Handan, Hebei — The Museum of Cizhou Kiln in China

I took photos of cultural relics at the Museum of Cizhou Kiln in China Admission: Free with ID card Time: Closed on Mondays. Open from 9:00 to 11:00 in the morning and from 14:00 to 17:00 in the afternoon from Tuesday to Sunday The Museum of Cizhou Kiln, located in Ci County, Handan City, Hebei Province, had a collection of 14,000 cultural relics as of August 2019, including 52 sets of first-grade relics, 96 sets of second-grade relics, and 1,899 sets of third-grade relics. In 2007, the museum was rated as a national AAA tourist attraction, and in 2009, it was rated as a national second-grade museum. Cizhou Kiln is a huge folk kiln system in northern China, one of the four ancient porcelain kilns in Hebei, with a very distinctive folk kiln feature, occupying an important position in the history of Chinese ceramics development. The history of Cizhou Kiln production is long, starting from the Northern Dynasties, flourishing during the Sui, Tang, Song, Jin, and Yuan periods, and continuing through the Ming and Qing dynasties to the present. Its central kiln site is located in Ci County, Handan City, and within the Fengfeng area at the eastern foot of the Taihang Mountains, along the Zhang River and Fuyang River basins, all of which belonged to Cizhou in ancient times, hence the name. So far, 17 ancient kiln sites such as Guantai, Yezi, Dong'aikou, and Shenjiazhuang have been discovered. The decorative art of Cizhou Kiln porcelain is rich and colorful, using a variety of techniques such as scratching, carving, picking, stamping, painting, and colored glazes on the white slip to decorate the porcelain. Especially, Cizhou Kiln craftsmen applied traditional Chinese painting techniques directly to porcelain painting, creating the decorative masterpiece of Cizhou Kiln - white ground with black flowers, presenting an artistic effect of black and white contrast and strong contrast. With a very free, bold, and rough painting style, it reflects the folk customs and folklore of the time, which was well received by the general public, thus forming a decorative language and style unique to the Cizhou Kiln with national characteristics. It also marks the gradual completion of the transition of Chinese porcelain from body decoration to color decoration, laying a solid foundation for the development of blue and white porcelain and polychrome porcelain in the Ming dynasty.