Porcelain for the Emperor
Manufacture and Technocracy in Qing China
Published on 28. March 2023
Book
Hardback
248 pages
978-0-295-75082-8 (ISBN)
Description
A new perspective for understanding the technology behind goods "made in China"
The exquisite ceramic ware produced at the Imperial Porcelain Manufactory at Jingdezhen in southern China functioned as a kind of visual propaganda for the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) court. Porcelain for the Emperor charts the career of bannerman Tang Ying, a technocrat in the porcelain industry, through the first half of the eighteenth century to uncover the wider role of specialist officials in producing the technological knowledge and distinctive artistic forms that were essential to cultural policies of the Chinese state. Through fiscal management, technical experimentation, and design, these imperial technocrats facilitated rationalized manufacturing in precapitalist and preindustrial society.
Drawing on museum collections and firsthand archaeological evidence, as well as the voluminous Archive of the Imperial Workshops, this book contributes new insights to scholarship on global empires and the history of science and technology in China. Readers will learn how the imperial state's intervention in industry left a lingering imprint on modern China through its modes of labor-intensive production, the division of domestic and foreign markets, and, above all, a technocratic culture of centralization.
The exquisite ceramic ware produced at the Imperial Porcelain Manufactory at Jingdezhen in southern China functioned as a kind of visual propaganda for the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) court. Porcelain for the Emperor charts the career of bannerman Tang Ying, a technocrat in the porcelain industry, through the first half of the eighteenth century to uncover the wider role of specialist officials in producing the technological knowledge and distinctive artistic forms that were essential to cultural policies of the Chinese state. Through fiscal management, technical experimentation, and design, these imperial technocrats facilitated rationalized manufacturing in precapitalist and preindustrial society.
Drawing on museum collections and firsthand archaeological evidence, as well as the voluminous Archive of the Imperial Workshops, this book contributes new insights to scholarship on global empires and the history of science and technology in China. Readers will learn how the imperial state's intervention in industry left a lingering imprint on modern China through its modes of labor-intensive production, the division of domestic and foreign markets, and, above all, a technocratic culture of centralization.
Reviews / Votes
"Porcelain for the Emperor is a truly admirable example of interdisciplinary scholarship. Drawing upon concepts and methods from the fields of science and technology studies, literary criticism, and art history, it illuminates the heretofore neglected contributions of bannermen technocrats to the Qing imperial project. This compact and handsomely produced monograph will interest not only art historians, porcelain connoisseurs, and museum curators, but also students of early modern material and political cultures, court history, and imperial state-formations."(Journal of Chinese History) "In Porcelain for the Emperor, Kai Jun Chen forensically follows the official story of commissioning, producing, and supplying court porcelain, using the Archives of the Imperial Workshops. He has combined this rigorous investigation of texts with a close examination of a large sample of the surviving material culture relating to Tang Ying's ceramic production."
(Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)) "Fascinating . . . The book is a great achievement and reads well."
(Oriental Ceramic Society Newsletter) "[R]ichly illustrated and lucidly written. . . . Chen's fine-grained study will substantially deepen our understanding of not only the history of science and technology and the history of material and visual culture in early modern China but also global histories of imperial knowledge formation and empire building from the stimulating perspective of technocracy."
(H-Net)
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Seattle
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
24 b&w illus., 23 color plates
Dimensions
Height: 257 mm
Width: 185 mm
Thickness: 27 mm
Weight
702 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-295-75082-8 (9780295750828)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
03/2023
1st Edition
University of Washington Press
from
€156.99
Available for download
Person
Kai Jun Chen is assistant professor of East Asian studies at Brown University.