page_title: Longquan celadon
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Longquan celadon / History
caption_attribution_description: English: A Chinese Song Dynasty celadon vase dated to the 13th century. Personal photo released into public domain.
context_page_description: Longquan celadon is a type of green-glazed Chinese ceramic, known in the West as celadon or greenware, produced from about 950 to 1550. The kilns were mostly located in Lishui prefecture in southwestern Zhejiang Province in the south of China, and the north of Fujian Province. Overall a total of some 500 kilns have been discovered, making the Longquan celadon production area one of the largest historical ceramic producing areas in China. "Longquan-type" is increasingly preferred as a term, in recognition of this diversity, or simply "southern celadon", as there was also a large number of kilns in north China producing Yaozhou ware or other Northern Celadon wares. These are similar in many respects, but with significant differences to Longquan-type celadon, and their production rose and declined somewhat earlier.
  Celadon production had a long history at Longquan and related sites, but it was not until the Northern Song period that large-scale production began, and the move of the capital to Hangzhou, close to Longquan, after the start of the Southern Song, was probably important in the great expansion of both quality and production there.
context_section_description: In the Northern Song period the Dayao (大窯) kiln site near Longquan city alone produced wares at twenty-three separate kilns; with Jincun nearby, these appear to have been the largest kiln complexes, and produced the best wares. The era of greatest ceramic production was not until the Southern Song (1127–1279), then continuing in the Yuan (1271–1368) and Ming (1368–1644) periods.
  A key event in the rise of Longquan celadon was the flight of the remaining Northern Song court to the south, after they lost control of the north in the disastrous Jin-Song wars of the 1120s. A new Southern Song court was based in Hangzhou, close to Longquan.  The Northern Celadon kilns declined as Longquan greatly expanded production. Longquan wares were not from one of the Five Great Kilns later grouped by Chinese connoisseurs, and are rarely mentioned in early writing on the subject, although in the Qing dynasty careful imitations were made.
  A story repeated in many sources from the Yuan onwards, with uncertain significance, tells of two brothers called Zhang, both Longquan potters, perhaps in the Southern Song, though this is unclear. The elder brother developed a very special type of ware; rightly or wrongly the later sources say this was distinguished by crackled glaze, and Ge ware (meaning "elder brother ware") is supposed to be this type. The younger brother also developed a fine style of pottery, which is often taken to be the best quality early Longquan ware.
  The Southern Song period saw the finest quality, and a great range of colours, as well as a great expansion of production. A count in 1988 by a Chinese archaeologist of the starts of new kilns gave 39 from the Northern Song, 61 from the Southern Song, and over 70 from the Yuan. The percentage figures for those still producing in the 20th century were 23%, <10% and <5%, indicating a bubble of over-production, which only the strongest kilns survived.
  Quality declined during the 14th century, although initially production and exports continued to grow. By the middle of the century Jingdezhen ware was being made as blue and white porcelain, and this spectacular new ware gradually replaced Longquan celadon in many of its markets. Floods and war seem to have brought some kilns to an abrupt end; some excavated kilns lie deep under soil deposited in flooding. However, even the stoutly potted celadons of the Ming period have had their imitators at Jingdezhen  and in Japan. A sunken trade vessel was found in Sinan County off the Korean coast in 1976, whose cargo included over 9,600 pieces of celadon from the Yuan period, though not of the highest quality. These were probably bound for Japan; there was a single religious statuette. Sunk in 1323, the finds made it clear that Song types had continued to be produced later than was thought.
  Longquan celadon enjoyed a final period of high achievement under the early Ming dynasty, when it was an official kiln operated by and for the court. The floral decorative designs were very similar to those in contemporary Jingdezhen blue and white and also court lacquerwork, suggesting that pattern books were supplied from the centre by court artists. Shapes included large flat dishes that were very difficult to fire. By around the mid-15th century the court ceased its orders, and the decline of the kilns resumed.  By the late Ming few kilns survived, and they mostly produced utilitarian wares such as tiles and water pots, as the area continues to do.
  From the twentieth century native and foreign enthusiasts and scholars have visited the kiln sites and excavated there. Among modern Chinese scholars, the main kiln sites were first systematically investigated by Chen Wanli in 1928 and 1934, after the sites had been excavated by speculators and art-dealers since 1916.
caption: Southern Song Dynasty, 13th Century, Nantoyōsō Collection, Japan, with crackle.
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