page_title: Chinese ceramics
section_title: Jian ware
hierarchical_section_title: Chinese ceramics / Types of Chinese pottery / Jian ware
caption_attribution_description: Bol, Chine du Nord, Hebei, Ding, Dynastie des Song du Nord, 11ème-12ème siècle, porcelaine à couverte blanche, décor incisé. Musée Guimet, Paris.
context_page_description: Chinese ceramics show a continuous development since pre-dynastic times and are one of the most significant forms of Chinese art and ceramics globally. The first pottery was made during the Palaeolithic era. Chinese ceramics range from construction materials such as bricks and tiles, to hand-built pottery vessels fired in bonfires or kilns, to the sophisticated Chinese porcelain wares made for the imperial court and for export. Porcelain was a Chinese invention and is so identified with China that it is still called "china" in everyday English usage.
  Most later Chinese ceramics, even of the finest quality, were made on an industrial scale, thus few names of individual potters were recorded. Many of the most important kiln workshops were owned by or reserved for the emperor, and large quantities of Chinese export porcelain were exported as diplomatic gifts or for trade from an early date, initially to East Asia and the Islamic world, and then from around the 16th century to Europe. Chinese ceramics have had an enormous influence on other ceramic traditions in these areas.
context_section_description: Jian Zhan blackwares, mainly comprising tea wares, were made at kilns located in Jianyang, Fujian province.  They reached the peak of their popularity during the Song dynasty. The wares were made using locally won, iron-rich clays and fired in an oxidising atmosphere at temperatures in the region of 1,300 °C (2,370 °F). The glaze was made using clay similar to that used for forming the body, except fluxed with wood-ash. At high temperatures the molten glaze separate to produce a pattern called "hare's fur". When Jian wares were set tilted for firing, drips run down the side, creating evidence of liquid glaze pooling.
  Jian tea wares of the Song dynasty were also greatly appreciated and copied in Japan, where they were known as tenmoku wares.
caption: White Glazed Ding Ware Bowl with Incised Design Northern Song dynasty (11th–12th Century); Porcelain, Musée Guimet 2418
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