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the emperor Qianlong, and therefore was not included in the seven imperial library

collections scattered along coastal Qing territory. However, not being included in the

imperial library project cannot be an accurate gauge of its far-flung influence in the

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nineteenth century. Copies of the 1815 edition survived: they can be found today in rare

book libraries in Shanghai and Beijing’s Tsinghua University Library. The existence of a

second edition in the Shanghai Museum also confirms its survival throughout the nineteenth

century.

After the Taiping rebellion destroyed the Jingdezhen imperial kilns, Zheng

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Tinggui’s family reprinted the second edition through though own personal press. A

comparison of the printed illustrations indicates that the woodblocks for the images were

also newly re-carved. The second preface included a preface written by the jiyong у͜

county magistrate in-waiting in Zhili province, Wang Tingjian ˮҒᛠ, a Poyang native.

His hyperbolic and overwhelmingly literary preface details the importance of the book and

his high regard for book’s detailing of the manufacturing process at Jingdezhen.

Recognizing the value of Jingdezhen Tao lu for its account of artisanal knowledge and

writing in light of the havoc wreaked by the Taiping armies, Wang belied a great anxiety

over the risk of permanently losing the porcelain information contained in the book were he

not to print another edition. Given the value of book, it merited a second edition, which was

published in 1870. At this point in time, a Zhang Shaoyan ੵˇ֧of Dantu ʗࢯ in

Zhejiang had proofread the book, as the cover indicates (Figure 1). A third edition

reprinted by Shuye Tangุࣣੀ, a private publisher in Beijing, was published in 1891.

Copies of this edition are the most numerous of all editions and are still extant in various