The Jingdezhen kiln, a prestigious imperial kiln during the Ming and Qing dynasties, was renowned for producing exquisite blue-and-white porcelain, porcelain in underglazed red, and porcelain with overglaze decoration. Porcelain with overglazed decoration during the Ming dynasty are called “five colours” (wucai or famille verte). It is characterised by the fusion of red, yellow, blue, green, and purple hues, with green being the dominant colour. Another popular style of overglaze decoration, named “famille rose” (fencai), was emerged during the Qing era. Built upon the technique of wucai, it successfully incorporates a range of colours, including pink, to create intricate and vibrant depictions. Yet, after the Ming dynasty, wucai gradually fell out of favour.

Since the Yuan dynasty, the Jingdezhen kiln had successfully produced a type of blue-and-white porcelain with a white glaze base featuring blue decorative patterns. Known as “underglaze”, the technique involves applying a transparent glaze over the blue glaze to protect the decorative motifs. The blue-and-white porcelain could also be called “underglazed blue”. “Underglazed red”, on the other hand, is another technique utilising copper to produce a red hue. However, ceramic artisans have long been struggling to master the technique of producing red-glazed ceramics.

The popular kilns from the Song dynasty, including the imperial kiln, Ding kiln, Ru kiln, Yaozhou kiln, Jun kiln, and Zichou kiln declined after the Yuan dynasty. Located in Jiangxi, Jingdezhen had developed rapidly since the Song era. They inherited Ding kiln’s craftsmanship of white porcelain and produced distinctive products with green and blue hues, known as “qingbai” and “yingqing” wares. During the Yuan dynasty, the government established the "Fuliang Ceramic Bureau" in Jingdezhen instead of the capital city Beijing, which indicates that Jingdezhen had risen to become the core site of ceramic production in the nation.
The ceramic clay discovered on the Kaoling Mountain of Jingdezhen is peculiarly white and clean, facilitating the production of pure white ceramics. The Mongols had a preference for white porcelain, as they regarded white, which is also the colour of milk, as pure and chaste.

Located in Hebei province during the Song dynasty, the non-governmental Cizhou Kiln was remarkable for its exceptional skills of firing and glazing ceramics. They pioneered the technique of painting designs on white glaze by using black and brown glazes, thereby establishing a ground-breaking style in Chinese ceramics. Furthermore, they innovatively applied how relief techniques to the vessels by first carving the designs and then glazing them. This technique soon spread to other kiln sites in the northern region, giving rise to a massive ceramic production complex with far-reaching impact. The decorative motifs primarily featured flowers and birds, with some examples simplifying the shape of small birds into flower petals.

Similar to the Ru kiln, the Jun kiln in Henan mainly produced blue glazed porcelain, but their most successful aspect was in firing purple-red specks on the vessels which were first created accidentally. The blue glaze they used contained other chemical elements, which were impurities to the process, so the finished glaze was with impure colours, deviating from the original hue and forming irregular spots or large patches of speckles. This craft is called " transmutation glaze," and the fired glaze is called "famble glaze". The purple-red colour on the blue base that Jun kiln produced resembled rosy glows in the sky, which was truly a rare innovation.

The overglaze decoration is distinct from underglaze decoration by the absence of transparent glaze as protective layer. The craftsman first applies a white glaze to the ceramic body, which is then placed in the kiln and fired at high temperatures to achieve a solid and durable body. Subsequently, the craftsman uses glazes in other colours to paint decorations on the white ceramic surface, and then returns the piece to the kiln for low firing. As a result, the product undergoes a two-fold process of kiln firing.

The qingbai wares of Jingdezhen were commonly used items during the Song and Yuan dynasties. To satisfy the immense demand, the Jingdezhen kiln invented a novel way of firing ceramics. Back in the Tang dynasty, each ceramic piece was placed in a ceramic saggar and then fired in the kiln. This approach prevented the fire from directly heating the ceramic body, which might adversely impact the final product. However, such method was considered inefficient in terms of production quantity. As a result, the Jingdezhen kiln experimented with placing multiple ceramic pieces in a single saggar to achieve a balance between cost and quantity. This technique, known as “stack firing”, was commonly employed to the production of ceramic bowls. Due to the stacking of bowls, the foot and the central interior surface of each bowl could not be glazed, lest it adhere to the body of adjacent bowl after firing. Thus, the finished product exhibited a characteristic unglazed ring at the centre of the bowl’s interior surface, while the remainder of the bowl was glazed in soft blue and white hues. The presence of such a flaw on the bowl serves as an indication of a lower-quality product.

Cizhou Kiln once produced a multitude of head pillows. They are predominantly in rectangular form, while some special designs feature the shape of flower petals. In addition to floral motifs, the pillows were adorned with a wealth of decorative subjects, such as landscapes and figures. Some porcelain pillows also bore inscriptions at the base, such as “Made by the Zhang Family”, to indicate the brands. This form of brand promotion was an original creation back then.

In the Song dynasty, the royal family established the imperial kiln. While the capital of the Northern Song dynasty was in Kaifeng, Henan, the capital of the Southern Song dynasty was in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. Both regimes established specialized factories in their capitals to produce porcelain for the royal family. The imperial kiln produced green wares with a darker hue, which is nearly greyish-green in colour. Another distinguishing feature is the crackles appeared on the glaze surface. The wares produced by the imperial kiln were in exceptionally high quality. Yet, only a small amount remain in existence nowadays.

In addition to inheriting the traditional craftsmanship of celadon, the Song dynasty ceramic artisans created a type of blue glaze, known as "sky blue." The best works of sky blue glaze came from the Ru kiln in Henan. The products solely featured the clear blue of a sunny day, without any other decorations, and were greatly favoured by the royal family. The extant Ru kiln products are rare and extremely precious.