Longquan celadon

Longquan celadon (Chinese: 龍泉青瓷) refers to green-glazed Chinese ceramics, known in the West as celadon, produced in kilns which were largely located in Lishui prefecture in southwestern Zhejiang Province in the south of China. Including those in other prefectures a total of over 200 kiln sites have been discovered, making the Longquan celadon production area one of the largest historical ceramic producing areas in China. "Longquan-type" is increasingly preferred as a term, in recognition of this diversity, or simply "southern celadon", as there was also a large number of kilns in north China producing Northern Celadon wares, similar in may respects, but with significant differences to Longquan-type celadon, and rising and declining somewhat earlier.

Celadon production had a long history at Longquan and related sites, but it was not until the Northern Song (960–1127) period that large-scale production began, and the move of the capital to Hangzhou, close to Longquan, after 1127, was probably important in the great expansion of both quality and production there. Longquan celadons were an important part of China's export economy for over five-hundred years, and were widely imitated in other countries, especially Korea and Japan.

In traditional Western terms, celadons are strictly counted as stoneware, since the fired clay body is neither white nor translucent. In the traditional Chinese classification, which divides pottery into low-fired earthenware and high-fired porcelain, they count as porcelain. Compromise terms such as "porcellanous stoneware" may be used to describe the pieces, and some Western writers consider the wares should be "regarded as porcelains". The Longquan celadons were among the finest of a range of celadon wares produced in China, and led stylistic and technical developments. The celadons were produced in a range of shades of colour, centred on olive-green, but extending to greenish blues. All these come from the glaze; the body beneath is sometimes left partly unglazed as part of the decoration, when it fires to a terracotta brown. The wares are hardly ever painted; decoration comes from the shape and carved or incised designs in the body.

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