Illustrations, those in series in particular, have a long history in China. These series, or Lianhuan hua in Chinese, may illustrate an event, a working process or more often a story1. In the Wei Dyansty (220-265) at the latest, such series had already begun to make their appearance, some of which may consist as many as 12 pictures in a set2. Among these sets are technical illustrations, depicting the procedures of economical activities such as farming, handicrafts and industrial processes. One well-known example is the Gengzhi tu, commonly referred to as Pictures of Tilling and Weaving. It was first published around 1237. Although this first edition was lost, numerous later copies, and rubbings from engraved stones had been widely circulated over the subsequent dynasties. Studies on its numerous versions have been done both in China and overseas3. A later illustrated manual painted by Chen Chun of the 14th century, the Aobo tu, depicting the process of making salt has also attracted the attention of scholars in Japan and Europe4. All the above technical illustrations serve a common purpose to supplement the main text, and to help the reader to comprehend and understand the complicated processes and procedures. Therefore they all have a role in history and provide valuable graphic information for the study of ancient technology and related topics in China. This paper will discuss one category of such illustrations the manufacturing of porcelain, painted during the Qing dynasty (1644-1911).
1. Woodblock illustrations
The development of Chinese ceramics reached a watershed in the 14th century during the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368). The potters in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province discovered a recipe for the body by mixing kaolin with porcelain stone, thereby succeeded in the production of true porcelain. The invention elevated Jingdezhen to become the “ceramic capital”in China. All other ceramic centres were unable to compete with Jingdezhen and gradually declined. Hence the majority, if not all of the treatises on ceramics are on the production and industry at Jingdezhen. The earliest and more systematic description of the work of the potters at Jingdezhen was the Taoji, a short essay written by Jiang Qi of the Southern Song dynasty (1127-12795). But it was not until the 17th century that illustrations depicting the production of porcelain in Jingdezhen were published. This was the Tiangong kaiwu (The Creation of Nature and Man) by Song Yingxing (1587-1666?), first printed in 16376. Since it publication Tiangong kaiwu has been hailed as a technical manual summarizing the achievement in agriculture and handicrafts in China in the mid. Seventeenth century. Song Yingxing, a native of Nanchang, Jiangxi province received the usual classical education in his youth and passed the provincial examination in 1615. He did not have a successful official career, and after the collapse of the Ming regime he retired to his home town and led a secluded life. His interest was in factual, industrial and technological studies. Tiangong kaiwu was the only book by Song that is still in extant. Chapter Seven, entitled “Taoyan (Ceramics)”consists of six sub-sections:
i). tile
i). bricks
iii). bottles and jars
iv). white porcelain
v). blue and whites
vi). transmutation in kilns and Mohammedan blue.
Although it is not a long chapter, yet it touches on very detailed descriptions of the making of architectural elements from mixing the raw material for the body, forming and firing. The most important sections in this chapter are those on bottles, jars and white porcelain. Not only the ceramic centres, recipes of clays, making of bodies and firing procedures are meticulously mentioned, very technical and quantitative descriptions of the potters wheel and the kiln structures are described in detailed including dimensions of the various parts. Song also touched on the ingredients of a few types of glazes and how they were applied. 13 woodcut illustrations are included in the chapter, and they are namely: making tiles, removing tiles from cores, making bricks, firing bricks and water-quenching, coal-fired brick kiln, making ewers (Fig. 1), making large jars, bottle kilns linked up with jar kilns, shaping and polishing bodies with potters wheel, dipping bodies in water, painting in underglaze blue, glazing, and porcelain kiln. Most of these illustrations are of a vertical format, occupied a page. But one of them “bottle kilns linked up with jar kilns” is horizontal, spreading across two pages.
Song Yingxing was from Nanchang, the provincial capital of Jiangxi and not far away from Jingdezhen. Hence all the information contained in the “Ceramic”chapter must have come from Songs personal experience and eye-witness of the ceramic industry in Jingdezhen. Everything, including very minor details such as the base of the potters wheel (Fig. 1) and the shape of the double-gourd kilns prevalent in Jingdezhen during the late Ming period had all been very accurately drawn and described. The illustrations “are striking for their simplicity and clarity, as would have been approved...by an author whose main concern was didactic rather than esthetic7.”Indeed the illustrations in the original 1637 edition are much better than the ornate and fairly “prettily” redrawn ones found in later editions (such as the 1927 lithographic editions by Tao Xiang and its many later reprints). These later ones may be more pleasing to some eyes, but they add nothing to the technical subjects being illustrated, and sometimes they can be confusing. The illustrations in Tangong kaiwu laid a solid foundation for later illustrators of the Qing period to emulate upon, especially in the technical details.
During the whole Qing period, it seems that the only wood block printed illustrations on porcelain making process were those included in the Jingdezhen taolu, first printed in 1815, 20th year of the Jiaqing reign. This book was first initiated and compiled by Lan Pu who died prematurely without seeing it to be completed. His student Zheng Tinggui augmented the chapters and edited it for publication8.
According to the preface by Liu Bing, Magistrate of Fouliang (Jingdezhen), “Cheng Ting-kuei……brought for my examination the draft for a treatise on pottery which had been bequeathed by his teacher Lan Pin-nan, a man of letters. Most of what it said fell outside my own knowledge, for the author was born and bred in the district and being well versed in his subject had regularly put pen to paper and recorded his experience as they occurred to him. And this surely could not be spoken of in the same breath as the casual browsing of those who make their selections from written records...So I urgently commissioned Cheng Sheng to add to or take from it as in the past. The complete book consists of ten selections, including many references to a host of authorities and touching incidentally on all kinds of pottery; but as it is specially concerned with the Towns pottery the general title is Ching-te-chen Tao-Lu —an Account of Ching-te-chen Pottery.9”
From this preface we know that Lan Pu was native to Jingdezhen, and hence what was written was his personal first hand observation in that town. Chapter 1 (or Book One in Sayers translation) entitled “Illustrated Talks”provides two sketch maps and a series of illustrations of potters in action10. This chapter was augmented by Zheng Tinggui and the 16 illustrations are:
Map of Jingdezhen
Map of the Imperial Factory
Fourteen illustrations of Pottery Practice:
1. Collecting the clay
2. Purifying the clay
3. Firing the saggers
4. Rectifying the moulds
5. Washing the blue pigment
6. Body forming (Fig. 2)
7. Stamping the body
8. Scraping the body
9. Painting in blue
10. Glazing
11. Filling the kilns
12. Opening the kiln
13. Painting the overglaze enamels
14. Second firing
As all these illustrations spread across two pages forming a horizontal format, their compositions are more complex when compared with those in the Tiangong kaiwu. Very often, in a single illustration two or more procedures were depicted, with the groups of figures separated by houses, rocks or trees. Lan Pu was active during the 18th Century, and his student Zheng Tinggui in commissioning the painting of the illustrations must have followed the 18th century tradition. So the porcelain procedures depicted in the illustrations can be seen as those practiced in Jingdezhen in the 18th century. It is a pity that the original 1815 edition of the Jingdezhen taolu is exceedingly rare, the majority of the versions available are reprints done in either 1870 and 1891. The wood blocks of which were damaged, and the recuts not detailed enough making it very difficult to visualize the technical details11.
2. Illustrations by Court painters
Since the Song Dynasty (960-1279) the imperial court used to set up a painting academy, recruiting skilful and professional painters all over the country to provide services to the emperor, the imperial household and the court. During the 18th century, as a result of political stableness, economical prosperity, imperial patronage in all branches of arts witnessed an unprecedented growth. The Painting Academy, in particular, had major developments. Outputs from the Academy all show a hallmark style with meticulous brush-strokes, careful and rich compositions, all executed in bright colours and delicate brush work, very often mixed with a distinctive Western style, showing influences from the Jesuit missionary painters active in the Court during that period.
Some scholars have classified these court paintings of the Qing into four major categories, namely, narrative, historical, decorative and religious12. While this classification is very scientific, but it seems that one major category, a very important one is missing. This is those paintings that are didactic, or propagandistic in nature. Some of these paintings were done in series and mounted as a book or an album, as represented by the many versions of the Gengzhi tu first initiated in the Song. Emperor Kangxi (r. 1662-1721) in his preface to the Gengzhi tu expressed in the accompanying poems his explicit concern with such agricultural and industrial activities and their implicit values in maintaining the prosperity of the empire, regime and the emperor himself13. Several versions of the Gengzhi tu were done by the Painting Academy in the later Yongzheng (r. 1723-1735) or Qianlong (r. 1736-1795) reigns. Albums and scrolls depicting the process of raising silkworms, planting of cotton, ink manufacture and porcelain production were also produced. They were all didactic products commissioned by the court. The last category of these pictures, those illustrating ceramic processes, and ordered by the Qianlong emperor during the early decades of his reign were commissioned under similar background and purpose. It would not be out of place here to list out chronologically the events related to the production of these pictures:
1738, 3rd year Qianglong:
The Ruiyiguan (Painting Academy) received an edict from the emperor asking the Academy to produce a copy of an album of twenty leaves of porcelain manufacturing pictures given to the Academy. The emperor specified the painters Tang Di for the landscape, Sun Hu for the buildings, and Ding Guanpeng for the figures14.
1743, 8th day 4th moon , 8th year Qianglong:
The Inner Court handed over an album of 20 leaves of porcelain manufacturing pictures with an edict saying, “Give this to Tang Ying15, ask him to provide detail description of the technical processes illustrated in each leaf. The text should be in classical language and the length for every page should be about the same, with a variation of about a dozen characters. Give also the locations and provenances where the clay, cobalt ore and water are found. Finally arrange the pages in order according to the technical procedures and return them to the Court16.”
22nd day, 5th moon:
Tang Ying said in a memorial, “Your obedient servant, having received an instruction from your Majesty, humbly and respectfully carried out the order. Each of the leaves was given a description providing technical details on the procedures, as well as the places where clay and cobalt ores were found. The leaves were arranged in order and an introduction was also drafted. They were respectfully presented to your Majesty for perusal and comment. The procedure for making porcelain is a tedious process. The album of illustrations have not been comprehensive in this respect, hence the corresponding text is likewise not complete. Your servant could only described the procedures depicted in the pictures and following your Majestys command, arranged them in order. Your servant earnestly beg your Majestys tolerance on this17.”
1745, 10th moon, 10th year Qianlong:
An entry in the imperial collection catalogue, the Shiqui baoji chubian, Book IV, “Court version of the procedures for the manufacturing of porcelain, Text copied by Dai Lin, one album, second grade, item number one in the di-section, stored at the Chonghua Palace. Colours on plain silk, painting on the right side, 20 leaves in the set. The last leaf carries the signatures and inscription of the artists, ”Your subjects Sun Hu, Zhou Kun, and Ding Guanpeng respectfully painted.”. On the left sides of the paintings are calligraphy by Dai Lin, the signature reads “Your subject Dai Lin respectfully wrote.” The frontispiece leaf is an introduction and a list of the 20 pages, with a 17-character inscription, “Tang Ying, Commissioner of Customs at Jiujiang and Vice-Director of the Imperial Household Department respectfully arranged”. There are twelve pairs of paintings and text18”.
1982:
Some of the leaves from the Court version of the procedures for the manufacturing of porcelain were illustrated in black and white in the Jingdezhen taoci, an issue to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the birth of Tang Ying19.
28th April, 1996:
Christies Hong Kong Ltd, The Imperial Sale, Hong Kong, 28 April, 1996, lot 65:
“Ding Guanpeng (active 1742-1754), Sun (sic) You (18th century) and Zhou Kun (18th century), Illustration of Intricacies of Porcelain Production. Album of twenty leaves, ink and colour on silk, each leaf measures 29 x 25 cm. Last leaf signed: Painted respectfully by Sun (sic.) You, Zhou Kun and Ding Guangpeng, with two seals of Ding Guangpeng. Each facing leaf is a small stand script calligraphy (xiao kao shu) by Dai Lin, also a court painter of the Qianlong era, explaining each step of the procedures of porcelain production. Frontispiece by Tang Ying (18th century). Total of six collectors seals including five of Emperor Qianlong and one of Emperor Jiaqing”.
One of the Qianlong seals tells us that the album was stored at the Chonghua Palace.
1998 and 2002:
The above album from the auction in the Christies Hong Kong was exhibited in Taipei at the Chang Foundation and the National Palace Museum respectively20.
From the above chronology we know that there were more than one such album of porcelain manufacturing pictures produced by court painters in the Palace collection. In 1738, third year after the Qianlong emperor ascended to the throne he sent a set of 20 pages to the Painting Academy to copy, mentioning that they should be jointly painted by Tang Dai, Sun Hu and Zhou Kun. We dont know whether Tang Ying was given this later copied set, the original 20 leave that the court painters were asked by the Qianlong Emperor to copy from or a third set. But one thing we are sure of. The set that turned up in the 1996 Christies Hong Kong sale, and subsequently exhibited in Taiwan is the same album described in the imperial Qianlong catalogue Shiqu baoji. The description, the inscriptions and signatures, the seals and the palace where the set was original kept, all match with each other. The twelve pictures in this set are:
1. Collection of raw material and preparation of the clay
2. Washing and purification of the clay
3. Burning the ashes and preparing the glaze
4. Manufacture of the saggars
5. Preparing the moulds for the round wares
6. Throwing the round wares on the wheel (Fig. 3)
7. Fabrication of the vases
8. Collection of the blue pigment
9. Purification of the blue pigment
10. Moulding the body and grinding the blue pigment
11. Painting the round wares in blue
12. Fabrication and decoration of vases
13. Application of glaze by dipping and blowing
14. Scraping the body and cutting the foot
15. Stacking the pieces into the kiln
16. Opening the kiln when the firing is finished
17. Decorating round wares and vases in overglaze enamels
18. The open stove and the close stove
19. Wrapping the straw and packing in casks
20. Worshipping the God and offering sacrifice
The text of the descriptions of the 20 pictures, written by Tang Ying has provided a concise and accurate account of not only the procedures involved in the making of the porcelain but also the meticulous division of labour, the set up of the potteries in Jingdezhen as well as the various technical details. Hence these descriptions have been widely published and become the most important technical treatise on porcelain making since the 18th century21. Tang Yings description of the technical procedures has been compared to those in modern ceramic technology. It was discovered that they are basically identical. Therefore Tangs text has been called “the most complete record of ancient porcelain manufacturing process22”. However, Tang Ying, when he wrote his memorial to the emperor after he had completed the text, he was obviously not satisfied with what he wrote. Limited by only twenty illustrations, he could not list out all the meticulous procedures that the 18th century potter in Jingdezhen employed. He, therefore sounded out his regrets in the memorial by saying, “The album of illustrations have not been comprehensive in this respect, hence the corresponding text is likewise not complete”. Despite this, the twenty illustrations, the joint effort of three accomplished court painters recreate accurately and faithfully the full technical procedures in the imperial factory in Jingdezhen during the 18th century. The compositions are well designed and the brushstrokes are very fine, finished with bright colours, representing the best standard of court painting prevailing during the period. It is interesting to note that all the figures were dressed in costumes of the ancient times, unlike all other similar illustrations of the Qing period, the figures in which were in Manchu style dresses. This is a characteristic feature of court paintings. It had been customary for the painters to inject a little bit of quasi-antique style in executing their works.
From the above chronology we know that more than one series of porcelain manufacturing pictures were commissioned by the Qing emperors. It is therefore not surprising to see that the Palace Museum in Beijing acquired in the 1980s a fragmentary album of very similar style to the above Christies set. Only eight pages are extant, and they are:
1. Purification of clay
2. Making of saggars
3. Throwing of round wares
4. Making of vases
5. Painting on the body
6. Collection of cobalt ore
7. Packing of porcelain23.
Like the Christies set, this one was painted in colour and ink on silk, but the leaves are larger, measuring 34.7 x 34.7cm. There is no inscription, signature, seal, nor collectors seal. When the set entered the Palace Museum collection it was documented by the experts as “Early Qing period”, meaning Yongzheng and Qianlong periods of the 18th century, and hence more or less contemporary with the above set recorded in the Shiqu baoji and jointly painted by Sun Hu, Zhou Kun and Ding Guangpeng24, although the brush work, composition and rendering of the figures in this latter set is finer, in particular the technical details are invariably accurately and cleared depicted showing that the painters understood what they wanted to illustrate. In this respect the Shiqu baoji set is of better quality. A few of the pages share similar composition (such the page on “collection of cobalt ore”, Fig. 4). It is tempting to say that there is some sort of relationship between the two. They might have come from the same prototype, or the Palace Museum set is later than the one recorded in the Shiqui baoji. But further evidence is needed before a final verdict is available.
Apart from these two sets, there is a third set now in a private collection in Paris, France25. This album consists of 30 leaves, each of which is 31 x 35.7cm. The paintings are done in colour and ink on silk, but only one leaf has been published. The composition of this leaf (Fig. 5) is similar to that of “the throwing of round wares” in the Palace Museum. The set carries a signature of “Jiao Bingjing”. Jiao, a court painter, active during the Kangxi period, had been noted for his execution of the Kangxi version of the Gengzhi tu. He was still alive in the later Yongzheng reign. As we havent examined the original picture it is impossible to ascertain the set was indeed from the hands of Jiao. Judging from the only leaf published, both the style and technique are very fine and seemed to have been done by a court painter. But it is equally possible that it is a copy from an original done by an artist either working in the Ruiyiguan or influenced by the court.
As with all types of handicrafts and art traditions related to the court, the imperial painting academy gradually declined after the Jiaqing reign. There is one such 19th century album of porcelain manufacturing process in the National Palace Museum, Taipei. This set has 14 leaves. The first one is an introduction, which is followed by a picture of the Imperial Factory and 12 illustrations of the process:
1. Digging clay
2. Purification of clay
3. Making of bodies
4. Scrapping the bodies
5. Preparation of cobalt
6. Painting in blue and white
7. Glazing
8. Stacking the pieces into kilns
9. Firing (Fig. 6)
10. Opening the kilns after firing
11. Painting the overglaze enamels
12. Second firing
As Tan Danjiong of the Palace Museum has already made a fairly detailed study of this set26, it is not necessary to repeat his observations here. Tan, noted that some of labels of the buildings in the first picture of the Imperial Factory are different from those illustrated in the Jingdezhen taolu (first published in 1815). He concluded that this set was painted after the second quarter of the 19th century. Stylistically the set is also typical of the 19th century. The rendering of the figures are crudely done, but the technical procedures and details are still accurate. Some of the settings, such as the device of employing buildings, landscapes, and trees to separate the different groups of artisan are also seen in Jingdezhen taolu.
3. Export paintings
Guangzhou (Canton) has been an important trading port in Southern part of China since the Qin and Han dynasties. From the Sui to the Yuan, because of the flourish of the “Maritime Silk Route”Guangzhou had enjoyed even greater prosperity. Trading vessels from China and overseas countries anchored in Guangzhou waters to export silk, porcelain and tea to all parts of the world. Alongside the trade in commercial commodities, cultural exchanges in all directions also flourished. There had been periods of “sea-faring bands”during the Ming and Qing periods, overseas trade through Guangzhou suffered a decline, but from 1758-1839 Guangzhou as the only port opened in the whole of China, foreign trade flourished once more. Guangzhou occupied a pivotal position, linking the East and West. To satisfy the curiosity of the Westerners a great many export painting depicting Chinese landscapes, sceneries, folklore, agricultural and industrial processes were produced and exported to the overseas countries together with the usual commodities. Pictures in series illustrating production processes of the tea, porcelain and silk were especially popular. The large quantities of such sets now in extant in major museums with collections of trade items in Europe and the United States witness the popularity of those items in the Qing dynasty during the 18th/19th centuries - it also tells us the taste and collecting activities of the Westerners during that period. The following is a description of these sets that have been published and known to the present author:
Set A1. Collection of the University Library, Lund, Sweden (BH No.174)
Gouache on paper, album of 50 leaves, 41 x 31 cm. This set was brought back from China circa 1755 by Colin Campbell, Director of the Swedish East India Company and purchased on 20 October 1795 by the Consistorium Major for the Lund University for 58 silver kronen28. Four leaves have been published recently (Fig 7) and after a research by Belfrage the date of this set has revised to 173028.
Set A2. Collection of the Bibliotheque Nationale Paris, France (Oe104)
Watercolours on silk, number of leaves in the set and dimensions unknown. Described as a “small folio” 29, this set, apart from some very minor details, is almost identical to set A1 above. Nine leaves (Oe 104 RES. fols. 19, 26, 29, 32, 36, 38, 39, 96, and 98) have been published in colour and dated to ca. 1770 by Beurdeley and Raindre30 (Figs. 8, 9).
Set B1. Collection of the Musee des Beaux-Arts de Rennes, France (No. 1471 in the museum catalogue of 1876)
A set of 26 watercolours, 33 x 28 cm. This set was previously in the collection of the Marquis Paul-Christophe de Robien (1731-1799), who received the album between 1767 and 1777 as a gift from a relative, Chevalier Pierre-Louis Achille de Robien (1736-1792) after his stays in Canton. It has been illustrated in black and white and discussed in full by Huard and Wong in Arts Asiatiques in 1962 31(Fig. 10).
Set B2. Collection of the Bibliotheque Nationale Paris, France (Oe 105)
A set of 26 watercolours, but described as gouache and dated to mid-18th century by Beudeley, 35 x 28 cm. One leaf (corresponding to p. 25 of the Rennes set, Fig. 11) has been illustrated32. This album follows the same composition with the Rennes set, but with more details and finer brushwork in a traditional Chinese technique. The foliage leaves are rendered in outlined and washed style instead of the boneless and sidewise brush-stokes in the Rennes set.
Set B3. Collection of the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, Winterthur, Delaware. USA
This set is almost identical to B1 in Rennes, including the brush-strokes and the rendering of the tree foliage. Ex. Collection J. Kenneth Canby, this set of 23 leaves has been illustrated by Mudge33. The leaves missing as compared with the Rennes set are 1, 14 and 18. Described by Mudge as: “Chinese watercolours on paper, approximately 10.5 by 10 inches each, is believed to have been painted about 1800. On the back of these notations (Fig. 9, for example, is captioned Digging the Ground for Porcelain) would make their reproduction here of dubious value. But these inaccuracies emphasize the fact that porcelain was made in areas of China from which all foreigners, including the author of the notations, were excluded.” This set seems, indeed, slightly later to the Rennes set, as some of the details, especially the technical parts, are missing and sometimes confusing (Fig. 12).
Set C. Ex. Collection of the Wrest Park Library, now in the Peabdoy-Essex Museum
This set has been published and discussed in full by Staehelin, lop cit, 1966. A set of 34 watercolours on thin Chinese paper mounted on stronger paper, 30 x 30 cm, all impressed with seals of the artist reading “Jian Sheng “. It came up in an auction in Sothebys London 18-19 October 1954, lot 376, and was from the property of the Baroness Lucas and Dingwall, from the Wrest Park Library and bearing the Ex Libris of the Earl de Gray. Staehelin further mentioned that “since there were several other Chinese picture books in the same library and belong to the same owner, among them one that can be dated at 1746 at the latest, it may be assumed that the series presented here dated from this period. Lot No. 375 bearing the note: I bought these Chinese drawings for 16 Guineas at the Auction of Mr. Martin the Supercargos Effects in March 1747. P. Yorke... The earliest dating possible for plate 30 in the set (Fig. 13), showing a Danish flag, is 1731.Danish ships first came to Canton in 173134. This set was very finely painted and the composition is different from all other sets.
Set D1. Collection of the Manufacture Nationale de Sevres, France
A set of twenty-two gouaches with handwritten text. Height 30 cm., dark silk binding. This album was sent by Pere Jean-Joseph-Marie Amoit, a Jesuit father (1718-1795) from Beijing to Mgr. Betin, who subsequently probably presented it to the Sevres factory35. Amoit came to Beijing in 1751 and since, was involved very much in the Jesuit activities in the capital. He died in Beijing in 179536. This, thus provides a terminus date for the album. One leaf has been published 37(Fig. 14)
Set D2. Collection of the Museum Het Princessehof, Leeuwarden, Amsterdam, Holland (Inv. No. 5485-5512)
A set of 28 watercolours, 30 x 28 cm. It has been published in full by Scheurleer who dated it to early 19th century38. Rinaldi published some of the leaves again (Figs. 15, 16) and dates them to 18th century39. Its composition, especially those leaves in the early portion of the album is very similar to D1, but lacking some details and the brush-strokes are somewhat simplified. Some pictures in latter half of the set are obviously garbled and truncated versions of the Rennes set in B1, as well as the Paris and Sweden sets in A1 and A2 (Fig. 17).
Set D3. Collection of the Genehmigung des Schlob-und Spiekartenmuseums, Altenburg, Germany
Dimensions, total number of leaves in the set and formats, all unknown. Seven leaves have been illustrated in a German catalogue40. More than half of the compositions are very similar to the Leeuwarden set in D2 (Fig. 18), but the rendering, style and brush-strokes are in Chinese style, painted in the outlined and wash technique, and carefully executed in very fine brush-strokes.
Set E. Collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, U. K. (E.36 to 58-1910)
Set of 24 pictures, watercolours on Chinese paper, 40 x 60 cm. circa 1770-1790. This album was first discussed by Craig Clunus and seven were illustrated41. Still more recently twenty leaves were illustrated in a catalogue published in Shanghai in connection with an exhibition in Guangzhou42. The leaves are entirely in Western style, with no Chinese style outlines, or cun-strokes, good sense of perspective, and depictions of shadows, clouds, sun rays, etc. In the album, some of the leaves carry inscriptions in Chinese. In leaf E58-1910, depicting a warehouse on the shore of Pearl River, the plaque of the warehouse reads “Fengyuan Zhanfang (the Fengyuan warehouse, Fig. 19)”. Fengyuan belonged to the Hong merchant Cai Shiwen (Munqua) and was used in the 3rd and 4th decades of the Qianlong reign (i.e. circa 1765-1780). After that the name of Cais Hong was changed to Wanghuo Hong. Cai committed suicide in 179643. There is still a Fengyuan Road in the Liwan district (formerly Xiguan area in the 19th century) in modern day Guangzhou this is where the former estate of Cai Shiwen was situated. This fact thus, confirms the 1770-1790 date proposed by Clunus (Fig. 20).
Set F1. Collection of the Gemeentelijk Museum Het Princessehof, Leeuwarden, Holland (No. 5514-5519)
Set of 12 watercolours, gouache on paper, 35.5 x 44 cm. Described in Scheurleer as consisting of two portions, the first eight relating to Jingdezhen (Fig. 21) and the rest four consisting of depictions of the making of stoneware at Canton44. This is probably the set illustrated in Europa und die Kaiser von China, 1985, where it is dated to ca 179045. Scheurleer mentions that this set was painted by the Cantonese painter Pu Qua in 1790. Crossman identified Pu Qua and puts his active dates to the last two decades of the 18th century46, but numerous later copies were done in the early 19th century.
Set F2. Collection of the Peabody-Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, USA
Set of thirteen, gouache on paper, dated by Crossman to circa 182047, 22.8 x 33 cm. This set was executed entirely in western technique with good Western sense of perspective. The composition is very similar to F1, but the scenes are slightly flattened (Fig. 22).
Set F3. Collection of the Hong Kong Museum of Art, China (AH1975.056.001-012)
Set of twelve, gouache on paper, dated to 19th century, 39.5 x 49.5 cm48. The composition is also very similar to F1 above, and as F2 also flattened (Fig. 23, 24).
Set F4. Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA (Winfield Foundation Gift Fund, 55.139)
Watercolour on paper, 15 x 19.5 ins. This set was dated by Corbeiller to early 19th century. The total number of leaves in the set is unknown. Two leaves have been published, both of which are identical in composition to F3, but they were not found in the F2 set above49 (Fig. 25).
Set F4. Collection of the British Museum, London, U. K.
Details unknown, this set has been partially published and dated to 19th century50. Three illustrated in Bouley are all very similar in composition to F1, but not so flattened as in F2-F3 (Fig. 26).
Set G. Collection of the Peabody-Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, USA
Gouache, c. 1825, c. 38.5 x 53 cm. 5 leaves have been illustrated in Mudge51. Crossman in describing a detail from this set of 12 remarks, “A remarkable document showing the moulds into which the clay was pressed to make animals, grottoes and curiously formed objects both for a western and a native market. Such items could have been produced in Shiwan, not far away from Canton, where such moulded stoneware pieces were fabricated since the Ming dynasty.” (Fig. 27)
Set H1. Collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, U. K. (E2705-E2721-1921)
Set of 17 leaves this album was outlined in ink on paper without colour, hence it was previously recorded as woodblock prints. Two leaves have been illustrated and discussed by Craig Clunus, who dated it to 1840-1860 52(Fig. 28).
Set H2. Collection of the Bibliotheque Nationale Paris, France (Oe. 107 in 4o)
Ink on paper, this set consists of pictures outlined but not coloured. Each leaf has a Chinese caption below. Details unknown, but 12 leaves have been published by Beudeley and Raindre53. The leaves show very unfaithful depiction of the working process in China. Most of the tools and setting have been imaginary interpreted and mistakenly drawn (Fig. 29).
I. Miscellaneous sets with different compositions:
I-1. Private collection, Paris. One leaf is published, depicting the quarrying of porcelain stone, painted in Western style54.
I-2. Peabody-Essex Museum, Salem. A set of 12 watercolours on late 18th century European paper, circa 1795, 35.6 x 45.7 cm55. This is the only set that has been identified as painted on imported paper.
I-3. Philadelphia Museum of Art (Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Charles A. Kreiger. 67-32-1-6), Gouache on paper, early 19th century, 68 x 69.6 cm (framed). Two leaves have been illustrated by Jean Gordon Lee56.
I-4. Victoria and Albert Museum, London, U. K. (D581-592-1901), set of 12, watercolours, dimensions unknown, not yet published, photos available. This set seems to be very late. The composition and the settings are very stereotyped (Fig. 30).
Set J. Collection of the Peabody-Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, USA.
Oil on canvas, 130 x 190 cm. This is the only picture that shows all the porcelain procedures in one single painting. This is also the only known oil painting in extant 57(Fig. 31).
None of the above eight group of 23 sets of illustrations is signed or dated. We know nothing of the workshop or the artists who produced them. The illustrations were commercial products quite a numbers of the sets shared a common prototype with very similar composition or settings. Very obviously they copied and influenced each other, although their quality and standards are very uneven. It is very difficult to propose a dating framework or a stylistic development scheme. The only clues available to us are the shipping, acquisition and provenance records. The earliest of the illustrations is from the 1730, although most of the earlier ones are from the mid 18th century. The latest of them are about 1825. So they span roughly a whole century, from the mid 18th to the mid 19th, i.e. through the four reigns of Yongzheng, Qianlong, Jiaqing (r. 1796-1800) and Daoguang (r. 1821-1850). This period coincides with the great prosperity of Chinese international trade via the Guangzhou port.
If one can make an attempt to divide the above 23 sets of illustration into three groups, chronologically, it can easily be observed that the earliest ones have been painted with traditional Chinese techniques. The ones that follows employ both Western and Chinese methods forming a curious hybrid style. The late ones were executed entirely in Western techniques.
These so-called Western techniques are identified with subjects in chiaroscuro, with light on one side and shadow on the other, resulting in a new manner of realism using three dimensional modeling techniques. Dark shadows, realistic clouds, sun and moon all appear. The use of Western method of perspective, a linear one, with a vanishing point is another characteristic. Some of these techniques were employed in the Tang Ying set already. There was some sense of three-dimentionality, but the perspective is an isometric one, without a vanishing point. The most conspicuous difference is in the brush strokes - objects in the traditional paintings are all shaped by linear means, using the difference cun-fibre strokes in the rendering of landscape scene, the outline and wash in figures, colours built up applying layers of transparent washes one after another, etc.
Combined with the application of Western techniques, imported paper, colour and material made their appearance in these export paintings also. Gouache replaced the Chinese traditional watercolours made from mineral or organic pigments. A tougher type of paper was imported since the last decade of the 18th Century, some of them may even carry watermarks such as those from Whatman. But so far no watermarks have been discovered in the porcelain illustrations, which are mostly albums painted on paper, although one earlier set is done on silk, and there is a unique picture in oil. The normal paper used may be the usual mianlin, but some of later ones may be lightly sized. A stronger and thicker paper was backed onto the surface paper in the mounting process after the illustrations were painted. As for the pigments, it is not that easy to differentiate the traditional Chinese ones and gouache. The conservation laboratory at the Victoria and Albert Museum carried out an analysis of such colours using X-ray fluorescence58. It was discovered that blue and green are organic pigments, red is vermillion, yellow ochre, and white lead powder. Gouache and Chinese glue used by traditional painters all contain protein, hence it is not easy to tell the difference of the two with a naked eye.
The contents of the illustrations for export differ from those of the two earlier types, wood-block prints and illustrations done by court painters. Most of the sets for export have more numbers of pictures, ranging from slightly more than a dozen to as many as fifty in a single set. The illustrations consist of two portions. The first one concentrates on the porcelain procedures conducted in Jingdezhen, which include the mining and collecting of raw materials, forming of bodies, painting of underglaze blue, glazing, firing, second painting of overglaze enamels, second firing, packing and thanks-giving to the Gods. The second portion are scenes outside of Jingdezhen ordering, inviting to a business banquet, bargaining, reminding the order, transportation to Guangzhou through rivers and land, store houses in Guangzhou, unpacking and checking, painting in overglaze enamel according to the patterns ordered from overseas, packing and porcelain shops in Guangzhou.
The studios responsible for the output of the export illustrations were all run by Cantonese in Guangzhou. Very few, if not none of these painters had been to Jingdezhen. Therefore, for the first portion, those scenes in Jingdezhen, the artists were painting something that they were unfamiliar with. They might have followed a prototype, or some sort of pattern book, but for the technical details, the tools and the very minor details in ceramic technology, they were totally ignorant, therefore in some cases, misinterpretations, or even completely wrong and imaginary details were found. A good example is the architectural style. All the buildings depicted in the middle and late group of export illustrations, the style was that prevalent in Guangdong, with covered corridors, water ponds and brick-structured workshops. The side walls are in “Wok-handle-shape (or “Omega”-shape, Fig. 20)”. This form of side walls are only found in Guangdong, as those in the Jiangnan area, especially Anhui and Jiangxi are stepped, with pointed ends, hence are called “horse hoof walls59” locally.
The most notable mistake committed by these export painters is the kiln structure. In all the illustrations, disregard of their date, all the kilns are shaped like “missile heads” with a horizontal band near the top (e.g. Fig. 7, 8, 20, 29, 30). Such shape has been unheard of, not even in China, all through the centuries, but also unknown in the whole of East Asia60. Kiln structures in China can broadly be classified into three major types the dragon kiln, a climbing structure in South China, the horse-shoe type in North China and oval kiln in Jingdezhen. The last type, an improvement over the first two types represents the final development. “Its shape resembles a half egg, lying horizontally on the ground. The front is slightly higher and wider than the back where a chimney is situated. The chimney is approximately the same height as the length of the kiln61.” A wooden shelter was very often constructed on the outside of the brick kiln, so as to protect the kiln furnace from rain and heat of the sun. It was therefore not easy to see the original oval shape of the kiln from outside. Because of this, the Cantonese export painters had therefore provided their imaginary version of the kiln that of a “missile head”!
Another misinterpretation made by the export painters was the potters wheel which has been the most basic and essential tool used by the potter since late Neolithic times. The wheel “has a simple construction. It is a piece of round wooden board. On its underside at the centre is a porcelain bearing bowl. This, in turn, rests and turns steadily on a vertical wooden stick buried in ground. The potter would turn the wheel with a stick, at a speed of sixty or seventy rounds per minute62”. Before the invention of electric motor, this had been the most usual way of turning the wheel. Another method probably more efficient and faster was depicted in all the illustrations. An apprentice, by holding a robe suspended from the roof could kick the wheel with his feet. However, in all the middle and late export illustrations, for reasons unknown, all the potters wheels were drawn with gears along the perimeters. (Figs. 16, 18) This shows the ignorance of the export painters on the mechanism of the potters wheel.
The scenes in the second part of the export pictures were, however fairly accurately depicted because they were painting something that they were familiar with. The transportation of porcelain from Jingdezhen in Jiangxi to Guangzhou involved a long route. The porcelain pieces would first be loaded on a boat at a pier on the Changjiang River. The boat would pass through Poyang Lake and sailed southward along the Ganjiang River. The load would then be carried by poles overland through the Dayu Pass until it reached the town Nanxiong in the northern part of the Guangdong province. From there the porcelain would be loaded on boat again and via the Beijiang River, downstream through Shaoguan and Yingde for its final destination Guangzhou. In almost all of the export set, there are leaves depicting the land and river transportation scenes as well as the port of Guangzhou. The landmarks of Guangzhou, especially those along the Pearl River, such the Huata (Flower Pagoda), the Five-storey Pavilion, French and Dutch Follies and the Customs Offices can all be found on the paintings some of which even highlighted with one or two foreigners (Figs. 9, 13, 19), adding a final exotic touch to the set and imprinting a historical mark onto these pictures catering for an overseas patron.
Conclusions
The three major categories of illustrations of the manufacturing of porcelain during the Qing dynasty have different patronages. The wood block prints were for the general public. The illustrations were simple, and to some extend crudely depicted. The court paintings enjoyed imperial patronage and hence they were technically most sophisticated and laboriously executed. The last category was for export, serving similar purposes as souvenir postcards in nowadays. They not only fulfilled the curiosity of Westerners on China, but also contributed to the exchange of ceramic technology between China and Western countries. The misinterpretation of some of the technical details and the wrongly depicted mechanical setups in these pictures are their short-comings. Stylistically they employed a curious fusion of Western and Chinese pictorial techniques.
All technical illustrations occupy an important role in history. They provide valuable information on painting, art, economy, handicraft, history and cultural exchange. In 2002 a nation wide project of compile an up-dated and comprehensive Dynastic History of the Qing has been inaugurated. All the historians agreed that the use of illustrations should be emphasized, although a consensus of how they should appear in the final compilation has still to be reached63. It is however, anticipated that such illustrations will receive their proper attention and will be widely studied and utilized by historians.
Notes
1.Editorial Committee of the Cihai, Cihai (photo-reduced edition, 1989), Shanghai: Shanghai Cishu chubanshe, 1990, p. 1177.
2. A Ying (Qian Xingcun), Zhongguo lianhuan tu shihua (A history of Lianhuantu in China), Beijing: Zhongguo gudian yishu chubanshe, 1957, p. 2.
3. Chinese Museum of Agriculture, Zhongguo gudai gengzhi tu (Ancient Chinese Pictures of Tilling and Weaving), Beijing: Zhongguo nongye chubanshe, 1995, see also Paul Pelliot, “A propos du Keng Tche Tou”, Memoires concernant LAsie Orientale, I, 1913, pp. 65-122, and Soren Edgren, Chinese Rare Books in American Collections, New York: China Institute in America, 1984, pp. 120-121.
4. Yoshida Tora, Salt Production Techniques in Ancient China, the Aobo Tu, Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1993.
5. Liu Xinyuan, “Jiang Qi Taoji zhuzuo shidai kao bian jianlun Jingdezhen nan Song yu Yuan dai ciqi gongyi, shichang ji suizhi deng fangmian de chayi (On of the date of the Taoji by Jiang Qin and related problems of ceramic technology, market and tax system in Jingdezhen during the S. Song and Yuan Dynasties), Wenshi, No.18, pp. 111-130 and No. 19, pp. 79-107, 1983.
6. Pan Jixing, Tiango kaiwu jiaozhu ji yanjiu (The Tiangong kaiwu: collations and studies), Chengdu: Bashu shushe, 1989. A lithographic fascimille of the first edition of this book was published by the Zhonghua shuju in Beijing in 1959. An English translation of the whole book with original illustrations fully reproduced is easily available, see Sung Ying-hsing, Chinese Technology in the Seventeenth Century, Tien-kung kai-wu, Translated from the Chinese and annotated by E-Tu Zen Sun and Shiou-Chuan Sun, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1966, and Dover reprints, 1997.
7. E-Tu Zen Sun and Shiou-Chuan Sun, op cit, Translators Preface, p. viii.
8. Reprints of the Jingdezhen taolu are easily available, see for example Xiong Liu, et al, (ed.), Zhongguo taoci guji (Ancent Chinese treatises on ceramics), Nanchang: Jiangxi keji chubanshe, 2000, pp. 346-423. For annotated editions see Fu Zhenlun, Jingdezhen taolu xiangzhu, Beijing: Shumu wenxian chubanshe, 1993; and Ouyang Shen,et al, Jingdezhen taolu jiaozhu, Nanchang: Jiangxi renmin chubanshe. This book was translated into English by Geoffrey R. Sayer, in his Ching-te-chen Tao-lu or the Potteries of China, being a Translation with Notes and an Introduction, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1951.
9. Translation of the foreword by Sayer, op cit, pp. xxiii-xxiv.
10.Regrettably these have not been illustrated in Sayers translation. For good illustrations see the version reprinted by Xiong Liao.
11.Such inferior reprints can be seen in Jingdezhen taolu jiaozhu and Institute of Ceramic Studies, Light Industry Bureau of Jiangxi, Jingdezhen taoci shigao, Beijing: Joint Publishing Company, 1959, plate 29.
12.Ne Congzheng, “Qingdai de gongting huihua he huajia (Qing Painting Academy and court painters”, Qingdai gongting huihua(Court Painting during the Qing Dyansty), Beijing: Wenwu Press, 1992, pp. 1-24. See also the essays by Howard Rogers, She Cheng and Yang Xin in Ju-his Chou and Claudia Brown, The Elegant Brush, Chinese Painting under the Qianlong Emperor, 1735-1795, Phoenix: Phoenix Art Museum, 1985.
13.Zhongguo gudai gengzhi tu, lop cit, p. 83.
14.Yu Peijin, “Renewing Tradition: examples in the renovation of the imperial wares of the Chien-lung period”, Emperor Chien-lungs Grand Cultural Enterprise, Taipei: National Palace Museum, 2002, p. 2002, quoting archives of the Imperial Palace Workshops.
15.Tang Ying (1682-1756 ) was in charge of the Custom Office at Jiujiang Pass and concurrently Supervisor of the Imperial Factory at Jingdezhen. See Peter Y. K. Lam, “Tang Ying (1682-1756), The Imperial Factory Superintendent at Jingdezhen”, Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society, Vol. 63, 1998-1999, pp. 65-82.
16.First National Archives of China, Qingdai dangan shiliao congbian (Serials on the archives and historical records of the Qing Dynasty), Vol. 12, Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1987, pp. 12-130.
17.Ibid.
18.Zhang Zhao, et al, Shique baoji chubian, Taibei: National Palace Museum reprint, 1971, 2nd Vol, p. 766.
19.Jingdezhen taoci, 1982, no. 2, pp. 33-35.
20.Chang Foundation: Chinese Art from the Ching Wan Society Collections II, Taipei: Chang Foundation, 1998, pp. 76-78; Emperor Chien-lungs Grand Cultural Enterprise, V-1, pp. 166-169.
21.For instance, Taoshuo, Jiangxi tongzhi (Gazateer of Jiangxi Province), Fouliang xianzhi (Gazateer of Fouliang Couty), etc.
22.Li Guozhen and Guo Yanyi, Zhongguo mingci gongyi jichu (Technical Foundations of Chinese ceramics), Shanghai: Shanghai keji chubanshe, 1988, pp. 10-13.
23.Qingshi tudian bianji weiyuanhui, Qingshi tudian--Yongzheng chao (Illustrated History of the Qing Yongzheng Reign), Beijing: Zijincheng chubanshe, 2002, pp. 149-156.
24.Personal communication, Mr. Xu Zhongling of the Painting and Calligrapy Division, Palace Museum, Beijing.
25.Michel Beurdeley and Guy Raindre, Qing Porcelain, Famille Verte, Famille Rose, London: Thames and Hudson, 1987, pp. 33, Fig. 26.
26.Gugong jikang, Vol. V, No. 1, 1970, see also Tan Danjiong, Zhongguo taoci, Xhiqian, Shang Zhou taoci (Chinese ceramics, section on Prehistory, Shang and Zhou), Taipei, Guangfu shuju, 1980, pp. 10-53.
27.Walter A. Staehelin, The Book of Porcelain, The Manufacture and sale of export porcelain in China during the eighteenth century, illustrated by a contemporary series of Chinese watercolours. London: Lund Humphries, 1965, p. 82, note 11.
28.Jan Wirgin, Fran Kina till Europa, Kinesiska konstforemal fran de ostindiska companiernas tid, Stockholm: Ostasistiska Museet Stockhom, 1998, pp. 282-283. This set was discussed in detail by E. Belfrage, “Chinese Watercolours from the 18th Century Illustrating Porcelain Manufacture,”International Association of Bibliophiles XV Congress Copenhagen Transactions, 1987, Kopenhamn, 1992.
29.Staehelin, op cit.
30.Beurdeley and Raindre, lop cit, pp. 9, 31, 34, 35, 197.
31.Staehelin, op cit. Pierre Huard and Ming Wong, ”Un album Chinois de lepoque Tsing consacre a la fabrication de la porcelaine”, Arts Asiatique, Tome IX, 1962-63, Fascicules 1-2, pp. 3-60.
32.Beurdeley and Raindre, lop cit, p. 37, fig. 33.
33.Jean McClure Mudge, Chinese Export Porcelain for the American Trade 1785-1835, Delaware: University of Delaware Press, 1962, pp. 57-62.
34.Staehelin, lop cit, p. 83, note. 35.
35.Staehelin, ibid. Described and illustrated in Cahiers de la Ceramique du Verre et des Arts du Feu, No. 33, in the essay by Rev. Pere J. Roi, “Visite en 1764 de deux Chinois a la Manufacture Royale de Sevres”, pp. 29-43. One page illustrated in Huard and Wong, ibid, p. 58.
36.Louis Pfister, Notices Biographiques et Bibliographiques sur Les Jesuites de Lancienne Mission de Chine, 1552-1773, Chang-hai: Imprimerie de la Mission Catholique, 1932/34.
37.Huard and Wong, lop cit, p. 58.
38.D. F. Lunsingh Scheurleer, Letters of Father dEntrecolles and accounts of Chinese porcelain from old European publications, Canaletto: Alphen aan den Rijn, 1982, pls. 1-18.
39.Maura Rinaldi, Kraak Porcelain, a Moment in the History of Trade, London: Bamboo, Publishing Ltd, 1989, pp. 50-54.
40.Florian Hufnagl, Porzellan aus China Die Sammlung Seltmann,Weiden: Internatinales Keramik-Museum, 1994, pls. 11, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 31.
41.Craig Clunus, Chinese Export Watercolours, London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1984, pls. 8a-b.
42.Ming Wilson, et al, Souvenir from Canton Chinese Export Paintings from the Victoria and Albert Museum, Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 2003, pp. 98-117.
43.Liang Jiabin, Guangdong shisan heng kao yapian zhanzheng qian Guangdong guoji moyi jisotongshi kao (Studies on the Thirteen Factories in Guangzhou A study of the international trade and transportation in Guangdong before the Opium War), Taibei: Tung-hai University, 1960, pp. 220-222.
44.Scheurleer, lop cit, p. 86a.
45.Hendrik Budde, Europa unde die Kaiser von China, Berlin: Heenemann, 1985, pp. 224-225.
46.Carl L. Crossman, The Decorative Arts of the China Trade, Paintings, furnishings and exotic curiosities, Suffolk: Antique collectors Club Ltd, 1991, pp.185-186.
47.Crossman, lop cit, p. 438, fig. 2.
48.The author thanks Dr. Joseph Ting of the Hong Kong Museum of History and Ms. Stoney Yeung of the Hong Kong Museum of Art for providing information on this set.
49.Clare le Corbeiller, China Trade Porcelain: Patterns of Exchange, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1974, pp. 5-6, figs. 2-3.
50.Anthony Du Boulay, Chinese Porcelain, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1970, figs. 4, 123-125, end-paper, and Robert Tichane, Ching-te-chen, Views of a Porcelain City, New York: The New York State Institute for Glaze Research, 1983, figs. 5.30, 5.34
51.Jean McClure Mudge, Chinese Export Porcelain in North America, New York: Riverside Book company, Inc, 2000, pp. 30-31. Crossman, p. 313, colour plate 111.
52.Clunus, lop cit, p. 71, figs. 43, 44.
53.Beudeley and Raidre, lop cit, pp. 39-40.
54.Beudeley and Raidre, lop cit, p. 32, fig. 25.
55.Crossman, p. 180, pl. 85.
56.Jean Gordon Lee, Philadelphia and the China Trade 1784-1844, Pennsylvania: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1984, p. 195, no. 213.
57.Tina Peng (ed), Picturing Cathay: Maritime and Cultural Images of the China Trade, Hong Kong : University Museum and Art Gallery, The University of Hong Kong, 2003, p. 144, pl. 84.
58.Clunus, lop cit, pp.76-77.
59.Bai Ming, Jingdezhen chuantong zhici gongyi (Traditional ceramic technology in Jingdezhen), Nanchang: Jiangxi meishu chubanshe, 2002, pp. 52-53. This book contains very useful photographs of porcelain procedures practised by the potters in Jingdezhen nowadays.
60.Xiong Haitang, Dongan yaoye jishu fazhen yu jiaoliu shi yanjiu (A Study on the technical development and exchange of kiln structures in East Asia), Nanjing: Nanjing University Press, 1995.
61.Liu Zhenchun, “Yaolu de gaijin he woguo gutaoci fazhan de guanxi (The relationship between the improvement in kiln structure and the development of ancient ceramics in China)”, Zhongguo gutaoci lunji, Beijing: Wenwu Press, 1982, p. 170.
62.Zhou Ren, “Woguo chuantong zhici gongyi shulue (A brief study on the traditional ceramic technology in China)”, Zhongguo gutaoci yanjiu lunwhen ji, Beijing: Qinggongye chubanshe, 1983, p. 90.
63.Liu Lu and Guo Yuhai, “Drawings and Photographs of the Qing Dynasty and the New Compilation of History of the Qing Dynasty”, Studies in Qing History, 2003, No. 3, pp. 11-18.
主要参考书目 Selected Bibliography
1. Beurdeley, Michel and Raindre, Guy. Qing Porcelain, Famille Verte, Famille Rose. London: Thames and Hudson, 1987.
2. Budde, Hendrik. Europa unde die Kaiser von China. Berlin: Heenemann, 1985.
3. Clunus, Craig. Chinese Export Watercolours. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1984.
4. Corbeiller, Clare le. China Trade Porcelain: Patterns of Exchange. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1974.
5. Crossman, Carl L. The Decorative Arts of the China Trade, Paintings, furnishings and exotic curiosities. Suffolk: Antique collectors Club Ltd, 1991.
6. Du Boulay, Anthony. Chinese Porcelain. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1970.
7. Huard, Pierre and Wong, Ming. “Un album Chinois de lepoque Tsing consacre a la fabrication de la porcelaine”, Arts Asiatique, Tome IX, 1962-63, Fascicules 1-2, pp. 3-60.
8. Hufnagl, Florian. Porzellan aus China Die Sammlung Seltmann. Weiden: Internatinales Keramik-Museum, 1994.
9. Lan Pu. Jingdezhen taolu, 1815.
10. 蓝浦：《景德镇陶录》，嘉庆二十年。
11. Lee, Jean Gordon. Philadelphia and the China Trade 1784-1844. Pennsylvania: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1984.
12. Mudge, Jean McClure. Chinese Export Porcelain for the American Trade 1785-1835. Delaware: University of Delaware Press, 1962, pp. 57-62.
13. Mudge, Jean McClure. Chinese Export Porcelain in North America. New York: Riverside Book company, Inc, 2000.
14. Peng, Tina (ed). Picturing Cathay: Maritime and Cultural Images of the China Trade. Hong Kong : University Museum and Art Gallery, The University of Hong Kong, 2003.
15. 彭绮云等编：《海贸流珍──中国外销品的风貌》，香港：香港大学美术博物馆，2003。
16. Qingshi tudian bianji weiyuanhui. Qingshi tudian Yongzheng chao (Illustrated History of the Qing Yongzheng Reign). Beijing: Zijincheng chubanshe, 2002, pp. 149-156.
17. 清史图典编辑委员会：《清史图典•雍正朝》，北京：紫禁城出版社，2002。
18. Scheurleer, D. F. Lunsingh. Letters of Father dEntrecolles and accounts of Chinese porcelain from old European publications. Canaletto: Alphen aan den Rijn, 1982.
19. Song Yingxing. Tiango kaiwu. Reprint by Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1959.
20. 宋应星：《天工开物》，1959年中华书局影印本。
21. Staehelin, Walter A. The Book of Porcelain, The Manufacture and sale of export porcelain in China during the eighteenth century, illustrated by a contemporary series of Chinese watercolours. London: Lund Humphries, 1965.
22. Tan Danjiong. Zhongguo taoci, Shiqian, Shang Zhou taoci (Chinese ceramics, section on Prehistory, Shang and Zhou), Taipei, Guangfu shuju, 1980.
23. 谭旦冏：《中国陶瓷．史前、商周陶器》，台北：光复书局，1980。
24. Wilson, Ming, et al. Souvenir from Canton Chinese Export Paintings from the Victoria and Albert Museum. Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 2003.
25. 刘明倩等：《18—19世纪羊城风物──英国维多利亚阿伯特博物院藏广州外销画》，2003，上海：上海古籍出版社，2003。
26. Wirgin, Jan. Fran Kina till Europa, Kinesiska konstforemal fran de ostindiska companiernas tid. Stockholm: Ostasistiska Museet Stockhom, 1998.
插图来源 Sources of Illustrations
1. Song, Zhonghua shuju 1959 reprint 宋应星,
中华书局影印本
2. Lan, 蓝浦 1815
3. Christies Hong Kong Ltd.
4. 清史图典编辑委员会 Qingshi tudian bianji weiyuanhui, 2002, p. 149
5. Beurdeley & Raindre, 1987, p. 33, fig. 26
6. 谭旦冏 Tan, 1980, p. 20, pl. 11
7. Wirgin, 1998, p. 283, pl. 2
8. Beurdeley & Raindre, 1987, p. 33, pl. 27
9. Beurdeley & Raindre, 1987, p. 196, pl. 272
10. Huard & Wong, 1962-63, p. 55, pl. XXV
11. Beurdeley & Raindre, 1987, p. 37, fig. 33
12. Mudge, 1962, p. 62, fig. 30
13. Staehelin, 1965, p. 173, pl. 30
14. Huard & Wong, 1962-63, p. 58, pl. XXVIII
15. Scheurleer, 1982, fig. 3
16. Ditto, fig. 10
17. Ditto, fig. 23
18. Hufnagl, 1994, p. 11
19. Wilson, et al, 刘明倩等 2003, p. 116
20. Ditto, p. 108
21. Budde, 1985, p. 225, Abb. 207 (Kat. Nr. 4/21)
22. Crossman, 1991, Fig. 2
23. Hong Kong Museum of Art, AH1975.056.002
24. Ditto, AH1975.056.012
25. Corbeiller, 1974, p. 6, fig. 3
26. Du Bouley, 1970, p. 122, pl. 122
27. Mudge, 2000, p. 31, pl. 34
28. Clunus, 1984, p. 71, fig. 43
29. Beurdeley & Raindre, 1987, p. 39, fig. 39
30. Victoria and Albert Museum, D588-1901
31. 彭绮云等Peng (ed.), 2003, p. 144, pl. 84
Peter Y. K. Lam, Chief Curator of Art Museum, Chinese University of Hong Kong