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and authorship during the first few years of the Jiaqing period than previously thought. For

instance, chapter two (juan 2) begins with a commemorative summary of the development

of the imperial kiln system during the Qing dynasty. In a subsection called

“Commemoration of the Venerable Dynasty Imperial Kiln Depot,” the text records, “since

the conferral of the [Jiaqing] emperor, the imperial throne has prioritized frugality and the

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court demand for ceramic wares are not abundant” (jin shang yuji yilai, shao cong jiejian,

mei nian taoqi xuyong wu duo). Before he discussed contemporary court porcelain activity,

the author first gave a bare bones outline of the ceramic administration from the start of the

Qing dynasty to the present, whereby the main actors were the emperor and the imperial

officials overseeing porcelain production. Clearly, since a statement about the Jiaqing

emperor as emperor could only be written after the end of the Qianlong reign, chapter two’s

historical overview of the development of the kilns at Jingdezhen must have been written by

Zheng. References to the Jiaqing period are also scattered throughout: in chapter five (juan

5), there is a description of Qianlong wares using the reign name term “Qianlong” in order

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to identify ceramic objects made under the imperial official Tang Ying. But to describe

them as Qianlong-era pieces indicates that at the time of the text’s writing, the current

emperor had to have been an emperor other than Qianlong. Thus, to call Zheng the editor

and compiler of Tao lu would overlook his role and ideas in authoring and crafting Tao lu’s

narrative at the turn of the nineteenth century. The misleading attribution of the separate

chapters of the text to Lan Pu, who lived only until the end of the Qianlong period, might

also obscure our understanding of the text’s specific aims and content.