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The Five Great Kilns (), also known as Five Famous Kilns, is a generic term for ceramic

kiln A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, a type of oven, that produces temperatures sufficient to complete some process, such as hardening, drying, or chemical changes. Kilns have been used for millennia to turn objects made from clay int ...

s or wares (in Chinese 窯 yáo can mean either) which produced

Chinese ceramics 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 construc ...

during the

Song dynasty The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...

(960–1279) that were later held in particularly high esteem. The group were only so called by much later writers, and of the five, only two (Ru and Guan) seem to have produced wares directly ordered by the Imperial court, though all can be of very high quality. All were imitated later, often with considerable success. All except Ding ware used

celadon ''Celadon'' () is a term for pottery denoting both wares glazed in the jade green celadon color, also known as greenware or "green ware" (the term specialists now tend to use), and a type of transparent glaze, often with small cracks, that was ...

glazes, and in Western terms the celadon kilns are

stoneware Stoneware is a rather broad term for pottery or other ceramics fired at a relatively high temperature. A modern technical definition is a Vitrification#Ceramics, vitreous or semi-vitreous ceramic made primarily from stoneware clay or non-refracto ...

, as opposed to the Ding early

porcelain Porcelain () is a ceramic material made by heating substances, generally including materials such as kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to other types of pottery, arises mainl ...

. The celadons placed great emphasis on elegant forms and their

ceramic glaze Ceramic glaze is an impervious layer or coating of a vitreous substance which has been fused to a pottery body through firing. Glaze can serve to color, decorate or waterproof an item. Glazing renders earthenware vessels suitable for holding ...

s, and were otherwise lightly decorated, with no painting. The five kilns produced respectively: *

Ru ware Ru ware, Ju ware, or "Ru official ware" () is a famous and extremely rare type of Chinese pottery from the Song dynasty, produced for the imperial court for a brief period around 1100. Fewer than 100 complete pieces survive, though there are ...

(汝) *

Jun ware Jun ware () is a type of Chinese pottery, one of the Five Great Kilns of Song dynasty ceramics. Despite its fame, much about Jun ware remains unclear, and the subject of arguments among experts. Several different types of pottery are covered by ...

(钧) *

Guan ware Guan ware or Kuan ware () is one of the Five Famous Kilns of Song dynasty China, making high-status stonewares, whose surface decoration relied heavily on crackled glaze, randomly crazed by a network of crack lines in the glaze. ''Guan'' mean ...

(官) * Ding ware (定) *

Ge ware Ge ware or Ko ware () is a type of celadon or greenware in Chinese pottery. It was one of the Five Great Kilns of the Song dynasty recognised by later Chinese writers, but has remained rather mysterious to modern scholars, with much debate as to ...

(哥)

History of the term

Although the group and name is generally said in books to have been a coinage by Chinese writers from the

Ming The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...

Qing The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speaki ...

dynasties, a recent paper analysing the main Chinese scholars suggests the modern number and selection of "great kilns", as given here, in fact only dates back to the mid-20th century, with various numbers and other kilns often found in previous writings. In particular, the semi-mythical Chai ware, and

Longquan celadon Longquan celadon (龍泉青瓷) 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 in Lishui prefecture in southwestern Zhejiang Province in the south of ...

often feature in earlier groupings, and Jun ware is often omitted.Rastelli, Sabrina, "The Concept of the Five Famous Wares of the Song Dynasty—A Modern Invention", 宋代五大名窑科学技术国际学术讨论会论文集, ''Proceedings of International Symposium on Science and Technology of Five Great Wares of the Song Dynasty'', 2016
PDF
/ref> File:Ru ware, Percival David Collection DSCF3107.jpg,

bowl, with metal rim, 1086-1125 File:Percival David Collection DSCF3075.jpg, Small

bowl on legs (some 3 inches across), with pronounced glaze crackle,

Southern Song The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. ...

File:Dish (Pan) with Garden Landscape LACMA M.73.48.106.jpg, Ding ware dish with garden landscape, "molded stoneware with impressed decoration, transparent glaze, and banded metal rim", 13th century, diameter 5.5 in. (14 cm) File:425203204 640068f512 o.jpg, "Ge-type" or

ge ware Ge ware or Ko ware () is a type of celadon or greenware in Chinese pottery. It was one of the Five Great Kilns of the Song dynasty recognised by later Chinese writers, but has remained rather mysterious to modern scholars, with much debate as to ...

vase, with double crackle, dated by the

Palace Museum The Palace Museum () is a huge national museum complex housed in the Forbidden City at the core of Beijing, China. With , the museum inherited the imperial royal palaces from the Ming and Qing dynasties of China and opened to the public in 192 ...

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

to the Song

Notes

References

* Rawson, Jessica (ed). ''The British Museum Book of Chinese Art'', 2007 (2nd edn), British Museum Press, {{Song dynasty topics Chinese pottery China-related lists of superlatives Kilns Song dynasty