Page 125 - Jindezhen Porcelain Production of the 19th C. by Ellen Huang, Univ. San Diego 2008

108

completed in 1774, Zhu Yan’s Tao Shuo contained a short study of Qing porcelain, but

concentrated mostly on the ceramics of the Ming and earlier dynasties. In the 1890s,

Stephen W. Bushell completed a translation of the Tao Shuo, which was published in 1910

under the title of Description of Chinese Pottery and Porcelain. According to one of the

monograph’s three prefaces, Zhu Yan was a native of Zhejiang province and in 1769 began

service as a personal secretary to Jiangxi province Grand Palace Coordinator Wu (Da zhong

64
cheng Wu ɽʕͮю). During this time, he travelled and inspected the porcelain situation

at Jingdezhen, direct observations that were integrated into his scholarly monograph. Thus,

both Tao lu and Tao Shuo were based on first-hand observations of production techniques at

Jingdezhen. One key difference is that the Tao Shuo does not concentrate specifically on

Jingdezhen or on production processes. Other than being published almost forty years apart,

contrasts between the only two Chinese-language books devoted to porcelain reveal the

unique context and aims of the Jingdezhen Tao lu in 1815.

Jingdezhen Tao lu’s original preface, written by the local county magistrate, Liu

Bingᄎ˯, praises Tao Shuo’s coverage of porcelain history but criticizes it on the basis of

its vague discussion of the Qing period and inadequate portrayal of the contemporary

situation of porcelain-making process at Jingdezhen. Regarding Tao Shuo, Liu Bing

recognized its importance in that it was the advent of “specialized books on ceramic

65
vessels.” But in so far as the “present” conditions of Jingdezhen were concerned, Liu Bing

surmised, the writing of Tao Shuo was not quite sufficient since most likely its research did

66
not involve any direct interviews. Liu Bing believed that in order to know the minutia and

complexities involved in producing ceramic vessels, one could not just rely on second-hand

67
research. However, what impressed Liu Bing about the Tao lu was the fact that the latter