Gifts fit for kings

An ongoing exhibition, Mise Porcelain: Impressive Discovery and Mysterious Tribute, at Beijing's Palace Museum, sheds light on items given in tribute to emperors. Wang Kaihao reports.

For a long time, not many people understood what mise porcelain meant, although the term was encountered frequently in ancient documents dating back over a millennium.

Mise (literally, mystical-colored)porcelain was given in tribute exclusively to emperors from the late Tang (618-907) to early Northern Song (960-1127) dynasties, and it is now on show at a former imperial court.