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production of white- and green-glazed porcelains Fig. 7. Brush washer. Northern Song dynasty (960—1127).
at Jingdezhen in Jiangxi laid the foundation for
major development ofYingqing ("shadow blue" Ru ware; h. 2.9 an, diatn. at mouth iy.1 cm, diam. at
glaze, also called Qingbai) during the Northern
Song. base 9.1 cm. Shanghai Museum.
In the history of Chinese ceramics many wares renowned for its ash-colored body, its sky blue
reached their florescence during the Song dynasty,
whose so-called "five great wares" were Ru, Guan, glaze with fine crackling, and for being wholly
Ge, Ding, and Jun. glazed and fired on tiny sesame seed-shaped spurs
There surely must be some significance in the fact Of(fig. 7). all the great Chinese porcelain wares,
that of these five wares, the organizers of this
exhibition chose to display only Ru, Guan, and Ru ware has survived in the smallest numbers and
Ding wares, and not Ge or Jun wares. In fact, the
site and period of production of Ge ware remain is perhaps the most prized. For a long time, the
major topics for exploration in the history of
Chinese ceramics. Although an international location of the Ru kilns could not be confirmed,
symposium on Ge ware was held in Shanghai in
October 1992, 4 no answers were to be had (fig. 5). but in the winter of 19S6 two studies made by staff
As for Jun ware (fig. 6), it exists in some quantity in from the Shanghai Museum verified the site ot the
the United States and Europe. The Art Institute of
Chicago, in particular, owns a collection of Northern Song Ru kilns at Qingliangsi in Baofeng
Northern Song Jun ware unequaled in China
county, Henan Province.'' The kilns were then
except in the Beijing Palace Museum and the
Taibei Palace Museum. In the first half of the excavated by archaeologists from Henan Province.
twentieth century some European and American Ru ware was produced only for an extremely brief
collectors and scholars had regarded these
specimens ot Northern Song Jun ware as Yuan or time, and in very limited quantities. Some pieces
Ming products. But excavation of the site of the
Northern Song kilns at Diaotai in Yu county, found at the kiln site lack the above-mentioned
I lenan Province, 5 completely verified the existence defining characteristics; these clearly are not
of Northern Song Jun ware. Ru ware.
For the past thousand years Ru ware has been Song dynasty Guan ware is ,m even more
controversial subject in the history of Chinese
ceramics. Historical documents indicate that there
were three types of Guan ware, one made in the
Northern Song capita] of Bianliang (present-day
Kaifeng, in Henan Province), one .11 the Xiuneisi
("Palace Works Bureau'") of the Southern Song
capital at Hangzhou, and one at the Jiaotanxia kilns
of Southern Song Hangzhou. To date, only the
Jiaotanxia site, at Wuguishan in Hangzhou
Municipality, /heji.ing Province, has been verified.
1 'he Northern Song Guan kilns and those of the
THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHINESE CERAMICS 119
