Funerary jar for grain offerings, Longquan ware, 1128-1279, Zhejiang, China, Southern Song dynasty. Victoria & Albert Museum © V&A Images

Jar with elongated barrel-shaped body having three horizontal rolls on the shoulder, low dome-shaped cover with foliate edge and bird knob. A dragon shape on the shoulder. The raw edges reveal a reddish porcellaneous biscuit. The glaze is a delicate bluish-grey. Under the glaze at the base is incised the character 'ti' (earth). Height: 25.5 cm, Diameter: 12 cm. Purchased with the assistance of The Art Fund, the Vallentin Bequest, Sir Percival David and the Universities China Committee. Museum number: C.28&A-1935

In Song China, particularly in the south, it was a common practice to leave offerings of rice in tombs for the souls of the dead. The rice was contained in jars buried in pairs with the wealthy departed. This burial jar with fine celadon glaze would originally have been one of a pair. It has a modelled relief decoration of the Green Dragon of the East, its companion jar would have had the White Tiger of the West. The bird on the lid represents the Vermilion Bird of the South.

Bibliographic References: Kerr, Rose. Song dynasty ceramics. London:V&A Publications, 2004, plate 85. 

Masterpiece entry 

This jar was made to contain grain for burial in a tomb. It is of a type of celadon known as Longquan ware and is closely related to the Guan ware made some 300 kilometres away (see p.44). But while the Guan kilns were only established after the Song court moved to Hangzhou in 1126, those at Longquan had been in production since the third century. The arrival of the Song court and its affluent ministers in the south brought prosperity to Lonquan, as state officials demanded a quality no less refined than Guan ware. To satisfy these important customers the potters improved their products to the extent that the best Longquan wares are almost indistinguishable from Guan pieces. Although all Longquan wares are green-glazed, the varieties of shades and textures are numerous. Their qualities were highly esteemed and Chinese writers compared the subtle variations in green to jade, to young beans and to the sky.

Longquan's success resulted not from imperial patronage but from efficient management. When the Guan kilns ceased production after the collapse of the Song dynasty in 1279, those at Longquan continued to flourish under the new rulers, the Mongols. The kilns were on average 40 metres long and had a firing capacity of up to 10,000 pieces. The volume of Longquan celadons exported overseas can be gauged from the cargo of the 'Sinan wreck', a ship sunk near Korea en route to Japan: 0f the 17,000 ceramics on board, more than half were Longquan wares. 

Liefkes, Reino and Hilary Young (eds.) Masterpieces of World Ceramics in the Victoria and Albert Museum. London: V&A Publishing, 2008, pp. 46-47.