Jingdezhen Hand-made Porcelain-Making Technique

Jingdezhen began making porcelain in the Five Dynasties, with its techniques essentially fixed by the Song and developing further through the Yuan, Ming and Qing, making it a center of porcelain-making for the whole country and the world. The town of Changnan was renamed Jingdezhen during the Jingde reign of Song Zhenzong, after its imperial wares marked 'made in the Jingde reign'. In 2006 the hand-made porcelain technique entered the first batch of national ICH.

Turning porcelain stone into finished ware takes more than twenty finely divided steps—quarrying and preparing the clay, levigating, throwing, moulding, trimming, drying, painting, glazing, casing in saggars and kiln-firing—handed down master to apprentice. In decoration it yields the four famous wares: blue-and-white, rice-grain (linglong), famille-rose and colored glaze, each its own system, making it a highly collaborative collective craft.

Renowned for wares 'white as jade, clear as a mirror, thin as paper, resonant as a chime', the Jingdezhen technique represents the pinnacle of ancient Chinese porcelain-making and profoundly shaped world ceramic history; the English word 'China' is itself linked to Changnan, Jingdezhen's old name, and the craft is the very foundation of the porcelain capital.

The Ancient Kiln Folk Customs Area refires historical kilns and revives old workshop production lines, while the Taoyangli imperial-kiln district and the China Ceramics Museum systematically present the history and steps of the craft.