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cultural phenomena as these illustrated catalogues that showcased individuality and

systemized knowledge of the past. The insistence on the meticulous research and

cataloguing of art inventory therefore encompasses the array of political and cultural

mechanisms used in the construction and broadcast of Qing rulership, which was

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“definitively, an emperorship: a mechanism of governance over a domain in parts.”
Porcelain was an object already defined by style names and kilns, names that reflected

specific geographic location. The kiln system was aptly able to encompass a total

domain composed of parts. Even if produced at Jingdezhen, the focus was on the

reproduction of various ware types and kiln styles spread across geographical territory

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and throughout history. Porcelain at Jingdezhen involved modular and mass production

techniques. Its completed form was composed of reproducible steps and modules: a

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cultural object characterized by a domain in parts. Formed and impressed by an

emperor’s own hands, the nature and process by which collections and knowledge about

those porcelain collections provide a clear picture of the link that fused persona with

Qing imperial identity.

III. Images of Porcelain Production and The Rise of Albums: Orderly Viewing and
Orderly Viewers of the Qing court

The history of ceramic images includes another category, those that depict ceramic
manufacture. These are the images that have garnered the most scientific attention. The

first visual depictions of porcelain production appeared in the woodblock prints of the late
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Ming dynasty technology treatise Tiangong kaiwu ˂ʈකي, published in 1637. In his

chapter on ceramic techniques, the author Song Yingxing divides the information contained

therein into six subheadings: