Why we’ve all heard of a Ming vase

Officially, there were 16 and 17 reign per i ods. Though one emperor, Zhengtong ( 1435- 49), actually reigned twice as a result of being kidnapped in 1449.

When he was released, he staged a coup against his replacement, the Jingtai emperor ( 1449- 1457), and then began a second reign ruling as the Tianshun emperor (1457-1464).

Life during the Ming could be every bit as sophisticated and complex as life now.

Writings, personal accounts and other evidence from the Ming portrays a world as vivid, engaging, and rich as our own.

And the funny thing is that it was one often filled with very familiar concerns and issues such as family, the weather and access to education, which was the route to status and power.

Beyond that, it depended on who you were, what you did, and where you lived. The life of an emperor was obviously very different from that of a rural peasant. and this was reflected in the material world of the court. Only the finest materials and highest standards of craftsmanship were suitable for imperial use.

The Ming vase has long been a synonym in popular culture for the rare, the valuable, and the antique.

The Ming is viewed as a classical period of porcelain production when huge orders from the imperial court boosted production and ensured technical and artistic excellence. Today, a rapidly growing Chinese art market continues to ensure that Ming porcelain remains of great interest. liquids. It can also be decorated in many ways with different glaze treatments so it is both decorative and functional.

Porcelain had been produced for centuries before the Ming, but it reached new heights of technical perfection.

The blue you see on blue and white porcelain comes from the chemical element cobalt, which was often difficult to obtain and expensive during the early Ming.

But, no expense was spared in the production of ceramics of outstanding quality, and orders from the imperial court would exceed 100,000 pieces of blue and white porcelain a year. emperors and their families and location of the imperial court.

It still survives, and is now home to the Palace Museum where visitors can see many objects from the Ming imperial collection.

The surrounding countries obviously knew of, and were influenced by Chinese culture throughout history.

During the Ming dynasty, one of the most remarkable instances of direct contact between China and the world beyond was a series of early 15th Century sea voyages by admiral Zheng He, who reached as far as East Africa.

By the 16th Century, maritime Europeans – first Portuguese, then Spanish and Dutch – were showing up on Ming shores.

Like other Middle Eastern and Asian cultures before them, they were hugely interested in trading Chinese porcelain.

From 1600, the first to reach Europe on a large scale was a type of blue and white porcelain later termed Kraak or Kraaksporcelain.

Porcelain started reaching Europe in large quantities on ships of the Dutch East India Company.

In 1612 just one Dutch East Indiaman ship, the Vlissingen, transported 38,641 pieces of porcelain to Holland.

Between 1602 and 1657, three million pieces of porcelain were shipped to Europe.

The Ming is a fascinating period for many reasons, not least because of its vibrant culture, literature, and art.

The Ming was also the last natively- r uled Han Chinese dynasty and is therefore seen as an authentic representation of Chinese culture.