Page 70 - Jindezhen Porcelain Production of the 19th C. by Ellen Huang, Univ. San Diego 2008
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‘Tang Ying once said that when he became Jiujiang tax
official, he regretted not being able to focus completely on
ceramics, which is what production required.’ This
statement enables us to know who Tang Ying was. Tang
Ying was never able to write a systematic treatise on
ceramics. Thus, the secrets of the wares from his time
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period have been lost forever. What a true pity.
Guo Baochang linked a lifetime of service to the essential meaning of the ceramic
official’s life. In Guo’s reasoning, the production of pottery was linked directly to
people’s efforts. He did not mention the handicraft or abilities of skillful artisans who
worked to manufacture the porcelain bodies, the saggers, the glazes, and ornamental
designs. In fact, while Guo himself had lived in Jingdezhen and observed production
processes up-close, artisans and potters were rarely mentioned. Rather, what stand out in
Guo’s writings are the twin axes of porcelain objects and porcelain administrators sent
from the emperor. In Guo’s retrospective on Tang Ying, exquisite porcelain pieces and
Tang Ying’s written works were the valuable facts that merited Guo’s attention and art
collection. Guo also mentioned that his personal collection of art included some of Tang
Ying’s porcelain objects and calligraphy. The same themes are evident in the “Brief
Description of Porcelain” essay on porcelain history written for the 1935 exhibitions.
Guo’s focus on imperial officials’ agency stand in contrast to conceptions of porcelain
and ceramic art that were also in vogue at the time, such as Bernard Leach’s works on
Oriental pottery, or Stephen Bushell’s works on Chinese porcelain, which either focused
on individual artisan’s accomplishments or the ceramic objects’ natural development.
Guo put forth an outline of porcelain history and development that ignored
historical realities. In fact, there is no scholarly consensus as to what a “porcelain
commissioner” is. In the Chinese-language sources, they are variously referred to as
