Porcelain is made of clay and glaze fired in a kiln. At Erligang in Zhengzhou and other Shang sites, proto-porcelain with a yellow-green glaze had already been fired, opening the step from pottery to porcelain.
In the late Eastern Han, kilns such as Xiaoxiantan in Shangyu fired mature celadon at high heat in dragon kilns, and true porcelain was born.
The Song had many famous kilns. In the Yuan Jingdezhen fired mature blue-and-white porcelain, and porcelain became the calling card of China, traded worldwide.
To fire a piece of porcelain, the potter had to control the clay body and the glaze, and also a kiln heat of about 1300 degrees Celsius.
Ceramic Arts is the class in the chapter on Crafts on Chinese porcelain. From the proto-porcelain of the Shang and the mature celadon of the Eastern Han to the famous kilns of the Song and the blue-and-white of Jingdezhen in the Yuan, porcelain was made from clay body, glaze and kiln fire, and in time was traded worldwide.
