Chinese potters began making porcelain, a highly-refined form of pottery making, during the Yin and Shang dynasties. While early methods were primitive, advanced porcelain making was made possible by the development of specialised kilns which could fire kaolin, a form of white clay, at very high temperatures of around 1,200°C to obtain a hard, non-porous material.

The first true porcelain, however, was produced during the Tang Dynasty when Chinese potters learnt to control the iron content, which reduced colour interference so the porcelain could be white. Porcelain making was finally mastered during the Ming Dynasty, and high quality porcelain, or 'china', was exported to Japan and Europe. By this time, Chinese potters produced porcelain from kaolin, and used a feldspathic stone called petuntse in the process which gave it a translucent, glasslike appearance.