The Ru Kilns, the Ge Kilns, the Guan Kilns, the Jun Kilns and the Ding Kilns are collectively known as the Five Famous Kilns in China. Also called the Five Great Kilns, they refer to the ceramic kilns (or wares) that made ceramics in China during the Song dynasty (960-1279) and were later held in particularly high regard both inside and outside of China.

Among these kilns was a Guan (official) kiln that was established by the imperial court and which made high-grade wares specially for the court. Incidentally, there was once a Guan kiln in Tongxiang city, northern Zhejiang. Unfortunately, a lack of historical records means that few people have taken notice and this particular Tongxiang Guan kiln has been shrouded in secrecy.

The first mention of the Tongxiang Guan kiln in a historical document was found in Beixing Rilu, or Diary of a Journey to the North, a travel journal by the Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279) scholar-official Lou Yue (1137-1273). On the 11th day of the 11th lunar month in 1069, he passed by Tongxiang city.

One of the journal entries read:

"Passed by Chongde [present-day Tongxiang city] at noon, and met with Shiying at the Guan Kiln at dusk. On the 12th day, passed Yongle during lunch time, and reached Xiuzhou after traveling for another 27 li [one li equals to half a kilometer]."

At the time, Luo Yue was journeying to the north along the Grand Canal. It is telling that the Guan kiln referred to here is more akin to a proper noun like "Chongde", "Yongle" and "Xiuzhou". Then where exactly was it?

Judging by this entry, the Tongxiang Guan kiln was located to the north of Yongle (present-day Puyuan township in Tongxiang city), close to the Grand Canal. In Zhiyuan Jiahe Zhi, or the Annals of Jiahe during the Reign of Zhiyuan, a local gazetteer about the Jiaxing area, it was recorded that the western boundary of Jiaxing county (present-day Jiaxing city) was 50 li away from the Guan Kiln Station in Chongde county, and that the southwestern boundary of Jiaxing county was 45 li away from the Guan Kiln Station in Chongde county. Indeed, the first of the six courier stations in Chongde county that had been recorded in the annals was the Guan Kiln Station. Clearly, the kiln was situated where the counties of Jiaxing and Chongde met, and administratively fell under Chongde.

Compiled not long after the collapse of the Southern Song dynasty, the Annals of Jiahe during the Reign of Zhiyuan — Zhiyuan was the reign title of the Yuan (1206-1368) emperor Kublai Khan (1215-1294) — was regarded as a reliable source on local conditions during that period. The phrase "Guan Kiln Station" in the annals indicates that a courier station had already been set up at the kiln area to provide food and accommodation to officials passing by. Apparently, Lou Yue spent a night in 1169 at the Guan Kiln Station.

According to the Annals of Jiahe during the Reign of Zhiyuan, the position of the Tongxiang Guan kiln could be further pinpointed: "In Jixian … where two towns adjoined each another, there was a Guan kiln." Jixian, currently known as Jixianli, was in the then Chongde county's Yongxin township (which now falls under the jurisdiction of Puyuan township and Wuzhen township respectively), and the place where the two towns connected was right beside the Grand Canal.

This begs the question: When was the Tongxiang Guan kiln built? Again, efforts to find a definite answer have been hampered by a dearth of historical documents. One conjecture is that it was constructed during the Wuyue Kingdom (907-978), while another puts it during the reigning period of Emperor Gaozong of Song (r. 1162-1187).

Since no record before the Southern Song dynasty has been found to contain references to the Tongxiang Guan kiln, it is highly likely that the kiln was built during Gaozong's reign, when the Song dynasty moved to the south and Hangzhou became its capital. After all, the first reference to the kiln first appeared in 1169. On the other hand, as Lou Yue didn't say anything about craftsmen working in his Diary of a Journey to the North, the kiln might have already fallen into disuse at the time.

But what had the Tongxian Guan kiln been producing? Bricks and tiles or ceramic wares? Some clues might be found in the writings of Pu Caotang, a Tongxiang native who lived in the late Ming dynasty (1368-1644). He claimed that "the [kiln] area that stretched from the Wanshou Mountain [in present-day Xiuzhou district, Jiaxing city] to Zaolin [in present-day Wuzhen township] … was once where the brick kiln [during the Southern Song dynasty] stood".

From Pu's statement, it can be seen that, at least in the late Ming dynasty, the ruins of the ancient brick kiln site were still located along the two sides of the Grand Canal, in the same area that Lou Yue noted in his diary. As such, the Tongxiang Guan kiln during the Southern Song was most probably a brick kiln, which, as Pu Caotang wrote, extended over 10 kilometers!

For such a large Guan kiln, what then were the bricks, the tiles and all those manufactured at the site used for? This is another mystery yet to be solved. The guess here is that the site had been set up to satisfy the construction needs of Lin'an (present-day Hangzhou), the capital city of the Southern Song. In other words, the palace buildings, the temples and the official residences in Lin'an might have been built with Tongxiang soil!

For one thing, in a 50-kilometer radius around the Southern Song capital Lin'an, Tongxiang was the only place mentioned in historical records that had a Guan kiln. Indeed, the first reference to the Tongxiang Guan kiln in any record appeared in this period. Furthermore, the construction of major building complexes such as the imperial palace and government agencies fell within the remit of Lin'an Fu or the capital government and the Zhexilu Zhuanyunsi, or the Zhexi (Zhejiang West) Circuit Transport Commission. It was only natural that they had established a Guan kiln in Tongxiang, which fell under the administration of the Zhexi Circuit. Besides, Tongxiang had a rich reserve of clay, and given its location along the Grand Canal, was an ideal place in terms of both distance to the capital city and transportation. Finally, the indication in Diary of a Journey to the North that the Tongxiang Guan kiln had stopped operations in 1169 also matched the development of the Song dynasty. From 1163-1164, all major official constructions at the capital Lin'an were completed, which meant that production at the Tongxiang Guan kiln would have naturally been scaled down before it ceased completely.

Ultimately, all analysis about the Tongxiang Guan kiln is based on the scant records and materials that are available. The Guan kiln that supplied bricks and tiles to the construction efforts of Lin'an city during the reign of Emperor Gaozong was most probably based in Tongxiang. The Tongxiang Guan kiln, at the very least, was one of those in use. This would still need to be further explored.