The original Yaozhou Kiln is located in Yaozhou, which is present-day Huangbaozhen in Tongchuan of Northwest China's Shaanxi Province. Yaozhou ware was another major school of porcelain in northern China during the Song Dynasty (960-1279).

Exhaustive studies show that Huangbaozhen was an important porcelain-making site established in the Tang Dynasty (618-907). Its development continued till the reign of Jingkang (1126-1127) in the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), before gradually declining afterwards. However, the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) still saw the manufacture of Yaozhou ware.

The porcelain school of Yaozhou ware spread over a wide area, extending east beyond Shaanxi Province to influence the Ruzhou celadon school in Central China's Henan Province; while in the west it spread to Xunyi on the border between Shaanxi and Gansu (Northwest China) provinces. The Xunyi kiln, discovered in May 1977, produced celadon ware of the Yaozhou School.

The celebrated Song poet Lu You said in the second volume of his Notes in an Old Scholar's Studio that Yaozhou celadon was similar to "Mi Se" ("secret color") porcelain of the Yuezhou kiln in East China's Zhejiang Province. It was durable and widely used by the populace.

Qing Yi Lu , a work dealing with miscellaneous subjects, admires the concise and simple shape of a shallow bowl with a flat bottom devised by Yaozhou potters. The bowl was called "little seagull," illustrating the popularity of porcelain vessels manufactured in Yaozhou kilns.

In its early stage, Yaozhou ware of the Northern Song Dynasty had a rather coarse body and glaze and the vessels were mainly trumpet-shaped bowls. Teapots with a handle and short spout were externally decorated with some roughly incised lotus petals and peonies. Few had impressed (imprinted) designs.

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