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| Longquan ware | |
|---|---|
| Name | Longquan ware |
| Type | Celadon |
| Place | Longquan, Zhejiang |
| Country | China |
| Period | Song to Ming dynasties |
Longquan ware is a Chinese celadon ceramic tradition that originated in Longquan, Zhejiang and flourished from the Northern Song dynasty through the Yuan dynasty and Ming dynasty. Renowned for its olive-green glazes, durable bodies, and often thickly potted forms, Longquan ceramics played a central role in East Asian maritime trade and influenced ceramic production across Korea, Japan, and Southeast Asia. Court tastes in Hangzhou, export markets in Aden and Malacca Sultanate, and archaeological finds in Quanzhou document its broad geographic and cultural impact.
Longquan production began in the late 10th century under the political conditions of the Northern Song dynasty and expanded during the Southern Song dynasty when demand from the Southern Song court and elite patrons in Hangzhou encouraged refinement. During the Yuan dynasty, Mongol rule stimulated maritime commerce via the Maritime Silk Road and ports such as Quanzhou and Fuzhou, increasing exports to the Middle East, Southeast Asian kingdoms, and East Africa. The Ming dynasty reorganizations of ceramic administration and kiln oversight, intersecting with policies in Nanjing and later Beijing, affected production scale and styles. Archaeological excavations at kiln sites near Longquan, Zhejiang and finds in shipwrecks off Nanhai One have enriched chronological frameworks, while studies by scholars at institutions like the Palace Museum, Beijing and the British Museum have refined typologies.
Longquan body clays were sourced from local strata in the Wuyi Mountains region, combined with feldspathic inclusions common to southern Zhejiang deposits. Glaze recipes employed iron oxide as a chromophore, and reduction firing in dragon kilns created the characteristic olive to bluish-green tones; kiln architecture similar to those documented in Jingdezhen contrasts with southern kilns around Longquan, Zhejiang. Techniques such as slip application, incised decoration, and carved sgraffito relate to practices observed in Guan ware and Ding ware workshops. Advances in kiln temperature control paralleled metallurgical know-how recorded in Song dynasty technical treatises and administrative records in Taizhou. Analytical studies using X-ray fluorescence at universities like Zhejiang University have clarified raw material provenance and glaze chemistry.
Catalogues distinguish several Longquan types including thick-walled storage jars, ewers, basin forms, and shallow dishes, often grouped as “Northern” and “Southern” Longquan by ceramic historians. Surface finishes range from deeply crackled celadon to lustrous, nearly monochrome green surfaces; decorative motifs include lotus, lotus pod, phoenix, fish, and cloud scrolls, echoing iconography from Buddhist and Daoist visual traditions patronized by elites in Hangzhou. Subtypes such as floral-relief pressed wares, carved celadon, and inlaid examples show technical borrowing from Yue ware and influence on Korean celadon in the Goryeo period. Auction records from houses like Sotheby's and Christie's show market distinctions among rare monochrome pieces and common utilitarian wares.
Primary kiln complexes were clustered in the hills southwest of Longquan, Zhejiang, with named kiln groups at sites archaeologists label as the Xitian, Xiqing, and Yaoli areas. Excavations led by teams from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and international collaborations with the University of Oxford have mapped kilns, waster dumps, and workshop layouts. Dragon kilns following the slope-building method are comparable to those at Jingdezhen yet adapted to local topography and fuel types from subtropical Zhejiang woodlands. Local administration of production varied across dynastic transitions, with records surviving in county gazetteers compiled in Ming dynasty provincial archives.
Longquan celadon became a major export commodity conveyed by merchants operating from ports including Quanzhou, Fuzhou, Ningbo, and later Shanghaied? coastal hubs; finds in shipwrecks such as the Nanhai One and the Quanzhou shipwreck document cargoes bound for Southeast Asia, the Persian Gulf, and East Africa. Archaeological assemblages at sites in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, and Malacca indicate local consumption, while records in Venetian and Portuguese mercantile accounts reference Chinese green-glazed wares. Trade networks included merchant communities like the Arab and Persian traders documented in port inscriptions and led to cultural exchanges evident in hybrid forms found in Aceh and Luzon contexts.
Longquan wares occupied roles in ritual, elite display, and everyday practice, appearing in Buddhist temple inventories and elite households documented in Southern Song sources. Their aesthetics informed court tastes in Goryeo Korea and later inspired Japanese tea ceremony ceramics in the Muromachi period, where collectors in Kyoto prized Chinese celadons. European collectors from the Renaissance onward valued Longquan green as part of chinoiserie collections in houses of Medici patrons and later in museums like the Victoria and Albert Museum. Scholarly debates at institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and publications by researchers at Kyoto University trace transmission of ceramic motifs and glazing techniques across East Asia.
Collectors and museums employ stylistic analysis, thermoluminescence dating, and compositional testing to authenticate Longquan wares; major collections are held by the Palace Museum, Beijing, the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and regional museums in Hangzhou. Conservation challenges include glaze cracking, kiln haze, and salt-induced crystallization from marine shipwreck contexts such as the Nanhai One; remediation protocols follow standards developed by conservators at the Getty Conservation Institute and training programs at the Courtauld Institute of Art. Provenance research utilizes archival inventories, auction catalogues from Christie's and Sotheby's, and excavation reports published by the Chinese Archaeological Society to establish lawful ownership histories.