Deqing Primitive Celadon Kiln Sites

Deqing Primitive Celadon Kiln Sites

The Deqing Primitive Celadon Kiln Sites are a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

Located in the heart of the Yangtze River Delta, Deqing faces Shanghai to the east, borders Hangzhou to the south, leans against the foothills of Tianmu Mountain to the west, and connects to Taihu Lake to the north. With a long history and rich cultural heritage, Deqing has nurtured many notable historical figures, including Shen Yue, a renowned literary figure of the Southern Dynasties, Meng Jiao, a famous poet of the Tang Dynasty, and Yu Yue, a master of Confucian classics.

Deqing is the homeland of the "Deqing Kiln" ceramics in the history of Chinese ceramics. For a long time, cultural relics departments and professionals have been dedicated to the investigation, discovery, protection, and research of ancient kiln sites, leading to the discovery of nearly 100 new ancient kiln sites. These sites date from the Shang Dynasty through the Western Zhou, Spring and Autumn, Warring States, Han, Six Dynasties, and up to the Tang and Song Dynasties, proving that Deqing's ceramic industry spanned over two thousand years—an achievement unmatched by other kiln sites in China. The Deqing Kiln is a historically significant and self-contained system of renowned kilns. Among them, the most dazzling are the Shang and Zhou Dynasty primitive celadon kiln site clusters, which are unique in China to this day. Their craftsmanship and kiln technology represent an outstanding cultural heritage of the nation and serve as invaluable physical evidence for studying the origins of celadon in China and even the world.

In May 2007, an archaeological team jointly formed by the Palace Museum, the Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, and the Deqing Museum conducted large-scale excavations at the Huoshan Primitive Celadon Kiln Site in Shizhai Natural Village, Longsheng Village, Deqing Economic Development Zone, dating from the Western Zhou to the Spring and Autumn Periods, and made significant discoveries: this kiln site is the only one excavated so far in China that earliest utilized the slope of a hill to build kilns for firing primitive celadon. It provides important evidence for exploring the origin of dragon kilns, as dragon kilns are known as the cradle of celadon.

From October 2007 to March 2008, the Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, together with the Deqing Museum, excavated a kiln site at Tingziqiao in Dongshan Natural Village, Longsheng Village, Deqing Economic Development Zone, dating back over two thousand years to the Warring States Period. This excavation at Tingziqiao uncovered seven kiln remains, yielding a large number of primitive celadon ritual and musical instruments modeled after bronze ware, as well as various types of kiln tools. The excavation data indicates that the Tingziqiao kiln site was a workshop during the Warring States Period that produced high-end daily-use and funerary ceramics for the royal family and upper nobility of the Yue Kingdom. The excavation achieved significant results, which are of great academic importance for studying the history of Chinese ceramic development, especially the origins of mature celadon in China.

Since the 1980s, especially in the early 21st century, a large number of high-quality primitive celadon ritual and musical instruments modeled after bronze ware have been unearthed from some large-scale Yue Kingdom noble tombs in Shaoxing, Hangzhou, Yuhang, Changxing, Anji, and Haiyan in Zhejiang. In 2005, the "Wuxi Hongshan Yue Kingdom Noble Tomb," named one of China's "Top Ten Archaeological Discoveries," unearthed over 500 primitive celadon ritual instruments and 140 primitive celadon musical instruments modeled after bronze ware, which shocked the archaeological and ancient ceramic studies communities. Experts analyzing the grade and purpose of these ceramics concluded that the ability to produce such high-specification ceramics, used exclusively in royal and noble tombs, 2000 years ago could not have been achieved by ordinary civilian kilns and was likely produced by the Yue Kingdom's royal "official kilns."

The archaeological excavation of the Deqing Tingziqiao Kiln Site finally solved this mystery. The excavation unearthed a large number of bronze-modeled ritual and musical instruments. Their firing techniques were superior to many later kilns, and their quality rivaled that of mature celadon produced after the Eastern Han Dynasty. The types of artifacts almost covered all the primitive celadon ritual and musical instruments previously unearthed from large-scale Yue Kingdom noble tombs in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions, and they were almost identical to the bronze-modeled primitive celadon ritual and musical instruments found in the Jiangsu "Wuxi Hongshan Yue Kingdom Noble Tomb." This indicates that the excavation of the Tingziqiao Kiln Site identified the clear origin and kiln site of the bronze-modeled primitive celadon ritual and musical instruments found in Yue Kingdom noble tombs over the years, confirming that the "official kilns" specifically producing high-end daily-use and funerary ceramics for the Yue Kingdom royal family and upper nobility during the Warring States Period were located in Deqing. Official kilns, as opposed to civilian kilns, were workshops that produced ceramics primarily for the royal family and nobility, customizing high-end products with craftsmanship representing the highest level of ceramic production at the time.

Experts believe that the Deqing Tingziqiao Kiln Site was a Yue Kingdom "official kiln" from the Warring States Period, predating the previously academically recognized emergence of official kilns by a thousand years. The Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, compared it with mature celadon, and physicochemical data showed that Deqing had already produced mature celadon long before the Eastern Han Dynasty, pushing back the emergence of mature celadon in China by at least 500 years. Previously, it was widely believed that the Shangyu Xiaoxiantan Eastern Han Dynasty kiln site was the earliest origin of mature celadon in China.

Extended Reading:

· Sixth Batch of Zhejiang Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Units

· Seventh Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units