Glass products appeared in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Because it is transparent, smooth, pure and flawless, it gives people an ethereal daydream, so it is valued by Buddhism and is regarded as one of the seven treasures of Buddhism. However, this kind of glass is different from architectural glass. With the development of building technology, people painted glass on the surface of bricks fired on primitive pottery, trying to achieve the effect of glass, so architectural glass appeared.
The colored glaze in the Northern Wei Dynasty took a big step forward on the basis of the monochromatic blue glaze in the Han Dynasty, and two-color glaze and multi-color glaze appeared. With the increase of color types, the glaze color is more and more vivid. In addition to green, dark green, light green, yellow, light yellow, brown and other monochrome, or add green on yellow land, or add green on white land, or use yellow, green and brown at the same time. This laid the foundation for the transition from Tang and Liao dynasties to three-color glazed pottery.
A large number of Xiongnu glazed figurines unearthed from Sima Jinlong's tomb in the Northern Wei Dynasty in Datong Museum include ceremonial soldiers, warriors, attendants, female officials riding horses, female musicians, Hu figurines, prancing horses, pottery camels and so on. The figures are vivid and the costumes are full of charm of Hu people, which is the physical data for studying the culture of the Northern Wei Dynasty and the cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries. It not only has historical research value, but also has certain scientific significance in glass production.
In the Northern Wei Dynasty, glazed tiles were used in the main hall of Pingcheng Palace. Then, Beiqi Palace was also paved with yellow-green glazed tiles. The wide application of coloured glaze in China also benefits from Buddhism. Buddhism believes that in addition to the western paradise, there is also the pure glass world in the East, which is also a pure land paradise. Pharmacist Buddha is the leader of the pure glass world in the East. This pure glass world in the East is one of the ideal realms in Buddhism. The pharmacist Buddha once made twelve wishes to make all residents in the pure glass world disease-free and well-fed. In addition to sharing human incense with Sakyamuni and Amitabha in the Mahatma Hall, the pharmacist Buddha also has his own Yakushido. In the center of the Pharmacist Hall is the Pharmacist Buddha, flanked by his left and right servants, the Sunlight Bodhisattva and the Moonlight Bodhisattva, which are collectively called "Three Pharmacists" and "Three Sages of the East".
In order to cater to this view, during the flourishing period of Buddhism in China, glass was widely used as an architectural ornament, with the intention of creating a real glass world in front of people.