Ding Ware Bowl of the Xing Type with Bi-Disc Foot (907–60): Art, History and Details

Ding Ware Bowl of the Xing Type with Bi-Disc Foot (907–60) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

An ivory-colored glaze covers this shallow bowl with a solid flat foot ring, revealing an almost pure white body. Bowls of this type and shape were used for drinking tea and were traded as far as Samarra (modern Iraq). Red tea consumed during the Tang dynasty (618–906) was believed to look best in pale green or white-glazed bowls. When white whisked powdered tea was introduced a century later during the Song dynasty (960–1279), tastes and aesthetics for tea ceramics changed and dark-glazed teabowls were preferred.

Object facts

• Title: Ding Ware Bowl of the Xing Type with Bi-Disc Foot
• Date: 907–60
• Culture: China, Henan province, Gongxian kilns, Five dynasties (907–60)
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: White stoneware with ivory-white glaze
• Dimensions: Overall: 4.7 x 18.5 cm (1 7/8 x 7 5/16 in.)
• Collection: China - Five Dynasties
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 2020.186

A detail from the museum

The bowl’s foot ring is shaped like a Neolithic bi (璧), a flat jade disc with a central circular hole, which had some ritual function.

Collection credit

Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley Collection Gift

Further reading listed by the museum

• Von Spee, Clarissa. "Chinese Ceramics and Works on Paper." In The Keithley Collection at the Cleveland Museum of Art, edited by Heather Lemonedes Brown, 194–229. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2022.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.