort to increase its sala-
romanized Chinese) established the Liao dynasty bility; furthermore mention is also made by Cao of a Peng
(907–1125). Then the Jurchen (Nuzhen or Ruzhen) con- Junbao (“P’eng Chün-pao in David’s translation) who is
quered Liao as well as larger sections of Song territory to credited with making these imitation Ding wares within this
establish the Jin dynasty (1115–1234). By 947, the region region so that it is known as Peng ware (Peng yao). Later writ-
where the most famous Northern Song white ware kilns ers of the Ming and Qing dynasties promoted this connec-
were located—those that produced classic Ding wares tion between the two wares, causing the Hezhou kilns of old
(in present-day Yanshan Cun and Qianci Cun of Quyang to be associated with a site now identified as the Huo kilns.73
county, Hebei province)—was incorporated into terri- Several northern kilns produced white wares in the
tory ruled by the Khitans of the Liao dynasty general Ding tradition during the Liao, Jin, and Yuan dy-
(907–1125).66 In fact, some Ding potters were treated as nasties. Some kilns such as Hebeji (sometimes called Hao-
prisoners of war, taken to the main Liao capital, biji) in Henan province and Guantai in Hebei province,
Shangjing (south of present-day Lindong in Inner Mon- which are best known for Cizhou wares, also created ce-
golia), and established a white ware kiln that operated ramics in the Ding style. The Huo, also known as the
from about 1060 to 1100.67 The body and glaze of the Huozhou or Huo Xian kiln, is located southwest of the
white wares made at Shangjing are closely related to Ding town of Chencun near the city of Huozhou in Shanxi
wares, while the shape often imitates Liao metalwork.68 province. The site, which spans approximately thirty-seven
In 1004, the Liao signed a treaty with the Northern acres (150,000 square meters) and is protected by the Chi-
Song empire, after which ideas, products, and people nese government, began to be excavated in the 1970s. It
flowed freely between the Northern Song and Liao made simple white wares economically by stacking wares in
states.69 But in 1125, the Liao kingdom fell to Jurchen the kiln using five small spurs or by leaving an unglazed ring
(Nuzhen or Ruzhen) forces, who went on to found the in the interior (unlike the standard Ding practice of stack-
Jin dynasty. Afterward, production of Ding wares contin- ing wares with unglazed rims inverted in stepped saggars).
ued on a smaller scale, and designs grew simpler. It is Bowls, dishes, basins, stem cups, brushwashers, bottles,
generally believed that most of the molded Ding dishes wine jars, and incense burners have been excavated at the
were made during and after the Jin dynasty (1115–1234) site. Decorative motifs, if used, generally adorned the inte-
and that the Ding kilns declined during the Yuan dynasty. riors of bowls, dishes, and basins, and included flowers,
This was due to loss of major patronage, particularly that ducks, geese, fish, deer, Lake Tai rocks, dragons with waves,
of the Mongol elite, who preferred the pure white wares characters or text, and cranes among pines, which are vari-
to the ivory-toned Ding creations. Yet some exquisite ex- ously dated Song or Yuan.74 Some believe these wares
amples of molded Ding ware have been attributed to the “mark the latter end of the great Ding tradition.”75

7.26. Manuscript illumination in color and gold on paper of “Rashid al-Din with His Ceramics” or “Daqiqi Is Killed by His Slave,
ca 1360.” From the Saga of Abu-Sa’id, Iran or Iraq. Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul.
The Dehua kilns of Fujian, as well as other smaller

southern kilns in Fujian, Zhejiang, Hunan, Guangdong,
and Guangxi provinces, were active during the Yuan dy-
nasty. Their wares generally featured a white porcela-
neous clay body and a transparent glaze with a bluish
green tinge known as qingbai, and their potters vied with
Jingdezhen craftsmen for a share of domestic and foreign
markets.76 In a region approximately 375 miles southeast
of Jingdezhen that is now part of Fujian province, nu-
merous kilns located near rich deposits of petunse
(baidunzi), a rock composed of quartz and fine-grained
mica, produced white wares that came to be known col-
lectively as Dehua. These wares were made wholly from
pulverized petunse or sometimes with very small addi-
tions of kaolin, soft white clay composed of weathered
feldspar (aluminum silicate). When levels of kaolin are
low the clay lacks plasticity, which makes hand-fashion-
7.27. Ganzhou ware jar with rolled lip, willow-basket-weave and
ing difficult. This is probably why the primary technique boss decor, and interior with russet brown glaze, Yuan dynasty,
used to produce Yuan Dehua wares involved the use of thirteenth to fourteenth centuries, 9.4 cm x 11.5 cm. Made at the
hollow piece molds. During the Yuan dynasty tremen- Qili kilns, Ganzhou, Jiangxi province. Harvard Art Museum,
dous quantities of rather ordinary qingbai wares with Arthur M. Sackler Museum.
carved or molded decoration were produced by the De-
hua kilns for the domestic market and for export particu-
larly to what are now Indonesia and the Philippines.77 Small white ware kilns throughout China made ser-
Several centuries later, the most famous products of the viceable white wares for local markets and for export.80
Dehua kilns, sculptural figures made in the Ming and Qing Quite a few were established at or near the major trade
dynasties, would recall features of the Yuan qingbai sculp- ports of Quanzhou and Guangzhou (Canton). Often
tures from Jingdezhen (discussed in more detail later). In these local kilns produced not only white wares, but also
general, Yuan Dehua wares are coarser than products celadons and a limited supply of black wares.
made during the Dehua kilns’ heyday in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries, when they were renowned not for
Jizhou Ware
qingbai but for milky white porcelain figures and vessels The Jizhou kilns, near Ji’an in Jiangxi province, pro-
with a warm, ivory-tinged glaze. The locally mined petunse duced the most imaginative iron-glazed and iron-painted
contained less iron oxide than that found near Jingdezhen, wares of the Yuan dynasty. During the Song dynasty,
which permitted oxidation firing at Dehua kilns and re- their most famous products were variations of the iron
sulted in a lovely ivory hue. This oxidizing atmosphere black tea bowls most often associated with the Jian kilns
seems to relate Dehua wares to Ding wares. While Ding in Fujian. Some distinctive early versions of these tea
clay is rich in kaolin (aluminum silicate), however, that bowls were decorated with cut paper designs or leaves
used by potters at Dehua is richer in quartz.78 laid on the glazed surface, which would leave their mark
At the important Middle Eastern port of Hormuz after firing.81
(now in Iran), Dehua wares are found, but not porcelain As bowls with bluish green glazes gained favor in the
from Jingdezhen. Trade at Hormuz and at the port city of twelfth century, the Jizhou kilns began to diversify their
Quanzhou (in modern-day Fujian province), a primary products, making celadon, qingbai, as well as iron brown
source of wares exported to Hormuz, was controlled by painted wares. During the thirteenth century some exqui-
Muslims. Perhaps the Muslims preferred Dehua pottery, site iron brown painted wares were made at this southern
or, more likely, it was easier to obtain given the close kiln using the northern method of firing vessels on the
proximity of the Dehua kilns to Quanzhou.79 Among mouthrim and painting with iron slip. This crossover in
typical examples of Yuan Dehua ware is a small, nonde- technique has led to the notion that some potters from
script bottle that is fabled to have been given to a Venice the northern kilns such as Ding and Cizhou moved south
chapel by Marco Polo. to Jizhou during this period.

7.28a and b. Jizhou ware measuring jar with iron brown underglaze basket-weave and chrysanthemum motifs, Yuan dynasty, late
thirteenth to early fourteenth century, 7.6 cm tall, 9.5 cm diameter. Made at the Jizhou kilns near Ji’an, Jiangxi province. Detroit
Institute of Arts.
Yuan painted Jizhou wares are as well crafted and cre- Yuan potters. One often-published meiping with a brown-
atively rendered as those of the Song period, making it ish black glaze is a gorgeous example. Overpainted with
difficult to differentiate among painted Jizhou wares of blonde slip in a pattern simulating the ruyi lappet pattern
the Song and Yuan eras. Archaeologists sometimes look often also seen carved into Yuan black lacquer, the mei-
to the shape of the wares to make the distinction: meas- ping was excavated at the Jizhou kiln site—and repre-
uring jars, jars with lotus-leaf-shaped lids and high-footed sents just one of many motifs seen also in wares
pear-shaped vessels with fish handles became common decorated with underglaze blue.85
only in the Yuan dynasty, so these works are often now
identified as Yuan pieces rather than as from the late
Southern Song.82Examples from the Jizhou and other Major Discoveries of Yuan Ceramics
Yuan southern kilns include a number of measuring jars
from the Qili kiln at Ganzhou in Jiangxi province, includ- Critical information about Yuan ceramics comes not only
ing some discovered in the Sinan shipwreck (Fig. 7.27).83 from Yuan tombs of wealthy common people, such as
Another fine Jizhou measuring jar features finely painted the 1338 tomb of Madame Ling and others dateable to
chrysanthemums on its base reminiscent of those on 1291, 1293, and 1315 (where more typical qingbai funerary
Jingdezhen painted wares (Figs. 7.28a and b). Also worth urns were recovered), but also at other sites such as an
noting is a well-known Jizhou ware vase with fish-shaped excavation at Jingdezhen, an early thirteenth-century
handles in the British Museum.84 shipwreck, and caches of treasures buried during upris-
Other distinctive features of some Yuan Jizhou wares ings, which were common at the end of the Yuan dy-
are the use of reserve biscuit decoration or of light slip nasty.86 This section provides details and analysis of some
splashed, dabbed, or painted over a dark iron glaze. A of these significant archaeological discoveries.
Jizhou bottle partially covered with iron glaze with re-
serve biscuit and painted decoration is very striking; it re- Doufulong at the Zhushan Kiln Site
minds one of a similar technique masterfully used by the Excavations at the rear of the Zhushan (Pearl Hill) kiln
Longquan potters during the Yuan dynasty (Fig. 7.29; see site, in a place known as Doufulong in Jingdezhen, are
also Fig. 7.6). This technique seems to have been in- critical to understanding other finds within China, since
vented during the Song, but to have been perfected by the earliest known imperial blue and white porcelain, a jar

7.29. Jizhou ware bottle (meiping) with phoenix and cloud decoration reserved in the biscuit against the dark brown glaze, with the
reserved designs covered with clear glaze over slip-painted details, Yuan dynasty, thirteenth to fourteenth century, 29.3 cm tall, 16.2
cm diameter. Made at kilns near Yonghe, near Ji’an, Jiangxi province. Harvard Art Museum, Arthur M. Sackler Museum.
glaze was used with painted decoration in cobalt blue. In

addition, examples of works with copper red, and a com-
bination of cobalt blue and copper red, were recovered.
Other wares were covered with sapphire blue glaze, with
some featuring additional gilt decoration or reserve white
motifs such as dragons chasing pearls. Yuan wares with
similar decor are known (Figs. 7.31, 7.32). The most un-
usual works are the very few pieces, mentioned earlier,
that have a peacock blue glaze with underglaze cobalt
blue or applied gilt dragons.
Vessels that could be reconstructed at Doufulong were
of various shapes: drum-shaped convex-sided jars; large,
round covered containers; tall, cylindrical covered jars;
and covered jars with small bases and wide shoulders.
The first two shapes aid in the dating of this group of
wares. The drum-shaped covered jars have the Tibetan
Lamaist double vajra design on the lid and a pair of dou-
7.30. Jingdezhen imperial dragon jar for weiqi (go) game pieces, ble-horned five-claw dragons on the body. Indeed, the jar
Yuan dynasty, reign of the Wenzong emperor (1328 –1332), 11.8 shown in Figure 7.30 is similar in size and shape to a
cm tall. Excavated from Doufulong, Zhushan district, Northern Song incised Yaozhou celadon weiqi (go) game
Jingdezhen. Jingdezhen Institute of Ceramic Archaeology.
piece jar excavated in Shaanxi province (see Fig. 6.13).
The contents of the excavated celadon jar established its
purpose. Inside were black and white pieces for the
for game pieces, is believed to have come from this site board game weiqi favored by the educated Chinese (and
(Fig. 7.30). Here too was found a heretofore unknown known in Japan as “go”). The presence of the game
imperial ware with peacock blue glaze (see Figs. 7.15, pieces is compelling evidence: even though Khubilai
7.16). All of the wares from Doufulong are of very high Khan had established a program of Chinese language and
quality and provide evidence of experimentation in glaze literature study for the imperial princes, only the Wen-
technology, production methods, and design. zong and Shundi (r. 1333–1368) emperors were well
In 1988, the site was accidently discovered during versed in Chinese culture. Of these two, only the Wen-
roadwork in the heart of the city of Jingdezhen. Because zong emperor is noted to have enjoyed both painting and
local authorities would only grant a brief delay, Liu playing weiqi.88
Xinyuan and the staff at the Institute of Ceramic Archae- The second group of wares found at the site—the
ology could conduct only a limited salvage operation. round covered containers with peacock blue (see Figs.
Therefore, it has not been possible to determine a date 7.15, 7.16) or with sapphire blue glaze— offer further in-
based on stratification or dated excavated material.87 Lit- formation about when these wares were produced. In the
erary sources, as well as other discoveries, suggest that center of the lower portion of these pieces is a round,
the wares found at Doufulong were made at the Yuan im- raised plateau that is unglazed. Between the plateau and
perial kiln for Emperor Wenzong (r. 1328 –1332). More the wall of the base is a glazed trench. When not in use
than 90 percent of the wares in the find at Zhushan were these containers were covered by a lid decorated with
decorated with five-claw dragons, a motif reserved for two-horned five-claw dragons. The exterior of the bases
the emperor. The imperial kiln thus may have been lo- are embellished with auspicious clouds, wave crests, or
cated nearer to this site than Hutian and Luomaqiao, roaming dragons. The classic text on inkstone connois-
where limited amounts of blue and white wares have also seurship, Xi Qing Inkstone Manual, which was compiled
been found. Since high-quality Yuan blue and white has around 1737 for the Qianlong emperor, notes that “Song
not been found in significant quantities at any Jingdezhen (dynasty) Chengni bishui yan (inkstones) have a round
kiln, it is the author’s opinion that the Yuan imperial kiln raised cylinder in the middle; between the cylinder and
has itself not been found. the walls is a ditch that is deep and wide.” Given the sim-
Beautiful combinations of glaze and decoration adorn ilarity of the Doufulong wares to this description and to
the porcelains recovered at Doufulong. Transparent two examples of pre-Yuan inkstones—a Tang dynasty

7.31. Bottle or vase (meiping) with sapphire blue 7.32. Dish or plate with flat bracket-lobed rim; unglazed base;
glaze and reserve white dragon decoration, Yuan sapphire blue glaze; and reserve white running qilin (mythical
dynasty, fourteenth century, 43.8 cm tall. Made auspicious animal), pheasants, and phoenixes among flower
at Jingdezhen. Yangzhou Museum. decorations, Yuan dynasty, 41.5 cm diameter. Made at
Jingdezhen. Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul.
covered ceramic inkstone excavated in Nara, Japan, and a pire, and families buried their valuables, including heirloom
small qingbai inkstone discovered without its lid in a Song porcelain, for safekeeping. The princely hoards at Gao’an,
tomb near Jingdezhen—it can be safely assumed that the Baoding, and Jintan are important finds that reveal a great
covered containers at Zhushan are inkstones as well. deal about Yuan kilns and their royal patronage.
In addition to the five-claw dragons, which were a sign The largest treasure was found in 1980 at Gao’an in
of Yuan emperors and the predominant decoration on Jiangxi province, during the expansion of the Second
pieces excavated at the Doufulong site, secondary Yuan- Electronic Factory of Jiangxi. A total of 239 pieces of ce-
era Buddhist motifs include Ba Da Ma (a type of modi- ramics (counting both broken and unbroken pieces) were
fied lotus panel enclosing Eight Great Symbols), Za Bao found in a neatly organized tin-roofed pit that was 1.3
(various treasures), Shizi Chu (the double vajra), and meters in diameter and 0.8 meter deep.91 Included were
cresting sea waves. As discussed, five-claw imperial four pieces of bronze and two broken pieces of iron, as
dragon weiqi jars and inkstones are specifically linked to well as a wealth of ceramics: 169 celadons from
the Wenzong emperor.89 Longquan, three pieces of Jun wares, and 67 works from
Jingdezhen.92 The porcelains from Jingdezhen included
Three Princely Treasures blue and white wares, underglaze red pieces, qingbai, and
The year 1340, when the last Yuan emperor, Shundi, danbai (eggwhite wares), which ranged in quality from
came of age and assumed full power, also marked the be- common to imperial. Twenty-three have been classified
ginning of many uprisings in China. Almost a decade of “world art treasures” due to their breathtaking craftsman-
battles for control ensued in the area where the kilns of ship and historical significance.
Jingdezhen were located (then known as Raozhou), which The four-claw dragon decoration on many of the
caused the Yuan imperial kiln to cease production by pieces suggests that their owner was most likely a
1352.90 Escalating turmoil led to the fall of the Yuan em- prince. According to the Yuan shi (The official history of

the Yuan dynasty), the wares decorated with three-,

four-, and five-claw dragons were restricted to the use
of nobles, princes, and the emperor, respectively.93 A
few large, covered blue and white jars were found at
Gao’an with three-claw dragons (Fig. 7.33). A few four-
claw dragon jars were also found at this site. The use of
thin lines to paint the dragons and ample unpainted
space seen on the Gao’an jars are reminiscent of fea-
tures on blue and white weiqi jars excavated at Doufu-
long in Jingdezhen.
Also unearthed at the site were nine extremely fine
luanbai (eggshell white) wares, as well as stem cups bear-
ing molded five-claw dragon anhua (secret or hidden)
decorations. Stem cups were a new Yuan ceramic form
used for wine on festive occasions, and naturally accom-
panied meiping, or wine bottles.94 The presence of white
sacrificial ware stem cups, decorated with the emperor’s
exclusive five-claw dragon, makes it likely that this body
of ceramics belonged to a member of the Yuan imperial
family. This cache of valuables was probably buried
sometime between 1341 and 1351, when there were nu-
merous battles between the Chinese Red Turban insur-
gents and the Yuan army around Gao’an.
The Baoding treasure was discovered at Baoding in 7.33. Blue and white covered jar with three-claw dragon and
Hebei province in 1964 while erecting a building. It con- peony decorations, Yuan dynasty, second quarter of the
tained eleven pieces of exquisite Yuan porcelain (Figs. fourteenth century, 47 cm tall. Made at Jingdezhen, and
7.34, 7.35, 7.36).95 Because these ceramics are of excep- recovered in 1980 in Gao’an county. Gao’an County Museum,
Jiangxi Province.
tionally fine quality and have been very well preserved,
they are among the most published and exhibited discov-
eries since the revolution in 1949.
Four of the eleven porcelain pieces are octagonal
faceted blue and white vessels: a pair of meiping (wine bot-
tles), a pear-shaped (yuhuchun) bottle, and a ewer. They are
thus more complicated than the usual Yuan forms of
these types.96 (For more on shapes of Yuan wares, see
Fig. 7.37a–f.) Four pieces are sapphire blue: a meiping
similar to one held by Yangzhou Museum, a yi (spouted
bowl), a stem cup, and a shallow dish of the same form as
one in the Topkapi Palace Museum. The glaze on a wine
cup has a slight jade-green tinge. And a dish with a brack-
eted rim is comparable in quality to benchmark dishes
with the Taixi inscription, datable to 1328 –1340.
The most unusual and experimental pieces from the
Baoding treasure, however, are a pair of jars with molded
beading. On these jars, ogival panels of floral open work
7.34. Cup with sapphire blue glaze and gilt decoration of prunus
are brushed with underglaze red and blue. Above and be- (plum), Yuan dynasty, fourteenth century, 4 cm tall, 8.1 cm
low, contrasting zones are painted in cobalt blue (see Fig. mouth diameter. From Jingdezhen, recovered in 1964 from
7.36). These imperial-quality jars decorated with under- Baoding, Hebei province. Hebei Provincial Museum.
glaze blue and red have counterparts made at
Jingdezhen’s private kilns as furnishings for the tomb of

7.36. One of a pair of covered jars with underglaze cobalt blue

and copper red decoration, Yuan dynasty, second quarter of the
fourteenth century. Made in Jingdezhen, recovered in 1964 from
Baoding, Hebei province. Hebei Provincial Museum.
Madame Ling, discussed later. Many of the vessel forms

and decorative motifs in this cache are related to other art
forms more valuable to the Mongols than porcelain, such
as gold silver, jade, and textiles (Fig. 7.38). For example,
the dense complex designs of kesi (tapestry woven) tex-
tiles recur on blue and white as well as the related blue
and red decorated porcelain (see Figs. 7.35, 7.36, 7.38).
The beautiful pair of faceted meiping have reserve white
four-claw dragons amid waves akin to the dragons on the
sleeves of the clothing worn by Wenzong and Mingzong
in their imperial portraits; indeed, the sinuous dragons on
the meiping are bounded by a zone of peonies at the base
and a zone of phoenix among lotus around the shoulder
not unlike woven tapestry (kesi) cloud collar medallions
7.35. One of a pair of octagonal covered wine bottles (meiping) created by Uighur Turkic tribesmen in eastern central
with facets and reserve-white four-claw dragons amid waves, Asia in the eleventh to twelfth centuries.97 In addition,
Yuan dynasty, second quarter of the fourteenth century, 51.4 cm these zones are bounded by cloud collar lappets, a popu-
tall. Made in Jingdezhen, recovered in 1964 in Baoding, Hebei lar design convention used for kesi by the Uighurs.98
province. Hebei Provincial Museum.
Such groups of four cloud collar lappets on the shoul-
ders of the jars and faceted meiping are reminiscent of a
quatrefoil collar worn over a garment; it is as if the body

7.37. Common Yuan dynasty ceramic

shapes: (a) wine bottle (meiping); (b, c)
jars (guan); (d) ewer (hu); (e) pear-
shaped bottle (yuhuchun ping); (f) stem
cup (gaozu bei); and (g) spouted bowl
(yi). Drawing © Wang Chungang.
7.38. Silk and metallic thread tapestry (kesi) featuring Yamantaka-Vajrabhairava with imperial portraits, and with detail
showing Emperor Wenzong (white robe) and Emperor Mingzong (blue robe), Yuan dynasty, ca. 1330 –1332, 245.5 cm
tall, 209 cm wide. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
of the vessel is clothed in the silk tapestries so prized by

the Mongols. Although these xiapei (literally, rosy cloud
scarves) are believed to have been in use in China as early
as the third century b.c.e., some particularly fine tapestry
woven and embroidered examples were created during
the Yuan dynasty. Further, the cloud collar lappet became a
major fourteenth-century motif for porcelain from
Jingdezhen, and appears on both underglaze red and under-
glaze blue wares (Figs. 7.39, 7.40). The dragons, birds, and
floral backgrounds seen on the underglaze painted vessels in
this find were ubiquitous on textiles of central Asia and
China created during the eleventh to fourteenth centuries.99
Many other motifs and layout conventions used for
these ceramics have counterparts in the textiles of the
era. The motif of lions on the wide belly of an octagonal
faceted version of a yuhuchun bottle recovered from the
Baoding find is used on an overglaze enamel bottle of the
same general form, but not faceted, in the Tokyo Na-
tional Museum, as well as in central Asian Uighur, North-
ern Song, and Liao textile designs.100 The eight
7.39. Flask with underglaze copper red dragon decor, Yuan trapezoidal floral panels on the flaring body of the octag-
dynasty, 34 cm tall, 8.5 cm mouth diameter, 26.5 cm foot
onal faceted ewer are similar in composition to the bulb-
diameter, made in Jingdezhen, Palace Museum, Beijing.
shaped panels on some gold brocades.101 Beaded banding
7.40. Dish or plate with flattened foliate rim and main decoration resembling pearls, too, such as that seen around the pe-
featuring flying phoenixes in white against a blue ground, Yuan riphery of the ogival panels on underglaze blue and cop-
dynasty, fourteenth century, 45.5 cm diameter. Originally housed per red jars, was prominent on eighth-century silk made
at the Ardebil Shrine. Made in Jingdezhen. Iran Bastan Museum,
Iran.
in Sogdia (an ancient central Asian country the territory
of which is the Bukara region of present-day Uzbekistan).
This banding motif continued to be used in central and
eastern Asia through the Mongol period, and can be seen

around the innermost circular zone on the Yamantaka

Mandala (a cosmic blueprint of the celestial palace of the
Tibetan Buddhist deity Yamantaka, the Conqueror of
Death).102 This border imitates pearl beadwork on Mon-
gol court dress. Thirteenth-century Chinese envoys to
the Mongols noted that wealthy women wore red or
plum silk hats that were sometimes embellished with
pearls.103 Clothing embellished with pearls is also men-
tioned by Marco Polo (1254 –1324) and Odoric of Porde-
none (ca. 1286–1331).104
The band and panel arrangement, so common on
fourteenth-century vessels, also appears to be based on
textile designs.105 And some other motifs, such as bands
of foliate scrolls, lotus-petal panels, and cresting waves,
were most likely derived from Tibetan Buddhist iconog-
raphy as well.
Several pieces of porcelain in the Baoding hoard imi-
tate metalwork. A white porcelain wine cup imitates the
shape of a silver example thought to have been made in
1315. The sapphire blue yi (spouted bowl; see Fig. 7.37)
has the same shape as a silver bowl found in a Yuan tomb
dated by a stone inscription to 1320, and another with a
date of 1314. The gilt flowering plum branches, seen on
the sapphire blue glazed porcelain wine cup and fre-
7.41. Lāvard ware jar, fritware, with overglaze painted and leaf-
quently on blue and white, also appear on Yuan metal- gilded (so-called lājvardina) decoration, Iranian Ilkhanid period
work, such as a silver blossom-shaped wine cup dated (1206–1353), 37.5 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New
1315 from a Yuan cache in Hunan.106 York.
The metal most precious to the Mongols was gold, and
several of the sapphire blue pieces were embellished with
gilt motifs. Gilding and other decorative methods seen on lain guan, or jar.108 It was decorated with a four-claw
the wares in the Baoding find may have been influenced by dragon similar to those painted on blue and white wares
wares made at Kashan, and to a lesser degree by products of the Gao’an treasure. Some scholars have proposed
of kilns in Bagdad and Tabriz, in the Persian Il-Khanate that this cache was buried by a member of the Mongol
(now Iran). From the late twelfth century to the mid-four- imperial family during the turmoil surrounding the upris-
teenth century, lāvard ceramic wares (from the Persian ing staged in 1352 by the Red Turban Army against Yuan
word for lapis lazuli) with dark blue glaze, sometimes ro- officials in Jinlin (Nanjing). The variety of silver objects,
manized as lāvard, “lāvardina,” “lajvard,” or “lājvardina,” some with inscriptions in Arabic, Chinese, and Sanskrit,
were produced. It was not unusual for fine examples to be seems to indicate that the articles came from a number of
embellished with red, white, black, and gold leaf designs sources. It was the practice of the Mongols to appropri-
(Fig. 7.41).107 The copper red on the pair of jars unearthed ate the riches of the vanquished. Another possibility is
at Baoding may also represent an attempt to imitate that someone associated with the temple accepted these
painted manganese red decorations on lāvard wares as well offerings from members of the Mongol elite and buried
as imperial crimson textiles (see Fig 7.36). them in 1352 for safekeeping.
The third treasure was discovered in 1966 during a
Domestic Wares for Commoners: The Old Drum Tower
canal-digging project at Jintan, near Nanjing. It is now in
the collection of Zhenjiang Municipal Museum, Jiangsu
Cache, Dadu, and Others
province. In Yuan times this area was the site of a com- In 1970, ten pieces of Jingdezhen blue and white and
munity associated with the temple and convent of Hu six pieces of qingbai—sometimes described as porcelain
Chi-an. The cache, found two meters underground, con- with a “shadow blue” (yingqing) glaze—were found at a
tained fifty pieces of silver inside a blue and white porce- site on Old Drum Tower ( Jiugulou) Avenue in Beijing.

Two qingbai pieces bear the name of an unidentified Maojiawan, Xicheng district, Beijing. This site is notewor-
Mongol written in Phagspa script. Overall, these pieces thy because scattered among shards of common Ming ves-
are more informal than the wares in the princely treas- sels from kilns throughout China were a relatively small
ures. The most notable object in this find is a unique blue number of Tang celadon and white wares—Song, Liao,
and white flattened ovoid ewer decorated with a large sin- and Jin wares from the Longquanwu, Juntai, Cizhou,
gle phoenix flying above scrolling lotus. The design of Dingzhou, Guan, and Yue kilns; Yuan products of the
this ewer is playfully innovative, featuring a spout in the Cizhou, Longquan, Jingdezhen, and Jun kilns; as well as a
form of a phoenix head. few imperial wares. This site has thus aided our under-
An uprising over working conditions of native Chi- standing of domestic ceramic commerce during both the
nese and a water-borne plague in 1358, which caused the Yuan and Ming dynasties.114
Shundi emperor enough concern that he was preparing Although Madame Ling was not a poor commoner,
to flee, may have precipitated the burial of these artifacts, she was not nobility, and her tomb in Fengcheng county
which are now in the collection of the Capital Museum, has yielded clues about the taste of reasonably wealthy
Beijing.109 commoners living near Jingdezhen. Underglaze blue and
Another type of underglaze cobalt painted popular red decorated wares found in Madame Ling’s tomb are
ware (minyao) recovered from Yuan sites in Beijing was thought to have been made at a private kiln. Her epitaph,
produced at the Yuxi kiln in Yunnan province. This kiln dated the fifth lunar month of the Zhiyuan reign (1338), is
produced wares for the common man from the late Yuan written in underglaze blue on the wall of the lower story
through the late Ming dynasties and its relationship to of an underglaze copper red model of a granary. On the
Jingdezhen will be discussed later. The appearance of balcony of the second story a drama is being performed.
Yuxi underglaze blue decorated ceramics differs from A funerary jar is also decorated with figures. On the body
Jingdezhen popular ware; Yuxi underglaze blue wares of the funerary jar animals associated with the four direc-
have a less refined clay body and murky blue, coarsely tions (dragon, tiger, bird, and tortoise) appear among
painted motifs. One famous Yuan vessel excavated at the clouds, and inside the stupa-shaped finial on the lid is the
Yuxi kiln site is a lidded jar shaped like a Jizhou jar with a figure of a Buddha. All are highlighted in underglaze blue
lotus-leaf lid. Motifs in the two major decorative friezes and red. Two red-glazed figures from this tomb will be
on the vessel include figures in a landscape and peonies discussed later in the section on copper red wares.115
separated by ruyi lappets that are filled with a cash pat-
tern. Secondary motifs consist of scrolling lotus as well as
The Sinan Shipwreck and Other Evidence of Exported
panels inspired by the beauty of lotus and banana Ceramics
leaves.110 Chinese authors refer to the glaze used on this In 1976, a Korean fisherman reported finding pieces
and other wares decorated with locally mined cobalt ore of a celadon vase in his fishing net. That year, 1,999 ce-
as grayish celadon. In the author’s opinion, it could also ramic wares were salvaged from this shipwreck off Sinan
be considered a less refined version of Jingdezhen qingbai (sometimes spelled Shinan or Xinan), South Korea, with
glaze. The same glaze was also used on undecorated some five thousand items, including ceramics, salvaged
wares and those with simple impressed or incised de- the next year (Figs. 7.42, 7.43; see also Figs. 7.2, 10.5).116
signs, which included cloud patterns, slanting lines, or This discovery, the largest fourteenth-century ceramics
waves. Black-glazed wares were also made, which is one finding to date—and the most important find of export
indication that production at this site was also influenced Yuan ceramics prior to the perfection of the underglaze
by common northern black wares from the Cizhou and, painted porcelain technique—provides a wealth of infor-
perhaps to a lesser extent, Yaozhou kilns.111 Vessel shapes mation about ceramics exported during that era. Excava-
included bowls, dishes, saucer dishes, and jars.112 tions undertaken by the South Korean Navy and Office
The Yuxi kiln continued to operate during the Ming dy- of Cultural Properties continued until 1984. A staggering
nasty, and the fact that shards have been excavated as far 20,661 pieces of Chinese ceramics, seven celadons from
away as Beijing indicates that this ware was appreciated not the dynasty Korean Koryo (918 –1392), and an unspeci-
only locally but nationally, especially in areas with high fied number of wares from Japan and Southeast Asia
concentrations of Mongol and Muslim inhabitants.113 In were recovered from eight compartments separated by
particular, shards of Yuxi wares were recovered from a seven watertight bulkheads in the hold of the ship, which
large refuse pit currently believed to have been deposited measures approximately 28.4 meters long by 6.6 meters
during the Zhengde to Jiajing reigns of the Ming dynasty at wide.117

7.42. Qingbai oval dish with molded leaf

decoration and poem written in copper
red, Yuan dynasty, 15.1 cm x 13.2 cm.
Made at Jingdezhen, recovered from the
Sinan shipwreck of 1323. National
Museum of Korea, Seoul.
7.43. Qiingbai sauce dishes with

underglaze iron brown decoration of
xi’niu (unicorn-like mythical auspicious
animal, left), and rabbit (right), Yuan
dynasty, 12.2–12.4 cm diameter. Made at
Jingdezhen, recovered from the Sinan
shipwreck of 1323. National Museum of
Korea, Seoul.
Inscribed tags, which served as bills of lading, were at- Korea. Significantly, some of the fine wares, such as a
tached to the wooden boxes containing ceramics celadon vase with a dragon-fish handle and a phoenix-
wrapped in paper and provide important information headed vase, are thought by some scholars to have been
about this vessel’s last voyage in 1323 (the third year of manufactured during the Southern Song. In addition, no
Shiji).118 The Chinese ship was bound for Hakata (present- pieces of blue and white porcelain were found.
day Fukuoka, Japan) from its home port of Ningbo in Most of the ceramics recovered from the shipwreck
Zhejiang province. Parts of the cargo were shipments to were made at the Longquan, Jingdezhen, and Jizhou
the Tofukuji Temple in Kyoto and the subordinate Jotenji kilns. There were also a number of Jun-type flowerpots
Tacchu temple in Hakata.119 The ship’s final destination and black-glazed storage bottles made at minor kilns in
may have been Southeast Asia, since the large numbers China. The clay body of some jars and bottles is similar to
of Jingdezhen wares with qingbai glaze (yingqing or shadow those of measuring jars known to have been made at the
blue) on board were not usually imported by Japan or Qili (Ganzhou) kilns in Jiangxi province. More sparsely

represented are molded Ding dishes, Ge ware censers porcelain and now generally referred to as qinghua (blue
coarser yet similar to the example in the Asia Society, painted), is mentioned fifteen times; chuzhou (or
painted and black-glazed Cizhou wares, and Jian black- Longquan celadon) seven times; celadon (qing) four
glazed tea bowls, the finest of which were produced in times; and qingbai three times.123
the twelfth century and were highly prized by tea enthusi- Numerous other literary references to blue and white
asts in Japan. demonstrate its popularity at the time, particularly in
Another Yuan ship that is believed to have sailed out Southeast Asia. The travel diary of Moroccan scholar Ibn
of Ningbo, and which sank in the Bohai Sea near Batuta (1307–1377), written in 1355, confirms the pres-
Suizhong in northeast China’s Liaoning province, has ence of Chinese porcelain in Damascus in the early four-
also yielded significant discoveries. The ship, twenty- teenth century. Leaving Morocco in 1325 and finally
three yards long and tentatively dated to 1279–1333, is arriving at Quanzhou in 1345, Batuta later visited
believed to have been bound for Korea, Japan, or both Fuzhou, Hangzhou, and Guangzhou. He claimed that
because it carried a cargo of iron objects and Cizhou ce- the porcelain bazaar at Guangzhou was the largest, and
ramics, both of which were common exports to these served as the launching point for exports to other parts
two countries.120 of China, India, and Yemen “from country to country till
These are just two of the Yuan dynasty ships that were it reaches us in Morocco. It [Chinese porcelain] is cer-
part of a long tradition of trade between China and the tainly the finest of all pottery-ware.”124
other kingdoms in Asia and Africa. In 750, the Priest Impressive collections of Yuan (and later Ming) blue
Ganjin (687–763), founder of the Toshodaiji Temple in and white wares were accumulated by the Safavid shahs
Nara, Japan, described Guangzhou (old Canton in pres- of Persia and the Ottoman sultans. Large quantities have
ent-day Guangdong province) as a port with countless also been found in the ruins of Damascus and Fustat (old
Indian, Persian, and Indonesian trade ships. Many Arab Cairo). Indeed archaeological evidence of the trade is to be
accounts from the ninth to the eleventh centuries also found throughout Asia, the Middle East, and east Africa.
mention Guangzhou and the fine clay used by the Chi- A growing number of shipwreck sites have supplemented
nese to produce porcelain.121 And in a book written be- these finds on land. One of these, a discovery in 2004 in
tween 1111 and 1117, Zhu Yu (son of the governor of the Red Sea of high-quality Yuan blue and white, included
Guangzhou) reported that “the greater part of the cargo dishes as large as 50 centimeters in diameter.125
(on ships out of Quanzhou in present-day Fujian
province) consists of pottery, the small pieces packed
within the larger, till there is not one crevice left.”122 Porcelain for the Yuan Imperial Court:
Yuan commerce far exceeded the flourishing Song A New Function for Imperial Kilns
trade, and the tribute owed on each Yuan sale had a
healthy if not indispensable effect on the treasury. Khubilai followed the Song model in establishing an im-
Quanzhou, identified by some as Marco Polo’s Zaytun, perial kiln, but his kiln at Jingdezhen had a radically dif-
was an important fourteenth-century port for the porce- ferent purpose than did earlier imperial kilns. The
lain trade. As mentioned previously, a large Muslim mer- Northern Song imperial kiln is surmised to have emerged
chant community lived there during the Yuan period, to expedite production of official (guan) celadon wares
with the largest contingent being from Il-Khan Persia. for court ceremonies with “a body made of refined clay
One sailor from Quanzhou, Wang Dayuan, who made and a clear brilliant glaze.” It is believed that the North-
two major voyages out of Quanzhou between the years ern Song imperial kiln, known as the Inner Kiln (Neiyao),
of 1328 and 1339, recorded in 1349 the types of Chinese was located within the palace precincts in Bianjing (present
goods desired by ninety-nine places, mostly in Southeast day Kaifeng, Henan province) to ensure that wares were
Asia, in the Daoyi zhilue (A brief account of the island for- available for ritual ceremonies paying homage to heaven,
eigners). Forty-five destinations preferred Chinese ce- earth, and the ancestors. Tang dynasty (618 –907) records
ramics, and there are sixty-eight ceramic entries in Wang’s note that it was common for ceramics desired by the
travelogue. Sometimes the types of wares desired are court to be supplied by private kilns as tribute.126 During
mentioned specifically; other times a preferred shape is the Song dynasty, the kilns of Ding, Xing, Yueh,
indicated, and once only the generic term porcelain (ciqi) Jingdezhen, Yaozhou, and Jian not only paid taxes, but
is used. Of the specified types, qingbai hua (painted qing- also supplied desired tribute wares. Records confirm that
bai), understood to be an early name for blue and white even after the establishment of the Northern Song

Neiyao kiln, Jingdezhen continued to provide tribute known as Fuliang county in Raozhou prefecture. During
wares to the Northern Song court. When the Song capi- seventy-four years of operation, the Yuan imperial kiln
tal was relocated to Lin’an (present-day Hangzhou), the was known as the Imperial Clay Kiln (Yutu Yao) and the
Department of Palace Supply not only ordered wares Fuliang Porcelain Office (Fuliang Ci Ju).131 Given the
from private kilns, but also produced imperial (guan) Mongols’ cultural and aesthetic sensibilities, it is to be ex-
wares at two sites near the Southern Song palace.127 Dur- pected that they would have been drawn to the ceramics
ing the reign of the Southern Song emperor Gaozong (r. of Jingdezhen made with pure white porcelain clay, such
1127–1162), Cheng Dachang (d. 1195) indicated that the as the renowned twelfth- and thirteenth-century qingbai
court preferred white tea bowls, which were supplied by bowls that competed for favor with the late Southern
the kilns of Jingdezhen as tribute.128 Some tribute quality Song celadon tea bowls from Longquan.132 Numerous
wares from the Hutian kilns of Jingdezhen have been historical references make it clear that the Mongols con-
found in datable Southern Song and Yuan tombs, cor- sidered the color white auspicious and apotropaic. In
roborating the historical texts. 1206, a white banner with nine fringes was constructed
for the use of the Mongol leader, Temüjin (1167–1227), af-
The Ascendancy of Jingdezhen ter his unifcation of the Mongols, when, at the source of the
From 1004 to the present, then, the artisans of Wonan River (Kente Mountain, the People’s Republic of
Jingdezhen have produced their finest works for China’s Mongolia), he took the honorable title Chinggis (Genghis).
ruling elite.129 It was not until the Yuan dynasty, however, His grandson Khubilai Khan conferred on Genghis Khan
that Jingdezhen became the imperial and most prominent (as he is usually known) the posthumous title of Yuan Taizu,
kiln in China. Indeed, Jingdezhen remained the leading Emperor Taizu of Yuan with his reign lasting from 1206-
provider of porcelain to the world until the eighteenth cen- 1227 and this is the source of the occasional dating of the
tury. By that time many nations throughout the world had Yuan dynasty from 1206. As grand khan of the Mongol em-
learned the secret of creating porcelain. pire, Genghis Khan is reported to have said, “The Beiqi
Jingdezhen was situated in a very desirable location. [high-ranking title] is the noblest position . . . When you are
The mountains in northeastern Jiangxi province created the Beiqi, you can ride the white horse, wear the white dress,
a protective barrier for Jingdezhen during wartime and and sit above the people to be respected during discussions
made overland travel arduous. Luckily, the city also lies on the selected auspicious days.” He also bred thousands of
on the banks of a tributary to the Chang River, which snow white horses, and only those directly related to him
joins the Yangtze River to the north and flows southeast- had the right to drink the mare’s milk. White falcons, used
ward to Lake Poyang, the largest freshwater lake in east- for hunting swans, were also considered to be good omens
ern China. The area is blessed with rich, high-quality and were gifts to Genghis Khan.133 Consistent with the tra-
deposits of porcelain stone, the sole component of dition of hunting swans and geese in the springtime, Khubi-
tenth-century wares. Another kind of clay known as lai and his party are often painted with a variety of white
kaolin, a term derived from Gaolin Hill near Jingdezhen, animals and accoutrements (see Fig. 7.1).
began to be added later and offered several advantages: it White was prominent in other imperial contexts as
made working the prepared clay easier, it increased the well. In 1253, the aristocratic Tibetan monk Phagspa be-
range of temperatures that could be used for firing, and came a spiritual mentor and adviser to Khubilai and his
it enabled the production of hard, white, translucent senior wife, Chabi. Khubilai gave Phagspa a white
porcelain. Lush pine forests provided an abundance of dharma conch shell and authority over all three provinces
timber and created a reduction atmosphere in the kilns, of Tibet. At Phagspa’s suggestion, a white umbrella was
giving the glaze the pale blue green tone known as qingbai erected over the imperial throne in the Grand Bright Hall
or yingqing.130 (Daming Dian) in Khubilai’s southern capital, Dadu.
White umbrellas were used during Buddhist ceremonies
Auspicious White Porcelain in tandem with other objects, such as porcelain statues, as
Khubilai Khan adopted the dynastic title of Yuan in high-ranking officials and others moved under the escort
1271, establishing his winter residence at the former Jin of honor guards around and outside the capital. These
dynasty capital at present-day Beijing, which he renamed parasols symbolized protection of the country from evil
Dadu (meaning great capital). In 1278, as part of imperial spirits and other ominous dangers. The large qingbai
protocol, he established the Yuan imperial kiln at the sculptures, like the figure Guanyin excavated in Beijing,
Jingdezhen porcelain center, which was in an area then were also used for such ceremonies (Fig. 7.44).134

in accordance with the account by Yuan scholar Wang

Yun (1227–1302) in On the Establishment of Craftsmen in
Xuanshanzhu Bureau and Others —where he noted that in
every craftsman household “men learned a handicraft
and woman learned to embroider.” The Bureau of Impe-
rial Manufactures, which comprised twenty-one depart-
ments, was established to coordinate the activities of
artisans engaged in production of luxury items for the
palace (such as jewels, ivory, and textiles), and was re-
sponsible for passing orders to the kiln.136
Around the ninth year of the Zhiyuan reign (1272), the
Ministry of Works set up an official ranking system for
departments that organized as many as two thousand or
more households to as few as one hundred households.
They were managed by a highly stratified and complex
organization of officials whose position within the sys-
tem corresponded to the size of the work force they su-
pervised.137 The head of the Bureau of Imperial
Manufactures received an upper second rank, an indica-
tion of its importance, and the highly respected Nepalese
sculptor Anige (1245–1306) was one of its early directors.
The Fuliang Porcelain Office was under the authority of
Need to replace with a Directorate General for Precious Metals and Jewel Arti-
C&C’s lo-res scan sans in Various Circuits, one of only three subordinates
to the director of the entire bureau.138 When necessary,
representatives from the Directorate General Office un-
7.44. Glazed porcelain qingbai Guanyin bodhisattva, Yuan doubtedly carried designs and orders to the kiln.
dynasty, ca. 1298, 51.44 cm tall x 30.48 cm wide x 19.69 cm deep. The Fuliang Porcelain Office, in collaboration with
Made at Jingdezhen. Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, other departments, produced porcelain for the court in
Missouri.
concert with other important suppliers and distributors
within the system. The painting office designed the
shapes and decorations for the potters, as they did for the
Marco Polo, visiting China during Khubilai’s reign, weavers and every department under the directorates
recorded that lunar New Year’s Day was “ White Day” in general. From the official shipping and receiving store-
the Yuan dynasty. On that day it was customary for the house the porcelain office received valuable commodi-
Khan and his subjects to “wear the white dresses” and ties, such as cobalt ore for painting and gold foil for
“present the white gifts to each other within their fami- overglaze application. Each of these two supporting of-
lies.” Every province and kingdom paid a tribute of gold fices had three hundred or more of their own craftsmen.
wares, silverwares, gems, and white cloth to the Grand The size of the porcelain office can be estimated using
Khan. Whether Marco Polo actually visited China from information from the Yuan shi (the official history of the
1275 to 1292, as recounted in Il Millione, also known as Yuan dynasty). The office was described there as com-
The Travels of Marco Polo, is controversial. At the very least, prising about one hundred households. If these house-
however, the book seems to be a compilation based on holds averaged four members evenly divided between
original accounts.135 men and women, there would have been only about two
hundred men producing porcelain, while their wives and
Organization of the Yuan Imperial Kiln daughters wove hats. This estimated workforce is smaller
Households of artisans staffed the imperial kiln, which by a third than the number of craftsmen working at the
was also known as the Fuliang Porcelain Office. Males imperial factory at Jingdezhen during the Jiajing reign of
manufactured porcelain, while females produced lac- the Ming dynasty (1522–1566).139 Though minor in size
quered hats woven from horsehair, palm fiber, and rattan and rank, the porcelain office was important. More de-

tails about the imperial kiln are recorded in the Yuan shi Mongol emperors took special care to identify and
than in the official histories of either the Song or the mobilize talented artisans from among all the peoples
Ming dynasties. they conquered; in fact, artisans from domains that resis-
To understand a bit more about the treatment of potted capture became a form of booty widely distributed
ters under Mongol rule, it is instructive to look at the ad- throughout the empire. A few famous individuals identi-
ministration of potters in other parts of the empire where fied and mobilized in the Yuan court included Nepalese
more details are available. The Il-Khanate (subservient sculptor Anige (1245–1306), the Chinese painter Zhao
khanate) of western Asia was founded by Khubilai’s Mengfu (1254 –1322), and the Uighur musician and min-
brother, Hulegu. The Mongol rulers of China and Persia ister of works Tang Renzu (1249–1301). Tang is credited
(now Iran and Azerbaijan) shared a serious interest in with supervising the weaving of a renowned portrait of
producing utilitarian art forms, not only for their aes- Khubilai Khan.
thetic value, but also as a vehicle for generating revenue Through collaborations of artisans from the whole
for the state. The great city bazaars on overland and sea empire, some of the most exquisite works of art ever
routes accelerated the flow of goods and the exchange of produced were created during Mongol rule, not only in
ideas. Areas flourished or foundered based on their ac- the realm of ceramics, but also in painting, sculptures,
cess to trade routes. and lacquer. Utilitarian art forms in fact flourished under
In Kashan, a ceramic center for the Il-Khanate, potters the Mongols, who appreciated both beauty and practi-
had a quarter where they lived and conducted business. cality. Yet the Mongols also had a taste for luxury goods,
Weavers had another. Craftsmen banded together in guilds which they considered a form of political currency and a
and religious brotherhoods. Masters (ustad), who had their standard for measuring cultural superiority. In fact, they
own workshops, were assisted by apprentices (khalifa) and created a system of what some have called conspicuous
pupils (shagird).140 A letter by Rashid al-Din, historian, physi- redistribution. Within this system, and in keeping with
cian, and adviser to the Il-Khan Ghazan (r. 1295–1304), their nomadic cultural traditions, forms of wearable, eas-
leads one to believe that tradesmen and artisans paid a tax ily transportable wealth such as precious metals, and tex-
(tangha) as high as 10 percent on each transaction. During tiles studded with gemstones, were most esteemed.143
Ghazan’s reign the tax was reduced to 5 percent.141 Prior to the political unification of the Mongols in the
There were two types of craftsmen in Iran under the Il- early thirteenth century, however, they had only limited
Khans: free private craftsmen and slaves. When the Mon- access to luxury goods. The historiographer to the Mon-
gols encountered strong resistance in conquest, it was their gols in Iran, Rashid al-Din, mentioned only one com-
standard practice to identify and remove the artisans, then modity desirable to the Genghis Khan that was
slay the others.142 The artisans were then enslaved and unavailable on the steppes: gold brocade or cloth of gold
moved as needed from one part of the empire to another. (referred to in many texts as nası̄j-ha).144 Even though the
In Iran, they staffed the special large workshops (ka-khana) Mongols had established imperially sponsored textile
that produced wares for the Il-Khanid family or the treas- centers by the mid-thirteenth century that were staffed by
ury. Slaves were paid in kind for their services, and were al- an ethnically mixed population of artisans, textile ex-
lowed to keep their earnings after paying a fixed tax. changes continued. One such transfer occurred in 1298
With the exception of the presence of a slave work when emissaries from the Iranian Il-Khanate court of
force, there seem to have been many similarities between Ghazan Khan (Temur, r. 1295–1304) returned from
the Il-Khanate model of treatment of artisans and the China with a wealth of silk brocades.145
imperial kiln system set up in Jingdezhen. Since the long Innovations in porcelain at Jingdezhen during the
contest for the Song capital ended without resistance, the Yuan dynasty are directly attributable to the longstanding
Mongol captors decided for strategic reasons to deal exchanges of materials and technology within the vast
kindly with the Chinese of Lin’an (now Hangzhou); the Mongol empire. For example, Genghis Khan’s successor
artisans in registered service with the Song court thus Ogodei (r. 1229–1241) drafted Chinese ceramicists to aid
probably remained free men. The craftsmen of in the building of his palace at Karakhorum. It was em-
Jingdezhen also were likely to have been free men who bellished with red and green roof tiles, green floor tiles,
profited from works produced in private workshops after and green ceramic murals.146
imperial orders had been filled. Judging from their coun- Within China, artisans from various parts of the Mon-
terparts in Iran, some probably lived in their workshops gol empire worked with talented native Chinese, some of
and conducted business there. whom had been registered craftsmen during the Song dy-

nasty. Those chosen to retain their craftsmen status by

Yuan White Ware Porcelain Produced at Jingdezhen
the vice-governor of the province, Zhang Hui, after the Although other white ware kilns, such as the Ding site
fall of Lin’an, were considered among the most skilled in Quyang county, Hebei province, were closer to the
100,000 households of a total of 300,000 Song artisan Mongol capitals than was Jingdezen, the Mongols chose
households living south of the Yangtze River.147 for their imperial ware the pure white of Jingdezhen ce-
ramics over the ivory-toned Ding wares. Here three types
Jingdezhen’s Private Kilns of white wares made at Jingdezhen will be discussed: qing-
A Southern Song account of the porcelain industry bai, Taixi, and shufu, including shufu-style wares.
provides information about the regulation of Qingbai ware was the porcelain with a clear bluish-green
Jingdezhen’s private kilns. Each was registered according glaze first made during the Song dynasty, with the best pre-
to its production capacity, employment potential, and sented to the emperor as tribute. The thirteenth-century
“approved sizes of vessels,” with dues payable to provin- travelogue authored or compiled by Marco Polo docu-
cial and county governments. The kilns could only be mented what many believe were wares very much like the
fired after paying a fee. Fines were imposed for abusing qingbai of Jingdezhen: “The most beautiful vessels and
the system or if government orders were not filled within plates of porcelain, large and small, that one could de-
the specified time. Despite unofficial extraction of fees, scribe, are made in great quantity . . . in a city near this city
the kilns thrived. Even flawed wares were saleable.148 [Fuzhou], . . . and on all sides they are most valued, for
Marco Polo, recounting his adventures in China at the none are made in another place beyond this city, and from
end of the thirteenth century, colorfully recounted the there they are carried to many places throughout the
preparation of the clay used to produce porcelain, world.”153 As stated previously, whether Marco Polo actu-
whereby a craftsman reserved untouched a mound of ally traveled to China has been called into question. There-
“mud and rotten earth” for thirty years for the use of the fore, any identification of the cities such as of “Fuzhou”
next generation of his family. “The said earth being for must be treated with caution.154 Nevertheless, qingbai
such a long time in those mounds is so worked up that wares continued to be made during the fourteenth cen-
the bowls made of it have the color of azure, and they are tury. Perhaps the most famous example of Yuan qingbai
very shiny and most beautiful beyond measure.”149 porcelain is the so-called Gaignières-Fonthill vase (see Fig.
The Mongols valued artisans, so artisans enjoyed a status 10.42). The vase is the earliest recorded piece of Chinese
denied under Chinese rule. Under Mongol law craftsmen porcelain in Europe. It first appeared in the collection of
were allowed to privately produce and sell wares once quo- Louis the Great of Hungary, who probably received it as a
tas had been met. An account of 1363 seems to indicate that gift in 1338 when a Chinese embassy passed through his
officials indeed came to supervise the production of impe- kingdom on its way to visit Pope Benedict XII. In 1381 the
rial wares every year, but once production was complete, king had this yuhuchun bottle richly mounted as a gift for
these artisans were free to engage in their own commerce.150 Charles III of Naples. Its enduring appeal is evident from
Private kiln wares could resemble imperial wares, with the its subsequent owners, all of whom were discerning collec-
exception of motifs and materials reserved for the emperor. tors: the Duc de Berry, the Grand Dauphin (son of Louis
Jingdezhen remained the site of imperial kilns until the XIV), and William Beckford of Fonthill Abbey. It is often
end of the Qing dynasty in 1911, even after the clay from referred to simply as the Fonthill vase; François Roger de
Gaolin Hill was depleted.151 Porcelain clay from Gaolin Gaignières was an artist who rendered a drawing of the
(High Ridge) near Jingdezhen and a feldspathic material work with its mount intact around 1713–1715. During the
mined in the vicinity were used to produce the finest clay, nineteenth century its enameled silver-gilt mounts were re-
which was reserved for the imperial kiln. Particularly se- moved and lost. The vase is now in the National Museum
vere penalties were imposed for defiance.152 The name of Ireland. This piece and a related faceted yuhuchun bottle
Imperial Clay Kiln itself expresses the significance of the in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum mimic
white clay of Gaolin. In addition to its color, the porce- silver and gold vessels.155 Details such as the pearl stand
lain of Jingdezhen was notable for its strength due to its beading, too, are thought to be related to late-thirteenth-
high firing temperature. Jingdezhen continues to be the century qingbai figures in the Capital Museum in Beijing,
most important kiln site in China. The city of more than The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Nelson-Atkins
one million residents devotes itself to producing both re- Museum of Art.156
productions and new designs using alternative sources of White wares either had a transparent or semitranspar-
porcelain clay located nearby. ent glaze that is sometimes referred to as “mutton fat.”

We know that plain white wares were used for court cer-
emonies because a small group of Yuan imperial plates
have been found with the characters “Taixi” written in
relief among the lotus designs.157 The central motif on
these dishes is a five-claw dragon (indicating they were
made for the emperor), surrounded by petal panels en-
closing Eight Precious Objects. The glaze has the semi-
transparent quality of white jade, and the porcelain body
is fine-grained and chalk white; the overall effect is one of
austerity and simplicity (Figs. 7.45, 7.46). The Official His-
tory of the Yuan Dynasty (Yuan shi) makes the connection
between imperial wares inscribed with “Taixi” and cere-
monial rites: “The first year of the Tianli reign (1328), the
Tianli Bureau for General Sacrificing Rites was estab-
lished to replace the Huifu and Zhuxiang Bureaus . . . the
second year (1329) the name of the bureau was changed
to Taixi Zongyin Bureau for General Sacrificial Rites.”
The Taixi characters, confirmed by the references in Yuan
C&C: Silo image
shi, identify this group of plates as sacrificial wares pro-
duced for the Taixi Zongxin Bureau for Sacrificing Rites,
and made sometime between the years 1328 and 1340.158
Heirloom and excavated Yuan white wares with a 7.45. White porcelain dish or plate with molded dragon
thick, semi opaque, milky glaze—most often referred to decoration that includes the characters Taixi, Yuan dynasty,
as danbai (eggwhite)—sometimes bear the impressed ca. 1329–1340, 17.8 cm diameter. Made in Jingdeshen. Victoria
characters shu and fu, often on opposite sides of the in- and Albert Museum, London.
side wall of dishes, generally above a scroll of winding lo- 7.46. Drawing of molded dragon with the characters Taixi,
tus. These characters probably refer to the Shumi Yuan, pictured in Fig. 7.45. Drawing © Wang Chungang.
the ministry concerned with military and civil affairs. The
shufu glaze has been variously compared in appearance to
white jade, or a film of white mutton fat. Finer examples
are sometimes called fine eggshell white (luanbai) or fine
eggwhite. Luanbai glazes were made by reducing the pro-
portion of glaze ash to 10 percent (as compared with
about 30 percent in qingbai wares). Because this type of
glaze has a higher viscosity, the glaze application could be
thicker. The reduction in the fluxing agents also resulted
in more unmelted quartz particles, and some fine silica in
the glaze stone remain undissolved. These particles scat-
ter the light, causing the glaze to look opaque and matted
with a softer white or light bluish tone. The quality of
shufu wares is uneven. Fine shufu and shufu-style wares,
which more closely resemble Taixi wares, were produced,
and probably used by Yuan officials (Fig. 7.47). But most
exported shufu wares, found widely dispersed along land
and sea trade routes including Korea, Japan, and the
Philippines, were not as well made.159 One interesting
shufu-type ware from the Sir Percival David Collection at
the British Museum, bears the characters “Tianshun first
year,” which could refer to a brief reign in the seventh
month of 1328. This piece is atypical of Yuan wares and,

The use of the colors blue, gold, and white on sapphire

blue wares, then, is significant given their links to status
and power. Excavated ceramics at Doufulong in
Jingdezhen exhibit the full range of decoration used for
this type of ware. In this cache some wares were un-
adorned, others were embellished with gilt decoration,
and still others featured reserve white motifs, such as
dragons chasing pearls. Famous examples of sapphire
blue include a distinctive spouted bowl; a wine cup and a
shallow dish were also found in the Baoding treasure.162
Perhaps the most spectacular piece of sapphire-blue-
glazed ware to come to light in recent years is a wine flask
(meiping) with a reserve white dragon decoration held by
the Yangzhou Museum (see Fig. 7.31).163 In Chinese lore,
C&C rescan to this size dragons rise in the springtime from the seas to the skies,
and are associated with the easterly cardinal direction as
well as the color blue.164 In works such as this, then,
Mongol and Chinese symbolism converge.
Rare examples of peacock blue imperial porcelain with
7.47. Hutian ware shufu-style stem cup, Yuan dynasty, 1320 –1350, gilt and underglaze blue decoration have been excavated
11.6 cm tall, 11.8 cm diameter. Made at Jingdezhen. The British
at Jingdezhen; as mentioned earlier, they are believed to
Museum.
have been made for the Wenzong emperor.165 And
turquoise-glazed faïence wares with underglaze decora-
tion are thought to have had an influence on Chinese
significantly, this reign title was also used by the Ming ceramics. These wares have a long history in
emperor Zhengtong (r. 1435–1449) who reigned as the Mesopotamia and Egypt, where in the thirteenth and
Tianshun emperor from 1457 to 1464. Consequently, fourteenth centuries they were produced at Kashan dur-
this piece may very well be from the fifteenth century or ing the Seljuk (1055–1256) and Il-Khanid periods
even later. (1256–1353). The closest related domestic wares are the
Jin and Yuan dynasty turquoise-blue-glazed wares of
Jingdezhen Porcelain with Blue Glazes Cizhou; probably influenced by these wares from
Sapphire blue (baoshi lan) glazed wares were created for Kashan, they feature a painted iron underglaze. Kashani
the Mongols in recognition of their most prominent god, and Cizhou wares have even been found together at
Eternal Blue Heaven (Koko Mongke Tengri), to whom Mongol period sites in Russia.166
Genghis Khan credited his success in conquest.160 In the
1200s, too, the Mongol empire was divided, with the col- Copper-Red-Glazed Porcelain Produced at Jingdezhen
ors blue, gold, and white used to designate various do- Previously, many copper red monochrome glazed
mains. These colors are also believed to relate to the wares, as well as underglaze copper red painted wares
steppe color-direction system, in which black connotes (discussed later) were believed to have been created dur-
north, blue means east, red symbolizes south, white indi- ing the Yuan dynasty. But while some copper-red-glazed
cates west, and gold (or yellow) refers to the center. and underglaze copper red wares have been recovered at
Therefore, in the Mongol empire, blue symbolized Yuan sites, recent excavation of the early Ming imperial
heaven and the cardinal direction east, while white was kilns at Jingdezhen has revealed that most surviving four-
associated with the west, high status, and good fortune. teenth-century wares with copper red decoration were
Finally, gold signified not only the highest and central made during the early Ming reigns of the Hongwu
earthly power, but also one heavenly body, the sun, (1368 –1398), Yongle (1402–1424), and Xuande
which was one of most popular emblems used by the (1426–1435) emperors. The Hongwu emperor associated
Mongols in the 1230s. Later, in the thirteenth century, the color with his reign because the Chinese word for the
Marco Polo noted that Khubilai Khan’s insignia was a color red (hong) is a homonym for the first character of
gold sun with a silver or white moon.161 that reign, which means valor.167 The copper red color,

too, often referred to as crimson, was the hue preferred ordinary Mongols, was used regularly on utilitarian and
for Mongol imperial clothing. trade wares of the Yuan era as well.
One discovery of Yuan copper-red-glazed ware is par- The interest in underglaze red during the Yuan dynasty
ticularly worthy of mention because it provides dated appears to be directly related to the Mongols’ use of crim-
proof for this glaze’s use during the Yuan dynasty: two son as an imperial color and sign of high status. The rela-
statuettes of court officials, whose copper red glaze cov- tive scarcity of Yuan dynasty wares painted in underglaze
ers their hats, robes, and shoes. These two figures, prized red may be attributable to difficulties in maintaining the
Yuan porcelains in the collection of Jiangxi Provincial atmosphere in the kiln necessary to produce a rich red
Museum in Nanchang, come from the tomb of Madame color—a red seen, for example, on a hoof-shaped flask
Ling, which has been dated to 1338 on the basis of in- with dragon motif now in the collection of the Palace
scriptions on other ceramics in the tomb.168 Museum, Beijing (see Fig. 7.39). Other examples include
the imperial quality wine jar from the Baoding treasure,
Underglaze Painted Porcelain Produced at Jingdezhen which features a clear, rich cobalt blue but an indistinct,
Research on excavated underglaze wares, especially runny, copper red; the statuettes from Madame Ling’s
those from the Sinan shipwreck and Doufulong site, sug- tomb mentioned earlier; and a pear-shaped bottle
gests that private kilns at Jingdezhen first experimented (yuhuchun ping) with vibrant underglaze red splashes that
with underglaze iron brown and copper red glazes in the was unearthed during excavations from April 2002 to
1320s, then tried cobalt blue. Three small sauce dishes November 2003 at Jininglu in Inner Mongolia. Although
from Jingdezhen found in the Sinan shipwreck, for ex- the walled city at Jininglu was established in 1192, the
ample, have underglaze painted decoration in iron brown dates for wares at this site are not conclusive. It is, how-
(see Fig. 7.43). Also recovered from the wreck was a ever, considered to be a Yuan dynasty site and the under-
molded oval dish embellished with a molded leaf motif glaze copper red bottle is the most important find there
and poem executed in underglaze copper red (see Fig. to date.172
7.42).169 It is significant that no blue and white porcelain Despite the popularity of this color in Yuan China,
was found in the cargo of this ship; it seems to indicate then, the volatility of copper pigment during firing may
that blue and white was not being produced in have led artisans to prefer using cobalt for underglaze
Jingdezhen during the first quarter of the fourteenth cen- painted decoration. Given these technical difficulties,
tury. This may have been because the cobalt used during too, some copper red decorated ceramics once attributed
the fourteenth century was a valuable import from Persia to the Yuan are now more frequently given an early Ming
(now in or near Iran) and probably was not readily avail- date—a shift probably justified due to their close resem-
able, especially for experimental use. blance to dated, excavated early Ming examples such as a
It is believed that the first imperial blue and white was well-known underglaze red decorated kendi in the collec-
created between 1328 and 1332. This view is supported by tion of the Victoria and Albert Museum and molded
the account of the seafarer Wang Dayuan, who embarked wares with copper red glaze found in several collections
on two voyages from Quanzhou in present-day Fujian such as the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Nelson-Atkins
province between 1328 and 1339. As mentioned previ- Museum of Art, and the Palace Museum, Beijing.
ously, his book, published in 1349, notes that fifteen places Pre-Yuan use of cobalt blue for decoration on Chinese
in Southeast Asia were importing blue and white porcelain ceramics is a complex issue still being researched. Tang
by the middle of the fourteenth century.170 blue and white was made at the Yangzhou and Gongxian
In the Tang, Song, Jin, and Yuan periods, most under- kilns, in Shaanxi (near Tongchuan) and Henan provinces,
glaze painted wares from the Gong Xian, Changsha, respectively. Examples unearthed at sites in the interior
Cizhou, and Jizhou kilns were not treasured at court. The of China include stupa-shaped high-fired vessels with un-
pigment of choice on these common wares was iron derglaze blue floral decor and a “field-hockey”player with
brown, although copper red or green and cobalt blue a ball, both found in an eighth- or ninth-century Tang
were used on rare occasions.171 Iron, which fired brown, tomb at Zhengzhou in Henan province; as well as shards
and copper, which usually produced a green color, had with floral motifs found at Yangzhou, an important Tang
long been used as underglaze pigments on common do- port in Jiangsu province, from which the ninth-century
mestic wares in China, most notably on tenth-century ship that sank near Belitung, Indonesia, may have sailed.
Tang dynasty stoneware made at the Tonguan kilns near The first intact, securely provenanced examples of Tang
Changsha in Hunan province. Brown, the color worn by blue and white were three pieces from this shipwreck dis-

covered in 1998. A creation date of 826 suggested by an use of underglaze blue painting did not persist, perhaps
inscription on a bowl was confirmed by carbon-14 analy- because it did not appeal to the Chinese elite, because the
sis, and the underglaze blue painted floral designs on the ore was not readily available to Chinese potters, or be-
vessels found here have been linked to contemporary ce- cause it could not compete with sometimes similarly dec-
ramics from Iraq.173 orated glazed earthenwares, which would have been
Underglaze cobalt found at Song dynasty sites in easier and less expensive to produce. The importance of
Hangzhou, Longquan, Shaoxing, Cangqian (Zhejiang), Tang production of this ware, however, which is some-
Chaozhou (Guangdong), Chongqing (Sichuan), and times categorized as porcelain, cannot be overstated.
Lijiazhuang (Hebei) have not been thoroughly analyzed Underglaze cobalt decoration was used during the
to ascertain their origin or when they were produced. At Yuan dynasty on celadon wares in faraway Yunnan
one of these sites, the Jinsha Stupa in Zhejiang’s province at the Yuxi kiln. This kiln, which was reportedly
Longquan county, thirteen blue and white porcelain frag- established by people from Jingdezhen, used locally
ments and an inscribed stele dating its construction as mined asbolite ores to mimic the form and decoration of
the “first year of the Xianchun reign” (1265) were recov- Jingdezhen wares, but the Yuxi kiln versions lack the
ered. Excavated in 1957, many now believe that this site quality of the original Jingdezhen ceramics.178 Production
was disturbed and items of various periods have been began during the Yuan dynasty and continued into the
comingled there. More conclusive evidence comes from Ming.179 The fact that Yunnan was a Muslim stronghold
a report on recent discoveries of a bowl in a tomb at Hu- during the Yuan dynasty may have played a role in the
jiabiao, Wushan city, Chongqing (2003); a covered jar Yuxi kiln’s use of cobalt ore, which the central Asians
found in Tomb 4, Cangqian township, Yuhang district, loved to use for decorating ceramics. Yunnan was the
Zheijiang (2004); and a pillow found at a site in the village birthplace of the Ming Muslim admiral Zheng He (ca.
of Lijiazhuang, Gaocheng county, Hebei province (2005). 1371–1435), sometimes referred to as the Chinese
The report indicates that these wares, which varied Christopher Columbus.
greatly in quality, were decorated with cobalt mined in It is particularly interesting that during two great peri-
Zhejiang and Jiangxi provinces, a conclusion reached ods of cultural exchange, the Tang and Yuan dynasties,
from the presence of manganese oxide in the glaze.174 cobalt ore was used to produce underglaze painted wares.
In yet another example of how difficult it can be to date In both instances, the impetus seems to have come from
Chinese ceramics, in 1993 a blue and white pear-shaped non-Chinese patrons. At this time, there have been no
bottle (yuhuchun ping) produced at Jingdezhen and found finds of pre-Yuan underglaze cobalt decorated ware at
with Song dynasty coins was published as an example of Jingdezhen or any indication that this ware was produced
Song dynasty blue and white.175 But this vessel is typical of there then. Current evidence indicates that large-scale
Yuan blue and white produced during the Wenzong and production of underglaze blue painted wares at
Shundi (1328 –1332 and 1333–1368) reigns. Jingdezhen did not begin until the Yuan dynasty.
The early use of imported cobalt ore to decorate wares The Persian passion for ceramics decorated with blue
during the Tang dynasty and later during the Yuan dy- and the prevalence of Chinese ceramics in that region
nasty occurred during periods when international trade have led some scholars to believe that Yuan underglaze
was widespread. The pigment used on both Tang and blue porcelain was originally created for export, or at
Yuan wares is consistent with the composition of the ore least for a non-Chinese market. The belief that Muslims
from Persia (mined in mountainous areas, mainly in Iran provided the impetus for the creation of blue and white
south of Kashan), and it is believed that people dwelling porcelain may be supported by the fact that the greatest
there were patrons of both Tang and Yuan wares deco- Asian collections of high-quality Yuan ceramics are in
rated with underglaze blue.176 The prominence of Iran and Turkey. The Yuan wares now in the Iran Bastan
lozenge and palmette motifs on ninth- and tenth-century Museum, Tehran, for example, were gifts made in 1611
blue and white earthen wares of both the Gong Xian by the Shah Abbas (r. 1587–1629) to the ancestral shrine
kilns in Henan province and of Abbasid Iraq has spurred at the ancient Ardebil Mosque as an act of piety (see Fig.
lively discussions about the nature of exchanges between 7.40).180 The Yuan wares in the Topkapi Palace Museum,
potters in the two locations. At the same time there are located in Istanbul, are a part of a much larger collection
examples of wares decorated with blue that seem to have of Chinese ceramics of a wider range of dates, but with
been made for the domestic market and that do not look many of the Yuan works judged to be among its most
much like non-Chinese designs.177 In any event, the Tang outstanding (Fig. 7.48). Surviving information about the

Ardebil and Topkapi collections suggests that both were wares are purported to have been created before the
formed over hundreds of years through seizure, gifts of reign of the Wenzong emperor, the dating of these wares
embassies, sacrificial offerings, and presents from court is unreliable; so far there is no definitive evidence of such
members, religious hierarchies, merchants, and guilds. early experimentation with this technique.184
When one kingdom conquered another, the treasures As mentioned previously, the early Ming collector Cao
of the vanquished were appropriated. One example of Zhao, whose definition of beauty was formed through a
the Ottoman imperial acquisition of Chinese porcelain classical Chinese education and who may have disdained
occurred in 1757–1759 when 3,098 pieces from the col- the ornate Mongol style, initially gave a negative appraisal
lection of the disgraced Esad Pasha were seized under of underglaze painted wares. In the Essential Criteria of An-
the Ottoman custom of “arbitrary death tax without tiquities, Cao Zhao states: “New pieces, the blue (qing se)
limit”(muhallefat). In the seventeenth and eighteenth cen- and multicolored (literally five color, wu se) painted porce-
turies, around twenty thousand pieces of Chinese ceram- lains, are vulgar in taste.”185 This mention of the new blue
ics from private collections were claimed for the painted ware follows his discussion of Yuan wares with
Ottoman government in this manner. Of special interest the shufu mark, leading to a supposition that multicolor
is the large dish or plate form, which was the most popu- and underglaze blue painted wares were contemporane-
lar shape among Asian Muslims, accounting for nearly ous with, or created a little later than, shufu white wares.
half of the wares found in the Topkapi Palace Museum This literary reference, combined with what has been
alone. The large size of this dish was well suited to the learned from excavations, suggests that “blue” and “mul-
Muslim style of communal dining.181 ticolor painted” refer to the new types of porcelain pro-
Finds of underglaze blue Yuan wares at fourteenth- duced at Jingdezhen, especially those produced during the
century sites in other parts of Asia and western Africa in- reigns of the Wenzong and Shundi emperors (1328 –1332
dicate that many Muslim rulers favored Chinese wares, and 1333–1368, respectively). One often-cited exception
particularly blue and white. One of the earliest docu- to this postulation is an unusual jar made at Jingdezhen
mented Muslim collections of high quality blue and white with a pagoda-shaped lid and decorated with iron (which
was found in the ruins of a palace at Kotla Firuzshah was previously believed by some to be cobalt pigment),
(now Delhi), which was destroyed in 1398.182 Although fired to a deep grayish black. The major decorative frieze
this is a significant find of Yuan blue and white porcelain on this jar depicts a peony scroll flanked by bands of petal
at a fourteenth-century site outside China, it is hardly suf- panels and ruyi lappets. The piece is reported to have
ficient evidence to give Islamic Asia exclusive credit for come from a 1319 tomb in Huangmei county of Hubei
providing the impetus for the creation of blue and white. province, but its provenance has long been debated. It
Yuan heirloom wares in west Asian collections are com- was not excavated under controlled circumstances and
parable in style and quality to a pair of vases in the Sir was subsequently purchased by the Jiujiang Museum from
Percival David Collection, which were produced at a pri- an antique store. A recent publication cites that it is now
vate kiln, possibly Hutian (Figs. 7.49a and b). This pair of in the Huangmei Museum.186
vases bears an inscription stating that they were offerings Although not mentioned in the many historical docu-
to a temple by a Chinese family living near Jingdezhen in ments that note the presentation of silks as gifts, it is
the eleventh year of Zhizheng (1351). The Yuan imperial likely that emperors began to give blue and white porce-
kiln ceased operation late in 1351, about twenty years lain to rulers and officials who would appreciate them.
later than the proposed date of the first imperial blue and When the Yuan emperor received envoys from all re-
white found in the Zhushan excavation. gions of his realm as well as countries throughout Asia
Instead, it is believed that the driving force for the cre- and the Middle East, it was traditional to exchange lavish
ation of Yuan blue and white was the desire to create a gifts. It was also considered appropriate for emissaries to
new type of porcelain that would appeal to the aesthetic admire and perhaps even request items desired by their
sensibilities of the Mongols. In an administration staffed sovereigns. It is known that gifts from the Persian Il-
with a diverse blend of people from cultures throughout Khanate were acknowledged by exchanges of other pres-
the Mongol empire, innovative artisans were given the ents, including a substantial amount of gold. From 1330
freedom to experiment. They seem to have produced for to 1333, gifts from Abu Said to the Wenzong emperor in-
a Mongol emperor intensely interested in Chinese culture cluded presents of congratulations, tribute, local prod-
a ware that was soon embraced by the Chinese as well as ucts, precious quartz, daggers, and eighty-eight catties (or
the rest of the world.183 Although some underglaze blue just under sixty pounds) of the drug theriac, reputed to be

Background on right
OK?
7.48. White on blue dish with deep well, rim with flat bracket lobes, and unglazed base, featuring a decoration of
flying phoenixes and four cranes in a lotus pond, Yuan dynasty, mid-fourteenth century, 45 cm diameter. Made at
an antidote to all toxins. Since poisoning at the hands of kilns at Ravy near Teheran, Raqqa, in northern
rivals was of great concern to Mongol princes, this drug Mesopotamia, and Kashan, near Tabriz, produced white
was highly prized: in return for this medicine, the Yuan wares, some of which imitated Chinese exports from
emperor sent 3,300 gold ingots to the Il-Khan in 1332.187 Ding and Jingdezhen. Later, indigenous techniques of
The passion for cobalt blue ceramics in central Asia under- and overglaze painting in a limited range of col-
can be traced back to Babylon (ca. 575 b.c.e.). During the ors, including cobalt blue, were added to the repertoire. A
first half of the eighth century, it seems that opacified tin manuscript of 1301 describes Kashan’s production of
glazes were used in Abbasid Iraq at Basra first to provide lustrous, underglaze painted wares and the earlier men-
a suitable ground for new cobalt and luster ware tech- tioned “lāvard wares.” In a Persian “illuminated manu-
niques and subsequently to imitate Chinese sancai script” painted about 1360, two-lidded bottles, a large jar,
wares.188 Prior to the Mongol invasion of Persia in 1219, and architectural tiles that look like Kashani underglaze

7.49a and b. Pair of blue and white temple vases with dragon decor bearing a dated inscription equivalent to 1351. Made in Jingdzhen,
Yuan dynasty, 63.6 cm tall. Sir Percival David Collection at the British Museum.
painted wares appear with a spouted lāvard bowl possibly the Mongols’ first lunar month, which as we learned ear-
of Chinese origin, and a pear with pear-shaped metal bot- lier from Marco Polo’s description was known as White
tle (yuhuchun ping). This 1360 painting is thought to be a Day and marked the beginning of spring.191
faithful copy of an earlier painting that illustrated ceramic The introduction of blue and white porcelain probably
and metal wares produced during the life of Rashid al- arose from collaborative contributions of Mongol, Muslim,
Din (1247–1318; see Fig. 7.26). But in later Persian illumi- Tibetan, and Chinese officials and artisans, as well as from
nated manuscripts of the Timurid period (1370 –1530), the selective use of imported cobalt from Persia (primarily
blue and white is frequently depicted. A page from the regions now in and near Iran). This high-quality cobalt pig-
Jami al Tavarikh (ca. 1410) shows a blue and white Chinese ment was later called Mohammedan blue (Huihui qing),
dragon jar among Persian metal wares. The illustrated Muslim blue, or Sumali blue.192
frontispiece to Shahnama of Ferdwosi, dated 1441, depicts The cross-fertilization of ideas is also evident in motifs
five pieces of Chinese blue and white.189 All of these ex- used on Yuan imperial blue and white. As mentioned ear-
amples seem to indicate that new types of Chinese ce- lier, designs like the cloud collar lappet, petal panels, ogi-
ramics, including blue and white porcelain, were being val window, scrolling plants, and animals are linked to
produced and exported in the late fourteenth and early central Asian Uighur and Mongol embroidered, brocade,
fifteenth centuries. and tapestry woven textiles, or kesi.193 In particular, the
lively scenes inside and outside the boundaries formed by
Imperial Blue and White Porcelain these lappets and ogival windows on blue and white
Archaeological and literary evidence suggests that blue porcelain depict birds, animals, and plants and flowers
and white porcelain was created for the Mongols in the reminiscent of those seen on Uighur kesi.194
second quarter of the fourteenth century as a symbol of Historical evidence also suggests that the Muslim Turk
their power uniting heaven (associated with the color Mingli Donga (d. 1340), who served as head of the Bu-
blue) with earth (linked to pure white).190 One example of reau of Imperial Manufactures, may have played a role in
the potency of this color combination is the offering of the creation of blue and white porcelain, although his ex-
white gifts to the Eternal Blue Heaven on the first day of ecution in 1340 on charges of sedition and the brutal in-

trigues during and following the Wenzong reign wiped China’s legitimate and worthy rulers. Given that Yuan
out historical records that would help us know for sure. levels of excellence in the utilitarian arts were rarely met
We do know that in 1321, Mingli Donga and other senior in later periods, and that their wares are revered even to-
officials were charged with the design and construction day, their goal of creating a lasting legacy seems to have
of imperial carriages for ceremonial processions. When been met.
the Wenzong emperor ascended the throne, he made
Mingli Donga an officer in charge of certain ceremonies the wenzong emperor and the imper ial blue
and responsible in part for commissioning mandalas and and white
imperial portraits for initiation ceremonies.195 It was During his reign, the Yuan emperor Wenzong was
standard practice for two or three Yamantaka mandalas hobbled politically in his attempt to write the Mongols’
to be woven for such ceremonies. A mandala with impe- place in Chinese history, so instead he concentrated on
rial portraits of Mingzong (r. 1329) and Wenzong (r. artistic pursuits, in which he excelled.201 Not only was
1328 –1332), which was rediscovered in the 1990s, is of this second-to-last Yuan emperor one of only four Mon-
special interest because Mingli Donga had a hand in cre- gol emperors who read and wrote Chinese, he was deeply
ating it (see Fig. 7.38).196 On these mandalas, typical Ti- affected by Chinese culture and was a noted connoisseur
betan divisions of space into concentric bands are of the arts. Yuan dynasty texts indicate that he fully ap-
accompanied by panels of various shapes, as well as mo- preciated and practiced calligraphy, and that one of his
tifs—such as scrolling flowers and foliage, lotus-petal favorite pastimes was the Chinese game of weiqi.
panels, and animal heads—like those on imperial blue As the young Prince of Huai at Nanjing (then known as
and white vessels. Jiankang), the emperor-to-be befriended artists and schol-
If Persian emissaries carried cobalt ore and requests ars, many of whom, like the noted painter and calligrapher
for ceramics from the Il-Khanate, they no doubt came in Ke Jiusi (1290 –1343), were destined to become his life-
contact with Mingli Donga. As mentioned earlier, Mus- long friends and confidants. He was also an artist in his
lims within Il-Khanate Persia were already using cobalt own right. A sketch of the Wansui Hill at Dadu, painted by
oxide pigments to decorate vessels and architectural tiles the prince, was praised by the artist Fang Danian (active
(see Fig. 7.25). From 1256 to 1335 there were frequent ca. 1325) as “surpassing his [Fang’s own] skills as a profes-
exchanges of commodities, personnel, and information sional artist.”202 And anthologies of Yuan poetry compiled
between the Mongolian courts of China and Iran.197 Doc- in later periods include works by Wenzong. In his “ Writ-
umented exchanges with the Il-Khanate during the Wen- ing a Poem on the Way from Jiqinglu (near Nanjing) to As-
zong reign indicate the possibility that Persian cobalt ore cend the Throne (in Beijing)” he writes,
could have been presented to this emperor of China with
a request that it be used as a decorative pigment on Dogs bark; men talk while walking beside a fence of
porcelain.198 Rashid al-Din (1247–1318), for example— bamboo.
who was a doctor, adviser, and historiographer to the Il- Roosters call, wakening the guest in the thatched
Khan rulers in Tabriz—made a large special order for cottage.
Chinese porcelain apothecary jars (see Fig. 7.26).199 After a while the sun rose into the sky,
In summary, the Mongols, who were enthusiastic pa- Seventy-two peaks all lie within view.203
trons of artworks that were not only beautiful but also
useful, considered talented officials and artisans from di- During 1328, Wenzong yielded the throne to his elder
verse cultural traditions to be some of their most valuable brother and opened “the Kuizhang [Star of Literature]
resources. The Yuan repertoire referenced the Chinese Pavilion to set forth the clear precepts of our ancestors,
dragon, the Liao duck, the Tibetan lotus panel, and the and examples of success and failure, of order and disorder
Uighur cloud collar. The Mongols took motifs from the in antiquity.” An edict required the donation of books on
Uighur kesi masters and received cobalt from Persia.200 history and the Confucian classics to the pavilion, which,
Rare textiles and imperial blue and white, which shared as Tao Zongyi wrote, was founded for the purpose of “in-
many design elements, were just two products of this vestigating antiquity and esteeming learning.”204 The 880
cross-cultural interchange. Blue and white porcelain, in scrolls of the Great Canon for Governing the World (known
particular, is considered a lasting symbol of all that the sometimes as the Historical record of Yuan institutions, or
Mongol rulers sought to accomplish: their goal was to Jinshi dadian), was complied by scholars in the pavilion as
preserve their own culture, while being honored as well as historians in the Imperial Academy.

The Wenzong emperor visited the Star of Literature (907–1125) of northern China. The Mongols shared a
Pavilion (Kuizhang Ge) daily, often accompanied by Yu Ji love of hunting with the Liao, and stocked preserves near
and Ke Juisi. The emperor frequently had Yu Ji, noted for the palace with exotic animals; extant textiles and impe-
his literary skills and calligraphy, inscribe paintings by Ke rial tomb murals (at Qingling, Inner Mongolia, ca. 1031
Jiusi, who was renowned for his connoisseurship, callig- or 1055) depict the spring hunt of the Qidan (Khitan)
raphy, and painting, particularly his paintings of bamboo. emperor and show waterfowl in a river.208 A Yuan gar-
The Wenzong emperor was himself an accomplished cal- ment unearthed in 1976 at Tuchengzi village in Inner
ligrapher. The Record of the Star of Literature Pavilion, which Mongolia adds further support of this link: cranes among
the emperor himself “took up the brush” to write, was lotus on the shoulders of the garment as well as mandarin
carved in stone, from which rubbings were made to be- ducks and butterflies on the chest correspond to designs
stow on favored ministers. Indeed, Wenzong’s calli- on underglaze blue painted porcelain (Figs. 7.50a and b;
graphic activity would have required the type of oversize see also Fig. 7.48).209 A contemporary Korean text gives a
inkstones excavated at Zhushan (see Fig. 7.16). Shundi, detailed description: “Taking the shapes of lotus blos-
the other sinicized Mongol emperor with impressive cal- soms, lotus leaves, a pair of mandarin ducks, bees and
ligraphy credentials, might be considered a possible com- butterflies, in some cases, one uses floss of ‘five colors’ to
missioner of such inkstones had they not been embroider [them] and, in some cases, one uses variegated
intermixed with weiqi jars, as discussed earlier. colors to paint them on the satin and silk. One calls it a
The Wenzong emperor’s signature motif, reserved for pond full of beauty.”210 This reference to painting on silk
his exclusive use from 1328 to 1332, was water birds, with variegated colors translates almost literally to the
which were typically mandarin ducks in a pond. His application of various gradations of cobalt oxide on
wardrobe was embroidered with this motif, which can be porcelain.
observed in paintings of the Mongol elite, and it became Since the motif of mandarin ducks was apparently the
the most popular motif depicted on Yuan blue and white singular artistic property of the Wenzong emperor during
ware. Although various images of mandarin ducks had his reign, porcelain wares of imperial quality bearing it are
enjoyed a long history in China prior to this time, the thought to date no earlier than his ascension to the
scholar Liu Xinyuan, who directed excavations at throne in 1328. In 1340 when the Shundi emperor as-
Zhushan, believes that blue and white porcelain depic- sumed full power, however, restrictions on the use of this
tions were first produced during this period.205 During motif probably ceased, leading to private kilns’ making a
the Tianli period (1328 –1329) this motif was known as a flood of such wares, many for export.211 In fact, this is
“pond full of beauty” (manchi jiao), as in this poem by the the central motif used most frequently on Chinese four-
famous painter Ke Jiusu (K’o Chiu-ssu, 1290 –1343), teenth-century blue and white porcelain, and has been
grand scholar of the Star of Literature Pavilion: found widely dispersed not only in China, but also in
Mongolia, the Philippines, Indonesia, India, and Egypt.
Looking at lotus [blossoms] on Taiyi [pond], Late in 1351 the volume of porcelain with the mandarin
[we] float [our] orchid oars, duck motif is believed to have increased even more after
And [watching] kingfishers and mandarin ducks the Red Turban Army, composed of Chinese rebels
[as they] play in the green reeds, against Mongol rule (one of whom—Zhu Yuanzhang—
I tell my little daughter to remember was to found the Ming dynasty), occupied the Fuliang re-
That imperial dress is embroidered gion and the imperial kiln closed. At that point the author
with “a pond full of beauty.”206 contends that any former Yuan imperial design could be
used without restriction, as indicated by the four-claw
The Yuan depiction of water birds continues a long princely dragon motif on the Percival David Foundation
tradition of cross-cultural exchange in which artisans in vases with an inscription noting that the pair was a gift
China were inspired by motifs of foreign origin. While from a Chinese family to a temple near Jingdezhen in
water birds appear on Neolithic Liangzhu culture jades 1351 (see Figs. 7.49a and b). At the Hutian kiln, Yuan
and Shang dynasty bronzes, Tang uses of this motif were blue and white shards with painted designs of complex
inspired by Sogdian art of the eighth century, which can interlocking flowers, rectangular spiral (hui wen) patterns,
be linked with the art of Sasanian Iran.207 Perhaps the wild geese, dragons, phoenix, and figural scenes have
closest precursor to the Yuan motif is found in the art of been found mainly on the southern bank of the Nan
another group of nomadic tribesmen, the Liao River and in a section known as Liujiawu.212 In general,

zong emperor that his brother’s son be installed as em-

peror upon his death and that Budashiri was merely hon-
oring this request. The first nephew, seven-year-old
Irinjibal, reigned one week, and was succeeded by his
thirteen-year-old brother, Toghun Temur. They both
were sons of her husband’s older brother, the Mingzong
emperor, who had reigned briefly in 1328 before the
Wenzong emperor had conspired to have him murdered.
The powerful warlord and minister El Temür was pleased
to have a seven-year-old emperor installed, but felt
threatened by his thirteen-year-old brother: he sought to
have the Wenzong emperor’s younger son take the
throne, but Budashiri would not hear of it. Only after the
death of El Temür in 1333 did the eldest nephew ascend
the throne. Another official, Bayan, then rose to the high-
est official position in Yuan China, chancellor of the
right, and wielded power behind the scenes. In 1340, the
Shundi emperor assumed full power and banished Bayan,
Budashiri, and the son of the Wenzong emperor.213
As a child, Toghun Temur, best known by his posthu-
mous title Shundi, was relegated to live in the Dayuan
Temple in Jingjiang prefecture of Guangxi province.
There, with the abbot Chou Jiang (fl. 1330) as his teacher,
he practiced calligraphy and studied The Analects of Confu-
cius (Lun Yu) and The Book of Filial Piety (Xiao Jing).214
When he assumed full power at age twenty in 1340, after
ascending the throne in 1333, he had already received a
fine Chinese education, was accomplished in calligraphy,
could paint, and was showing an interest in astronomy.
His reign from 1333 to 1368 is remembered both for cul-
7.50a and b. Underglaze blue bowl with inward turned rim and
tural contributions and his irresponsible self-indulgences
small, low splayed base, with exterior motif of the Three Friends during a time of national unrest.
of Winter—prunus (plum), bamboo, and pine—and interior Shundi abolished many of the court institutions that
design of mandarin ducks in a lotus pond, Yuan dynasty, mid- his uncle, the Wenzong emperor, had organized. He re-
fourteenth century, 16.5 cm tall, 36 cm diameter. Made at placed the Star of Literature Pavilion with the Revelation
of Literature (Xuanwen) Pavilion, which sponsored activi-
ties identical to its predecessor. According to court
records, “Every day he called the cabinet ministers skilled
in calligraphy to draw from the private imperial collec-
tion of books from ancient to modern times and books
however, after the theorized 1340 deregulation, there of famous calligraphy. . . . From that time great strides
were wide variations in quality among wares decorated were made in calligraphy.”215 Like most of the Mongol
with the mandarin duck or “pond full of beauty” motif. emperors before him, the Shundi emperor realized that
the emperor of China must be a patron of the arts, and in
“yuan drama” blue and white ware keeping with the Mongol approach, he patronized those
When the Wenzong emperor died suddenly in 1332, art forms aligned with his personal interests. By the
the empire was thrown into a period of political intrigue Zhizheng period of his reign (1341–1368), the Yuan
and struggles for power. Wenzong’s widow, Budashiri, drama, precursor of the Beijing opera, was flourishing,
excluded her own son and installed her nephews as em- and among the most memorable of Yuan ceramics are
perors. Some contend that it was the wish of the Wen- those associated with this new art form.

Since these Yuan dramatic sketches were written in the One extraordinary piece of Yuan drama ware was sold
colloquial Chinese, and embellished with song, dance, in 2005 for the highest price paid for a Chinese work of
pantomime, and acrobatics, they appealed to a wide audi- art until that point.221 Like many “drama scene wares,”
ence. These zaju dramas, as they were sometimes called, the painting on this wine jar recounts part of a story
were performed on stages set up on city streets, or in about Chinese folk heroes based on historical events. It
booths set up in the city or at private residences on the also shows how these true stories were embellished over
occasion of a banquet. A previously mentioned under- the course of time. The inspirational tale derives from the
glaze red and blue porcelain granary, for example, ap- Zhanguo ce (History of the Warring States, compiled about
pears to have a theatrical performance depicted on the 250 – 8 b.c.e.) and is still performed as a Chinese opera to-
upper story of the building.216 day. In the ancient history, the great general Yue Yi led
The dramas were usually told in four acts with addi- the army of the small state of Yan in the defeat of the
tional introductions and often included scenes of fight- state of Qi.
ing, providing a good excuse for displays of martial arts. The painted scene depicts a meeting between the Qi
While some of the stories were romantic tales, others emissary Su Dai (active ca. 300 b.c.e.) and the reclusive mil-
were based on legendary or historical characters. Classi- itary strategist Wang Xu (also known as Wang Yi and by
cally educated scholars, unable to use their skills at court, his sobriquet Guigu Zi, or the Master from Demon Valley)
used their literary abilities to greatly improve the quality in an effort to secure the release of Sun Zi (Master Sun),
of these Yuan drama scripts. At court, new hits, as well as who had been captured in a battle with Yue Yi. Wang re-
old standards, were booked for palace venues. Many of putedly mentored Sun, who is most renowned as the au-
the dramas had moral overtones, since the Shundi em- thor of the oldest military treatise in the world, the Sun Zi
peror saw the possibilities of using dramas to educate the Bing Fa (Master Sun’s art of war).222 The underglaze blue
people to be loyal officials and filial sons.217 painting is remarkably similar to a woodblock print illus-
Scenes from the most popular dramas were painted by tration from the book Yue Yi Planning the Conquest of Qi (Yue
the potters of Jingdezhen on blue and white created for Yi Tu Qi) published during the Zhizhi reign (1321–1323).
the Shundi emperor, with similar renderings found in On both the jar and the print, Wang Xu is shown seated in
rare editions of Yuan books. Usually figural scenes, some a cart being pulled by two felines. Preceding him are two
of which are identified with Yuan dramas, were painted armed attendants. On the jar, Su Dai in the dress of an of-
on wares of three shapes: the “plum vase” (meiping), large ficial is shown on horseback facing a second equestrian in
covered jar (guan), and less successfully, the pear-shaped military garb leading Wang Xu’s entourage. This soldier
bottle (yuhuchun ping).218 holds a banner bearing the name Guigu (Demon Valley)
Approximately fifteen pieces of these “drama scene and has tentatively been identified as Dugu Jiao, a power-
wares” are known to have survived. Their quality ranges ful young man who brought an army of about three thou-
from rather average to superb. One in particular comes sand soldiers to join the forces of Qi in order to free the
from the tomb of a man connected with the founder of captives. Historically, there is no suggestion that Guigu Zi
the Ming dynasty, which is one indication of the wide- was a Daoist, but the text of the Yue Yi Tu Qi states that he
spread and continuing popularity of these dramas during was and he is represented as such in the print and on this
the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries (even piece if porcelain. In the woodblock print, his chariot is
though only a small number of the dramas themselves drawn by a pair of tigers, on the jar, a tiger and a leopard.
survive). Another clue to their popularity comes from the This depiction probably arose when between Wang Xu
efforts of early Ming princes to preserve and further this (Guigu Zi) was associated with the third-century Wei dy-
art form. For example, Zhu Su (1361–1425, Prince nasty Daoist Wang Hui, who used tigers and leopards to
Zhouding, the fifth son of the founder of the Ming dy- plough for him as well as saddling them to ride as if they
nasty) recorded in a poem collection that the Yuan drama were horses.223
form was developed by the thirteenth-century playwright The book containing woodblock illustrations and oth-
Guan Hanqing.219 And Zhu Yuanzhang’s seventeenth ers like it where produced in quantity at Jian’an in
son, Zhu Quan (1378 –1448), who was himself a play- Jianyang region in northern Fujian province, not too far
wright, recorded twelve thematic categories of classic from Jingdezhen. This area became one of the major cen-
Yuan dramas including “nuns and fairies,” “exiled lords ters of woodblock book production during the Song dy-
and orphans,” “erotic love amongst flowers and under nasty and continued to be until the Ming dynasty.
the moon,” and “loyal lords and assassins.”220 Although the prototype design for the wine jar would

have come to Jingdezhen from the court, due to who was the Prince of Qin and the second son of the
Jingdezhen’s proximity to Jian’an, the artisans at the im- Tang dynasty Emperor Gaozu.225 In the painting on this
perial kiln would have been familiar with these wood- blue and white vessel, the enemy general Shan Xiongxin
block prints as well. gallops towards Li Shimin with his spear outstretched, but
It is believed that the earliest Yuan drama wares were Yuchi Gong heroically disarms him using an iron staff. Li
produced at the imperial kiln by the most skilled artisans Shimin later became Emperor Taizong, which is why an
using the finest materials. After production at the Yuan attendant depicted on the jar holds a banner bearing the
imperial kiln ceased, other examples were probably made characters Tang Taizong.226 Tang Taizong is generally re-
at private kilns, and some of these are less refined.224 A garded as one of the greatest emperors in Chinese history.
smaller kiln chamber made it easier to maintain uniform Arguably the most outstanding piece of Yuan style
temperature levels during firing, and if the Yuan imperial blue and white is a meiping recounting the famous play by
kilns, which have not been found, were about the same Jin Renjie (?–1329) titled Xiao Heyueye zhui Han Xin (Xiao
size as the kilns used at the excavated early Ming imperial He Pursues Han Xin on a Moonlit Night; Fig. 7.52). This
site, we can assume that the kiln chambers used to fire story is based on a historical event that occurred during
Yuan imperial wares were smaller than those at private the founding of the Han dynasty. In the tale, when Liu
kilns, such as Hutian, that made wares for the public. The Bang (256–195 B.C.E.), who later became the first Han
clay used at the imperial kilns was also as refined as possi- emperor, did not expeditiously approve the recommen-
ble, and if the early Ming rule was a carryover from the dation of Minister Xiao He (?–194 B.C.E.) that Han Xin
Yuan regime, flawed wares were considered unacceptable (?–196 B.C.E.) should lead his army, Han grew discour-
and reduced to shards. By contrast, some customers of aged, thinking that his talents would never be utilized,
the private kilns, such as the one who ordered the won- and left. Xiao pursued him, and after finding him on a
drously painted 1351 temple vases now in the Sir Percival riverbank, pleaded with him to rejoin. Upon their return,
David Collection at the British Museum, had to accept a Xiao advised Liu that Han’s leadership was essential for
vase misfired on one side (see Fig. 7.49a and b). victory. Han was made chief marshal with power over
With one notable exception, which was found in a Liu’s troops. The scene shows Xiao in search of Han.
tomb dated 1392, drama wares of the highest quality are Downtrodden, Han leads his listless horse to the water’s
considered to be products of the Yuan imperial kiln, ow- edge, seeking advice from a boatman. On the opposite
ing to the Shundi emperor’s known affection for Yuan side of the vessel, Xiao anxiously rides his galloping steed
dramas. A great deal of attention has been paid to this in pursuit. His horse, as if fully understanding the mis-
group of wares because of their beauty, rarity, and impor- sion, looks around while maintaining a full gallop. The
tance. Many of the scenes have been identified, whereas scene is masterfully composed and executed, achieving
the subjects of others are still unknown. In general, the remarkable harmony in spite of the sharp contrast in vi-
paintings are of classic tales that were popularized by gnettes of aimless wandering and intensive searching.
Yuan drama performances. Popular subjects included The painter successfully evokes these two radically differ-
Lady Wang Zhaojun (active 48 –30 B.C.E.); the female ent sentiments in one immensely satisfying scene.
poet Cai Wenji (active. ca. 200 C.E.), who was held cap- Because this Yuan-style meiping was found in the 1392
tive by the Xiongnu in the northern frontier for twelve tomb of Mu Ying, a general of the revolutionary forces
years; the military generals Zhou Yafu (?–143 B.C.E.), and adopted son of the first Ming emperor, it is likely that
Meng Tian (?–210 B.C.E.), and Yuchi Gong (585– 658); it was produced after Jingdezhen came under the control
and the literati elite Wang Xizhi (303–379), Tao Yuan- of Zhu Yuanzhang’s troops. Given that Zhu referred to
ming (approx. 365– 427), Zhou Dunyi (1017–1073) and Mu Ying as the Han Xin of his time, the imperial quality
Lin Hejing (965–1026). of this piece takes on special meaning: Mu, believed to be
Another stunning example of this art form is a Yuan a Muslim of Hui descent rather than of the majority Han
wine jar decorated with a scene from the play Yuchi Gong ethnicity, was still a loyal and honored supporter of Zhu
Jiu Zhu (The savior Lord Yuchi). The play was written in Yuanzhang who overthrew the foreign Mongol rulers.
late thirteenth century by Shang Zhongxian and was He died in 1392 and was buried not far from Nanjing’s
based on a historic event that occurred in 620 (or third mausoleum for the Hongwu emperor. After the estab-
year of the Wude reign according to the Tang Shu; Fig. lishment of the Ming dynasty, Mu became one of the
7.51). It recounts the valorous act of the general Yuchi commanding generals in the Yunnan campaign. One of
Jingde (585-658) to avert the assassination of Li Shimin, the captives in this campaign was the twelve-year-old

When 7.52 is siloed it

will clear 7.51
7.51. Blue and white jar with design from the

popular drama Yuchi Gong Jiu Zhu (The savior
Lord Yuchi), showing the rescue of
Emperor Tang Taizong, 21 cm x 27.8 cm.
Yuan dynasty, fourteenth century, Made at
Jingdezhen. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
7.52. Blue and white wine bottle (meiping)

depicting the popular Yuan drama Xiao
Heyueye zhui Han Xin (Xiao He Pursues Han
Xin on a Moonlit Night), Yuan dynasty,
probably 1333–1352, 44.1 cm tall. Made at
Jingdezhen. Nanjing Municipal Museum.
C&C: Silo image

Zheng He, who (as explained earlier) is known as China’s four famous Chinese scholars within ogival panels—
Christopher Columbus and served Zhu Yuanzhang’s Wang Xizhi’s admiration of orchids, Tao Yuanming’s pas-
fourth son, the Yongle emperor, and his grandson, the sion for chrysanthemums, Zhou Dunyi’s appreciation of
Xuande emperor. In this stunning meiping, the finest ma- lotus, and Lin Hejing’s favor for cranes and plum blos-
terials have been combined with the impeccable skills of soms.229 This rare representation of scholars on Yuan-
the most talented artisans. Many believe that this impe- style blue and white relates to similar scenes on some
rial-quality vessel was produced by workers who moved extant Yuan lacquer works and woodblock prints.230 Al-
to private kilns after the Mongol imperial kiln ceased op- though the author has not found related zaju about these
eration in 1351 or is a very early example of Hongwu im- scholars, it is perhaps significant to remember that schol-
perial ware (1369–1398).227 ars were responsible for tremendous contributions to the
Other possible fourteenth-century examples of wares zaju art form. One Yuan zaju by Wang Bocheng (fl.
depicting these tales are Cizhou wares akin to the over- 1250 –1300), still in existence, focuses on another leg-
glaze enamel red and green jar, probably produced at the endary literatus, the poet Li Bai: it is entitled “Li Bai Is
Luomaqiao private kiln site where red and green over- Exiled to Yelang.” Other surviving plays are filled with
glaze enamel shards have been found (see Fig. 7.18). Also tales of virtue and the dichotomy between social ideals
worth noting is a turquoise-glazed meiping in the British and reality, such as Han Gong Qiu (Autumn in the Han
Museum with an underglaze iron bearing figural scenes. Palace, otherwise known as the Sorrow in the Han Palace
Indeed, the depiction of zaju subjects on porcelain con- or the story of lady Wang Zhaojun), which is represented
tinued in the Ming dynasty and beyond.228 But the figural on a Yuan dynasty wine jar not associated with an early
scenes on various types of decorated porcelain of the Ming tomb. On the wine jar, Lady Wang Zhaojun (active
later Ming and Qing dynasties cannot compare with the 48 –30 b.c.e.) is shown in route from Chang’an (now
best examples of fourteenth-century imperial drama Xian) to enter into a forced marriage with the barbarian
wares. Indeed, most of the finest examples of Yuan emir Huhanxie Chanyu to preserve peace between China
drama wares are believed to have been made between and the Xiongnu, a nomadic people with origins in what
1333 and 1351 by the Fuliang Porcelain Office (the Yuan is now far northeastern Inner Mongolia. On the jar Wang
imperial kiln). These “noble vessels” were used by the Zhaojun is shown tightly clutching her lute—which she
imperial household and were possibly bestowed on offi- uses to accompany her songs of longing for her home-
cials as signs of imperial favor. They are the Shundi em- land—as she is being led away by burly barbarians to her
peror’s porcelain legacy, and are today considered among new home beyond the Great Wall.231
the most outstanding artifacts of the Mongol culture. In the past most Yuan-style vessels found in tombs of
the early Ming elite—such as the 1439 tomb of Mu
Ying’s son, Mu Sheng, which included a Yuan-style blue
The Transition from the Yuan to the and white bowl and meiping—were believed to have been
Ming Imperial Style Ming spoils of war.232 As mentioned earlier, though, it
seems most plausible to the author that at least some of
Zhu Yuanzhang (1328 –1398), founder of the Ming dy- the Yuan-style wares found in the tombs of the early
nasty, started building a regional state in Nanjing in 1356. Ming elite were made after the Yuan imperial kiln closed.
While consolidating his power, the artistic conventions These porcelains in the Yuan imperial style could have
of the Yuan dynasty persisted. In fact, in this author’s been made at private kilns or at the Hongwu imperial
opinion, Yuan-style wares continued to be produced kiln. In keeping with this theory, some may very well
from 1352 to 1368 by potters at private kilns who had have been produced before the new dynasty was declared
worked at the Yuan imperial kiln. The quality of these or before the Ming style associated with the Hongwu
wares depended on the desires of the patron. Many wares reign (1368 –1398) developed.
believed to have been produced during this period are In 1368, Zhu, known as the Hongwu emperor, estab-
sketchily painted, probably due to less exacting stan- lished the Ming dynasty. Culturally, his aim was to eradi-
dards. Two Yuan-style meiping, believed to be the tomb cate the stamp of the Mongols by resurrecting the
furnishings of the wife of Zhu Dong (1388 –1414, the customs of the Han, Tang, and Song periods of native
twenty-fourth of Zhu Yuanzhang’s twenty-six sons), for Chinese rule. But in 1369 the Ming imperial kiln was es-
example, feature freely executed paintings, one depicting tablished in Jingdezhen, following the Yuan tradition.
a four-claw dragon, and the other illustrating legends of Early in his reign, Zhu Yuanzhang began to revive the

funerary traditions of native Chinese emperors.233 In often resulted in expressive, brilliant works.239 The
1369, during a trip rich in the symbolism of linking Shundi emperor was a true patron who was passionate
heaven and earth, he erected stone memorial tablets at about art and actively sought out gifted artists. By con-
the graves of his parents and grandparents. Borrowing trast, the approach of the artisans working for the
from Tang and Song art and architecture, he began con- Hongwu emperor appears relatively heavy-handed, and
struction of the imperial Huangling tomb for his parents, the resulting designs seem formulaic. The Hongwu em-
followed by the Zuling tomb for his grandparents. In peror, who rose from the status of a peasant through mil-
1370, he asked for the exact plans of the Northern Song itary skill, was more concerned with the use of art to
mausoleums at Gongxian, Henan province. The Huang- convey power.240 As a result, Hongwu imagery appears
ling tomb was aligned with the south gates of Zhongdu, a carefully orchestrated, more decorative than descriptive.
triple-walled new capital under construction at his birth- Overall, Ming composition seems compartmentalized
place in present-day Fengyang, Anhui province. When and rigid. The Yuan love of intricate detail also began to
nearly complete in 1376, the Zhongdu capital project was give way to more open space. Representations of animals
abandoned due to a series of inauspicious events. The at the early Ming monuments in Fengyang county, Anhui
construction of Huangling, however, was completed in province, and Nanjing are more similar in proportions
1379. Its spirit road was completed the next year, and and detail to the carved jade of the Song, or the tradi-
consisted of thirty-two pairs of figures in procession, the tional Chinese spirit way figures of the Tang and Song dy-
largest number of stone-sculpted animals and human fig- nasties, than to Yuan animal forms (see Figs. 7.14, 7.32).241
ures of any Chinese tomb.234 After twenty years of Yuan-Ming transition with the
These enormous building projects are monuments to completion of Zuling in 1388, it seems that the more for-
power and filial piety made in a new imperial style. Motifs mulaic Hongwu imperial style was firmly established. Ex-
on the sculptures, such as lions playing with balls, were amples of this style are seen in early Ming objects
meant to command respect and celebrate the return of depicting peonies, such as a relief sculpture of a peony
Chinese rule. Finely modeled fantastic animals, like drag- rank badge at Zuling. It is also seen in a porcelain dish ex-
ons and phoenixes, appear against backgrounds of rocky cavated from the Hongwu stratum of the Ming imperial
peaks, auspicious ruyi-headed clouds with trailing tails, kiln at Jingdezhen (Fig. 7.53).
and pines framed by floral sprays and scrolling foliage. The peony had special significance during the
These designs are seen again in the ruins of the palace in Hongwu era, as alluded to in The Great Ming Command-
Nanjing, which was designated Hongwu’s formal capital ment, authored by Zhu Yuanzhang in 1368. The section of
after the abandonment of Zhongdu.235 the book on rites specified the size of “du’ke flowers” (a
If the reliefs from the Zhongdu palace are compared Yuan term referring to a certain rank) that were to deco-
with the Yuan reliefs of 1343–1345 at Juyong Guan near rate the robes of top-ranking civil and military officers
Beijing, the differences of the Hongwu style begin to and are likely related to developments of rank badges
emerge (see Fig. 7.14). The Yuan reliefs are characterized later in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Ming du’ke flowers
by great intricacy and seemingly effortless vitality.236 At that were five inches wide were the insignia of top offi-
Juyong Guan, figures are highly animated and imbued cials; a three-inch du’ke flower could be worn by those of
with life, compared to the more formulaic, robust pat- secondary rank.242 Wives of officials were also permitted
terns at Zhongdu, created around 1376. Ming palace re- to wear cloud collars embroidered with motifs corre-
liefs are somewhat predictable, diligently carved or sponding to their husbands’ rank. For example, wives of
molded in low relief. officials of rank eight or nine wore collars with embroi-
This observable contrast between the Yuan Shundi dered branch patterns.243 Carved details on a eunuch’s
and the Ming Hongwu imperial styles may point to vari- robe at Zuling, the emperor’s grandparents’ tomb, seem
ances in artistic freedom and changes in period style that to confirm that the du’ke flower of the Hongwu court was
can be seen in both ceramics and textiles.237 There also the peony.244
seems to be a shift away from the Mongol approach of Similar representations of peonies are found on a
looking at densely patterned textiles for inspiration while cloud collar textile fragment in the collection of the
turning more to the open space of Chinese paintings, es- Cleveland Museum, and on the reconstructed dish from
pecially those of the Song dynasty.238 It seems that during the Hongwu stratum of the Ming imperial kiln (Fig. 7.54;
the Yuan dynasty, the designers were free to enlarge on see also Fig. 7.53). The arrangement of peonies, shown
basic plans supplied by the imperial commission, which growing from a typical Hongwu-style rock, is almost

7.53. Blue and white dish with peony and rock decoration, Ming dynasty, early part of Hongwu reign
(1369–1388), 10.4 cm tall, 58.2 cm diameter. Excavated from the Hongwu imperial kiln at Zhushan.
Jingdezhen Institute of Ceramic Archaeology.
identical in the textile and porcelain. This suggests that Wanchu, who was a county magistrate during the early
these designs were created about the time of Zuling’s years of the Hongwu reign (1368 –1398).246
completion in 1388 as an expression of the Hongwu im- Differentiating late Yuan from early Ming artifacts is
perial style. Both the ceramics and the textiles were prob- complicated by the fact that both had elements of Song
ably produced for bestowing on worthy Hongwu court derivation. As noted earlier, many of the same artisans
officials.245 who worked for the Song court continued their service
There are conflicting dates for when the Ming imperial during the Yuan reign. It can be assumed as well that
kiln was established: some Jingdezhen local records give some potters at Jingdezhen made wares for both the
the date as 1402, while others, substantiated by excava- Shundi and the Hongwu emperors. Even so, a meiping
tions and discoveries in Jingdezhen, indicate that the kiln from an early Ming tomb datable to 1429 is a signal arti-
was established in 1369. The finds at Jingdezhen, which fact in a group of underglaze red wares now identified
help define the Hongwu style, include white porcelain with the Hongwu reign (Fig. 7.55). It is part of an interest-
bricks and tiles used to build Zhongdu, where construc- ing group of Hongwu wares decorated with the “Three
tion ceased in 1376. Also found were pieces of saggars Friends of Winter” motif, some of which were discovered
impressed with the characters guan xia (imperial saggars) in the Hongwu stratum at the Zhushan imperial kiln site
and a black-glazed roof tile inscribed with the name Zhao in 1994 (Fig 7.56).247 The motif is a variation on the Yuan

7.54. Needleloop embroidery from a cloud collar made of silk

and silver thread and silvered paper, featuring motifs of the
ocean, rocks, and peonies, Yuan or Ming dynasty, late fourteenth
century, 63.2 cm x 59.9 cm. Cleveland Museum of Art.
garden landscape, which incorporated pine, flowering

plum, bamboo, and rockery.248 Earlier versions of this
motif can be seen in a few Yuan wares presumably pro-
duced at private kilns between 1352 and 1368. One of
these is a freely painted bowl with a continuous band of
the Three Friends of Winter on the exterior. In the center
of the interior is a rather unusual view from behind a
palace balustrade of mandarin ducks in “a pond full of
beauty,” and a chrysanthemum band near the interior rim.
This Yuan bowl shows well the evolution of certain mo-
tifs of the Yuan era, such as the banana tree and palace
balustrade, as these came to be painted in a new style and
have a different emphasis in the early Ming period.
Indeed a close comparison of how the motifs were 7.55. Jingdeshen underglaze red wine bottle with cover (meiping)
rendered can illuminate developments in ceramics during and Three Friends of Winter design, Ming dynasty, early period
the two eras. In particular, two distinct styles of rocks are of the Hongwu reign (ca. 1369–1388), 41.6 cm tall. Excavated in
1957 from a tomb in Jiangning county, Jiangsu, datable to 1429.
executed on Yuan underglaze painted wares: tonal, such
Nanjing Museum.
as the rocks on the Yuan drama meiping, and those com-
posed of contrasting bands, as seen on the Yuan bowl
with the three friends motif. Hongwu potters, after a pe-
riod of experimentation during which they produced Yuan textiles, then became the early Ming standard.249
some complex tonal renderings of rockery, adopted the The same is true for the rendering of textured pine bark,
contrasting band approach to painting rocks (Fig. 7.57; which in the Hongwu period is reduced to a series of c-
see also Figs. 7.53, 7.56). Such rocks, which may have shaped curls or swirls similar to those on Yuan or early
been derived from representations of rocks on Song and Ming embroidered textiles (see Figs. 7.54, 7.55).250 This

A number of red-glazed wares with shufu-style molded

decoration, too, now appear to date to the Hongwu
reign. None of this type of red-glazed porcelain of impe-
rial quality, however, is known to have been found at a
securely dated Yuan site.252
Another group of related wares include stem cups,
dishes, and bowls with molded shufu-type decoration
with combined sapphire blue and iron brown glazes.
Dating these two-color wares is the subject of much con-
troversy. While all scholars agree they are fourteenth-
century wares, some suggest a Yuan and others a
Hongwu date of manufacture. The designs are similar to
those found on underglaze red wares excavated in 1988
from the Hongwu strata at Jingdezhen, but they are even
crisper and more detailed, suggesting a Yuan rather than
a Hongwu date. It should be remembered, too, that a
7.56. Fragment of a blue and white porcelain dish decorated with
two-color combination of blue and red has been found at
the Three Friends of Winter, Ming dynasty, 25 cm diameter. Yuan sites such as the tomb datable to 1338 at Fengcheng
Excavated in 1994 from the Hongwu imperial kiln at Zhushan in and the Baoding treasure (see Fig. 7.36). The sapphire
Jingdezhen. Jingdezhen Institute of Ceramic Archaeology. blue and iron brown glaze color combination is ex-
tremely rare and conceivably signifies the blue of heaven
and the red brown of earth.253
repetition of basic patterns captures the Ming artists’ In the Hongwu and later reigns of the Yongle and
propensity for standardized derivative designs. Xuande emperors, overglaze iron red enamels were also
Some might argue that the way Hongwu trees and used on imperial porcelain. A fragment of a dish deco-
rocks are represented is a matter of simplifying and stan- rated with iron red dragons was found at the site of the
dardizing designs in an effort to control underglaze pig-
ment, particularly volatile copper red. The reduced use of
cobalt blue and the effort to master the difficult produc-
tion of copper red wares are in fact significant shifts dur-
ing the early Ming period. Some believe that the
emperor’s insular trade policies may have reduced the
availability of Persian ore, which produced rich and var-
ied tones of blue. The increased production of copper
red underglaze wares at the Hongwu imperial kiln may
also have something to do with the former commander
of the Red Turban Army and founder of the Ming dy-
nasty, Zhu Yuanzhang: he seems to have favored the
color red, perhaps in part because his surname, Zhu, is a
homonym for a certain shade of red. In any case, as with
this meiping, Hongwu underglaze red wares usually came
out of the kiln mostly gray black, occasionally with a rosy
blush, and rarely, a rich copper red. A few imperial-qual-
ity pieces are now regarded to have been made during the
reign of the Hongwu emperor—such as a kendi of a
shape popular in Southeast Asia with naturalistically
drawn lotus flowers, leaves, and pods, now held by the
7.57. Fragment of a blue and white porcelain dish with garden
Victoria and Albert Museum.251 Not until the reigns of view from a palace balustrade, Ming dynasty, 34.5 x 26.8 cm.
the Ming Yongle (1403–1424) and Xuande (1426–1453) Excavated in 1994 from the Hongwu imperial kiln at Zhushan in
emperors were underglaze reds fired with greater success. Jingdezhen. Jingdezhen Institute of Ceramic Archaeology.

Hongwu emperor’s imperial palace at Nanjing. During tion at the Longquan kilns declined severely due to the
the reign of the Xuande emperor, too, iron red and other loss of imperial patronage and heavy taxes. In accordance
overglaze enamels were used in combination with under- with the taste and precepts of the Chinese early Ming
glaze blue to create the earliest known examples of doucai literati, production of popular wares from the Cizhou
( joined colors), considered precursors to the most kilns continued during the Ming and Qing dynasties not
renowned examples of doucai produced during the reign as an art form but as a way of creating utilitarian vessels.
of the Chenghua emperor (1465–1487).254 Ming Cizhou jars, sometimes large, and occasionally with
dated inscriptions, seem to have been commonly used
for wine shipment and storage.256 Conversely, Jun wares
Conclusion: The Enduring Influence of enjoyed a revival in the late fourteenth to early fifteenth
Yuan Ceramics centuries when potters at the Juntai kilns were inspired
by classic Song examples.257
The ascendancy of the porcelains of Jingdezhen under Probably due to cultural bias against the non-Chinese
the Yuan dynasty enriched and changed perceptions of Mongols, early Ming scholars did their best to obscure
Chinese ceramics both nationally and internationally. De- the Yuan dynasty’s place in history. Indeed, many Chi-
velopments under the Mongols of the Yuan dynasty, es- nese scholars during the time of Khubilai’s reign through
pecially the creation of blue and white porcelain, added the fourteenth century harbored deep-seated anti-foreign
to China’s lasting reputation as the world’s leader in ce- and anti-Islamic attitudes that influenced their ability to
ramics. The empire thrived because of the free exchange appreciate outside ideas and innovations. But scholarly
of goods and ideas during this innovative eighty-nine- resistance could not forever mask that the confluence of
year period. Mongol, Tibetan Buddhist, and Muslim influences in the
As Jingdezhen gained an ever-larger share of the ce- Yuan court had resulted in the creation of the world’s
ramics market, potters at other Yuan kilns such as finest blue and white porcelain.258 The Mongols, who had
Longquan appropriated its designs and techniques. Dur- enlisted the services of worthy, conquered artisans from
ing the first reign of the Ming dynasty, painted designs myriad countries, had encouraged a great flourishing of
popularized at the Hongwu imperial kiln were repro- artistic innovation in ceramics during their rule. Conse-
duced in carved and molded Longquan celadon. Excava- quently, even as fourteenth-century connoisseurs dis-
tions at the Hongwu imperial kiln have revealed blue and missed the vulgar taste of the Mongols, or disparaged
white, and underglaze red, designs that recur on their practices, blue and white porcelain captivated an
Longquan wares believed to be of the same period.255 ever-growing audience among the Chinese and others
Later in the Ming and Qing dynasties, however, produc- both near and far.259

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Chapter 07 (pp.

330-385)_Layout 1 7/7/10 5:42 PM Page 330

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7.1. Khubilai Khan Hunting, hanging scroll made with ink

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7.2. Longquan ware celadon vase with handles

7.3. Celadon temple vase with molded peony appliqués probably

7.4. Longquan ware celadon ewer with cover, Yuan dynasty,

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celadon jars and bowls with appliqué fish.18 Most of the

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some Yuan Ge-style wares were produced at the

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period, which ended in 1126, and continued into the

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C&C: Silo image

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At the Cizhou kilns, peacock blue glaze was first used

During the Ming dynasty, Cizhou kilns continued to

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The Dehua kilns of Fujian, as well as other smaller

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glaze was used with painted decoration in cobalt blue. In

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the Yuan dynasty), the wares decorated with three-,

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7.36. One of a pair of covered jars with underglaze cobalt blue

Madame Ling, discussed later. Many of the vessel forms

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7.37. Common Yuan dynasty ceramic

of the vessel is clothed in the silk tapestries so prized by

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around the innermost circular zone on the Yamantaka

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7.42. Qingbai oval dish with molded leaf

7.43. Qiingbai sauce dishes with

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in accordance with the account by Yuan scholar Wang

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nasty. Those chosen to retain their craftsmen status by

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The use of the colors blue, gold, and white on sapphire

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