Loess

Loess unusually contains low true-clay contents, which means that its shrinkage in drying can be minimal. Loess may be dried and fired faster than most earthenware clays, again due to its unusually low levels of true-clay minerals and its relatively open structure. Therefore, loess is a very well-behaved ceramic material with little tendency to form drying cracks, or to show distortions of the form in drying.

Bronze moulds

The particular virtues of fired loess as a bronze-casting mould-material are its fine particle-size range, combined with high porosity. This open nature of low-fired loess is useful because it allows the gases contained in the molten bronze to escape into the porous mould, avoiding pores and flaws in the cast objects. Its friable nature also allows it to be knocked and scrubbed away easily from the finished bronze after casting. Also, the carved details, reproduced by the loess moulds from the original models, maybe fine as a fingerprint. This combination of fine surface detail, with exceptional dimensional stability, is a most unusual virtue in a ceramic material.

Pipes and wells

China has the longest and continuous production of ceramic building components in the world from the Neolithic era down to the present day. Pipes and wells had been constructed by wood, which could be easily decomposed under different conditions. Therefore, virus and other unclean materials would generate in those pipes and wells easily. After using ceramic for constructing pipes and wells, people at that time can drink uncontaminated water the provision of pure water helping to prevent the spread of waterborne epidemic. The Neolithic invention of drainage and water conduits therefore was the most significant contribution made by ceramics to public hygiene in the past.

Tombs

During Han Dynasty, ceramics continued to be used for larger building elements in addition to roof tiles. The tomb rituals had a big change in Han dynasty a large number of nobilities arose. The tomb of the nobilities need to be bigger to accommodate the funeral rituals in the burial chamber itself and allow for the joint burial of married partners. These changes became dominant after c.-140, and it continued to affect the late Eastern Han Dynasty. In the central plains of north China, large tombs were dug out of the loess and lined with a layer of hollow ceramic plates. As early as the Western Han Dynasty, another development of Chinese building materials appeared which is the manufacture of small solid bricks. Han bricks are small, rectangular or square. In the Han Dynasty, small bricks were used for underground drainage systems and tombs, but not yet for city walls. Their use quickly expanded from the Central Plains region to all regions, and their functions multiplied.