Liu Pinsan
01 · Lineage & Regional School
Liu Pinsan, Male, Han, from Jian, Jiangxi, is a fifth-batch national representative bearer of Jizhou Yao Ceramic Firing Craftsmanship (Ⅷ-215). The tradition is documented in Jian, Jiangxi. Within the regional tradition and school record of Jizhou Yao Ceramic Firing Craftsmanship in Jian, Jiangxi: The Jizhou kiln firing technique takes Yonghe Town in Ji'an County as the core site and root of the craft. The kiln fires spread successively along the towns, market towns, villages, and workshops of the middle reaches of the Gan River; glaze fragments bearing Jizhou-kiln characteristics can still be picked up in neighboring counties such as Jishui, Xiajiang, Anfu, and Taihe, which local villagers call "kiln slag." The Yonghe area still preserves to this day a village structure built around the kiln as livelihood and porcelain as living—gathering materials, throwing, finishing, and glazing each performed by its own hands, with kiln sites and dwellings interlocked like teeth. The protecting institution, the Jizhou Kiln Ceramic Firing Technique Research Institute of Ji'an City, uses the successfully revival-fired black-glaze carved-away porcelain, tiger-skin-glaze porcelain, and underglaze painted porcelain as teaching models, with a study point set up at Yonghe. The paper-cut appliqué decoration technique was first created in the Southern Song dynasty, with roughly two methods: one is monochrome paper-cutting, in which the cut pattern is directly pasted onto the vessel body, then a layer of glaze is applied; once the glaze dries, the paper-cut is scraped off, yielding a pattern in which the glaze color contrasts with the body color. Historically, the Jizhou kiln ceramic firing technique began in the late Tang, rose in the Five Dynasties, flourished in the Southern Song, and declined after the Yuan dynasty. The Jizhou kiln's underglaze painted porcelain had a certain influence on the later emergence of blue-and-white porcelain; Jizhou-kiln products that have been passed down to this day are extremely precious.
02 · Mastery & Signature Works
Male, Han ethnic group, born in September 1939 in Anyi County, Jiangxi Province. National representative bearer of Jizhou Yao Ceramic Firing Craftsmanship, a fifth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. He is a research curator and an expert receiving the special government allowance of the State Council. After graduating from the Fine Arts Department of the Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute in 1963, he stayed on to teach there. In 1971 he transferred to the Jiangxi Provincial Museum, where he worked until retirement, successively heading the Conservation Department and the Technical Department. Between 1980 and 1988, building on in-depth study of the excavated finds from ancient kiln sites in Ji'an and of the relevant documentary sources, he succeeded through repeated experiments in reviving the firing of Jizhou Yao black-glazed incised wares, tiger-stripe glazed wares and underglaze painted wares. He also developed Jizhou Yao ceramics with leaf-pattern decoration and other types, and succeeded in their production. His technical achievements in reproducing Jizhou Yao porcelain were incorporated into works such as The Annals of Practical Science and Technology in China, and he compiled the Illustrated Catalogue of Blue-and-White Patterns from Ming and Qing Folk Kilns in Jingdezhen. He has taught the craft to his daughter Liu Xiaoyu and to many others. Within the documented technical tradition of Jizhou Yao Ceramic Firing Craftsmanship in Jian, Jiangxi: The Jizhou kiln is located within Yonghe Town, Ji'an County, Jiangxi Province, about 8 km north of Ji'an City. From the Sui to the Song dynasties, Ji'an was called Jizhou, and the kilns there took the name "Jizhou kiln." The Jizhou kiln ceramic firing technique is the porcelain-making and firing craft that originated, was inherited, and developed at Jizhou. Jizhou-kiln painted porcelain, with its subtle, elegant, fresh, and bright artistic style, stands alone in the history of Chinese painted porcelain. The other method is bicolor paper-cutting, in which the cut pattern is directly pasted onto a vessel already coated with a high-iron-content base glaze, then a thin layer of low-iron-content lime-calcium bamboo-ash glaze is applied, after which the paper-cut is scraped off, revealing the base-color pattern. Fired at high temperature in the kiln, the two glaze layers transform into a kiln-transformed (jianbian) glaze; the base and surface glaze colors show subtle distinction yet harmonious unity, achieving a decorative effect in which the glaze color and body color contrast in light and dark, with motion and stillness complementing each other. Jizhou-kiln porcelain comes in a great variety of types and richly varied decorative patterns, represented by such motifs as "partridge spots," "hare's-fur streaks," "tiger-skin spots," and "tortoiseshell spots," with colorful, fresh, and elegant variations. In decorative technique it employs splashed glaze, paper-cutting, appliqué, carved-away decoration, stamped designs, painted decoration, incised lines, and relief modeling, unifying the practicality and artistry of the porcelain. The Jizhou kiln gathered the achievements of famous kilns both north and south, occupying an important place in the history of Chinese ceramics; historically there was the saying "Yonghe Town came first, Jingdezhen later," and in the Song and Yuan periods it was one of the important export commodities. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Two-colour paper-cut decoration": A dark iron-rich ground glaze is laid down first, then a thin lime-ash glaze low in iron; the paper is lifted off before firing, leaving two tones, and the mottling that develops in the kiln is not painted but created by the firing. "The twenty-four kiln mounds at Yonghe": Twenty-four fairly intact kiln mounds remain at the Yonghe site, each corresponding to a kiln and its workshops; the spacing between mounds and the colour of excavated sherds help distinguish kilns, periods and product series. "Tiger-skin and hare's-fur spotting on black glaze": Hare's-fur, tiger-skin, partridge and tortoiseshell markings all arise from iron crystallising in a black glaze; position in the kiln and firing temperature change the pattern, so specimens of one type rarely match exactly. "Cut, stamped and applied decoration used together": Besides paper-cutting, glaze splashing, cutting, stamping, incising and applied relief are combined on the same vessel: cutting exposes the body, stamping presses borders, and applied slip is modelled and fired together with the pot.
Two-colour paper-cut decoration
A dark iron-rich ground glaze is laid down first, then a thin lime-ash glaze low in iron; the paper is lifted off before firing, leaving two tones, and the mottling that develops in the kiln is not painted but created by the firing.
The twenty-four kiln mounds at Yonghe
Twenty-four fairly intact kiln mounds remain at the Yonghe site, each corresponding to a kiln and its workshops; the spacing between mounds and the colour of excavated sherds help distinguish kilns, periods and product series.
Tiger-skin and hare's-fur spotting on black glaze
Hare's-fur, tiger-skin, partridge and tortoiseshell markings all arise from iron crystallising in a black glaze; position in the kiln and firing temperature change the pattern, so specimens of one type rarely match exactly.
Cut, stamped and applied decoration used together
Besides paper-cutting, glaze splashing, cutting, stamping, incising and applied relief are combined on the same vessel: cutting exposes the body, stamping presses borders, and applied slip is modelled and fired together with the pot.
03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status
In 2018, Liu Pinsan was announced in the fifth batch of national representative bearers for Jizhou Yao Ceramic Firing Craftsmanship, with Jian, Jiangxi as the declared area. Within the documented safeguarding record of Jizhou Yao Ceramic Firing Craftsmanship in Jian, Jiangxi: The project was inscribed in the national inventory in 2014 (batch 4), with Jian, Jiangxi as its declared area, and Jian Jizhouyaocishaozhi Craft Research Institute as its safeguarding unit. Since the project was inscribed in the national inventory, its declared area and safeguarding unit have carried out documentation, transmission and presentation within the national safeguarding framework. Together, the inventory record and the project archive form the public documentary basis for the bearer’s transmission practice.
04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier
Historical origin
The paper-cut appliqué decoration technique was first created in the Southern Song dynasty, with roughly two methods: one is monochrome paper-cutting, in which the cut pattern is directly pasted onto the vessel body, then a layer of glaze is applied; once the glaze dries, the paper-cut is scraped off, yielding a pattern in which the glaze color contrasts with the body color. Historically, the Jizhou kiln ceramic firing technique began in the late Tang, rose in the Five Dynasties, flourished in the Southern Song, and declined after the Yuan dynasty.
05 · Fellow National Bearers Lineage
National representative bearers recorded under the same item code, ordered from the first to the sixth batch. Batch order is not a teacher–student relationship.
| Bearer | Declared area | Roster code | Relation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Liu Pinsan | Jian, Jiangxi | 05-2891 | This page |
| Wu Yingshan | Jian, Jiangxi | — | Same declared area |
06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript. Compiled from official national representative bearer archival records and the associated project dossier, organized by topic and translated into English. 阅读中文版。