Page 216 - Jindezhen Porcelain Production of the 19th C. by Ellen Huang, Univ. San Diego 2008

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Written in the last decade of the Qing dynasty, Tao Ya is an intimidating and

exasperating text. Its title means literally “Ceramic Elegances.” Perhaps a better

translation would render it as “Ceramic Aesthetics.” Indeed, the primary subject matter

of the text was the beauty and intricacies of porcelain art. The terms of discussion were

centered upon taste and aesthetics. As a two-hundred page tome, Tao Ya first appeared in

print in 1910 and was published by the author’s personal printing press. Its publication

occurred during a critical time in Jingdezhen history. In 1910 just months before the end

of the Qing dynasty, a joint state-merchant factory supplied with funds from official

provincial treasuries and converted from former imperial kilns was established. The

name was Jiangxi Porcelain Company (Jiangxi Ciye Gongsi) and the manager was Kang

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Dezhang from Qimen, a village very close to Jingdezhen. The founding of the Jiangxi Ciye

Gongsi was part of the central government’s plan to industrialize and introduce mechanized

production processes. The company was one of the ten of such factories established

between 1904 and 1910 by the central government to instigate mechanical industrial

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production.
The text’s sheer length and the author’s long-windedness are exacerbated by the

lack of a systematic organizational structure. The text is divided simply into two

volumes, juan shang (volume 1) and juan xia (volume 2), a division based upon no

apparent rational reason. Given the author’s predilection for drinking (in another one of

his writings, he rather humorously punctuated his passion for drinking by claiming that

every member of his family loved alcohol) his stream of consciousness writing blurs the

fine line between consciousness and unconsciousness. In light of his penchant for drink,