Yue ware or Yüeh ware (Chinese: 越(州)窯; pinyin: Yuè(zhōu) yáo; Wade–Giles: Yüeh(-chou) yao) is a type of Chinese ceramics, a felspathic siliceous stoneware, which is characteristically decorated with celadon glazing.[1][2] Yue ware is also sometimes called (Yuezhou) green porcelain (Chinese: (越州)青瓷; pinyin: (Yuèzhōu) qīngcí) in modern literature, but the term is misleading as it is not really porcelain (on Western definitions) and its shades are not really green.[1] It has been "one of the most successful and influential of all south Chinese ceramics types".[2]
The wares covered by the term have been gradually reduced; initially used for a wide range of early celadons with a grey body, it was first made more specific to refer only to wares from north China, and then later only to those from the Tang dynasty onwards, and sometimes to restrict it "to the finest quality wares of the ninth and tenth centuries".[3] At the same time it has been realized that very similar wares were made at a number of northern kilns, and today the term Yue-type is often preferred.
As the first fine glazed Chinese wares with no toxicity problems from the glazing, Yue ware begins the classic tradition of Chinese ceramics used for serving food and drinking wine or tea. Typically thin-bodied and finely made, with subtle glaze effects and very elegant shapes, Yue ware set the taste for monochrome pieces, sometimes with restrained incised decoration, that lasted for several centuries after.
Closed shapes such as vases, ewers, and ritual objects could have sculptured parts.