View source for Yue ware

{{Short description|Type of Chinese ceramics}}
[[File:Yue ware stoneware China Five Dynasties 10th century.jpg|thumb|300px|Yue ware stoneware, China, [[Five Dynasties]], 10th century CE.]]
'''Yue ware''' or '''Yüeh ware''' ({{zh|t=越(州)窯|p=Yuè(zhōu) yáo|w=Yüeh(-chou) yao}}) is a type of [[Chinese ceramics]], a [[felspathic]] [[siliceous]] [[stoneware]], which is characteristically decorated with [[celadon]] [[Ceramic glaze|glazing]].<ref name="Sullivan"/><ref name="Wood"/> Yue ware is also sometimes called '''(Yuezhou) green porcelain''' ({{zh|c=(越州)青瓷|p=(Yuèzhōu) qīngcí|links=no}}) in modern literature, but the term is misleading as it is not really [[porcelain]] (on Western definitions) and its shades are not really green.<ref name="Sullivan"/> It has been "one of the most successful and influential of all south Chinese ceramics types".<ref name="Wood"/>

The wares covered by the term have been gradually reduced; initially used for a wide range of early celadons with a grey body, it was first made more specific to refer only to wares from north China, and then later only to those from the [[Tang dynasty]] onwards, and sometimes to restrict it "to the finest quality wares of the ninth and tenth centuries".<ref>Medley, 102</ref>  At the same time it has been realized that very similar wares were made at a number of northern kilns, and today the term '''Yue-type''' is often preferred.

As the first fine glazed Chinese wares with no toxicity problems from the glazing, Yue ware begins the classic tradition of Chinese ceramics used for serving food and drinking wine or tea.  Typically thin-bodied and finely made, with subtle glaze effects and very elegant shapes, Yue ware set the taste for monochrome pieces, sometimes with restrained incised decoration, that lasted for several centuries after.

Closed shapes such as vases, ewers, and ritual objects could have sculptured parts.

==Technique==
[[File:Yue ware with motif 3rd century Western Jin Zhejiang.jpg|thumb|left|Yue ware with motif, 3rd century CE, [[Western Jin]], [[Zhejiang]].]]
Yue ware was fired in [[dragon kiln]]s. The Yue [[ceramic glaze|glazing]] was an [[ash glaze]], made with a recipe using [[wood ash]] and [[clay]], and possibly small amounts of [[limestone]].<ref name="Wood">''Chinese glazes: their origins, chemistry, and recreation'' Nigel Wood p.35''ff'' [https://archive.org/details/chineseglazesthe0000wood/page/35]</ref> Firing temperature is thought to have been about 1,000[[°C]] or slightly higher.<ref name="Wood"/> The color of the glaze ranges from grey to olive to brown. Yue ware is considered as the ancestor of [[Song dynasty|Song]] [[celadon]] ceramics.<ref name="Sullivan">''The arts of China'' by [[Michael Sullivan (art historian)|Michael Sullivan]] p.90''ff'' [https://books.google.com/books?id=sn0CyBCJKz8C&pg=PA90]</ref>

==Evolution==
[[File:Tang Dynasty stoneware with celadon glaze ie Yue ware found in Samarra Iraq.jpg|thumb|[[Tang dynasty]] stoneware with [[celadon]] [[Ceramic glaze|glaze]] (Yue ware), found in [[Samarra]], [[Iraq]].]]
Yue ware originated in the Yue kilns of Northern [[Zhejiang]], in the site of [[Jiyuan]] near [[Shaoxing]], called in ancient times "Yuezhou" ({{lang|zh|越州}}).<ref name="Sullivan"/><ref name="MET">Notice of the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] permanent exhibition.</ref> Its name goes back to the [[Yue (state)|Yue Kingdom]] of the [[Spring and Autumn period]] (770-476 BCE).<ref name="Wood"/> Yue ware was first manufactured in the 2nd century CE, when it consisted of very precise imitations of [[bronze]] vessels, many of which have been found in tombs of the [[Nanjing]] region.<ref name="Sullivan"/> After this initial phase, Yue ware evolved progressively into true ceramic form, and became a medium of artistic expression.<ref name="Sullivan"/><ref name="Wood"/> Production in Jiyuan stopped in the 6th century, but expanded to various areas of Zhejiang, especially the [[Shanglin Lake Yue Kilns]] near [[Ningbo]].<ref name="Sullivan"/><ref name="Wood"/>

Yue ware was highly valued and was used as tribute for the imperial court of China in the 9th century.<ref name="Wood"/> Significantly, it was also used in China's most revered [[Famen Temple]] in [[Shaanxi Province]].<ref name="Wood" /> Yue ware was exported to the [[Middle East]] early on. In an early example of [[Chinese influences on Islamic pottery]], shards of Yue ware have been excavated in [[Samarra]], [[Iraq]],.<ref name="MET" /> From the 8th to the 11th centuries, it was also exported to [[East Asia]], [[South Asia]], and [[East Africa]].<ref name="Wood"/><ref>{{cite book
| title = Chinese pottery and porcelain
| author = Li Zhiyan
|author2=Cheng Wen
 | year = 1996
| page = 195
| isbn = 7-119-00752-1
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=SPnqAAAAMAAJ
}}</ref>
[[File:Mise ware excavated at Famen Temple, 2019-11-16 01.jpg|thumb|A Mi-se dish from [[Famen Temple]]]]
A particularly refined form of Yue ware is the ''Mi-se Yue ware'' ({{zh|c=秘色越器}}, or {{zh|c=|t=秘色青瓷}}, "Secret color Yue ware") found in the [[Famen Temple]] and dated to the 9th century. This ware was undecorated but characterized by a smooth and thin glaze of a light color, either yellowish green or bluish green.<ref name="Wood"/>

[[File:Yue plate Zhejiang 10th century.jpg|thumb|Yue plate, [[Zhejiang]], 10th century.]]
Korean celadons were thought to be influenced by Yue ware by the 11th century, and displayed a bluer glaze through the use of low-[[iron]] and low-[[Titanium dioxide|titania]] [[lime glaze]]s, closer to the [[Eutectic system|eutectic ideal]]. However, the Koreans developed their own bluish-green celadon glazes by the [[Koryo dynasty]], that was different from those of Yue wares.<ref>Chinese glazes: their origins, chemistry, and recreation by Nigel Wood</ref>

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
*Medley, Margaret, ''T'ang Pottery and Porcelain'', 1981, Faber & Faber, {{ISBN|0571109578}}

==External links==
{{commonscat}}
*[http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15324coll10/id/38422/rec/3 A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics] from The Metropolitan Museum of Art

{{Chinese ceramics}}
{{Porcelain}}

[[Category:Chinese pottery]]
[[Category:Shangyu]]
[[Category:Ningbo]]
[[Category:Culture in Zhejiang]]
[[Category:Stoneware]]