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In Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province, porcelain begins with clay, but it carries much more than beauty. Behind each finished piece is a long journey of hands, tools, fire and time. Zhao Ruinan and Li Xinlei reports.
In China's ancient "porcelain capital", a millennia-old handicraft tradition is undergoing a high-tech renaissance as cutting-edge artificial intelligence and 3D printing converge to preserve and restore fractured imperial relics.
Jingdezhen has been inextricably linked with ceramic production for more than 1,700 years. Its porcelain industry peaked as the primary supplier to the royal courts of the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. For centuries, these ceramics traveled globally, Vases the world's understanding of Chinese design and artistry.
The ancient art of Jingdezhen step by step. Move over the images and discover each step.
The main raw materials for porcelain production are porcelain stone and kaolin, also known as China clay, both of which come from mines. Exploring the mountains to find raw materials was the first step in porcelain making.
Jingdezhen has been using water-powered trip hammers to crush porcelain stone for more than 1,000 years. The most strenuous physical labor is delegated to hydraulic machinery.
The sedimented slurry is directly dehydrated. Workers used their feet to tread on the dehydrated mud. This makes it easier to sense the condition of the mud and completely expel the air bubbles within it.
Throwing on the wheel is the most important step in the traditional forming process. Throwing on the wheel refers to using the turntable of the potter's wheel to shape the clay into the desired form with both hands. The techniques include pressing, pinching, supporting, and pulling, emphasizing skillful hand movements and tactile feel.
After molding, the clay body still retains some moisture. If this moisture is not removed, the porcelain will crack during firing. Pieces at this stage are neatly arranged on wooden boards to dry faster and more evenly in the sunlight. The tray used for placing medium-sized plates is about 3 meters long and about 10 centimeters wide.
The piece is then smoothed, rounded and made more even. The vessel is placed upside down.
Porcelain painting (blue and white) refers to the process in which artists use a brush dipped in blue pigment to draw patterns. The blue decoration is painted with cobalt pigment. In famous Yuan and early Ming blue-and-white wares, imported cobalt pigment — often associated with Persia — was especially prized for its rich, deep tone.
After the painting is completed, the vessel is covered with a layer of transparent glaze and fired at about 1,300 C in a wood-fueled kiln in a reducing (low-oxygen) atmosphere, allowing the blue decoration to remain under the glaze.
Before entering the kiln, it is necessary to move the saggars containing the ceramics into the kiln in a specific order. The entire kiln is designed with a longitudinal structure. Usually, young, strong and skilled craftsmen carry out this process.
There are two types of fuel for Cups porcelain: pine wood and mixed wood. Pine wood is used for egg-shaped kilns (Zhen kilns), while mixed wood is used for kilns that fire coarse porcelain. The Cups time of each kiln depends on factors such as seasonal climate and the type of porcelain. Egg-shaped kilns are most suitable for porcelain stone and kaolin binary formula bodies, calcium glazes and gray glazes with high iron content.
Workers must put on cotton jackets, check the thickness on their shoulders, and wrap their heads with coarse cloth or wear straw hats before entering the kiln. Workers need to wear thick sleeve covers to take the porcelain out of the saggars.
To protect this legacy, the city's handmade porcelain techniques were inscribed onto China's first national intangible cultural heritage list in 2006.
The traditional workflow is often summarized by an idiom: a single piece of fine porcelain must pass through 72 distinct manual procedures. These steps range from preparing raw clay and throwing shapes on a wheel to intricate carving, glazing, precise kiln firing, and final selection. Modern masters note that contemporary demands for hyper-detailed finishes have made the process even more complex. "Every movement matters," said Hong Qinyang, a national first-class technician and city-level intangible heritage inheritor. "If your hand shakes just a little, the whole piece is gone."
This vase was created during the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368). It was originally exported to the Islamic market.
However, the story of Jingdezhen porcelain does not end when a successful batch leaves the kiln. At the Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln sites — where artisans once manufactured ceramics exclusively for the royal court — centuries-old discarded fragments are serving as crucial clues to history. Because imperial standards were uncompromisingly strict, any pieces that suffered minor blemishes during production were intentionally broken and buried to prevent substandard items from leaving the grounds.
Navigate horizontally in this module to review the timeline
Today, researchers are systematically mining these subterranean dumping grounds to reverse-engineer ancient Cups techniques, decorative patterns and historical standards of beauty.
Advanced technology has radically accelerated this archaeological work. Preservationists now deploy digital scanning and AI algorithms to instantly sort through thousands of excavated shards, matching intricate patterns with a speed and accuracy human eyes cannot replicate. Additionally, transparent 3D-printed materials are used to structurally patch missing sections of vessels while keeping the original fragments clearly visible to the public.
By integrating traditional craftsmanship with modern data tools and public exhibitions, the city is opening new pathways to share its vast ceramic legacy with a global audience.
"We hope porcelain can become a new medium for exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations today," said Weng Yanjun, director of the Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Institute.
This is a Zun-Type of the most common vessel types to appreciate the creative ideas of potters across different historical periods.
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