Ceramics in Song China discusses the extraordinary wares and also how they were an integral part of the innovations and expansions in Song industry and commerce, connecting with official, private and undocumented lives. It also looks at the demand for them beyond China from the Song until the 21st century.

China’s Song dynasty (960-1279) ceramics have long been famed for their simple shapes and beautiful glazes. Ceramics in Song China is the first book to look beyond their creation and aesthetics to explore how they functioned in Chinese society in their own time, and beyond. Looking at connections between ceramics and daily life, it takes in geology and environmental impacts as well as the movement of ceramics throughout the expanding Song urban environment. It shows how some ceramics document otherwise forgotten lives and social practices while illuminating how the concerns of poets, scholars and officials are present in others. Concluding with a survey of Song ceramics in the collections of Chinese emperors, Japanese temples, European royalty and English writers, this book presents a new account of how one of the world’s greatest ceramic productions touched every Song life and went on to intrigue generations of admirers across the world.