In modern times, China's traditional ceramic industry has encountered difficulties in its production methods. Under the dual pressures of internal and external troubles, the Chinese traditional ceramics industry had to implement reforms to obtain a new living space. The practitioners represented by Du Zhongyuan proposed a series of reform measures, such as strengthening management, innovating technologies, and adopting mechanized production. Ways, etc., which led to the modern transformation of China's traditional ceramic industry.
Modern transformation of China's traditional ceramic production methods Since the modern times, with the emergence of the European industrial economy, a revolutionary production model has been rapidly expanding. Machinery-intensive production has brought about a decline in mass production and labor consumption per unit of goods. The mode of production of the Lord began to be gradually replaced, and thus a passive transformation of traditional handicrafts is inevitable. In this context, the development of China's ceramic industry has encountered an unprecedented crisis.
Jingdezhen's traditional hand-made porcelain industry has gradually fallen into a predicament after modern times. In the era of **, the porcelain of the past is no longer the scene, and the porcelain industry is not happy. Herein, this paper takes Jingdezhen as an example to analyze the cause of the predicament of modern Chinese ceramic industry and its modern transformation process.
Analysis of the Causes of the Difficulties of Modern China's Traditional Ceramic Industry The traditional ceramic industry belongs to the handicraft industry. Its main feature is that relying on manual and simple tools for ceramic production, the industry's largest competitive advantage is to have a professional, sophisticated and large industry group. . According to "Fengliang County Records," the Jingdezhen porcelain industry flourished during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The number of craftsmen was not less than several hundred thousand, and hundreds of thousands of people in the entire town were engaged in ceramic-related industries. However, for the traditional ceramic industry that depends on the survival of the industrial labor force, the entire industry will face development difficulties once it is affected by factors such as the current situation, support for the mischief, the lack of trade, and lack of government support. . In 1934, Du Zhongyuan published an article titled “Jingde Town, Which Reaches the Way”, which wrote: “It is said that in the era of prosperity, Jingdezhen had more than 4,000 kiln households, 200,000 workers, and a village resident in the town. Visitors and local businesses, three days a short while, five days a day, the Chinese people will eat, confused and get to the current kiln households only more than a thousand households, fewer than 30,000 workers, the town of Zhuang passengers Ben Benhuo Osaka has been made for birds and beasts.” It can be seen that the size of the ceramics industry has become a barometer of the success or failure of China’s traditional ceramics industry. The sharp reduction in the number of employees has shown that the traditional handicraft porcelain industry has fallen into a difficult position in modern times.
It is true that there are many reasons for the traditional Chinese ceramic industry to be in a difficult position. Here, the author will focus on the analysis of causes from the perspective of a change in the mode of production.
Porcelain is a mineral burnt product. When the potter burns the clay slab in fire, its material elements will change and produce chemical reactions, which will result in a new material that is tighter and stronger. This is the porcelain. In the process of burning porcelain, the control of the heat is crucial. In addition to the key element of fire, porcelain also requires two key factors: raw materials and fuel. Ceramic production requires a complete production process to support, in this process, the organic combination of fire, raw materials and fuels has supported the development of the ceramic industry. Before modern times, China’s ceramics industry had been at the forefront of the world in terms of selection of fire, raw materials, and fuel, and improvement of its techniques. It was also known as the five major handicraft industries in ancient China, including the mining industry, metal smelting industry, textile industry, and medicine processing industry.
In history, as China has mastered superb and exquisite porcelain making techniques, Chinese porcelain has long been marketed overseas and has been favored and loved by people of all countries. According to statistics of foreign archives:
“From the establishment of the Dutch East India Company to the 34th year of Kangxi (1602-1695), about 20 million pieces of Chinese porcelain were sold to Europe.... During the 12 years (1734), there were 68,000 pieces of porcelain shipped to France in the period of Emperor Yongzheng. In the nineteenth year (1774), about 400,000 porcelains were shipped to the United Kingdom, and 1.1 million porcelains were shipped to Sweden in the 32 years between the fifteenth and forty-sixth years of the Qianlong (1750 to 1781).”
It can thus be seen that from the middle of the Ming Dynasty to the middle of the Qing Dynasty, China was a leader in the world-famous porcelain industry and was a veritable ceramic center of the world.
So, before the modern times, what conditions did Chinese ceramic industry rely on to create brilliant performance? Looking through any history of Chinese ceramics, we can all find the answer, which is a relatively abundant reserve of raw materials, relatively dense forests and relatively monopolized ceramic technology. These conditions are crucial to the development of the ceramics industry. On the other hand, from the standpoint of affordability, they can only support the industries based on traditional handicrafts and cannot adapt to modern industries based on mechanized production. This is also the main reason why the Chinese ceramics industry has encountered difficulties in the development model since modern times.
