2 - City of Imperial Choice: Jingdezhen, 1000–1200

Summary

Where does the history of Jingdezhen’s porcelain start? Perhaps surprisingly, this is not generally considered to be a vexed question; most narratives begin with the bestowal of the name of the Northern Song reign period (Jingde, 1004–1007) on the town (zhen). Choosing that date as starting point for the history of Jingdezhen’s porcelain is, however, also misleading. It creates the teleological impression that from that point on, Jingdezhen travelled on a path that inevitably led to becoming the world’s preeminent site of ceramics production, and it suggests exceptionality where there is none. In its account of the period between 1000 and 1200, this chapter shows that the goods produced in Raozhou prefecture (where Jingdezhen was located) were not unique but competed with goods from numerous other sites. Moreover, the history of Jingdezhen’s porcelains is not the history of a single town, but the history of a web of connections that linked geographical spaces, natural resources, and human skills. The history of Jingdezhen’s porcelains should begin with the emergence of that web of connections: a network that made the production of Jingdezhen’s ceramics possible.