Brilliant Porcelain of the Ming and Qing Dynasties
2 min readThe period between the Ming and Qing dynasties was another golden age of China’s porcelain development. The solid national strength and prosperous economy provided alarger space for porcelain development, while impetus alsocame from technological progress, great attention attached by royal family, as well as the expansion of overseas trade.
Jingdezhen in particular, known as “Porcelain Capital””, had yielded many marvelous pieces of porcelain during this time.
The large production of polychrome porcelains from Ming to Qing led to a change in porcelain style from the peaceful, elegant and monochrome feature of Song dynasty to become more lively and elaborate. Though the two styles boast their own characters, from the technological perspective, porcelain wares of the Ming and Qing dynasties are better than the previous ones, whether in terms of texture, rigidity, or arrangement and control of glaze colours, and are much closer to the modern level.
Technological progress is also reflected in new porcelain shapes innovated in the Ming and Qing era. During that time, the booming social economy led to the rapid development of people’s life, thus they raised increasing demands on porcelain types relating to all aspects of their lives. Meanwhile, the special favor on porcelains by emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties further pushed artisans to make every effort to create more porcelain types, which would be impossible to achieve without consummate skills.
Blue-and-white porcelain became more exquisite and ornate during this period, and was still the leading porcelain product, while other coloured porcelain typesalso experienced great development on the basis of the Yuan dynasty. Together, they made up the brilliant porcelain industry of Ming and Qing.
