How Chinese Emperors Used Ceramics to Support their Power and Prestige

Rose Kerr, Honorary Associate of the Needham Research Institute in Cambridge, previously Keeper of the Far Eastern Department at the Victoria & Albert Museum, where she worked from 1978-2003

As the Son of Heaven, emperors employed sacrificial vessels for religious ceremony, demonstrating their divine legitimacy to rule the country. Each year, a major sacrifice conducted by the emperor in person was presented to Heaven, the Earth, the Sun, the Moon, the Temple of Imperial Ancestors, the patron saint of Agriculture and the Guardian Spirits of the State and Harvests. In earlier times gold, silver and bronze vessels were used but in 1369 an imperial order went out ordering that all ceremonial vessels used in the state sacrifices should henceforward be made of porcelain. Fine porcelain items were also used as accoutrements for the throwing of banquets and other power events. Wares for the palace were regulated, with colours and designs for each member of the imperial family listed as to rank. Perhaps most significantly of all, ceramics were a material demonstration of China’s superior technology to the outside world.