A sancai statuette of Sogdian musicians riding on a Bactrian camel, ca. 723 CE, excavated in the tomb of Xianyu Tinghui, general of Yunhui, in western suburbs of Chang’an (Xi’an), Tang dynasty, Chinese. National Museum of China, Beijing
Sancai (literally “three colours”) is a style of Chinese pottery decoration, most closely associated with the Tang dynasty, that uses lead-based glazes in mainly green, amber/brown, and cream/white tones.
It was a low-temperature earthenware technique, easier and cheaper to produce than porcelain, often used for tomb figures and burial objects around the 7th–8th centuries. While the three main colours gave it its name, additional hues like blue, black, and yellow also appeared, with blue being rarer due to costly imported cobalt.
Sancai pieces included both sculptural figures and small vessels, sometimes assembled from moulded parts. The style is also linked to Luoyang, where many examples were first discovered, and was sometimes nicknamed “egg-and-spinach” for its mottled green, yellow, and white appearance.
