In the Song dynasty five kilns were most famous for their ceramics, a part of these belong to the eight great kilns of that period.
Five famous Song kilns Renowned for their wares.Ding, Ru, Ge, Guan and Jun
The Guan kiln was established in the capital area and produced exclusively for the court. Among the above "Ge" means older brother, and points to the fact that the kiln was founded by the elder of the Zhang brothers (章氏兄弟). His younger brother operated the Zhang kiln, also called Di kiln ("Di" means younger brother). However, this kiln is now better known under the name of its location - Longquan.
Ge wares are generally of white color with a grayish or bluish tone, and covered in crackles. The crackles may be very small or of larger size. Today, the Longquan kiln is today probably one of the best known kilns of that period. It produced mainly celadon wares in a wide range of green tones, ranging from outright green to bluish or brownish green, etc.
The eight great Song kilns represent the largest production systems at the time. Two of these belong to the five Song kilns most famous for the beauty of their wares. :
Ding: best known for white ceramics (but also made black ones, etc.)
Cizhou: black & white ceramics
Jun: glazes ranging from blue/bluish to purple
Longquan: green (celadon)
Yaozhou: incised (carved) celadon
Jingdezhen: qingbai (greenish white glazes)
Jian: mainly black glazes
Yue: green glazes
The above are regarded as mainstream kilns and their ceramics provide the best collecting value.
