Page 23 - Jindezhen Porcelain Production of the 19th C. by Ellen Huang, Univ. San Diego 2008

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one of the most important specialists on porcelain in the late Qing dynasty and first half

the twentieth century, worked. Through the forum of the exhibitions, Guo’s essay, “Brief

Description of Porcelain” (Ciqi gaishuo), was translated, printed in exhibition catalogues,

sent to English collectors and educators, and used by twentieth century specialists in art

history to write about Chinese ceramics. There was also the practical fact that Guo was

responsible for the selection of porcelain objects sent from Beijing to be displayed in the

various exhibition venues. While the discursive framework surrounding the discussions

and representations of porcelain was certainly nation-centered, the event’s publicity

generated an unprecedented opportunity for the influence of Guo Baochang, whose views

and intentions combined imperial, national, and personal objectives to put forth a

narrative of porcelain history centered on falangcai enameled porcelain and the brilliant

imperial porcelain commissioners (dutaoguan).

Clearly, we know that the story ends with porcelain emerging as a national icon,

but it begins with a book published in the early nineteenth century. The second chapter

of the dissertation moves backward in time to the beginning of our story in order to

consider the first specialized book on Jingdezhen ceramics, the Jingdezhen Tao lu.

Writing of the book began in the 1790s but its first publication occurred in 1815. The

final form consisted of an important first chapter (juan) that included the woodblock

printed images portraying porcelain production, which also made the Jingdezhen Tao lu

the first illustrated manual on Jingdezhen porcelain. The book’s nineteenth century

circulation history demonstrates that the history of its reception – and of porcelain’s

canonization – is unique. The book was translated at the height of the western industrial

intrusion into Qing territory. Both instances of its translation occurred in the middle of