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production. After 1786, when the last Imperial Household official working at

Jingdezhen committed suicide, responsibility for Jingdezhen kilns was transferred to the

jurisdiction of either the General Administration Circuit Inspector of Prefects Guangxin,

Raozhou, Jiujiang, and Nanchang or to the Jiujiang customs office (GuangRaoJiuNan

dao Jiujiang guan jianduguan yaowuᄿᙘɘی༸ɘϪᗫ္ຖ၍ᇉي) until the end of

the dynasty in 1911. Moreover, real duties of day-to-day management of the potters,

artisans, and laborers actually lay in the hands of the official who lived in Jingdezhen not

the higher ranking supervisor who lived further away. The most effective of these

resident officials was Lao Ge, a Manchurian Imperial Household Foreman (Neiwufu

cuizong yaochang xiezao ʫਕִළᐼᇉᅀ՘ி) who reported to Tang Ying and then

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remained in Jingdezhen between 1741 and 1769 – a total term of twenty-eight years.

Despite these shifting realities and diversity of ranks in charge of porcelain

commissions, Guo still claimed for Tang Ying the credit of the official with the highest

esteem. After Tang Ying, “never again was an official sent to live and produce at the

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kilns [in Jingdezhen],” declared Guo. He singled out three other Qing officials

assigned the task of porcelain production: the aforementioned Zang Yingxuan, who

served in the 1680s, Lang Tingji, and Nian Xiyao of the Yongzheng period. During each

of their terms working on porcelain, they lived in different places and all three managed

the production of wares for the emperor. Guo Baochang worked in a similar capacity for

“Emperor” Yuan Shikai. By writing a history of porcelain that imputed such importance

to these officials, Guo wrote in such a way as to re-affirm his own significance. Here,

writing about porcelain was actually writing a biography. Porcelain was not personified;

porcelain in fact created personhood.