Vase (meiping)

It has become increasingly apparent that ding vases from the Song onward were formed taller and broader at the shoulder. A tall version with a dish-shaped mouth and a short neck in a rounded profile of the middle Northern Song (CGK Zenshu 1981 vol. 9: pl. 56) is the forebearer of the meiping shape that was to become widely produced later on. The shape, referred to in a twelfth-century text as jingping (elongated vase), is described as a wine bottle with a small, round-edged mouth on an elongated body (CGK Zenshu 1981 vol. 9: pl. 78).