MING GAP AND THE REVIVAL OF COMMERCIAL PRODUCTION OF BLUE AND WHITE PORCELAIN IN CHINA.pdfVIP

MING GAP AND THE REVIVAL OF COMMERCIAL PRODUCTION OF BLUE AND WHITE PORCELAIN IN CHINA Yew Seng Tai School of Archaeology and Museology, Peking University, Beijing City, China; taiyewseng@ ABSTRACT Roxanna Brown (2004:xi-xii) confirmed the existence of This paper listed the blue and white porcelains excavated Ming Gap in her PhD dissertation. She listed 15 shipwrecks with date inscriptions or from datable tombs in China and with Chinese and Southeast Asia ceramics in the region and shows that there was a ‘Ming Gap’ of blue and white identified two types of shortages. The first is a general porcelain in China too. Previously, Ming Gap was thought to shortage of Chinese ceramic during 1325-1380. The second be restricted to Southeast Asia. This author argues that no is a specific severe shortage of blue and white porcelain, blue and white porcelain was allowed to produce in which she called the Ming Gap, during 1352-1487. She has commercial kilns in early Ming Dynasty. But, when the proven that China had 100% share of ceramic market before needed raw material, cobalt--which relied on trade in the 1325, but the market share decreased to 50% from 1368 to time of Ming Ban--could be produced locally, the commercial 1424-1430 (Hongwu reign and Zheng He voyages), and further decreased to 5% from 1424-1430 to 1487. It p