Jingdezhen As a Ming Industrial Center*

04 Part KP1:13 Chapter OJ 30/6/08 13:08 Page 283 21 Jingdezhen as a Ming industrial center* Michael Dillon leedS PolytecHnic Source: Ming Studies,vol. 6, Spring 1978, pp. 37–44 ouliang, the county in northeast Jiangxi province of which Jingdezhen is the Flargest town, has a long history of association with the pottery and porcelain industry. according to local traditions, pottery was first made in Fuliang in the Han period.the imperial court of the chen dynasty received Fuliang pottery in 583 and during the tang dynasty, kilns near Jingdezhen which have since been excavated, supplied porcelain to the emperor on several occasions. High quality porcelain, and coarser pottery for local use, were made throughout the Song and yuan periods. during this time, however, the workshops and kilns which produced the porcelain were scattered around Fuliang county and little if any was made in Jingdezhen itself, which functioned primarily as a market and as a government control point for official orders. during the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) the industry and Jingdezhen underwent radical changes. the quantity of porcelain produced increased dramatically and the quality was greatly improved. Jingdezhen was transformed from a market into an industrial center, so that by the end of the dynasty most kilns outside had closed down and production was concentrated in the town. although this process continued throughout the Ming dynasty, the period of most rapid change was in the sixteenth century in the reigns of the Jiajing (1522–66) and Wanli (1573–1620) emperors. a number of factors were involved in this transformation. Some of them acted directly as a stimulus to industrial production while others permitted the industrialization to take place. the most important factors are the interest of the court in porcelain, the availability of raw materials, the technical expertise of the potters, labor supply, appropriate management and financing, transport and marketing networks, the growth of an export trade, and the great changes taking place in the national economy during the sixteenth century.1 iMPerial orderS although the industry produced a wide range of pottery from coarse bowls for everyday use to the finest blue-and-white ware for the imperial court, it was the 04 Part KP1:13 Chapter OJ 30/6/08 13:08 Page 284 284 INDUSTRY AND INDUSTRIALIZATION luxury side of production that was the key to industrialization, and primarily the demands of the court that stimulated the production of high quality wares.there are records of court orders for porcelain going back to the sixth century, but regular ship- ments did not begin until the Ming dynasty when an imperial Porcelain depot was established in Jingdezhen. designated official kilns fired porcelain for the depot which shipped it, irregularly at first, to the court. in the sixteenth century court orders became more frequent and gradually larger as the following table shows: Date Number of Pieces Fired 1529 2,570 1531 12,300 1544 50,000 1555 79,750 1571 105,770 as well as increasing demand, the pressure put on the industry by the large orders – which also called for consistently high quality – forced potters to make radical changes in organization. nonofficial workshops and kilns were brought in to manufacture the porcelain, and as will be shown, the organization of labor changed completely. Without the stimulus of the demand from the court it is doubtful whether Jingdezhen would ever have expanded and industrialized to the same extent. although fulfilling imperial orders was at times a financial burden on the potters, they were, also able to manufacture and sell high quality wares commercially because of the prestige gained from being an official supplier. raW MaterialS Jingdezhen was particularly well supplied with raw materials because of its geograph- ical location and it was this abundance of resources that had made possible the initial development of a pottery industry in tang and Song times. china clay and china- stone, the two materials needed for the porcelain base, are decomposition products of feldspathic rock and were mined in the hills around the town.the wooded mountain sides provided pine and brushwood for firing the kilns and also fern, the ash of which was mixed with limestone to make glaze. even a certain amount of cobalt oxide for blue coloring was available locally, as were pigments for less expensive decoration. local resources provided the basis for the industry, but with increased production and greater specialization, potters were forced to look elsewhere. as the industry developed, higher prices for the finished products meant that raw material sources further afield could be exploited and during the late Ming dynasty, clay was brought from as far away as Xingzi at the northern tip of the Poyang lake, yugan at its southern tip, and Qimen (Keemun) in anhui. cobalt salts for blue-and-white porcelain and copper for red decorations were more of a problem as the highest quality was needed to maintain the pure underglaze colors.When local sources became exhausted or were found to be insufficiently pure, cobalt was imported from the Middle east through Sumatra, or fromyunnan. in this as in many other factors it was the flexibility and adaptability of the industry that enabled it to expand. When high quality blue was not available, as in the fifteenth century, red porcelain was sent to court in place of blue-and-white..

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