Yángdí

Yangdi is the ancient city of Han on the central Henan plain, which the Warring States ruler Han Jinghou made his capital in 400 BC and where the Qin placed Yingchuan Commandery. In 1184 the Jin renamed the department of Yingshun as Junzhou after an old terrace of the Xia, the Jun Tai, and the Yuan kept the name, adding Xinzheng and Mi to its lands in 1265. The city lay at the edge of the hills of Mount Ji, where a new kind of pottery took shape.

Potters here, some of whom may have come from the Ru kilns, made Jun ware, with a thick opalescent glaze that fired sky blue and moon white, and in the early and middle Ming the kilns inside Junzhou itself turned out high-fired copper-red flower pots and stands for the court, marked on the base with numbers that fall as the vessels grow larger. Private kilns around Shenhou made everyday bowls and dishes. In 1575 the city was renamed Yuzhou, to avoid the character Jun in the personal name of the Wanli Emperor, Zhu Yijun. Under the Ming and Qing its markets also made it one of the four great medicinal-herb marts of China.