Qualla: Ding Ware

Ding Ware: Introduction

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Daderot, CC0. Hold a piece of Ding ware to the light and you see through a thousand years. The glaze is nearly transparent, carrying a faint ivory tint that Northern Song connoisseurs considered the hallmark of quality. Run your finger along the rim and you might find it rough -- unglazed, because bowls were fired upside down in the kilns at Jiancicun, in Quyang County, Hebei Province. Many pieces wore thin bands of silver or a brassy alloy to cover that roughness, though a court chronicle noted that these imperfections, along with occasional 'teardrops' of running glaze, eventually made Ding ware less than fine enough for the emperor himself. The potters, it seems, were victims of their own technique.

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Image: Daderot | CC0

Ding Ware: Six Centuries at the Kiln

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Gary Todd, CC0. The Ding kilns operated in almost continuous production from the early 8th century to the mid-14th century, spanning the Tang, Song, Jin, and Yuan dynasties. They began by imitating Xing ware, the earlier standard for white ceramics in northern China, but by the Song dynasty the ...

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Image: Gary Todd | CC0

Ding Ware: Lotus, Peony, and the Shift to Moulds

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CC BY-SA 4.0. Early Ding decoration was carved by hand into leather-hard clay -- scrolling lotus and peony, the occasional duck or fish, all rendered with what one scholar described as 'remarkable fluency and an apparently unfailing sense of compositional balance.' In the late 11th century, po...

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Image: CC BY-SA 4.0

Ding Ware: When the Court Fled South

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Daderot, Public domain. The Northern Song dynasty's catastrophic defeat in the Jin-Song wars of the 1120s changed the geography of Chinese ceramics forever. As the remaining Song court fled south to establish itself in Hangzhou, potters may have migrated with them -- carrying Ding techniques to Jingdezh...

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Image: Daderot | Public domain

Ding Ware: Among the Five Famous Kilns

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Anonymous (China)Unknown author, Public domain. Chinese ceramic tradition groups Ding ware among the Five Famous Kilns, alongside Ru, Jun, Guan, and Ge wares. Of these, Ding was the largest producer and the most widely distributed. It was also the only one defined primarily by its white body rather than a distinctive coloured ...

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Image: Anonymous (China)Unknown author | Public domain