Dragon kiln

A dragon kiln (Chinese: 龍窯; pinyin: lóng yáo; Wade–Giles: lung-yao) or "climbing kiln", is a traditional Chinese form of kiln, used for Chinese ceramics, especially in southern China. It is long and thin, and relies on having a fairly steep slope, typically between 10° and 16°, up which the kiln runs. The kiln could achieve the very high temperatures, sometimes as high as 1400°C, necessary for high-fired wares including stoneware and porcelain, which long challenged European potters, and some examples were very large, up to 60 metres long, allowing up to 25,000 pieces to be fired at a time. By the early 12th century CE they might be over 135 metres long, allowing still larger quantities to be fired; more than 100,000 have been claimed.

According to recent excavations in Shangyu District in the northeast of Zhejiang province and elsewhere, the origins of the dragon kiln may go back as far as the Shang dynasty (c. 1600 to 1046 BCE), and is linked to the introduction of stoneware, fired at 1200°C or more. These kilns were much smaller than later examples, at some 5–12 metres long, and also sloped far less.

The type had certainly developed by the Warring States period, and by the Eastern Wu kingdom (220–280 CE), there were over 60 kilns at Shangyu. Thereafter it remained the main design used in southern China until the Ming dynasty. The pottery areas of south China are mostly hilly, whereas those on the plains of north China typically lack suitable slopes; here the mantou kiln type predominated.

The Nanfeng Kiln in Guangdong province is several centuries old and still functioning. It was a producer of Shiwan ware as well as architectural ceramics, and today also functions as a tourist atraction.

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