In the 1960s, Mr. Chen Wanli, a ceramic expert from the Palace Museum, traveled on a mule from Yuzhou to Pacun for research. He made a stunning remark, stating that Pacun Klin porcelains were ancient porcelain varieties of extremely high artistic value. Their artistic level and influence were no less than that of other porcelain types. They shone brightly and possessed boundless charm, deserving to be recognized as an independent kiln system.

Mr. Geng Baochang, the Chinese Ancient Ceramics Association president, and Mr. Feng Jicai, the China Folk Literature and Art Association chairman, praised Pacun Klin porcelains as "ink painting on porcelains." Their white-background black-motif design embodied the essence of Chinese painting and calligraphy, embodied in ancient porcelains.

The Pacun Kiln, located in Qianjing Township, Yuzhou City, on the south bank of the Yellow River, was one of the renowned folk kilns of the Song Dynasty. It was known for producing white-background black-motif porcelains, mostly in daily-use items. The motifs often depicted popular historical stories, beloved flowers, birds, text, landscapes, and figures, making it a typical representative of ancient northern kilns. Although rarely documented in historical texts, many porcelains preserved among the people were from the Song, Jin, and Yuan dynasties. The porcelains were mainly painted with black motifs on a white background, along with other designs, such as white background with incised motifs, celadon background with black painted or printed motifs, white background with brown or black motifs, as well as various glazes, including white glaze, black glaze, green glaze, Song-style tricolored glaze, and Song-style painted overglaze. In the past, people often confused the products of the Pacun Kiln with those of the Hebei Cizhou Kiln. Therefore, starting in the 1990s, we began researching the Pacun Kiln.

The Pacun Kiln site covers a vast area, stretching from Hutou Mountain in the west to Huaguo Hill in the south and from Pacun in the north. It spans about 1,500 meters in length and 800 meters in width, with a total area of around one million square meters. According to the specimen data we discovered during the research, the kiln produced a wide range of household items, with bowls, plates, and basins being the most common, followed by bottles, jars, pillows, incense burners, urns, and cups. The white-background black-motif porcelains, produced by the artisans during that time, were a type of porcelain highly favored by the local population. They quickly spread to neighboring kilns, including Laozhai Klin, Bianjiafen Klin, Wujiafen Klin, Wayaogou Klin, and Maoerduo Klin, forming an extensive network of northern folk kilns in the southern region of the Yellow River. Influenced by the Pacun Kiln, other kilns, such as the Huangdao Kiln in Jiaxian, the Quhe Kiln in Dengfeng, and the Yaogou Kiln in Mixian, produced white-background black-motif porcelains. While the Pacun Kiln made white-background black-motif porcelains, it also innovated by creating white-background black-and-brown motifs designs. This addition expanded the previously single-colored porcelains into various new glazed types.

The products of the Pacun Kiln placed a strong emphasis on decoration. The motifs on the porcelains varied not only in subject matter but also in content. The decorative techniques included painting, carving, incising, scraping, printing, raised line patterns, molding, perforation, and overglazing. The motifs featured in these porcelains included various floral designs, such as peonies, lotuses, chrysanthemums, and more. 

Peony patterns: The peony symbolizes prosperity, flourishing, and happiness. These floral motifs were commonly seen on the bottoms of pots or the centers of bowls. In the former case, they were typically painted with black floral designs on a white background, while in the latter, they were often incised into the porcelains.

Lotus patterns: The lotus symbolizes purity and incorruptibility, representing "rising from the mud but remaining unstained." The lotus flower is considered a "sacred flower" in Buddhist art and later became a common decorative motif on various handicrafts. On the surface of the Pacun Kiln porcelains from the Song and Jin dynasties, such as white-glazed black-motif basins, white-glazed incised motifs bowls, and white-glazed printed motifs plates, lotus flowers, lotus leaves, and water wave patterns were often used in combination. Some pieces featured a large, open lotus leaf with two blooming lotus flowers on the lid, with water wave patterns painted in the blank spaces to enhance the design. This decoration embodied the elegant and untainted nature of the lotus, reflecting its symbolism of purity and nobility.

Chrysanthemum patterns: Some pieces featured a fully bloomed chrysanthemum on the lid of white-glazed underglaze-painted vessels, with long petals extending outward, giving a delicate and refined impression. Others depicted chrysanthemums in the center of white-glazed, brown-painted bowls, with either branching or intertwined chrysanthemums, using similar techniques but with differing poses. These variations created innovative and distinctive patterns, greatly enriching the floral decoration art. The lines of these floral motifs were fluid and lively, showcasing the vivid and realistic design quality and the characteristics of folk painting art.

Animal motifs: Chinese dragons, tigers, lions, deer, rabbits, geese, swans, cranes, and scenes of landscapes and figures. Notably, while the author researched the Pacun Kiln site, he collected two fragments of the bottom of white-glazed, black-motif porcelain bowls. One image of these fragments showed an infant holding a lotus leaf, while the other depicted an infant lying beneath a blooming lotus leaf, playfully holding a lotus pod. The depiction of the infant, with its chubby face, pursed lips, curious and innocent eyes, and adorable posture, hidden beneath the lotus leaf, created a vivid and lifelike image. These motifs, often associated with the Buddhist "transformation birth" iconography, were symbolic and auspicious designs commonly called a "lotus-born noble child."

During the Jin and Yuan dynasties, the Pacun Kiln primarily produced bowls, plates, basins, and vases. Bowls and plates were particularly abundant in quantity and varied in style, featuring wide-mouth, arc-shaped bodies and tiny circular feet. Most of these pieces were coated with white glaze both inside and out. Some bowls were carved with floral patterns, while others had single Chinese characters inscribed, such as "郭" (Guo), "净" (Jing), "清" (Qing), "雪" (Xue), "花" (Hua), "忍" (Ren), and so on. The basins were all designed with open mouths, shallow bodies, and flat bottoms. Vases, primarily used for daily life, were often elegantly shaped and aesthetically pleasing, with some becoming decorative pieces that beautified living spaces. The shapes included several types, such as plum vases, goose-neck vases, and lotus-mouth vases. The plum vase had a small mouth, flared rim, broad shoulders, arc-shaped body, and a small circular foot with a long and graceful body. During this period, the surfaces of basins and vases were predominantly white-glazed, black-motif designs. Many pieces featured inscriptions such as "招财利市" (Attract wealth and benefit the market), "风花雪月" (Wind, flowers, snow, and the moon), "道德清静" (Moral purity and tranquility), and "春夏秋冬" (Spring, summer, autumn, winter), with the characters appearing bold and vigorous. These pieces were practical and visually appealing and carried distinctive folk artistic qualities. Their utility, beauty, and cultural significance made them highly popular, leading to widespread circulation.

The main characteristics of Pacun Kiln products are as follows: The body of the porcelains is coarse and loose in texture. Whether it's white glaze, green glaze, yellow glaze, white-background black-motif porcelains, Song tricolored glaze, or Song overglaze, all these pieces are coated with a layer of white engobe beneath the glaze. The white-background black-motif porcelains produced by the kiln are known for their relatively meticulous and dense composition. However, some pieces from the kiln show glaze defects, such as flaking and loss of luster, particularly in the Yuan Dynasty, when these issues became more prominent. Despite these imperfections, porcelain painting techniques from the Yuan and Ming dynasties showed notable improvement compared to the Song and Jin periods. The artistic style during the Yuan and Ming periods became more refined, with more straightforward, faster, and more dynamic brushwork. This evolution reflected the daily life of the people.

While the Pacun Kiln was influenced by the techniques of the Hebei Cizhou Kiln in producing white-background black-motif porcelains, it developed its distinctive style. The Pacun Kiln not only produced a wide variety of porcelains, including high-temperature black-and-white porcelains and low-temperature overglaze pieces, but it also mainly focused on white-background black-motif porcelains while occasionally experimenting with other styles. Although there were overlaps, each type had its emphasis, and the kiln maintained a clear distinction between its primary and auxiliary products, each with its own merits. If the local Jun Kiln was credited with pioneering copper-red glaze and significantly impacting the history of porcelains, the Pacun Kiln expanded upon this by enriching the range of glazes and shapes, better catering to the daily needs of local people. The kiln produced many wares, including white-background black-motif bowls, plates, and basins, which were long favored by northern folk. Its other glazed porcelain varieties were equally distinctive, with some achieving exceptional qualities, such as red as vermilion, white as wax, black as lacquer, and green as jade. It indicated that, while borrowing advanced techniques from other kiln systems, the Pacun Kiln excelled at utilizing coarse raw materials, skillfully employing white engobe to achieve refined work despite the material limitations. It struck a balance between practicality, economy, and aesthetic appeal, successfully meeting the popular demands of the masses. This versatility and refinement were critical to the Pacun Kiln's success.

The painting style of Pacun Kiln porcelains is deeply rooted in folk life, with a rustic, unrefined quality that, due to its simple and rough style, was not highly valued by the upper classes during the Song Dynasty. It was a natural reflection of the kiln's focus on the daily lives of ordinary people. The artisans of Pacun Kiln captured scenes the local community loved, expressing them in concise, skilled brushwork on porcelains. It made the subjects immediately familiar and approachable to the viewer. Pacun Kiln's white-background brown-black motifs represented a new form of porcelain painting. It blended traditional porcelain-making techniques with the aesthetics of classical Chinese painting, combining elements such as figures, landscapes, birds and animals, and flowers on the main surfaces of the porcelains. The lines of the artwork were fluid and lively, and the themes were vivid and intimate, with strong contrasts in color. These features made Pacun Kiln porcelains particularly popular among rural communities. The Pacun Kiln's decoration style was highly diverse and unconventional. In addition to the ordinary white-background black-motif porcelains, Pacun Kiln also produced pieces with white-background brown-black floral patterns, pearl-ground incised designs, white-glazed with red and green overglaze, and more, with as many as a dozen different decorative styles. This richness in decorative techniques was unparalleled by other kiln systems. It enabled Pacun Kiln to stand out prominently among the significant kilns of the Song Dynasty in Henan, establishing a unique identity in the region.