Several centuries ago, when European people marveled at the fine pottery
shipped from a mysterious nation in the Orient, they decided to give the works
a name. The trader explained that the exquisite products were made in a town
called “Changnan”, which people began to pronounce as “China”. Possibly out of
the conventional practice of referring to a country by that for which it is
best known, “china” came into use to refer to the whole nation.
Chinese
ceramics were created more than 2000 years ago when Changnan was more like a
village. The Song Emperor Jingde named Changnan with his own name as a reward
for the local people’s creativity and inspiration. From then on, Changnan
gradually fell into oblivion, but Jingdezhen, or Jingde Town being in the very
same place, is still the capital of ceramics.
In the
following dynasties, Jingdezhen porcelain production, as both an art and an
industry, continued to thrive and reached its all time high in the early Qing
Dynasty. The local masters’ tasteful control of temperature, time, and pottery
array before baking always made sure that their products were the best in China
or even the world. The earth used for clay, and pine trees used for firing
found near Jingdezhen give the Changnan china its uniqueness.
Traditional Jingdezhen china art can be categorized into four schools, with the
most famous one being the “blues and whites” porcelain. A poetic depiction of
it goes, “white like jade, sounds like a chime, and thin like paper”.
What’s
more, the first ceramic art institute in the world was established in
Jingdezhen in 1995 – a Sino-American joint project. More china artists are to
be fostered from here.
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