Challenges and solutions: the ingenuity of the Yaozhou potters

Since its identification in the 1950s, what we commonly call ‘Yaozhou ware’, that is, greenware characterised by vivid designs carved or impressed under a transparent olive-green glaze (fig. 1), has been regarded as somewhat lesser than Ding or Jun wares. However, the observation of Yaozhou wares shows that it is a groundless disparagement. Their exclusion from the ‘five famous wares of the Song dynasty (960-1279)’ is what prompted my research into the Yaozhou kilns. This paper is structured in two main parts. The first examines the complex and, in many respects, unique trajectory of the Huangbaozhen kilns from their establishment in the Tang dynasty (618-907) through their peak during the Northern Song (960-1127) and Jin (1115-1234) periods. Particular emphasis is placed on the ingenuity displayed by the potters in adapting to locally available raw materials, evolving firing technologies, and changing aesthetic preferences, and, in certain instances, in actively setting those preferences. The second part focuses on what I define as the ‘concept of a signature product’ and explores its relationship with other ceramic genres produced at Huangbaozhen, arguing for a reassessment of how Yaozhou ceramics have been characterised in scholarship.