Jizhou played a key role in the emergence of ceramics brush-painted decorations of iron-oxide pigment. But Jingdezhen became the site where blue and white ceramics were produced, not Jizhou. This chapter asks when and why Jizhou’s production came to an end, and how Jingdezhen could emerge from this period as the most successful production site of the premodern world. The depletion of local clays, the lack of firing success in Jizhou (yaobian-kiln transmutation) and eventually the migration of potters to Jingdezhen all form part of the story of decline in Jizhou. Jingdezhen, nearby, and with an excellent supply of resources, developed into the site with more potential for growth, in terms of technologies, resources and skilled potters. Archaeological and visual evidence, especially the visual language applied of decorative elements visible in the David vases of the mid fourteenth century, and objects produced in Jizhou shortly before then, supports the claim of a close connection between Jizhou and Jingdezhen during this period. This chapter demonstrates that the story of Jingdezhen, usually told as a story of global success, begins with these local and regional interactions.

This chapter explores the emergence of blue-and-white porcelain in Jingdezhen. This has often been told as a global story that included cobalt from Central Asia, arriving in China by means of Islamic merchants who circulated throughout Eurasia, as did consumer demands from Central Asia. The emergence of cobalt blue decorations on the large dishes that were popular in the eating practices of the steppe and in Central Asian societies is often seen as a story of regional adaptation to global tastes, but this chapter adds a local dimension. It argues that the production of blue-and-white ceramics benefited the circulation of local technologies, especially the application of metal-based pigments onto the unglazed surfaces of ceramics to create line-drawings and brush-painted decorations. That process started in the northern kilns, especially in the wide region in which Cizhou and Cizhou-type ceramics were manufactured. Over time, the kilns in the south also started to apply painted decorations with brushes under the application of the glaze, as objects, ideas and people moved southwards. Jizhou played a key role in the transmission and circulation of materials and technologies.