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decline such as the physical nature of “course” clay and kiln-firing conditions, but all

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assume the basic idea of a nineteenth century decay.

III. Elisions of Modernity: Porcelain Production in the Nineteenth Century

There is a disjunction between the content of the text of Tao Ya and the material

remnants of the time period. If modernity consists of a temporal structure that designates

itself as new, then it requires a conceptual framework that sees the present as distinct and

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distant from the past, even the very recent past. This logical structure demands a

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constantly vanishing present. The negation of nineteenth century artistic development
in Tao Ya reflects how the work’s temporal structure registered the nineteenth century

present and recent past in a shroud of decline and crisis. As such, Chen’s text is

structured by a feeling of self-rejection and loathing in the name of narrating moments of

(self)-glory. In fact, innovation and different forms of production did appear in the

nineteenth century. A decrease in court patronage of Jingdezhen porcelain gave rise to a

surfeit of time and raw materials and the ensuing flexibility of time and resources gave

way to experimentation by which porcelain makers could create pieces individualized

and marked with the potter’s own seal. An inverse relationship between the court

patronage and the appearance of diverse porcelain forms was not without historical

precedent. In 1620, with the end of the penultimate reign of the Ming dynasty, the

imperial kilns ceased production activity. From then until 1683, when Kangxi instated

two officials from the Imperial Household to manage production of high-fired porcelains

for the Qing court at the Jingdezhen kilns, significant new styles were created. In the

open market, vigorous experimentation produced new wares with original decorative