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Archaeometry ••, •• (2020) ••–•• doi: 10.1111/arcm.12539

E A R LY D E V E L O P M E N T O F J I N G D E Z H E N C E R A M I C
GLAZES*

J. WU
Institute of Cultural Heritage and History of Science & Technology, University of Science and Technology
Beijing, Beijing, 100083, China and Research Center of Ancient Ceramic, Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute,
Jingdezhen, 333403, China

H. MA†
Institute of Cultural Heritage and History of Science & Technology, University of Science and Technology
Beijing, Beijing, 100083, China

N. WOOD
Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford, Dyson Perrins Building,
South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3QY, UK

M. ZHANG
Research Center of Ancient Ceramic, Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute, Jingdezhen, 333403, China

W. QIAN**
Institute of Cultural Heritage and History of Science & Technology, University of Science and Technology
Beijing, Beijing, 100083, China

J. WU and N. ZHENG
Research Center of Ancient Ceramic, Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute, Jingdezhen, 333403, China

Major types of ceramics produced in the history of Jingdezhen, from the Tang green glaze
stoneware, through the Five Dynasties white ware, the Song dynasty bluish-white ware to
the Yuan and Ming dynasties blue-and-white ware were analysed for their glaze chemistries
to reveal, chemically, how the glazes of different periods in Jingdezhen evolved. Possible early
period glaze recipes are proposed. Important events in the course of the technological devel-
opment of Jingdezhen ceramic, such as the first use of limestone as a glaze flux, and how they
may have impacted the way Jingdezhen ceramic technology advanced, are discussed.

KEYWORDS: CHINESE GLAZES, JINGDEZHEN, CERAMIC HISTORY

*Received 14 March 2019; accepted 14 January 2020

†Corresponding author: email mahongjiao@ustb.edu.cn
qianwei@ustb.edu.cn
© 2020 University of Oxford
2 J. Wu et al.
INTRODUCTION

Jingdezhen, the ‘porcelain capital’ of China, is renowned for its porcelain productions worldwide
and it has been the centre of China’s ceramic industry since the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368). The
technological development of Jingdezhen porcelain is a key component of the ceramic history of
China and an important subject for research.
With regard to the site’s early history both A Governmental Report to the Emperor about Ce-
ramic Tribute (代人进瓷器状), written by Liu zongyuan (Liu 2008), who was governor of Rao
Zhou district in the eighth year of the Yuanhe period (813) in the Tang dynasty (618–907), and
local History of Fuliang County (Xiong et al. 2006) published in the 21st year of the Kangxi pe-
riod in the Qing dynasty (1662–1722), recorded that Jingdezhen started its ceramic production in
the early Tang dynasty. However, in academic circles it had been generally considered that the
Jingdezhen ceramic tradition began with white porcelain-making in the Five Dynasties period
(907–979), because Five Dynasties white porcelain wares were the most commonly seen early
evidence of ceramic-making in Jingdezhen.
In recent years, archaeological surveys and excavations looking for the origin and the early
phase of Jingdezhen ceramic production have been carried out. An early production complex
encompassing over 60 workshops, which date from the Tang dynasty to the Northern Song dy-
nasty (960–1127), has been discovered in Xianghu town of Jingdezhen city (Qin et al. 2015).
The officially excavated Lantian kiln in this production complex is a large kiln site, the earliest
phase of which dates to the Middle Tang dynasty, and the production of the Lantian kiln lasted
until early in the Northern Song dynasty (Qin et al. 2015). Together with another recently discov-
ered Tang kiln site, the Nan kiln, these sites are the earliest evidence for ceramic production
found in Jingdezhen to date. Their Tang products were the types of green-glazed stoneware com-
monly produced in the south during this period (Zhang 2014). Therefore, it showed that
Jingdezhen ceramic tradition did start from the Tang dynasty and began with ordinary southern
stoneware rather than white porcelain. In addition to the Tang finds, several Five Dynasties work-
shops in the Xianghu kiln complex provided rich materials for a more comprehensive insight into
the ceramic production of the period (Qin et al. 2015). As well as white porcelain, greyish-green-
glazed wares and green wares, similar to the Tang products, were also produced simultaneously
at Jingdezhen during the Five Dynasties period.
Only a few publications have addressed the issue of early Jingdezhen ceramic technology be-
fore the 2010s, including Zhou Ren’s original study of Jingdezhen ceramics (Zhou and Li 1960)
and Nigel Wood’s Chinese Glazes (1999). These publications suggest that Five Dynasties period
Jingdezhen white porcelain may have used limestone-based glazes, and their bodies were prob-
ably made from single porcelain stone raw materials. In recent years, more studies tackling early
Jingdezhen ceramic technology using newly excavated material have been published. Zhang
et al. (2012) studied the chemistries of Xianghu kiln’s Five Dynasties white porcelain wares
and greyish-green wares and suggested that the bodies of the two types were made using different
clays, but their glazes were both limestone based. Wu et al. (2015) studied the chemistries of
Lantian kiln Tang green wares and Five Dynasties greyish-green wares and found the ceramic
bodies of these wares were the same, but their glazes were different. Tong et al. (2016) studied
the chemistries of Tang Nan kiln green wares and compared them with that of Tang Lantian
green wares. Their results showed that the green wares produced at these two Jingdezhen kiln
sites were very similar, and that the same raw material recipes had been used for their production.
The developmental process of porcelain glaze is a vital part of porcelain technological devel-
opment. Thus, it is useful to explore the technical evolution process in Jingdezhen from green

© 2020 University of Oxford, Archaeometry ••, •• (2020) ••–••

 Early development of Jingdezhen ceramic glazes 3

glaze stoneware of the Tang dynasty to blue-and-white porcelain of the Yuan and Ming dynas-
ties. The early stage of this technological development is particularly significant – before the
well-documented recipes used during the later period became established.
A systematic testing of Jingdezhen ceramic shards from the Tang, Five Dynasties, Song, Yuan
and Ming dynasties, by means of energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (EDXRF),
was performed for this study. The primary and minor chemical compositions of these glazes
were determined and a discussion, mainly focusing on the evolution of the glaze recipes, was
carried out.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Samples
With the support of the Archaeological Institute of Jiangxi province and the Ceramic Archaeo-
logical Institute of Jingdezhen, 154 shards of typical specimens, dated to the Tang, Song, Yuan
and Ming dynasties, were collected for study.
In detail, the sample group consisted of 10 shards of green-glazed stoneware from the Tang
Lantian kiln (marked TC), 12 shards of greyish-green ware from the Five Dynasties Lantian
and Xianghu kilns (marked FC), 12 shards of white porcelain ware from the Five Dynasties
Xianghu kiln (marked FW), 12 shards of bluish-white-glazed porcelain ware from the early
Northern Song dynasty (marked NSE), 20 shards of bluish-white-glazed porcelain from the mid-
dle and late Northern Song dynasty (marked NSL), five shards of bluish-white-glazed porcelain

Figure 1 Typical Jingdezhen ceramic samples excavated from various periods [Colour figure can be viewed at
wileyonlinelibrary.com]

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4 J. Wu et al.

from the Southern Song dynasty (marked SS), 16 shards of Shufu porcelain from the Yuan
dynasty (marked YSF), 26 shards of blue-and-white porcelain from the royal kiln in the Yuan
dynasty (marked YBW), and 30 shards of blue-and-white porcelain from the royal kiln in the
Ming dynasty (marked M). Representative photographs of samples are displayed in Figure 1.
Various types of raw materials used by Jingdezhen potters were also studied: black colour
limestone from Shou’an village, glaze ash manufactured using traditional method in Si’qian
village and various types of botanic ashes prepared for the present study. The plants used for
burning the botanic ashes were harvested in early autumn when they were fully grown, near
the ceramic studio of the Research Center of Ancient Ceramic, Jingdezhen Ceramic University
at San’bao village, Jingdezhen. The entire plants were burnt indifferently for the ashes to avoid
the chemical variations that may incur when specific parts of plants are used for burning botanic
ashes, and no further processing was rendered to the burnt botanic ashes. This process of prepar-
ing botanic ashes is also used by Jingdezhen local potters.

EXPERIMENTAL METHODS AND RESULTS

The quantitative chemical compositions of glazes of these specimens and raw materials were
examined by an energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence technique via an EDAX Eagle III XXL
spectrometer (produced by the EDAX unit of AMETEK, Inc., USA). The EDAX EAGLE III
used is equipped with a 40 W (40 kV, 1000 μA) X-ray tube and a Si (Li) detector. Surface scan
mode was used for testing and the diameter of X-ray focus was 300 μm. The counting time
was 600 s. A condition with high voltage and low current (50 kV, 200 μA) was used to analyse
the content of MnO, Fe2O3, and a condition with low voltage and high current (10 kV,
700 μA) was used to analyse the content of Na2O, MgO, Al2O3, SiO2, P2O5, K2O, CaO and

Table 1 Major and minor chemical composition of the analysed ceramic samples

Groups Na2O MgO Al2O3 SiO2 K2 O CaO TiO2 Fe2O3 MnO P2O5

TC(10) av 0.19 3.93 12.66 61.39 2.68 14.42 0.49 2.13 0.88 0.68
s.d 0.15 0.34 1.00 0.86 0.54 1.65 0.05 0.30 0.20 0.08
FC(24) av 0.28 1.51 13.61 62.63 2.62 16.70 0.13 1.15 0.10 0.23
s.d 0.16 0.01 0.74 1.45 1.10 1.84 0.04 0.40 0.03 0.05
FW(12) av 0.15 1.12 14.17 69.53 2.73 10.51 0.03 0.77 0.16 0.17
s.d 0.11 0.27 1.00 2.70 0.46 2.89 0.01 0.12 0.05 0.06
NSE(12) av 0.37 1.14 13.74 71.54 3.06 7.97 0.04 1.23 0.17 0.18
s.d 0.13 0.31 1.34 3.48 0.33 2.88 0.01 0.22 0.04 0.10
NSL(20) av 0.64 0.45 12.98 67.28 1.85 14.28 0.03 0.69 0.17 0.13
s.d 0.33 0.07 0.57 3.41 0.57 4.27 0.01 0.18 0.02 0.02
SS(5) av 1.18 0.65 13.66 66.86 1.95 13.37 0.03 1.31 0.09 0.10
s.d 0.80 0.65 0.49 0.84 0.28 1.95 0.01 0.14 0.04 0.08
YSF(16) av 2.53 0.30 13.64 71.60 3.28 6.61 0.03 1.00 0.08 0.04
s.d 0.68 0.21 0.74 1.54 0.28 1.71 0.01 0.21 0.01 0.01
YBW(26) av 3.09 0.21 12.87 71.48 3.53 6.73 0.03 1.07 0.07 0.05
s.d 1.00 0.35 0.77 1.47 1.07 1.36 0.01 0.34 0.02 0.01
M(30) av 2.15 0.28 13.72 72.74 4.85 4.13 0.03 1.18 0.08 0.03
s.d 1.14 0.83 0.90 0.01 0.13 1.14 0.83 0.90 0.01 0.16

© 2020 University of Oxford, Archaeometry ••, •• (2020) ••–••

 Early development of Jingdezhen ceramic glazes 5

TiO2. For the botanic ash samples and glaze ash samples, pellets formed by pressing 5 g ash with
force of 150 kN were used for the analysis.
Standard curves were used for quantitative calculation of the analytical results. The set of 10
ancient ceramic reference materials developed by the Shanghai Ceramic Institute, Chinese Acad-
emy of Science, were used to establish the calibration curves. National standard material,
GBW07402 (clay), was used to monitor the accuracy and precision of the analysis. During the
duration of the analysis of the 154 samples, GBW07402 was analysed nine times. The relative
standard deviation (RSD) of the concentrations of the reported 10 oxides was < 5%. A good
agreement between the average of the nine analytical results and the recommended chemical
composition of GBW07402 was reached: the relative error of the nine reported oxides was <
5% and the relative error of P2O5 was < 10%.
The quantitative average chemical composition of 10 major and minor elemental oxides for
each sample group and the standard deviation (SD) of individual results within each group are
shown in Table 1. Quantitative chemical compositions of Jingdezhen raw materials studied here
are reported in Table 2.

DISCUSSION

Chemical composition of Tang dynasty stoneware glaze and the Ca source in the glaze recipe
The chemical composition results show that the glaze chemistry of Tang green stoneware from
the Lantian kiln was a typical lime glaze (Luo et al. 1995). CaO is the main fluxing agent,
reaching 14.42 wt%, while the total contents of K2O and Na2O are only 2.87 wt% (Table 1). This
glaze also contained a rather high amount of MgO and P2O5 at 3.93 and 0.68 wt%, respectively;
the CaO/P2O5 and CaO/MgO mass ratios of this glaze were very consistent (Fig. 2).
The contents of MgO and P2O5 are often used in Western glass studies to indicate whether a
certain type of glass was fluxed by plant ash or natron mineral. In the Chinese glaze study they
also serve a similar purpose to differentiate glaze fluxed by plant ash or limestone, because it is
believed that natron mineral and limestone should contain considerably less MgO and P2O5 com-
pared with plant ash. In this study, the mass ratios of CaO/P2O5 and CaO/MgO are also used as a
main indicator for the Ca flux adopted in making the glazes studied, and there are three reasons
for it. First, plant ash and limestone were the two main Ca sources for Chinese high-fired glazes,

Table 2 Chemical compositions of various glaze raw materials from Jingdezhen

Materials Na2O MgO Al2O3 SiO2 K2 O CaO TiO2 Fe2O3 MnO P2O5

Straw ash 0.29 2.72 2.67 73.22 13.16 5.59 0.07 0.68 0.63 0.97
Fern ash 0.03 5.86 20.79 45.78 18.10 5.01 0.20 0.42 2.81 0.99
Reed ash 0.46 5.69 1.68 72.84 7.54 9.05 0.05 0.42 0.28 1.98
Fir ash 0.50 6.21 12.17 49.75 6.81 18.92 0.17 1.50 2.52 1.44
Pine ash 0.04 5.35 7.63 34.90 7.81 38.93 0.13 1.05 2.12 2.04
Bamboo ash 0.28 5.80 1.40 78.55 6.30 4.90 0.02 0.35 0.36 2.03
Black limestone from 0.26 1.21 3.08 5.01 - 89.94 - 0.51 - -
Shou’an
Purified glaze ash - 0.42 0.95 2.19 0.28 94.71 - 1.18 - 0.18

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6 J. Wu et al.

Figure 2 Box plots of the MgO content, P2O5 content, CaO/MgO and CaO/P2O5 of the studied sample groups

and their CaO/P2O5 and CaO/MgO are distinctively different. Second, the physical processing of
plant ash, such as washing, would not incur obvious compositional change to its Ca, Mg and P
contents, like it does to other alkaline elements such as K and Na, so CaO/P2O5 and
CaO/MgO of plant ash would remain largely the same after being processed. Finally, the
siliceous raw material of Jingdezhen ceramics, porcelain stones, contain a very low content of
the three oxides in question, so the CaO/P2O5 and CaO/MgO in the final glaze would be largely
similar to the CaO/P2O5 and CaO/MgO in the Ca flux.
For ancient Chinese high-fired lime glazes, the most important question regarding their origi-
nal recipes concerns the source of their Ca oxide contents. With regard to this question, botanic
ashes, limestone and mixtures of the two are the only possible candidates abundantly available at
Jingdezhen. Seashells and bone ash were the two other possible Ca sources, but Jingdezhen is not
a coastal area, so seashells were not available, and in ancient Chinese agricultural society there
could not have been enough animal bone to sustain ceramic production, besides which bone
ash contains > 40 wt% P2O5, which would be obvious in the glaze analyses.
The chemical composition of ‘glaze ash’ (the Jingdezhen term for processed limestone) in this
study shows that it does not contain high MgO and P2O5 contents, which are no more than 0.42
and 0.18 wt%, respectively; while the chemical compositions of various types of botanic ash
show they contain substantially more MgO and P2O5 (Table 2). These chemical features of glaze
ash and botanic ashes are in accordance with the published literature concerning botanic ash
glazes (Zhang 1987). Wood (1999) has reported that botanic ashes were widely used over an ex-
tended period for making many different kinds of traditional Chinese ceramic glazes, such as the
stoneware glazes from the numerous and productive Yue kilns in north-east Zhejiang province
(Ma et al. 2014).

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 Early development of Jingdezhen ceramic glazes 7

The MgO and P2O5 contents found in Jingdezhen Tang stoneware glazes are much higher than
in the local Jingdezhen limestone and Jingdezhen glaze ash, with the main component of the
latter being burnt and recarbonated limestone rock. Therefore, the Jingdezhen Tang green stone-
ware glaze is not a limestone-based glaze.1 On the other hand, the chemical composition results
in Table 3 show that the mass ratios of CaO/MgO and CaO/P2O5 of the Jingdezhen Tang stone-
ware glaze are close to that of wood ashes (pine ash and fir ash). Given that the stoneware glazes
that prevailed in south China during the Tang dynasty were botanic ash-based glazes, and
Jingdezhen Tang stoneware glazes share the same appearance and chemical features as other
southern stoneware glazes, it is reasonable to conclude that the Jingdezhen Tang stoneware glaze
was also botanic ash based.
By comparing the chemistries of ashes of common herbaceous plants and trees that grow in the
Jingdezhen area, it can be seen that wood ashes (pine ash and fir ash) were the likely Ca source
for Tang stoneware glaze, not only because their CaO/MgO and CaO/P2O5 are closer to that of
the glaze but also because the CaO contents in wood ashes are much higher than that in herba-
ceous plant ashes, such as fern ash and straw ash (Ma et al. 2016). Therefore, the Tang stoneware
glaze was highly likely wood ash based.
In this study, we do not intent to specify which species of wood was burnt for making the
wood ash as Ca flux in Jingdezhen, because it is very difficult and probably has very little mean-
ing to do so because ancient Jingdezhen potters may have used many different types of wood.
Pine ash and fir ash from Jingdezhen were meant to act as an appropriate reference for wood
ash from the area because they are the most commonly found wood spices there, and chemical
compositional variations between different species of wood ash are considerably smaller than
that between wood ash and herbaceous plant ash.

The starting point for the use of limestone as the primary Ca flux in Jingdezhen glazes and the
subsequent development of the limestone preparation technique
In the glazes of both the greyish-green and the white wares from the Five Dynasties period, as
shown in Table 1 and Figure 2, the most significant changes in the chemistries of the glazes were
that the contents of MgO and P2O5 in the glazes decline markedly when compared with the Tang
stoneware glazes.

Table 3 CaO/MgO and CaO/P2O5 mass ratios of common botanic ashes and ceramic glazes from different periods in
Jingdezhen

Ceramic NO. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
glazes
Group TC FC FW NSE NSL SS YSF YBW M

CaO/MgO 3.67 11.06 9.38 6.99 31.73 20.57 22.03 32.05 14.75

CaO/P2O5 21.21 75.91 61.82 44.28 188.63 133.70 165.25 134.60 67.83

Botanic ashes NO. 10 11 12 13 14 15

Group Straw Fern Reed Fir Pine Bamboo
CaO/MgO 2.06 0.85 1.59 3.05 7.28 0.84
CaO/P2O5 5.76 5.06 4.57 13.14 19.08 2.41

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8 J. Wu et al.

A direct impact of this marked decline in MgO and P2O5 contents is a large increase in the
mass ratios of CaO/MgO and CaO/P2O5 in the glazes of the FC and FW specimens, which are
much higher than the values for botanic ashes (Table 2). Thus, a new source of CaO must have
been used as the Ca flux in these recipes, because any botanic ash alone would not have rendered
such values in the final glazes. On the other hand, the mass ratios of CaO/MgO and CaO/P2O5 in
the FC and FW glaze specimens are still lower than that in the glazes of the Ming and Qing dy-
nasties (Fig. 2), when the use of glaze ash as the Ca flux in Jingdezhen glaze recipes had become
well established. Therefore, this marked increase of CaO/MgO and CaO/P2O5 in the glaze chem-
istries of the Jingdezhen Five Dynasties period must signify the start of the limestone-based
glaze, which was then used continuously in Jingdezhen for the next millennium. The slightly
lower CaO/MgO and CaO/P2O5 ratios in the FC and FW glazes, compared with later glazes, also
suggest that the practice of using limestone as the main glaze-flux was in its early days in
Jingdezhen during the Five Dynasties period, and the most effective way of preparing limestone
for ‘glaze ash’ had not yet been found.
According to various historical literature resources, the glaze ash used in the Ming and Qing
dynasties was made by burning limestone into a fine powder and then recarbonating the
quicklime (CaO) or slaked lime (Ca(OH)2) into Ca carbonate (CaCO3). This was managed by
burning again at a lower temperature, using plants as fuel (Vogt 1900). There are slight variations
in how the burning was carried out between different historical records, but according to previous
research, the whole burning process achieved a transformation from limestone rock to Ca carbonate
in a very finely powdered form (Kerr and Wood 2004). This burning process could be repeated
several times until the material was thoroughly recarbonated and in a state of ideal fineness for
use in glazes. The burnt residue is glaze ash, which is a mixture of limestone and botanic ash, with
the former as the dominant component. The chemistry of two modern glaze ash samples is shown
in Table 2. The purpose of burning limestone, by the Jingdezhen technique, is to create very fine
calcite particles, the size of which would be much smaller than the crystalline size of pulverized
limestone. This is a useful characteristic in both glaze suspension and in the overall quality of
the fired glaze.
During the Five Dynasties period, the fine limestone powder may have already been produced
by burning, using plant material as fuel, for it is the most effective way to produce fine
limestone powder and plants were the only fuel available. Nonetheless, the manner of burning
limestone may have been different from the practice used in later days. It could be that the lime-
stone to plant fuel weight ratio was lower than in later practice, and this might be the reason
why the FC and FW glazes have higher MgO and P2O5 contents and lower CaO/MgO and
CaO/P2O5 ratios. Other possibilities to explain these higher MgO and P2O5 contents and lower
CaO/MgO and CaO/P2O5 ratios in the FC and FW glazes include that the type of botanic fuel used
for burning the limestone may have been different and produced more botanic ash than in the later
types of prepared limestone material, or that deliberate mixtures of limestone (whether burned or
unburned) with a minor amount of botanic ash were used in Five Dynasties glazes at Jingdezhen.
However, there seems no way at present to determine which of these three options is the more
likely.
It is interesting, too, that the CaO/MgO and CaO/P2O5 values in early Northern Song bluish-
white glaze are in the same bracket with those of the Five Dynasties period, but when it comes to
bluish-white glazes of the later Northern Song and Southern Song dynasties, their CaO/MgO and
CaO/P2O5 values increased again and are essentially in the same range as Yuan and Ming dynas-
ties glazes (Fig. 2). Therefore, the point when the set procedure for making glaze ash was
established at Jingdezhen may have been in the later Northern Song dynasty. This is somewhat

© 2020 University of Oxford, Archaeometry ••, •• (2020) ••–••

 Early development of Jingdezhen ceramic glazes 9

before the date of the earliest literary record of burning limestone for glaze-making in
Jingdezhen, which was during the late Southern Song dynasty between 1214 and 1234, as cited
in Taoji 陶记, written by Jiangqi.

The discovery of white-firing porcelain stone and its impact on Jingdezhen ceramic glazes
The Five Dynasties period was the first boom in the ceramic industry in Jingdezhen, and it was
also the time when white porcelain was first produced in this region, as well as at several other
southern kiln sites. According to archaeological excavation and survey since the 1980s, a large
number of Five Dynasties kiln sites were found along the river system in Jingdezhen
(Cao 1998). In the earlier 10th century, three distinct types of ceramic were produced here:
green-glazed stonewares of the old Tang style, greyish-green wares and white porcelain wares
(Qin et al. 2015). Also at this time, ‘V’-shaped seggars of north Chinese style were used for firing
the higher quality white wares. It may also be significant that, at the Five Dynasties whiteware
site of Hutian, the kilns used were of the northern mantou style (Liu and Bai 1980). The ceramic
industry boom, the ‘V’-shaped seggar, the use of mantou kilns and the new white porcelain
material itself all suggest a northern influence at Jingdezhen during the Five Dynasties period.
However, some internal elements, such as the discovery of the white-firing porcelain stone,
which made the making white porcelain possible, also played a very important part at this highly
experimental stage (Wood 1999).
The decreased Fe2O3 and TiO2 contents in Jingdezhen white porcelain glazes, compared with
those used in the Tang green ware glazes, suggest that the siliceous material used for the white
porcelain glaze was also different from that used for making green wares, because the majority
of the Fe2O3 and TiO2 are contributed from the siliceous raw material. This change must also
have been due to the discovery and use of white-firing porcelain stone as the main siliceous
raw material in the glaze as well as in the body. Therefore, an entirely new recipe (both in the
Ca flux and a siliceous raw material that was very low in the earthy oxides of Fe and Ti) brought
about this essential change from the Tang green-glazed stoneware to Jingdezhen white porcelain.
According to Wu et al. (2015), the chemistries of Lantian kiln Tang green ware bodies are
essentially the same as those used for the Lantian kiln Five Dynasties greyish-green wares, and
they were both made by using a clay containing high TiO2 and Fe2O3 contents. However, accord-
ing to the present results, the chemistries of Lantian kiln Tang green stoneware glazes are clearly
different from Lantian kiln Five Dynasties greyish-green ware glazes. The latter is similar to the
chemistry of the Jingdezhen Five Dynasties white porcelain ware glaze, in their much lower Fe
and Ti contents. This suggests the use of white porcelain stone in the original recipes, and it also
appears to be a limestone-based glaze. This phenomenon is interesting because it suggests that
not only may the limestone-based glaze have been the major breakthrough for the emergence
of white ware in Jingdezhen, but also transformed green ware production in the region. As men-
tioned above, green-glazed stoneware, much the same as that used in the Tang dynasty was still
in production at Jingdezhen during the Five Dynasties period, but according to statistics based on
typology, its proportion within the overall ceramic production gradually decreased over this time
(Qin et al. 2015).
By examining the appearance of Tang Jingdezhen green wares from the Lantian and Nan kilns,
and comparing them with the appearances of Five Dynasties Jingdezhen greyish-green wares, it
is evident that the physical qualities and visual smoothness of the glazes were much improved in
the Five Dynasties period. Taking the glazes of the celebrated Yue kilns’ stoneware as a compar-
ison, the glaze of Tang Jingdezhen stoneware glaze is much frailer and prone to come off the

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10 J. Wu et al.

body, although they were both plant-ash based. However, the quality of the Jingdezhen Five
Dynasties greyish-green ware glaze was not far inferior to Yue kilns’ stoneware glaze.
The other noticeable difference between the limestone-based FW glaze and the limestone-
based FC glaze is that the former seemed to have used one-third less Ca flux. This may have been
to maximize glaze whiteness in order to invoke the character of northern white ware. It was not
until bluish-white glaze reached its full maturity when Jingdezhen potters chose to give up cre-
ating wares with high whiteness that this low Ca flux addition approach was abandoned, but it
was picked up again by Jingdezhen Yuan potters when achieving whiteness once more became
their priority.
Although it is still not clear whether white porcelain stone was first used in the Five Dynasties
grey-green limestone-based glazes, or in the white porcelain bodies themselves, the change of
raw materials and glaze recipes in the Five Dynasties period at Jingdezhen enabled the emer-
gence of white porcelain as well as transforming the quality of local green ware production. It
also laid the foundations for bluish-white porcelains to emerge in the Song dynasty.

The increasing alkaline oxides in Jingdezhen glazes from the Song to the Ming dynasties and its
reason
Once the limestone-based glaze was established in Jingdezhen during the Five Dynasties period,
the basic glaze ingredients remained unchanged there from the Song bluish-white glaze to the
Ming and Qing transparent glaze for blue-and-white and for the white glazes used as grounds
for overglaze decoration. From the early 10th century, porcelain stone and glaze ash have been
the two main glaze ingredients, according to historical references and numerous previous studies,
and the results of this study also support this understanding.
However, on top of the similar glaze raw materials used in Jingdezhen throughout history, one
noticeable difference between Five Dynasties glazes and Song bluish-white glaze, and later
glazes, can be observed, and this concerns rising alkaline oxides contents (Table 2 and Fig. 3).
This phenomenon was first noted in Zhou Ren’s original study of Jingdezhen porcelain in the
1950s (Zhou and Li 1960). Luo et al. (1995) generalized this developmental trend and catego-
rized Jingdezhen glaze chemistries into three different groups: lime, lime-alkaline and alkaline-
lime. The major reason for the increase in alkaline oxides, especially for the Yuan and later

Figure 3 Average Na2O content in Jingdezhen glazes of different periods

© 2020 University of Oxford, Archaeometry ••, •• (2020) ••–••

 Early development of Jingdezhen ceramic glazes 11

transparent glazes, is the altered proportion of siliceous raw material (glaze stone) to glaze ash in
the recipe (Li 1998). The Ca content in Yuan dynasty and later transparent glazes is basically <
7 wt%, which is about half the amount in the Song bluish-white glazes. This suggests that the
amount of glaze ash used in the glaze recipes was largely reduced during the later period.
However, during the Song dynasty when the glaze ash had not been lowered in the recipe, the
increase of the Na2O content, relative to K2O, had already started (Fig. 3). The reason for this
increase was not an elevated proportion of glaze stone, but a change in the glaze-stone type itself.
This relates to a theory first proposed by Liu Xinyuan and Bai Kun (1982) and not often seen in
the English literature. This suggests that less weathered porcelain stone, which is more deeply
buried and nearer to its original rocky state, started to be used at Jingdezhen to replace the softer
and more weathered porcelain stone found nearer the surface. The surface and looser porcelain
earth is called ‘high fired porcelain stone’ in Jingdezhen because it contains a lower proportion
of fluxing oxides, especially Na, due to the alkaline elements being leached by weathering. This
is a more refractory material compared with the more deeply buried stone, which is barely
weathered and contains a higher proportion of fluxing oxides and is, therefore, less refractory.
This latter material is called ‘low fired porcelain stone’ in Jingdezhen. Liu and Bai argued that
due to the large-scale ceramic production in Jingdezhen during the Five Dynasties period and
the Northern Song dynasty, the easily mined high-fired porcelain stone was running short during
the Southern Song dynasty, and this depletion of a primary raw material was the main reason for
the lower output of porcelain in Jingdezhen during the Southern Song dynasty. Archaeological
discoveries confirm that the Southern Song dynasty was at a low ebb for Jingdezhen ceramic
production because the number and scale of workshops were reduced compared with the
Northern Song.
The point of mentioning Liu and Bai’s theory here is not to discuss the possible raw material
crisis during the Southern Song, but to lead to the theory that the use of less weathered porcelain
stone, especially for glaze-making, may have started for the bluish-white porcelain glaze as early
as the late Northern Song dynasty when the Na2O content in glazes (associated with unweathered
soda feldspar) started to rise (Fig. 3 and Table 1). However, slightly different from Liu and Bai’s
suggestion that deeper and less weathered porcelain stone had to be used for ceramic production,
the present authors suggest that low-weathered rocks from a new quarry site, which were specif-
ically used for glaze-making, started to become the main siliceous raw material in Jingdezhen
glaze-making since the late Northern Song dynasty. A quarry site named Beiling 背岭 that spe-
cifically supplied stone for glaze was recorded in the Southern Song literature Taoji 陶记. This
represented a break with the existing Jingdezhen (and south Chinese) practice of using the body
material as the main glaze ingredient. Evidence for this change was proposed by Wood (1999)—
citing a Song qingbai glaze with a higher Na2O content than the body used with it as an example
of this practice. And the raised Na2O contents found in late Northern Song bluish-white glaze
may signify the point when this change of practice first occurred.

CONCLUSIONS

The Jingdezhen Tang green stoneware glaze used botanic ash as its prime CaO source, and pine
ash was a likely source of the material.
The Jingdezhen limestone-based glaze was introduced in the Five Dynasties period and was
used for both white porcelain wares and for greyish-green wares.

© 2020 University of Oxford, Archaeometry ••, •• (2020) ••–••

12 J. Wu et al.

The set procedure for making glaze ash was likely to have been established in the late Northern
Song dynasty when the CaO/MgO and CaO/P2O5 further increased in the glaze chemistry to
levels typical of later production.
The use of less weathered porcelain stone specifically for glaze-making seems also to have
started in the late Northern Song dynasty when the Na2O in the glaze chemistry began to
increase.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant numbers
51862018, 51802017 and 51762027); by the Jiangxi Provincial Department of Education (grant
number JD15114 and GJJ160879); and Humanity and Social Sciences research project from the
ministry of education in China (MOE, no. 19YJAZH130). The authors are indebted to the Ar-
chaeological Institute of Jiangxi Province and the Ceramic Archaeological Institute of
Jingdezhen for providing the samples of 154 shards of typical specimens from the Tang to Ming
dynasties. The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in the Nottingham
Research Data Management Repository (http://doi.org/10.17639/nott.7012).

ENDNOTE
1
Limestone-based glaze means limestone is used as the main Ca source in the recipe.

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