Page 70 - A Re-examination of Late Qing Dynasty Porcelain, 1850-1920 THESIS

remained intact to produce ceramics in China, with the most notable site still being the

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imperial kilns at Jingdezhen. Part of the reason behind the slow production of porcelain

in this era was that the imperial kilns did not operate when the government did not

function properly. Changes in government, such as the transitioning of rulers or political

turmoil, could result in the imperial kilns remaining predominately idle. For example, the

Taiping Rebellion led to the destruction of parts of the imperial kilns in 1856. This

destruction of the site resulted in Xianfeng being unable to produce the same amount of

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porcelain wares as the production achieved during the reign of previous rulers. Despite

periods of slow production, the kilns appear to have created porcelain using the same

materials and skilled artisans as in prior reigns. This suggests that changes in emperors

had little effect on the actual merit of the imperial kilns. The transitional period between

rulers only affected the imagery and amount of porcelain being produced.

According to Tang Ying 唐英(1682–1756), the superintendent of the imperial

porcelain at Jingdezhen between 1728 and 1756, the process of creating porcelain was

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comprised of 20 distinct stages. Under an edict from Qianlong, a series of paintings
depicting porcelain production was ordered. The textual annotation of the production

process was formed by Tang around 1743. The produced album known as the Taoye

tushuo 陶冶圖說 (Explanations of Illustrations of Ceramics), includes illustrations of

each stage of porcelain production along with textual explanations. However, only the

text of the original album survives. The surviving annotations have become the

56 Zhiyan Li and Wen Cheng, Chinese Pottery and Porcelain: Traditional Chinese Arts and
Culture (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1984), 91.
57 Kwan, Imperial Porcelain of the Late Qing Dynasty, 20. The kilns would be rebuilt by Cao
Jingqing under the reign of Tongzhi in 1866. This would cost nearly 130,000 taels of silver.
58 Kwan, 21.

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