Page 129 - Jindezhen Porcelain Production of the 19th C. by Ellen Huang, Univ. San Diego 2008

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the management of kilns over to the jurisdiction of local officials at Raozhou prefecture.
Thus, one reason behind drawing, figuratively and literally as I discuss below, intimate

ties between Jingdezhen and the imperial court in a text on Jingdezhen porcelain history

could have been the nostalgia for the bygone years of direct Imperial Household

supervision over the kilns at Jingdezhen. Hence the constant reiteration of accolades in

the poems by Zheng Tinggui bestowed upon the last Imperial Household kiln supervisor

and deputy, Tang Ying, who oversaw kiln production and designed porcelain between

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1728 and his death in 1756. Despite the increase of Jingdezhen export porcelain bodies

sent to be decorated in Canton and the continuing production of exquisite porcelain in

Jingdezhen, the fear over the possible loss of favor as an imperial object and place may

also have stimulated the spirit behind Zheng’s particular narration of porcelain

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technology. Nostalgia for a prior Jingdezhen infused the introduction to his collection
of poems when he lamented that “Recently customs and historical remains have mostly

changed, been replaced, buried or lost, so I decided to compose these thirty poems of the

Bamboo Grove from Taoyang in order to preserve them” (Jinshi fengtu guji duo yiti

yanshi, yinjiu suozhizhe zuo Taoyang zhuzhici sanshishou cunzhiڐࣛ, ࠬɺ̚ᔴεҷಁ

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಴̰ Ϊఱהٝ٫Ъ <<ௗජ϶،൚>>ɧɤ࠯πʘ . Here, we have a clear statement

wherein loss, remembrance, and material preservation combine to generate an

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unambiguous entity: Jingdezhen. In another commentary to a poem he composed,

Zheng pointed out that because “the imperial kilns manufactured porcelain mostly for the

purpose of presenting tribute to the emperor, thus the Inner Court’s Imperial Household

issued models. Because of this, the porcelain from Jingdezhen obtained worldwide

renown, and today the numbers of brokers coming to the town are unceasing” (yuchang