In the Tang Dynasty, ceramic craftsmanship in Jingdezhen developed by leaps and bounds. Acording to records, porcelain wares from "Tao Kiln" (named after Tao Yu) and "Huo Kiln" (named after Huo Zhongchu), were called artificial jade, because of hard body, fine texture, and jade-like glaze, and were given to the imperial court as tribute. Liu Zongyuan (an ofcial and a scholar in the Tang Dynasty), in his Memorial to the Emperor about Porcelain, wrote that tribute paid by Jingdezhen, was beautiful and durable porcelain wares with no coarse flaws or low-pitched sound. In recent years, the discovery of Lantian Kiln Site further verified the level of ceramic craftsmanship of Jingdezhen achieved in the Tang Dynasty as well as recorded in the literature.
In the Five Dynasties the scale of porcelain manufacturing expanded continuously. In addition, new types of color glaze gradually increased. Archaeological findings indicate that over 20 ancient kilns in the Five Dynasties are scattered along the South River, the Small South River and the old downtown area. In the Five Dynasties, large quantities of celadon wares, and small quantities of fine white porcelain wares and bluish white porcelain wares were manufactured. Common shapes generallyinclude bowls,plates,saucers, and handledewers, all of which are without any decoration. However, in terms of qua- lity, white porcelain and bluish white porcelain were among the top porcelain produced by other kilns nationwide.
Kilns and ceramic workshops became widespread in Jingdezhen in the Song Dynasty. Up to now, over 136 kiln sites have been discovered, including Hutian, Yangmeiting, Baihuwan, Yingtian, Jinkeng, Nanshi Street, Liujiawan and the old downtown area of Jingdezhen. These sites are renowned for their scale and exquisite wares. Bluish white porcelain wares made in these kilns are various in forms, white and thin in body, littering andtranslucent in glaze and vivid in decorative design, which represent the supreme technological lev- el of porcelain making in the Song Dynasty. Hence Jingdezhen kiln becomes the best representative of bluish white porcelain kins in the Song Dynasty. D- uring the Jingde Reign of the Song Dynasty, Emperor Zhen Zong named Changnan town after his reign, which reflected that the Song Dynasty govern- ment attached great importance to Jingdezhen's ceramic industry.
Yuan Dynasty is a transitional period in the ceramic history, in which Jingdezhen succeeded in making blue and white wares, underglazed red wares, three-color (red, green and yellow) glazed pottery, gold coloring and egg-white glaze wares, sky-blue glaze wares, ruby-red glaze wares and many other precious types, entering a new stage of faience in China. The inventive adoption of multi-component formula with kaolin in the porcelain body enables a higher firing temperature and a lower rate of deformation. Since then, large wares were born in Jingdezhen and the productivity of ceramic manufacturing was highly strengthened, marking a milestone in the ceramic history.
The Ming Dynasty witnessed a rapid development of ceramic craftsmanship in Jingdezhen. "It takes seventy-two steps to turn china stone into porcelain wares, ignoring tiny details in the process", which was recorded in Tian Gong Kai Wu (An Encyclopedia of Agriculture and Craftsmanship in Ancient China) by Song Yingxing, a famous scientist in the Ming Dynasty. Evidently, ceramic shaping techniques in the late Ming Dynasty were mature. In terms of decorating techniques, colored glaze wares fired at high or low temperature were competing with faience, which led to a more diversified ceramic classification. Special kilns for certain wares came into being to meet different requirements about firing temperature and atmosphere. Thus, the kiln building techniques and firing techniques were at peak in the Ming Dynasty
The Qing Dynasty reached the summit of traditional porcelain manufacturing craftsmanship of Jingdezhen. "Hands follow the rotating china clay, and clay takes shape with hands" suggested that potters could shape clay at their will.' Thanks to different CO- lors fired at high or low temperature, various new types of wares were born. Overglaze porcelain represents a combination of dif- ferent decorating techniques, adding all sorts of colors to ceram- ics.
During the Republic of China, Jingdezhen's ceramic industry drew from history and led to contemporary era in which people in Jingdezhen were at social disturbance and national crisis, and still continued to manufacture ceramics, depending on their strong will and innovative spirit. The achievements during this period in manufacturing mode, education and research, and decorative art were of great significance to China's ceramic history.