Longquan celadon () is a type of green-glazed Chinese ceramic, known in the West as celadon or greenware, produced from about 950 to 1550. The kilns were mostly in Lishui prefecture in southwestern Zhejiang Province in the south of China, and the north of Fujian Province. Overall a total of some 500 kilns have been discovered,Krahl and Harrison-Hall, 13; Gompertz, 158 has "over 200 kiln sites" showing the pace of Chinese archaeology in recent decades, and perhaps counting groups rather than individual kilns; Medley, 147, on their locations making the Longquan celadon production area one of the largest historical ceramic producing areas in China. "Longquan-type" is increasingly preferred as a term, in recognition of this diversity, or simply "southern celadon",Medley, 146 as there was also a large number of kilns in north China producing Yaozhou ware or other Northern Celadon wares. These are similar in many respects, but with significant differences to Longquan-type celadon, and their production rose and declined somewhat earlier.Medley, 115-118; Gompertz, 159, 98-125; for some reason one is typically capitalized and the other not.
Celadon production had a long history at Longquan and related sites, but it was not until the Northern Song (960–1127) period that large-scale production began, and the move of the capital to Hangzhou, close to Longquan, after the start of the Southern Song (1127–1279), was probably important in the great expansion of both quality and production there. Both continued at high levels in the Yuan (1271–1368) and the early part of the Ming (1368–1644) periods. Longquan celadons were an important part of China's export economy for over five hundred years, and were widely imitated in other countries, especially Korea and Japan. Their demise came after they were overtaken in their markets by blue and white porcelain from Jingdezhen.
Goryeo Korea imitated Longquan celadon in glaze color, preserving its distinct green color. However, influenced by Liao Dynasty's own imitations of Longquan celadon, developed new shapes and patterns which led to the ultimately distinct bisaek celadon, which other countries (China, Japan, etc) considered “celebrated artworks.” The distinctive features of Goryeo's bisaek celadon include the green-gray hue and masterful incising abilities which added patterns to the ceramics’ surface.
In traditional Western terms, most celadons are strictly counted as stoneware, since the fired clay body is usually neither white nor translucent.Medley, 147 In the traditional Chinese classification, which divides pottery into low-fired earthenware and high-fired porcelain, they count as porcelain. Compromise terms such as "porcellanous stoneware" may be used to describe the pieces,Gompertz, 22 quoted; Medley, 146 describes them as "stoneware and porcellanous ware". and some Western writers consider the wares should be "regarded as porcelains".Vainker, 108 (quoted); Clunas, 284-285 refers to celadons as porcelain, but not consistently.
The Longquan celadons were among the finest of a range of celadon wares produced in China, and led stylistic and technical developments. The celadons were produced in a range of shades of colour, centred on olive-green, but extending to greenish blues (regarded as desirable, but less common) and browns. All these colours come from the glaze; the body beneath is sometimes left partly unglazed as part of the decoration, when it fires to a terracotta brown. The wares are hardly ever painted; decoration comes from the vessel shape and carved or incised designs in the body. Shapes were originally mostly simple, allowing the glaze colour to create the main effect of a piece, but in later periods raised decoration was common.
Technical aspects and decoration The body of Longquan celadon, as seen in fragments under glaze, varies from "a heavy, compact grey stoneware to an almost white porcellaneous material", but where fired at the surface this turns to a typical terracotta reddish brown, seen at the unglazed foot of many pieces, and when relief decoration is left unglazed (see below and illustration). This distinguishes Longquan from Northern Celadons. However, this may not be the case in pieces made from the most whitish, porcellanous, material, where the fired body may also "be translucent if thin enough".Medley, 147; Grove: "The body of Longquan celadon is a light grey stoneware, sometimes reaching the quality of a pure white porcelain". In Western sources, individual pieces are normally classified as stoneware, but some may be called porcelain;Compare the text and captions at Clunas 284-285, fig. 250 is called "stoneware", fig. 251 (the Katzenelnbogen bowl) "porcelain". Both are Longquan celadon of 1400-50. material translated from the Chinese is likely to describe all as "porcelain".For example Fang, Lili, Chinese Ceramics, 45-47, 2011, Cambridge University Press, , 9780521186483, google books
The body was normally thrown on the potter's wheel, with large vases often thrown in sections and luted together. Templates were used, and sometimes moulds, including two-part moulds, and moulds including decoration. Unglazed biscuit relief sections were achieved either by sprigging the reliefs over a glazed area before firing, where the surface would be flat in the kiln, or by adding a resist of wax or grease before glazing, when the sides of a vase were decorated.Medley, 148-152
The glaze colours vary across a wide spectrum of greyish to blueish greens, with some yellowish browns as well.Valenstein, 101-102 The colour comes from iron oxide fired in a reducing atmosphere, and the colour varies with the temperature and the strength and timing of the reduction. Longquan celadon was fired in long dragon kilns, brick tunnels rising up a slope, with a series of chambers, and the best results came from the pots in the uppermost stages, which heated up more slowly and evenly. Saggars were always used, and the longer kilns, with up to twelve chambers, might have been able to fire as many as 25,000 pieces at a time. The firing temperature was probably between 1,180 °C and 1,280 °C, with the range over 1,250 °C giving the best green or blue colours.Medley, 147-148 In some cases at least there appear to have been layers of glaze and also multiple firings to achieve a deeper glaze effect.Valenstein, 99-100
The glaze is made opaque by the presence of plant ash and tiny bubbles of gas, which give a lustrous effect. With the whiter body clays pieces may be translucent. The pronounced reddish colour of unglazed areas comes from the end of the firing, as the heated clay comes in contact with fresh air let into the kiln, and the iron present turns into ferrous oxide.Gompertz, 164 Many pieces have crazing or crackle in the glaze, but much less than in the closely related Guan ware. A technique sometimes found before about 1400 was to add spots or splashes of a mixture rich in iron oxide with an appearance of randomness; these fired a dark brown.Medley, 152
Both Chinese and Japanese tradition have developed a range of terms to describe the glaze colours and qualities; some of the Japanese ones have the advantage of being anchored to specific pieces in Japan. The term kinuta (砧青瓷) meaning "mallet", probably after a particular mallet vase, represents the most admired blue-green colour from the Song period, and is often used in English, while tenryūji has a "a faint yellowish-green tone", and is from the Yuan and Ming. The shickikan type is from the middle Ming, after the glaze became more transparent.Gompertz, 149-150 As with other celadons, for the Chinese the similarity of the colour to jade, always the most prestigious material in Chinese art, was an important factor in their appeal, and something the potters attempted to increase.Medley, 150
Most shapes are simple but very elegant. The size and decoration of larger fine pieces increases from the Yuan onwards, with some very large vases and lidded wine jars being made by the 14th century. The "mallet" vase was a special favourite at Longquan, often with handles formed as animals or dragons.Gompertz, 156, 162; Grove Funerary vases, made in pairs, also often feature charmingly stylized animals, usually tigers and dragons, curled around the shoulders of the vessel. These were used in southern Chinese burial custom to store provisions for the afterlife.Gompertz, 156; The British Museum says of the pair illustrated below: "These funerary urns are decorated with two ‘animals of the four directions’, called 'siling 四靈' in Chinese. The White Tiger of the West is pursuing a dog and the Green Dragon of the East is chasing a flaming pearl. The birds on the covers may allude to the Red Bird of the South; but the symbol of the north, a tortoise with a snake, is not present. In China, artists decorated coffins and tombs with these creatures from the Han dynasty (206 BC–AD 220) onwards. These jars stored provisions for the afterlife such as grain and are part of local southern burial practice." Another distinct Longquan style was a dish with two or more fishes in low relief swimming in the centre, either in biscuit or glazed; these sometimes have holes drilled for metal handles, as mentioned in a late 14th-century source.Medley, 148; Gompertz, 164-167
In general, Longquan decoration tends to project from the body, and the effects that Northern Celadon gets from glaze pooling over shallow carving into the body are less common. Earlier pieces are content with subtle glaze effects, often accentuated by the glaze thinning over small ridges or ribs, while later pieces have more elaborate floral scrolls or animals in relief.Medley, 150-151 Religious figurines and shrines were rare before the Yuan, and never a large part of production; as in Qingbai, these sometimes mix biscuit, for the flesh or figure, with a glazed background.British Museum example, 1991,0304.3; Clunas, 212 has this shrine with gilded figures.
Markets and later collecting
Unlike Northern Celadon, Longquan ware does not seem to have been used by the imperial court under the Song,Vainker, 110-111, though see Valenstein, 99, and Clunas, 97, 100, 229, where court patronage is said to have ended with the reign of the Xuande Emperor (d. 1435); Krahl and Harrison-Hall, 44 say (of the Southern Song) "The Longquan kilns were non-official kilns whose workers nevertheless made ceramics for the imperial household ...", repeated by the British Museum although Longquan kilns were used to make the "official" Guan ware, apparently when the Guan kilns could not cope with orders.Gompertz, 173; Vainker, 110-111; Rawson, 250 An important market seems to have been the literati or scholar-gentleman class. As well as wares for ordinary use, they were used on altars and sometimes in burials. Many shapes, especially in the early period, were based on ancient ritual bronze shapes, which were considered appropriate to religious functions, though these lacked the complex surface decoration of the bronze originals. These were also exported in great numbers and, at least in South-East Asian countries such as Japan and Korea, these associations could also be appreciated by local literati, and indeed clergy, as many of the best survivals are in temples.Vainker, 110-112; Gompertz, 148, 171; Rawson, 250
Japan was a large-scale and enthusiastic importer, and the beach at Kamakura, the capital during the height of Longquan production, had some 50,000 Longquan sherds, thought to have been broken pieces dumped at the end of the voyage from China. Japan soon began to imitate Longquan wares, and has continued to do so, both in mass-produced and studio pottery versions.Gompertz, 170-171