The Chinese imperial kilns at Jingdezhen

Jingdezhen in Jiangxi province, southern China, was the site of the imperial kilns. The city is named for the emperor Jingde (1004-7) in whose reign the kiln centre was established. Jingdezhen has produced most of China's porcelain for the past thousand years.

The city grew up on the strength of its abundant local deposits of porcelain stone, large forests, and a river which flowed into two major river systems. This coincidence of raw materials, fuel and cheap transport made it possible for Jingdezhen to supply porcelain throughout Asia, Europe and America for centuries to come. It is unlikely, however, that raw materials and workshop organisation alone would have produced so many pots for so long without the state backing from which Jingdezhen gained benefit for a great part of its history.

The earliest wares unearthed at the site were greenwares, dating to the first half of the tenth century. White wares excavated along with these are considered the first true porcelains of Jingdezhen. The blue-tinged qingbai wares appeared about a century later. Underglaze painted wares were first produced at Jingdezhen in the early fourteenth century.

The Mongol rulers of the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368) established an official agency, the Fouliang Porcelain Bureau, to control production. Porcelain was exported in huge quantities during this period, at great profit to the state. The first Ming emperor, Hongwu (1368-98), founded a porcelain factory at Zhushan, in Jingdezhen, which remained the site of the imperial kilns throughout the Ming and Qing dynasties. Hongwu tried to outlaw trade, but this ban was never fully effective and most emperors encouraged exports. Profitable trade continued throughout to the Qing dynasty.