Lingwu Kiln Site

Lingwu Kiln Site

The Lingwu Kiln Site is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

The Lingwu Kiln Site is located in the desert, 3 kilometers south of Huiminxiang Village, Ningdong Town, Yinchuan City, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. The site stretches 300 meters from east to west and 200 meters from north to south. The surface is scattered with various porcelain fragments, kiln tools, kiln bricks, and there is a layered accumulation of porcelain shards over 1 meter thick in the gully between the northern and southern hillsides.

According to exploration and investigation, several kilns are buried within the site, all oriented to the northeast. Some kiln doors face each other, and the interior shapes of the kiln chambers vary slightly. The kilns are all horseshoe-shaped in plan, consisting of a kiln door, firebox, kiln bed, and flue chamber, each about 3–4 meters in length. The kiln structure is built with bricks and stones in staggered courses. The kiln door is 50 centimeters wide, and the firebox has a semi-circular plan. Due to prolonged high-temperature firing, the inner walls have formed a thick, attractive layer of brown kiln glaze. The floor of the firebox is paved with coarse sand, and the coal ash soil above is scattered with small items such as porcelain hooks and supports, mixed with unburned coal chunks and cinders. Four or six pillars stand on the kiln bed, each 1 meter high, with well-preserved tops resembling cave openings. The rear part of the kiln consists of two square chimneys, with a partition wall between the kiln bed and the chimneys. This wall has 4–6 elongated flue holes in the middle.

The interior of the kilns is scattered with a large number of porcelain kiln tools, including saggars for firing vessels, supports in various glaze colors, as well as trumpet-shaped top bowls, ring-shaped pads, and temperature-testing firing cones—offering a rich and diverse array. Inside and outside the kilns, remnants of broken bowls, jars, and other vessels can be found, along with dark brown unfired plain clay bowls and plates. These have become soft and deformed due to the moist soil but can be reshaped after slight drying.

The methods used for firing Lingwu Western Xia ceramics include top bowl over-firing, rough-rim stacking, support ring upright firing, and pad strip luted firing.

The products of the Lingwu Western Xia kilns are diverse in type and form, including daily utensils, stationery tools, entertainment items, and building materials. Glazes are mainly black, brown, white, and celadon, with a small number of turmeric-glazed printed bowls and dishes. Daily utensils include bowls, plates, teapots, jars, basins, cauldrons, and lamps. Bowls can be categorized into high-footed bowls, flared-edge bowls, hexagonal bowls, curved-belly bowls, and sloping-wall bowls; plates include flared-edge plates and hexagonal plates; basins come in plain and fish-patterned varieties; jars are divided into earless, single-eared, and double-eared types, mostly melon-ridged. The feet of bowls and plates are deeply cut, with inwardly sloped or stepped walls, thinly glazed, and often half-glazed on the exterior. The centers of white-glazed bowls and plates show traces of sand circles. Stationery items include inkstones and ink droppers.

Spinning whorls, porcelain hooks, and porcelain bells are commonly used items among nomadic peoples, and replacing metal with porcelain was also an innovation of the Western Xia people. Various animal sculptures reflect the living customs of nomadic tribes. Entertainment items include porcelain xun flutes and game pieces. The game pieces come in black and white, mostly flat and round, simply fired, with a few being curved-surface shapes. Some bear decorations and were all made using molds.

The discovery of the Western Xia Kiln Site in Huiminxiang, Lingwu, further confirms that the Ciyao Fort area was the largest and longest-operating kiln site for ceramic production during the Western Xia period in Ningxia, as well as a key production hub for the ceramic industry in the northwest region. Although fewer carved and incised products have been found, the quality of the body, glaze color, and craftsmanship level of the artifacts sufficiently demonstrate the kiln’s highly developed ceramic technology. These uniquely regional ceramic products provide important physical evidence for studying the ceramic heritage and living customs of the Tangut people.

In May 2006, the Lingwu Kiln Site was designated by the State Council as part of the sixth group of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units.

Further Reading:

· Sixth Group of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units