Porcelain was first made in China—in a primitive form during the Tang dynasty (618–907) and in the form best known in the West during the Yuan dynasty (1279–1368). This true, or hard-paste, porcelain was made from petuntse, or china stone (a feldspathic rock), ground to powder and mixed with kaolin (white china clay).

Sancai (Chinese: 三彩; pinyin: sāncǎi; lit. ‘three colours’) is a versatile type of decoration on Chinese pottery using glazes or slip, predominantly in the three colours of brown (or amber), green, and a creamy off-white. The glaze has yellow, green, white, brown, blue, black and other colours.

sancai pottery
In the Tang Dynasty, sancai pottery, or three-colors pottery, became very popular. Typically, the three colors were brown, green, and off-white.

The celadon colour is classically produced by firing a glaze containing a little iron oxide at a high temperature in a reducing kiln. The materials must be refined, as other chemicals can alter the color completely.

white porcelain
“Blue and white pottery” (Chinese: 青花; pinyin: qīng-huā; lit. ‘Blue flowers/patterns’) covers a wide range of white pottery and porcelain decorated under the glaze with a blue pigment, generally cobalt oxide….Blue and white pottery.

Porcelain is only one of many different types of pottery but it is usually valued more than others because of the smoothness of its surface, its pure whiteness, and its translucent quality.

The Tang wares commonest in Western collections are those with either monochrome or dappled glazes covering a highly absorbent, buff, earthenware body. The dappled glazes were usually applied with a sponge, and they include blue, dark blue, green, yellow, orange, straw, and brown colours.

Why did Chinese believe the Tang struggled with crop failures and government problems? They had lost the Mandate of Heaven. They had poor agricultural practices. They were disorganized and lazy.

How did the Song improve upon the Tang version of the civil service system? They mandated that most officials came from the military. They made the examinations easier to pass. They required students to earn their degrees in three years.

Sancai wares were made in north China using white and buff-firing secondary kaolins and fire clays. Sancai follows the development of green-glazed pottery dating back to the Han period (25–220 AD); the brown glaze was also known to the Han, but they only very rarely mixed the two in a single piece.

Sancai wares, literally three colored wares, are earthenware moulded figures and vessels boldly glazed with splashes of bright green and amber on a straw-colored ground. More rarely, blue and a purplish brown are also seen.

The lead based type of glazes was apparently very similar to the one in use already under the Han dynasty when typically imitating bronzes but a clear continuation of this tradition into Tang (618-907) are so far lacking. The sancai decoration seems instead to have been re-invented around year 675 during the Tang Dynasty.

It is particularly associated with the Tang Dynasty (618–907) and its tomb figures, appearing around 700. Therefore, it is commonly referred to as Chinese: 唐三彩 Tang Sancai in Chinese.