More than 160 ancient Chinese porcelain pieces made between 907-1644 are being shown for the first time at the Museum of Folk Porcelain in Jingdezhen, a leading porcelain-production base in east China's Jiangxi Province.

All these articles were unearthed in recent years at China's largest folk porcelain site, the Hutian Kiln, located in the Hutian village on Jingdezhen's outskirts.

Sources from the museum said the exhibited porcelains were all made from the period of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms (907-979) to the imperial Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and include bowls, plates, jugs, vases and other kiln wares.

The relics of some ancient kilns and workshops are also on display, demonstrating porcelain-making in ancient times, said the museum.

The Hutian Kiln, covering an area of 260,000 sq m, is the first porcelain kiln complex site to be put under state protection. In the period of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms (907-979), the kiln mainly produced blue porcelain and while porcelain.

It became prestigous later for its blue-and-white porcelain in the Song Dynasty (960-1279), and it made porcelains with fine white glaze and the blue-and-white in red glaze during the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368). During the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), the site mainly turned out folk-style blue-and-white porcelains.

Since the founding of new China in 1949, various porcelain items of the Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties have been discovered at the site. Archeologists say that there are still many artifacts at the kiln awaiting further excavation.

Porcelain, a form of high-temperature-fired translucent pottery, is a Chinese invention, known in the West simply by the name "China." Jingdezhen, one of the world's porcelain making centers, is a renowned ancient porcelain town in China with a history of more than 1,600 years.

This year is the millennium anniversary for Jingdezhen city -- known as China's porcelain capital. In the 11th century, the town became one of four porcelain making centers in China. In 1004 the town changed its name "Changnan" to "Jingde."
 
(People's Daily Online October 10, 2004)