Parallel developments in Chinese porcelain technology in the 13th -14th centuries AD

By the 14th century AD, Jingdezhen in Jiangxi province and the Longquan region of Zhejiang province were China’s main centres for the manufacture of porcellaneous wares. Jingdezhen specialised in blue and white porcelain, while the Longquan kilns typically used opaque porcellanous bodies, and smooth and thick, greenish celadon glazes. A pattern of parallel technological development is evident at Jingdezhen and Longquan in the 13th -14th centuries, but probably driven by rather different causes. Jingdezhen is representative of a simpler and more local technological history that seems entirely southern. Longquan however adopted a glaze-type that had already seen many prestigious applications in north China. Unlike the white-bodied Jingdezhen wares, the Longquan bodies were sometimes deliberately discoloured with red clays, perhaps to harmonise with their jade-like greenish glazes.