5 - From Jizhou to Jingdezhen in the Fourteenth Century: The Emergence of Blue and White and the Circulations of People and Things

Summary

Jizhou played a key role in the emergence of ceramics brush-painted decorations of iron-oxide pigment. But Jingdezhen became the site where blue and white ceramics were produced, not Jizhou. This chapter asks when and why Jizhou’s production came to an end, and how Jingdezhen could emerge from this period as the most successful production site of the premodern world. The depletion of local clays, the lack of firing success in Jizhou (yaobian-kiln transmutation) and eventually the migration of potters to Jingdezhen all form part of the story of decline in Jizhou. Jingdezhen, nearby, and with an excellent supply of resources, developed into the site with more potential for growth, in terms of technologies, resources and skilled potters. Archaeological and visual evidence, especially the visual language applied of decorative elements visible in the David vases of the mid fourteenth century, and objects produced in Jizhou shortly before then, supports the claim of a close connection between Jizhou and Jingdezhen during this period. This chapter demonstrates that the story of Jingdezhen, usually told as a story of global success, begins with these local and regional interactions.