The Supply And Need Of Porcelain In Song Dynasty

Pottery can be everywhere in the world, but porcelain is only originated from China. Our ancestors have spent thousands of years to learn from former’s experiences from the first appearance of proto-porcelain in Shang Dynasty to the making of mature porcelain in the end of East Hang Dynasty. After that, although porcelain kiln has increased gradually in numbers and enlarged in distribution, it still not as prosperous as Song Dynasty,because of the lower production efficiency and lack of supply. Thus it is relatively less in using of porcelain in folk compared with that in Song Dynasty.Porcelain industries in Song steps into a period of cultimate and shows a prosperous picture.the technique is mature, porcelain made by famous kiln competitively comes into the world. The production efficiency have improved in a great leap and kiln’s number has a dramatic increase.the improvement of production efficiency is due to technique’s progress and enhancement of professional specialization. Kilns in Song have commonly adopted in the method of Fushao in production, which breaks the limits of one-to-one firing porcelain in Tang,improves greatly the rate of porcelain’s output with application of fire houses and fire lights.in some distribution,coal has been supplement when woods are short. Meanwhile, porcelain industries has made a more clear division of specialization and cooperation and dispatch specialized worker in every links to be responsible for it. The refinement of specialized work has no doubt in improving the rate of porcelain’s production. At the same time when folk kiln has a fast speed of improving, the official kiln is coming into being as the royal have a great favor in porcelain.Porcelain has a large scale of application in life of Song, such as household supply, a thing for appreciation or special ceremony. The royal has more requirement compared with folks about the quality of porcelain and served by many kilns. There has a kiln specialized in making porcelain for royal at the reign of emperor HuiZong. The folk don’t have much need about porcelain as royal, they pay more attention about the practice of it. The cultimate of culture in Song strives scholar’s requirement of culture goods made in porcelain. Besides,the thriving of catering industry also increase the need of porcelain production. After satisfying the need of native market, porcelain industries has start to sale wholesale to oversea. Porcelain has been a kind of bulk commodity in foreign trade in our ancient time.There is a long developing history of porcelain industries in China. Scholars have made a lot of researches about the porcelain in Song on the prospective of aesthetics,technology, and culture etc. And even lots of researches aimed on learning the economical development are more forces on influence the foreign trade make on porcelain instead of the whole society. This paper analyze the situation of supply and need about porcelain in Song Dynasty, which will help us make a more deeply understand of social life and development of commerce economy in Song Dynasty.