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zhi ciqi, daban beiyi hui gong, gu da nei ban yang shaozao ੿ᅀႡନኜɽ̒ଫ˸Ϋ贡 ,

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݂ɽʫ཯ᅵˇி, ್ᕄନஷਠ˂ɨԙʦԸᕄன٫ഖᖫʔഒ). By advancing a view of

Jingdezhen porcelain as an imperial object with exceptional qualities particular to the

Jingdezhen locale, Zheng produced a treatise about porcelain production that put forth, or

even created, meanings of porcelain deeply connected not only to the concept of imperial

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kilns but also the brand specificity of Jingdezhen. In this sense, for some porcelain

appreciators, and especially for Zheng Tinggui in 1815, chinaware was not at all “China.”

V. Marriages of Image and Text: From Tang Ying and the Imperial Household to
Zheng Tinggui and the Local

In order to clarify more fully the circumstances that gave way to the emergence of

the book Jingdezhen Tao lu in 1815, it is necessary to reverse the chronology and move

backward in time to consider the crucial role Tang Ying played in the production of

knowledge about Jingdezhen. Tang Yingࡥߵ (1682-1756) worked for over twenty years as

an official in the Kangxi emperor’s administration inner court department of Yangxindian

ቮːํ, which was a part of the Neiwufu (Imperial Household Department) that produced

personal amenities and accoutrements for the imperial family’s daily life. Tang was

descended from a Chinese bannerman family whose patriarch had been a bondservant

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captain. Already working at the court at the age of 16, he rose to prominence as the
painting supervisor in 1723. In 1728, he became an assistant to Nian Xiyao, then the

Imperial Household official in charge of the Jingdezhen kiln productions for the Yongzheng

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reign’s imperial court use.