Earliest compartment kiln and bluish white porcelain found at Fanchang, Anhui Province

Beginning at the November of 2013, a year-long excavation was conducted by Anhui provincial Institute of Archaeology and Cultural heritage cooperated with the local Archaeological Institute of Fanchang county. During the excavation, two locations: the Kejiachong kiln and the Luochong kiln were discovered where a large corpus of archaeological remains were collected. The rich data cast light upon the history of bluish-white porcelain kiln in the south China.

The Kejiachong kiln is located at the south edge of the Fanchang County, revealing a dragon kiln, the foundation of a workshop and the deposit of porcelain wastes. The dragon kiln, preserved in good condition, is comprised of operate room, fire stove, kiln chamber, fire door and chimney chamber. The long axe is east-west directional whose diagonal length is 38.75m, horizontal length 36.6m, width 2- 3m. There were 4 kiln doors, two on west and two on east sides.
The drainage system was discovered to the north of the dragon kiln. Postholes were aligned in the north and south sides, suggesting of shelter structure.

The porcelain types discovered in the kiln include bowl, small cup, cup saucer, dish, warming bowl, pot, burner, water bowl, lid, and animal figurine, among which bowl, cup, and dish largely overnumber other types.  The colours are almost bluish white, with a small number of porcelain coated with yellowish and greenish enamel. The decoration is seldom seen expect for a limited number of chrysanthemum and lotus patterns. The tools for firing porcelain are firing container, support pad, support nail and so forth. The firing containers have the largest number followed by support pads.  The tools for making porcelain include shaping hoop, axis board and shaping tools.
The workshop is located to the east of the kiln where is relatively flat. Clay sinking pond, clay accumulating pond and drainage were discovered.

Luochong kiln is located in the west edge of Fanchang, where a dragon kiln along with a house foundation was recovered. Expect for the fire stove, the dragon kiln is preserved in good condition. It is aligned in west-east direction with a diagonal length of 26.4m, and width of 2.25 to 2.6m. There were 4 kiln doors. Within the kiln, there were 4 inner walls in the middle separating it into 5 sections. The road surface which was used during the production time was found in the west part of the kiln, paralleling with the dragon kiln. The road was hard and strong in surface, occasionally covered with porcelain sheds and broken kiln bricks.
The porcelain types include bluish whit bowl, small cup, dish, saucer, pot, pillow, and animal and warrior figurine. Decoration is limited expect for lotus pattern, stripe, and willow pattern. Compared with the porcelains from the Kejiachong kiln, it displays richer variation in types. For examples, open-mouthed bowl, lotus pillow and warrior figurines were rarely discovered in the Kejiachong site. In the tool category, there are containers, container standings, support nails, support rings and pads, and cylindrical support standings. Likewise the containers have the largest number. On the containers, numbers in Chinese characters from one to thousand, and “上、大、小、兴、权、仁、任、夏、江、字、方、女、本、丁、于、之、许、全、元元、口章” were carved.
The house remains the brick foundation which is rectangular in plane. The length from north to south is roughly 5.2m and width from west to east 3.5m.  Drainage was recovered in the north part. The living surfaces were scattered large numbers of board tiles, cylindrical tiles, tiles decorated with floral patterns and bluish white porcelain fragments.

The Fanchang kiln is of archaeological significance:

The Luochong kiln specializes in producing bluish white porcelain. It initially started to develop at the Five Dynastical period, and flourished during the early phase of the Song Dynasty. The container box carved with “淳化” provides important clue for dating the site. The cylindrical standings, bowl-shaped containers and container standings are popular styles during the end of the Tang dynasty and the Five Dynastical periods. The discoveries of large numbers of support nails and porcelain with traces of supporting indicate that the layered firing supported by nails was adopted in the Luochong kiln. The road surface excavated in the west part of the dragon kiln is occasionally found in the south China where the bluish white porcelain was produced. All these discoveries cast light upon studies into the technology of porcelain producing in ancient China.     
The No.1 dragon kiln found in the Luochong kiln was separated into 5 sections by 4 inner walls, which seemed the earliest compartment of dragon kiln. The kiln walls in the site were heavily burned. As the products of the kiln display smooth clay and pure enamel colour, the separating walls were very likely built for improving the quality of porcelain. All these evidence illustrates the initial developmental stage of dragon kiln. 　
The bluish white porcelains produced in the Kejiachong kiln and the Luochong kiln share certain degree of similarities but with their own characteristics, suggesting different technology aiming to various markets. To be more specific, the products of the Luochong kiln are relatively more delicate. It covers the production not only for daily use but also for decoration, which seems to serve for the upper social classes. On the other hand, the products of the Kejiachong kiln are more popular among the lower classes. 

Sieving pond, clay sinking pond, clay accumulating pond, drainages and so forth were found in the Kejiachong kiln site, which is of importance to study into the layout of a kiln workshop. The high-level house found in the Luochong kiln was likely the dwelling for kiln officers.     (Translator: Dong Ningning)