Of the various ceramic products that were traditionally produced in Jingdezhen, known as "the porcelain capital of the world," the porcelain vat is the one that most often stirs up disagreement among connoisseurs.

Their names and uses continue to be subjects of debate among antique experts.

Since the vats bear designs, they are given names that accord with these designs, such as "dragon vats," "water vats," and "fish vats," the most common one being "dragon vat."

Some reference books on porcelains describe vats bearing dragon design motifs as royal utensils for storing water or oil in the imperial palace.

However, vats with design motifs other than dragons have also been called "dragon vats," even though their uses might remain obscure.

Why did people call vats with other design motifs "dragon vats"? And were these vats used for purposes other than storing water or oil?

After meticulous study, Gao Ashen, a connoisseur in Shanghai, has his own answers to these questions.

Fire-fighting Utensils

According to Gao, porcelain vats first appeared in the Jin (1115-1234) and Yuan (1271-1368) dynasties, and the vats made in the royal kilns in Jingdezhen during the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties are the finest examples.

In dynastic China, there was no advanced fire fighting equipment, even in grand places like the Imperial Palace.

So they placed big vats filled with water outside halls and palaces in the complex.

For the safety of the Imperial family, should a fire break out, the vats served as a water supply for bucket brigades to extinguish the blaze.

The 10 huge copper vats outside Qianqingmen of the Imperial Palace, recorded in "the Enchiridion of the Imperial Palace," were used for precisely this purpose.

Court records state that each of them "contained more than 2,000 kilograms of water for use in case of fire."

Outside Xianyang Hall in the Imperial Palace another more than 300 copper and iron vats were used for the same purpose.

However, the cumbersome metal vats lack the elegance of the beautiful porcelain ones, which represented the dignity and nobility of the emperor better with their delicate designs.

In addition, they served as exquisite ornaments in the palace, especially in the living quarters of the emperors, empresses and royal concubines.

So in the early Ming Dynasty and again in the Qing Dynasty, porcelain vats were widely used in the court.

Most of them, naturally, were decorated with dragon designs, as the dragon was the symbol of imperial power in ancient China.

Royal kilns

According to Gao, the first few batches of genuine "dragon vats" were produced in the early Ming Dynasty in the royal kilns of Jingdezhen, in East China's Jiangxi Province.

In 1602, the 30th year of emperor Wanli's reign, however, tens of thousands of craftsmen in the royal kilns refused to work. They could no longer tolerate the ruthless supervisor, Pan Xiang, a court eunuch who drove a craftsman named Tong Bing to commit suicide.

In a great wrath, they destroyed many of the royal kilns.

The production of "dragon vats" for use in the imperial palace declined following the destruction of these kilns, and production in the remaining years of the dynasty never regained its former splendor.

However, vats of smaller sizes made in common kilns emerged in large numbers, such as fish vats, and bowl-shaped-vats.

Fired in non-official kilns, they were decorated with a variety of patterns other than just the dragon.

But these vats were not used to protect the emperor. They were house wares for common families.

Revival of big vats

The manufacture of official dragon vats did not resume until the Qing Dynasty.

With their rich colors from classic blue-and-white to newly-invented wucai (five colors), doucai (a mix of blue underglaze and a colored overglaze), fencai (colored Chinese paintings applied over the glaze), underglaze red and so on, they enjoyed wide popularity among both literati and the common people.

The designs on the vats were also unprecedentedly gorgeous.

Some of them were works of royal painters. Drafts of these paintings were transformed by craftsmen into refined designs on the vats' bodies.

Landscapes with mountains and waters, flowers-and-birds, and even images of people, all were executed with breathtaking elegance.

Also, because of the popularity of novels in the late Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty, crafts people also created designs based on the stories and characters of novels such as The Water Margin (Shuihuzhuan), Romance of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguo Yanyi), and A Dream of Red Mansions (Hongloumeng).

Vats produced in the reign of Yongzheng (1723-1735) and Qianlong (1736-1795) sometimes featured "wood patterns."

A kind of "wood glaze" was widely used to create rather unique wood-like textures on vats, so that they looked like wooden ones.

In the reign of Jiaqing (1796-1820) and Daoguang (1821-1850), images of trailing flowers emerged and became one of the most used classic patterns on all Chinese porcelain that followed.

Most vats in the Qing Dynasty were used for raising fish, storing oil, or mere decoration. So they could be seen in the dwellings of both royal and common families.

Porcelain vats still show up in the shops in Jingdezhen nowadays, capturing the attention and admiration of art lovers. And the craftsmanship and quality continues to improve.

(China Daily July 27, 2004)