Since The Ming And Qing Dynasties Of Jingdezhen Porcelain And Social Control

Jingdezhen is the "Porcelain Capital" in China, a city with unique character. The developing and prospering of this city could be attributed to the porcelain industry created here. The Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty witnessed the prosperous period of the production of porcelains in Jingdezhen, which led to the full development of the society. This dissertation hopes to review the society of Jingdezhen from the Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty through this distinctive porcelain industry, from the perspective of social history. To be specific, it probes the problems of social control in Jingdezhen, which were caused by the development of the porcelain industry. The flourishing of the porcelain industry made Jingdezhen a place where people from all regions congregated, and the social condition became anfractuous. Then, what was the strength to keep the social system of Jingdezhen, to maintain the stabilization of the local society, and to keep it up with the development of the porcelain industry? This is the core issue discussed in this dissertation."Porcelain Resources and the Local Society of Jingdezhen", the first chapter of this dissertation, reviews the boom of Jingdezhen and the influence of the porcelain industry on the city structure in Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty. The discussion then goes on to the conflicts and the scrambles of resources between the local people and those from other places in the exploitation and transportation of kaolin in Qing Dynasty and also to how the clashes were settled through repeating lawsuits and the final governmental rulings. Regarding the fuel used to make porcelain, the people in Jingdezhen had achieved a tacit agreement on rearing trees on hills for the sole purpose of the porcelain industry and that the bavins in the kiln can not be used as the fuel for daily life. During the Republic of China, two nongovernmental organizations named "Bavin Protection Gildhall" and "Branch Protection Gildhall" were established in Jingdezhen, specializing in administrating the fuel for making porcelain, which had showed the new trend of the participation of nongovernmental organizations in social affairs.Because of the development of the porcelain industry, people from other places swarmed into Jingdezhen in succession in the middle and the late period of Ming Dynasty, held the dominant positions in the porcelain industry and the society, and formed trade associations with regional speciality and industrial specialty combined together. The second chapter, "Trade Associations and the Social Control of Jingdezhen", probes the way how the Du Trade Association, the Hui Trade Association, and the Za Trade Association became the three major local forces of social control during Qing Dynasty and the Public of China era and how a complex was formed controlled by these three trade associations - the Du Trade Association monopolised the porcelain industry, the Hui Trade Association dominated the commerce and finance in Jingdezhen, and the Za Trade Association controlled the carved ware industry and the sales of porcelains. This chapter analyses the social function of the assembly hall, especially the interceding function of social conflicts. The conflicts between the trade associations and the control of them are also discussed in this chapter.industry workers and kilnmen in Kangxi era in detail. This goes beyond all previous researches.