Official Kiln in the Ming and Qing Dynasties
2 min readNothing can be accomplished without norms or standards.Since its emergence in the Song dynasty，official kilns were always accompanied with a set of corresponding management system.The imperial kiln system was also shaped in the Ming and Qing, along with the establishment of Imperial Kiln Workshop at Jingdezhen.
Imperial kiln belonged under the type of official kilns, but it differed from regular official kiln, because the ware it fired was for the royal family only, any other persons were not allowed to use. Moreover, every issue concerning the shapes and specifications of imperial porcelain, be it important or trivial, was strictly taken care of by a special agent, and should be examined and approved by the emperor before it was taken into the next step.
The firing process was also supervised by commissioners assigned by emperor. All products must be alike with the pattern, the finished ones should go through a rigid picking process. It was like a selection of girls for the palace, usually only one in a hundred was selected and sent into the court. Any wares improperly fired, including those with only a tiny flaw, would be destroyed. During the excavation of the Imperial Kiln Workshop site, all types of broken porcelain fragments were unearthed. Through the efforts of archaeologists, some porcelain could be pieced together into complete works. On the other hand, for the porcelain wares sent to the palace, only the emperor could use whatever piece he preferred, while other members of the royal family should abide by the hierarchy of porcelain use. Some special shapes, patterns and even colors were forbidden to ordinary people.
The official kilns were also running very well at the time. When the production of official kilns was unable to meet the needs and demands of the government, the firing system called”official ware fired by civilian kilns”would be carried out-namely，porcelain after its shaping step in official kilns being sent into civilian kilns for firing.Unlike the imperial kiln，the imperfect official products fired by civilian kilns were not destroyed，but sold at a higher price on market.This system efficiently promoted craft exchanges between the two types of kiln in the Ming and Qing era.
