Third, the shapes and patterns for official porcelain wares were supplied by the imperial court, sometimes even the emperor himself. Artisans were merely required to follow these designs, rather than employ their own creativity. Consequently, although official porcelain wares were of an extraordinary workmanship, they lacked spontaneous artistic expression.

In 1709, Emperor Yongzheng of the Qing Dynasty ordered the replication of a five-colored porcelain jar from the Ming Dynasty with the instructions, "The original floral pattern is poor and should be made finer." In 1713, he wrote in the margin of a report from the porcelain making administration, "The chrysanthemum petals are too crude. They should appear to have a thousand layers." His son, Emperor Qianlong, showed an even more personal interest in porcelain making. During his lifetime, he wrote about 300 poems devoted to porcelain, many of which were inscribed on porcelain articles as decoration. He also designed his own porcelain brush pot.

The emperor generally had no time for affairs as trivial as porcelain making. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, it would be supervised by a special administration whose officials were well versed in the skill and had excellent artistic taste. They therefore played a significant role in the development of China's porcelain industry.

Though official kilns had their limitations, their endowed advantages enabled them to create numerous masterpieces, and their products represented the highest degree of excellence in the porcelain of that time. Unfortunately, many such works have disappeared. Those extant are very rare. Porcelain products from the Ru Kiln, for example, number fewer than 100.

Private Kilns: Undistinguished

Porcelain articles from official kilns had the monopoly on prestige and value over the dynasties, while those produced from private kilns were purely for utilitarian purposes. Even if they were broken, they would be mended until they eventually fell apart.

Today, when people discover and scrutinize those "pieces" and find artistic styles that are quite different from those of official kilns, they find it almost impossible to find any written record or comment on such porcelain. For instance, today the iron rust porcelain from the Cizhou Kiln of the Song Dynasty is as valuable as that from official kilns, but nothing has been discovered to have been written about it in Song Dynasty literature.

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