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book was comprised of first-hand witnesses and testimonies of two native Jingdezhen

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literati. Zheng Tinggui, as Liu stressed, “was born and bred in Jingdezhen, lived his whole

life [in Jingdezhen] and could at any time record his observations on contemporary pottery

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affairs.” The preface exhibits two important themes. First, the preface writer interpreted

Tao lu’s value in terms of its comprehensive coverage of porcelain production under the

“present ʦ” [Qing] dynasty. Second, Liu believed the expert insight into porcelain

manufacturing provided by Tao lu stemmed from its nature as a text penned by local writers

who had spent their whole lives in Jingdezhen, not some provincial official secretary who

was not from the county. Following this, Liu Bing then lauded the book for promulgating

the benefits of the imperial state’s patronage of Jingdezhen industry:

Since the state (guojia) began provisions for potters… the
people were secure (min an), and the objects increased in
number (wufu), the workers were diligent, and the vessels
improved in quality. The people of Jingdezhen became
increasingly wealthy, and Jingdezhen ceramics became
increasingly brilliant…But there are those who don’t know
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the reasons for such prosperity (you buzhi suoyou ran yi).

Indeed, as the first book to give an account of Jingdezhen porcelain up through the late-

Qianlong period, Tao lu’s textual, and as we shall later see, visual content privileged a

conceptualization of porcelain that combined the importance of local action with imperial

agency. Its enthusiastic narration of local production methods and materials at Jingdezhen

simultaneously exalted the locality and also the imperial court: in the text, Jingdezhen’s

uniqueness stemmed from its close relationship with porcelain produced for the court and

imperial use. Such a propagandistic agenda is not surprising – Liu Bing was after all, a

county magistrate and both Lan Pu and Zheng Tinggui were born and bred in Jingdezhen.

However, self-glorifying purposes notwithstanding, Jingdezhen Tao lu’s agenda put forth