Chinese pottery in the context of "Japanese pottery and porcelain"

Jun ware (Chinese: 鈞窯; pinyin: Jūn yáo; Wade–Giles: Chün-yao) is a type of Chinese pottery, one of the Five Great Kilns of Song dynasty ceramics. Despite its fame, much about Jun ware remains unclear, and the subject of arguments among experts. Several different types of pottery are covered by the term, produced over several centuries and in several places, during the Northern Song dynasty (960–1127), Jin dynasty (1115–1234) and Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), and (as has become clearer in recent years) lasting into the early Ming dynasty (1368–1644).

Some of the wares were for a popular market, especially the drinking vessels, but others seem to have been made for the imperial court and are known as "official Jun wares"; they are not mentioned in contemporary documents and their dating remains somewhat controversial. These are mostly bowls for growing bulbs or flower-pots with matching stands, such as can be seen in many paintings of scenes in imperial palaces. The consensus that seems to be emerging, driven largely by the interpretation of excavations at kiln sites, divides Jun wares into two groups: a large group of relatively popular wares made in simple shapes from the Northern Song to (at lower quality) the Yuan, and a much rarer group of official Jun wares made at a single site (Juntai) for the imperial palaces in the Yuan and early Ming periods. Both types rely largely for their effect on their use of the blue and purple glaze colours; the latter group are sturdy shapes for relatively low-status uses such as flowerpots and perhaps spitoons.

Jian ware or Chien ware (Chinese: 建窯; pinyin: Jiàn yáo; Wade–Giles: Chien-yao) is a type of Chinese pottery originally made in Jianyang, Fujian province. It, and local imitations of it, are known in Japan as Tenmoku (天目). It consists of simple shapes in stoneware, with a strong emphasis on subtle effects in the glazes. In the Song dynasty they achieved a high prestige, especially among Buddhist monks and in relation to tea-drinking. They were also highly valued in Japan, where many of the best examples were collected. Though the ceramic body is light-coloured, the wares, generally small cups for tea, bowls and vases, normally are glazed in dark colours, with special effects such as the "hare's fur" "oil-spot" and "partridge feather" patterns caused randomly as excess iron in the glaze is forced out during firing.

The scroll in art is an element of ornament and graphic design featuring spirals and rolling incomplete circle motifs, some of which resemble the edge-on view of a book or document in scroll form, though many types are plant-scrolls, which loosely represent plant forms such as vines, with leaves or flowers attached. Scrollwork is a term for some forms of decoration dominated by spiralling scrolls, today used in popular language for two-dimensional decorative flourishes and arabesques of all kinds, especially those with circular or spiralling shapes.

Scroll decoration has been used for the decoration of a vast range of objects, in all Eurasian cultures, and most beyond. A lengthy evolution over the last two millennia has taken forms of plant-based scroll decoration from Greco-Roman architecture to Chinese pottery, and then back across Eurasia to Europe. They are very widespread in architectural decoration, woodcarving, painted ceramics, mosaic, and illuminated manuscripts (mostly for borders).

Ash glazes are ceramic glazes made from the ash of various kinds of wood or straw. They have historically been important in East Asia, especially Chinese pottery, Korean pottery, and Japanese pottery. Many traditionalist East Asian potteries still use ash glazing, and it has seen a large revival in studio pottery in the West and East. Some potters like to achieve random effects by setting up the kiln so that ash created during firing falls onto the pots; this is called "natural" or "naturally occurring" ash glaze. Otherwise the ash is mixed with water, and often clay, and applied as a paste.

Ash glazing began around 1500 BC, in China during the Shang dynasty, initially by accident as ash from the burnt wood in the kiln landed on pots. Around 1000 BC, the Chinese apparently realized that the ash covering the pieces was causing the glaze so they started adding the ash as a glaze before the pot went into the kiln. Ash glaze was the first glaze used in East Asia, and contained only ash, clay, and water.

Sancai (Chinese: 三彩; pinyin: sāncǎi; lit. 'three colours') is a versatile type of decoration on Chinese pottery and other painted pieces using glazes or slip, predominantly in the three colours of brown (or amber), green, and a creamy off-white. It is particularly associated with the Tang dynasty (618–907) and its tomb figures, appearing around 700. Therefore, it is commonly referred to as Chinese: 唐三彩 Tang Sancai in Chinese. Tang sancai wares were sometimes referred in China and the West as egg-and-spinach by dealers, for their use of green, yellow, and white, especially when combined with a streaked effect.

The Tang dynasty three-color glazed pottery is the treasure of ancient Chinese ceramic firing techniques. It is a kind of low-temperature glazed pottery popular in the Tang dynasty. The glaze has yellow, green, white, brown, blue, black and other colours. The yellow, green, and white colour-based are most predominant, so people call it "Tang Sancai." Because the Tang Sancai is unearthed in Luoyang earliest and is found the most in Luoyang, it is also called "Luoyang Tang Sancai."