The wares of the Song dynasty are particularly noted for brilliant feldspathic glazes over a stoneware body and their emphasis on simplicity of form. Decoration is infrequent but may be incised, molded, impressed, or carved; a certain amount of painted decoration was done at Cizhou (present Handan) in Hebei province (see below). The esteem accorded to the Song wares accounts for the relatively large number that have survived. The principal varieties are Ru, Guan, Ge, Ding, Longquan, Jun, Jian, Cizhou, and Yingqing. Ru ware has a buff stoneware body and is covered with a dense greenish-blue glaze that sometimes has ...(100 of 42409 words)