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zhuanke xuexiao) located in Jingdezhen. Wu noted that Tao Ya was, among other works,
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“a necessary reference for ceramic historians.” Another scholarly work published in
1936 entitled Jingdezhen ciye shi (History of the Jingdezhen Ceramic Industry) by Jiang
Siqing also relied on Tao Ya to narrate the apex of ceramics development during the
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Ming and Qing dynasties. Passages taken from Tao Ya informed readers of Jingdezhen
ciye shi about aspects of porcelain including the development and existence of
multicolored decoration on Ming-Qing ceramics, the throwing of porcelain bodies, and
copper inlays. In 1959 an English translation was published. Translated by an
independent ceramics scholar Geoffrey Sayer, it is terminologically vague and meant for
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specialists only. As the only English translation, Sayer’s work is invaluable, but his
straightforward translation does not consider history or the fact that translation itself is
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historical. For instance, it consistently renders “qing” as “blue/green” to explain visual
phenomenon of ceramic glazes. The invariable usage of the term, “blue/green” is
altogether limiting and misleading given the wide range of hues that fall under the color
“qing.” Sayer’s translation does harm to the word qing which accounts for the vagaries
of the glaze due to its chemical oxidization process. Considering the way in which qing
appeared in Ming dynasty (fifteenth and sixteenth centuries) texts, it encompasses an
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entire genre of ceramics, not simply a color. It is thus difficult to gauge the application
of the original Tao Ya by reading Sayer’s book.
Insofar as the multiple printed editions and references to Tao Ya point to its
significance in the writing of historical surveys and in the discourses of modern antique
circles, Tao Ya can be said to have played an important role in the development of
modern histories of porcelain as Chinese art in the era of national art. But its
