China has no rival in the combined length and richness of its ceramic history.

Beginning with the makers of the earliest pots

in prehistoric villages, ancient Chinese potters showed a flair for shaping
carefully prepared and kneaded clay into diverse, often dramatic
and elegant vessel forms. Until Chinese potters developed true porcelains
(extremely fine, hard, white ceramics; see “Chinese Porcelain,”
Chapter 27, page 722) in about 1300, they produced only two types of
clay vessels or objects—earthenwares and stonewares. For both
types, potters used clays colored by mineral impurities, especially iron
compounds ranging from yellow to brownish-black.
The clay bodies of earthenwares (FIG. 7-2), fired at low temperatures in open pits
or simple kilns, remain soft and porous, thus allowing liquids to seep through.
Chinese artists also used the low-fire
technique to produce terracotta sculptures, even life-size figures of
humans and animals (FIG. 7-6). Over time, Chinese potters developed
kilns capable of firing clay vessels at much higher temperatures—
more than 2,000° Fahrenheit. High temperatures produce stonewares,
named for their stonelike hardness and density.
Potters in China excelled at the various techniques commonly
used to decorate earthenwares and stonewares. Most of these decorative methods
depend on changes occurring in the kiln to chemical
compounds found in clay as natural impurities. When fired, many
compounds change color dramatically, depending on the conditions
in the kiln. For example, if little oxygen remains in a hot kiln, iron
oxide (rust) turns either gray or brownish-black, whereas an abundance of oxygen
produces a reddish hue.
Chinese potters also decorated vessels simply by painting their
surfaces. In one of the oldest decorative techniques, the potters applied slip (a
mixture of clay and water like a fine, thin mud)—by painting, pouring, or dipping—
to a clay body not yet fully dry. The
natural varieties of clay produced a broad, if not bright, range of colors, as seen
in Neolithic vessels (FIG. 7-2). But Chinese potters often
added compounds such as iron oxide to the slip to change or intensify the colors.
After the vessels had partially dried, the potters could
incise lines through the slip down to the clay body to produce designs such as
those seen in later Chinese stonewares (FIG. 7-22). Chinese artists also inlaid
designs, carving them into plain vessel surfaces and then filling them with slip or
soft clay of a contrasting
color. These techniques spread throughout East Asia (FIG. 7-29).
To produce a hard, glassy surface after firing, potters coated
plain or decorated vessels with a glaze, a finely ground mixture of
minerals. Clear or highly translucent glazes were often used, but
so too were opaque, richly colored glazes. Sometimes the painters
allowed the thick glazes to run down the side of a vase or a figurine
(FIG. 7-19) to produce dramatic effects.