◎Kiln Culture of Cizhou

The Taihang Mountains stretch into the western areas of the Cixian and the Fengfeng Mining District,which abounds in kaolin,a natural raw material of porcelains. Since people started to make porcelain in the Northern Qi Dynasty,two major kilns of Cizhou were formed gradually at Guantai in the Zhanghe River Basin and at Pengcheng in the Fuyang River Basin,which gradually developed into the largest folk kilns in the north during the Song and Yuan dynasties and have been passed down from generation to generation for thousands of years. Porcelain products of Cizhou are beautiful in shape,rich in decorations,strong in color contrast,wide in subject matter and superb in porcelain-making skills,showing a strong sense of nationalism. The decorative art of black against white ground it created is of a strong local flavor and integrates poetry,calligraphy and paintings,representing the highest level of ancient folk kilns in the north. It was well known that “Jingde is famous in the south and Pengcheng is well-known in the north” and “It's easy to make money in Pengcheng.” With its unique rough,bold and dashing artistic style,the porcelain of Cizhou represented the highest achievement of folk porcelain art in the Song and Yuan dynasties,as well as the power of folk crafts. Kiln Culture of Cizhou plays an extremely important role in the porcelain culture and art of China and even the world.(https://www.daowen.com)