Artisans, Workshops and Skilled Work in Tang China

Under the Tang dynasty (618–907), craft production ranged from pottery made for everyday use to finely finished objects for the court and elite households. The clearest evidence for how skilled work proceeded comes from ceramics made at kiln centers in northern and southern China. Xing whiteware came from Hebei in the north, while Yue ware was produced in Zhejiang in the south. Tang potters also made sancai, a style of pottery decorated with several colours of glaze, often for burial settings. These products show how makers adapted local materials and firing methods to different uses and buyers. Metalwork and wooden objects survive too, although their production is less fully documented.

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Pottery depended on materials, forming and firing

Making a ceramic vessel required several linked stages: preparing clay, shaping the body, applying any slip or glaze, and firing the piece in a kiln. The materials and firing conditions helped determine a vessel’s strength, appearance and use.

Potters could shape pieces on a wheel or use moulds. They selected and prepared glazes as well as clay, then had to control the firing so that a vessel hardened and its glaze developed as intended. The contrast among Xing ware, Yue ware and sancai shows that Tang pottery was not one uniform craft: each required a different combination of body, glaze and heat.

Xing ware: shaping a white body for a smooth glaze

Xing kilns in what is now Hebei made white ceramics, with production reaching a high point during the Tang. Fine examples had a thin, carefully prepared body that did not need a white coating to conceal its surface. Coarser pieces could receive a layer of white slip, a liquid clay coating, before glazing. Potters covered the body with a thin, usually clear glaze. Clay selection and glaze preparation affected the fired surface, while a clear glaze allowed the pale body beneath to remain visible.

The kilns burned wood, and potters used saggars , protective containers that kept vessels from direct contact with the kiln environment during firing. Some Xing pieces reached a level of hardness and translucency that meets Western definitions of porcelain; others are better described as stoneware.

Xing ware included both fine and coarser products. The Tang writer Li Zhao described it as used by rich and poor alike, evidence that the kiln’s output was not confined to luxury buyers. Some pieces also reached the court: sherds marked with names associated with imperial stores or officials have been found at both kiln sites and the Daming Palace. The range of quality and use connected skilled kiln production to more than one level of demand.

Yue ware: ash glaze and vessels for serving

Yue ware, made in Zhejiang, was a high-fired stoneware with a glaze made principally from wood ash and clay, sometimes with a little limestone. Firing temperatures are estimated at about 1,000°C or slightly higher. The glaze could appear grey, olive or brown rather than a single, consistent green. Potters produced finely made vessels with restrained decoration, including occasional incised patterns.

Shapes included vases and ewers as well as vessels for serving food and drink. Yue ware was valued at court and served as tribute in the ninth century. It was also used at Famen Temple in Shaanxi. Its fine glaze made it suitable for serving food, wine and tea, linking potters’ work with practices in elite and religious settings. Finds at Samarra in Iraq attest to its movement beyond China; Tang-period Yue ware also travelled through regional trade networks.

Sancai: coloured glazes for vessels and burials

Sancai, meaning three colours, usually combined green, amber or brown, and creamy white, though pieces could include additional colours. Potters used white or buff-firing clay, sometimes covered it with white slip, and applied coloured glazes. Copper compounds produced green and iron compounds produced yellow-brown tones; cobalt produced blue, a more expensive colour used sparingly. The name therefore describes a common palette, not a strict limit on the number of colours.

Sancai was lead-glazed earthenware, fired at a lower temperature than high-fired wares such as Yue. The body was fired first, then glazed and fired again. Because the glazes could flow and blend during firing, their edges might form streaks and patches rather than sharply divided bands. Potters used the technique on vessels as well as on figures. Figures could be moulded in sections, joined with clay slip and refined by hand before the first firing. Glazing and refiring followed.

Many Tang sancai figures were made for elite tombs, especially in the north, and production of these burial figures was concentrated around the capital region. Sancai vessels also occur in burials, so their presence in a grave does not by itself show that they were ordinary tableware in life. Their lead-bearing glaze is another reason not to assume that every vessel served for everyday eating and drinking. The full multicolour style appeared late in the seventh century, including the years of Wu Zetian’s rule (690–705).

Metalwork and wooden objects in elite settings

Metalworkers shaped vessels and mirrors in bronze, silver and other metals. Casting formed a body in a mould, while hammering could shape sheet metal. Incised or inlaid decoration added detail to the surface. These operations required different handling of the material, from making the basic form to fitting a contrasting metal into a prepared design.

The Japanese Shōsō-in repository preserves objects associated with Emperor Shōmu and Tōdai-ji. His widow, Empress Dowager Kōmyō, donated his possessions in 756. The collection includes wooden furnishings, musical instruments, textiles, metalwork and glass from several origins. Chinese-made objects sit within this wider collection, providing examples of Tang craftsmanship that travelled abroad.

Textile makers and embroidery

Weaving interlaced a taut set of warp threads with weft passed across them. Selecting which threads rose for each pass created patterns as well as a coherent sheet of cloth. Surviving Tang silk with floral medallions demonstrates how a woven design could combine repeated motifs with influences from Central and western Asia.

Embroidery added an image after the ground cloth had been woven. A Buddhist textile from Dunhuang uses coloured silk threads in split stitch over plain silk: the needle splits an earlier stitch as the next is made, building continuous lines and areas of colour. Religious patrons thus supported skilled needlework as well as pottery, sculpture and painting.

Workshops, buyers and movement of finished goods

Pottery links makers’ practical work to distinct kinds of demand. Xing vessels served buyers across a range of means as well as the court; Yue ware supplied refined serving vessels and tribute; and sancai was closely associated with elite burial customs.

Finished wares also travelled. Tang Xing ceramics were exported, and examples have been found in the Belitung shipwreck and at sites in Iraq. Yue ware reached destinations beyond China as well. Such finds show that the products of regional kilns could circulate over long distances, while their varied materials and forms reflect the particular work of the potters who made them.

For the wider setting, see Work, Festivals and Entertainment in Tang Communities: Everyday Life, 618–907.