01Prologue · 序章
A fistful of earth,a kiln of fire.
一抔土，一窑火Before porcelain, there was only clay.
In the dragon kilns of Shangyu, in Zhejiang, the first true celadons were born during the Eastern Han. Ever since, porcelain has begun the same way: with pale earth — kaolin and porcelain stone — washed, aged, wedged, thrown, trimmed and glazed, then reborn in a fire of 1,300°C. In a single night, the softness of clay and the fury of flame come to terms.
- 壹Refine
- 贰Throw
- 叁Trim
- 肆Glaze
- 伍Fire
- 陆Unload
From clay to vessel工序，从泥到器
Peak kiln temperature窑温，胎釉玻化
“Kaolin” comes from Gaoling 高岭, a village northeast of Jingdezhen. Today it is the word the whole world uses for porcelain clay.
02Song Dynasty · 960 – 1279
The blue of the skyafter rain.
雨过天青云破处Where the clouds break after rain.
The Song did not seek ornament — they sought a single colour. Five great kilns, Ru, Guan, Ge, Jun and Ding, rose side by side, with glazes like jade and crackle like breaking ice. At the tea table, scholars whisked tea in Jian bowls, arranged flowers in celadon and burned incense in porcelain censers. For the first time, a vessel held taste and spirit — and it found its way onto ordinary tables, three meals a day.
The blue of the sky where the clouds part after rain — make that colour.Attributed to Emperor Shizong of the Later Zhou; the Song held it as the highest ideal of celadon.
Surviving pieces of Ru ware传世汝窑，存世不足百件
- 汝Ru · Baofeng, HenanSky-blue glaze
- 官Guan · Kaifeng / HangzhouPurple mouth, iron foot
- 哥Ge · Zhejiang (debated)Gold-thread crackle
- 钧Jun · Yuzhou, HenanKiln-changed glaze
- 定Ding · Quyang, HebeiIvory white, tear drips
In 1004, Emperor Zhenzong renamed the town of Changnan after his reign title, Jingde — and Jingdezhen was born.
03Ming Dynasty · 1368 – 1644
A stroke of cobalt,ten thousand miles.
青花万里Blue-and-white across the oceans.
Cobalt from West Asia — “Sumali blue” — bled into the white clay of Jingdezhen and became the most Eastern of blues. The early Ming founded an imperial porcelain works, where official and popular kilns stood side by side. Zheng He sailed the treasure fleet seven times into the Western Oceans, carrying blue-and-white as far as East Africa. In time, Europe simply named the country after its porcelain — china.
Zheng He’s treasure fleet, 1405–1433郑和七下西洋
In the 17th century, Chinese porcelain reached Europe by the millions of pieces — much of it in the holds of the Dutch East India Company.
04Qing Dynasty · 1644 – 1840
Enamel and rose,an age of splendour.
粉彩珐琅The high art of the enamel painters.
Under the Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong emperors, porcelain reached its technical summit. Enamels, famille-rose and doucai competed in colour; a revolving vase could hide a turning landscape inside its belly. The imperial superintendent Tang Ying spent more than twenty years at the kilns and recorded every stage of the craft in pictures. Imperial wares went to the palace, popular wares to every home — bowls, plates, teacups and apothecary jars held the daily life of an empire.
Tang Ying’s illustrated treatise《陶冶图说》成书
- Quarrying stone
- Refining clay
- Mixing glaze
- Making saggars
- Making moulds
- Throwing bowls
- Shaping vases
- Gathering cobalt
- Sorting cobalt
- Moulding & grinding
- Painting in blue
- Painting vases
- Dipping & blowing glaze
- Turning the foot
- Loading the kiln
- Firing & opening
- Enamel painting
- Enamelling kilns
- Packing in straw
- Offering thanks
05Cataclysm · 1840 – 1945
A land in pieces,porcelain to dust.
山河破碎Fire, ruin, and the long silence of the kilns.
In the 1850s, war destroyed the imperial kilns. In 1860 the Old Summer Palace burned for three days and nights, and countless treasures were looted and scattered across the world. For nearly a century, war followed war; kiln fires flickered and died, and glaze recipes vanished with the masters who knew them. The sky-blue of Ru ware had already been lost for eight hundred years.
The Ru glaze was lost汝窑天青釉失传
- 1855Jingdezhen’s imperial kilns destroyed in war; firing halts for over a decade
- 1860Anglo-French forces loot and burn the Old Summer Palace
- 1900The Eight-Nation Alliance enters Beijing; the palaces are plundered again
- 1937Full-scale war; the porcelain trade withers and potters scatter
06Survival · 1933 – 1947
Crate by crate,south, then west.
万里南迁Packed in straw, carried through a war.
In 1933, to keep them from the war, the treasures of the Palace Museum were crated and sent south. Porcelain was wrapped layer upon layer in straw and cotton paper, then moved by rail, river and road to Shanghai and Nanjing, and on by three routes into the far southwest — a journey of more than a decade. Their guardians travelled with them, and almost nothing was lost. In the streets, menders went door to door, stitching broken bowls back together with copper staples.
Without a diamond drill, don’t take on porcelain work.An old saying of China’s porcelain menders
Evacuated from the Palace Museum故宫首批南迁文物
- 1Northern routeBaoji → Hanzhong → Emei
- 2Central routeHankou → Chongqing → Leshan
- 3Southern routeChangsha → Guiyang → Anshun
07Restoration · 1949 – Today
Broken, not lost.Mended as it was.
修旧如旧Mending time, one fragment at a time.
The kilns of Jingdezhen were lit once more. In 1987, the Ru kiln site at Qingliangsi in Baofeng, Henan, was excavated, and a sky-blue lost for eight centuries saw daylight again. In museum conservation studios, restorers measure in millimetres and work in seasons — cleaning, matching, bonding, infilling, retouching — until a broken vessel is whole, and its cracks become part of its history.
- 01Clean
- 02Match
- 03Bond
- 04Infill
- 05Polish
- 06Retouch
The Ru kiln site is excavated汝窑遗址发掘，天青重现
- Object
- Famille-rose globular vase
- Condition
- Broken in three; two losses at the rim
- Method
- Reversible bonding · infill · colour matching
- Principle
- Minimal · identifiable · reversible
- Duration
- 0 days
08Today · 2026
A thousand years,for every day.
日用之美Art you live with.
Porcelain does not belong only behind glass. We work with master potters in Jingdezhen, Longquan and Dehua — reviving ancient methods, and making for the way we live now: a tea bowl, a vase, a bowl for rice. A thousand years of craft, back on your table.
One vessel, a thousand years / 一器 · 千年