Margaret Medley

The Ming - Qing Transition in Chinese Porcelain

History tells us that in the year 1 644 the native Chinese dynasty of Ming came to an end and was replaced by the alien Qing dynasty. This is political history, something that only happens once. Social, economic and art history are different ; these are aspects of history that are concerned with things that go on all the time forming a continuum of dynamic change, so that it is impossible to draw any clear distinctions at any stage. Thus when we look at Chinese ceramic history it becomes a matter of judgment as to when one style ends and another begins, and there always seem to be transitions, one style developing and another dying away in a complex continuity. This is as true of the tenth century between Tang and Song as in the fourteenth century with the change from Yuan to Ming. But the most important transition to which our attention is being increasingly drawn, is that from the fully developed style of Ming in the sixteenth century to the new and very different style of Qing at the end of the seventeenth century.

As to the period covered by this period of transition, there is a slight conflict of opinion, some people insisting on rather wide limits, while others favour limits that may be too narrow. On average the period from 1620 to 1674 may be safely accepted. The former date is justified by the end of imperial patronage of the kilns on the death of the Wanli emperor, and the latter I believe to be justified by the fact that the rebellion of the Three Feudatories resulted in that year marking the date when the rebels overran and almost totally destroyed the kilns at Jingdezhen1. The more usual date for the end of the period is given as 1 683, but this is very insecure as it is based on the belief that in that year the emperor Kangxi appointed the first superintendent of the imperial kilns, generally supposed to have been established in that year. But to my mind the new style had already been established by 1674, and the new kilns drew on what had gone before.

When it comes to discussing the style in detail, then we have to accept that we are not speaking of a single clear-cut style, but rather a whole series of stylistic features which overlap and merge into one another in the usual complex dynamic way that is fundamental to artistic creativity, and that these re-emerge in a modified way into a new series to fit new fashions and tastes. It is not possible to understand fully how this occurs without referring to the economic and social changes of this confused period.

In the late Ming one of the most important factors affecting industry and trade, particularly the silk and ceramic industries, was the implementation in the late sixteenth century of the so-called « Single-whip System » of taxation, which involved a

change from corvée to the payment of tax in money2. This meant for the first time that a man could hire himself out to work at his own trade to whomsoever he liked, something that was to have revolutionary results.

Another factor was the enormous influx of silver at this time, right up to about 1643, so that there was more than enough to finance a huge expansion of the markets, not only domestic ones but also those overseas. With regard to the latter, there was a considerable relaxation of the regulations respecting the export trade in the second half of the Wanli period. Early in the seventeenth century, especially following the death of Wanli, there was a particularly rapid expansion of the ceramic industry when entrepreneural skills began to operate in a way that had previously been almost impossible.

In some cases the kilns were run as family businesses with additional hired labour, and these supplied the domestic market. Others were properly capitalised concerns run under very experienced kiln-masters, and these supplied both the overseas and the home markets. There were great profits to be gained.

At the same time the social status of the master potters and kiln masters improved, and such people began to be known by name ; they also achieved a degree of respectability, and were respected, wealthy and often quite well educated. They could often be regarded as gentlemen, such as a certain Mr. Wu Lin, who came originally from the province of Anhui, but who made a name for himself at Jingdezhen. He became so well endowed with worldly riches that he usually lived at Yangzhou, that haven of wealthy merchants, and dabbled in landscape painting like any true-born gentleman3.

Craftsmen usually did their own special jobs and hired themselves out in ways inconceivable in the sixteenth century. The painters, however, as skilled decorators, formed a special group. They seem to have come from outside the potting community and continued to do so even after the end of the Ming and held themselves somewhat apart. Quite a number of them were women as indeed they still are4. The sources from which they drew their inspiration were the illustrated books popular during the period, some of the most important having been published in the first two decades of the seventeenth century, when fine printing at moderate cost reached its apogee.

The varied production that resulted from this economic upsurge was freely geared to the wide range of markets. There was the wealthy home market, the cheap domestic market for easily produced expendable wares and the very different

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