Raw Materials for Making Jingdezhen Porcelain from the
Five Dynasties to the Qing Dynasty
C. T. YAP* and Y O U N A N H U A
Department of Physics, National University of Singapore, Singapore 0511
This is a study of 66 pieces of Jingdezhen porcelain bodies and their
relation to 13 raw materials, three of which are kaolin and the rest
porcelain stones from Jingdezhen. For Jingdezhen porcelains, the results
show that the alumina content increases and silica content decreases as
a function of time, except during the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, when
this trend was reversed. For raw materials, although kaolin could never
be used alone for porcelain production, four of the porcelain stones could
be used alone for this purpose during the Five Dynasties and part of the
Song Dynasty. However, all porcelains made thereafter have varying
amounts of kaolin added to the porcelain stone. Except for a reversal
during the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, we found that the amount of kaolin
added was a function of time, reaching as high as about 60% during the
Qing Dynasty.
Index Headings: Principal component analysis; Chinese porcelain; Raw
materials.
INTRODUCTION
There have been many scientific studies of Chinese
porcelains in recent years, both by destructive chemical
analysis of major and minor chemical constituents ~ and
by nondestructive trace element analysis. 7-18This paper
looks at the possible raw materials for making Jingde-
zhen porcelain bodies during the Five Dynasties (907-
960), Song Dynasty (960-1280), Yuan Dynasty (1280-
1368), Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), and Qing Dynasty
(1644-1911).
Raw material for porcelain making has been the de-
termining factor in the development of Chinese porce-
lain, as evidenced by the production of the characteristic
highly siliceous southern Chinese wares and the equally
characteristic aluminous northern Chinese wares. Recent
studies show that, in contrast to the feldspathic materials
used in Western porcelains, ancient Chinese porcelains
in general do not contain feldspar-rich materials except
for certain wares such as those from the Gongxian in
Henan province. 19 Therefore, the word "feldspathic,"
whether applied to the body or glaze, should not be used
in general for Chinese ceramics.
Our previous study 2° of the body material of 66 pieces
of Jingdezhen porcelains shows that porcelains made
during the Five Dynasties, Yuan Dynasty (or Ming Dy-
nasty), and Qing Dynasty can be segregated completely,
without any overlap between them. Results also show
that the percentage of silica in the porcelain body de-
creases and that of alumina increases as a function of
time, with the exception of the porcelain of the Yuan
and Ming Dynasties, when this trend was reversed. All
these results indicate the use of different raw materials
in different periods.
Received 22 May 1992.
* Author to whom correspondence should be sent.
1488 Volume 46, Number 10, 1992 0003-7028/92/4610-i48852.0o/0
© 1992 Society for Applied Spectroscopy
J I N G D E Z H E N P O R C E L A I N S A N D RAW
MATERIALS
Jingdezhen is in south China in the Jiangxi province.
It has been the most famous porcelain production center
in China as well as in the world. Most of the world's fine
porcelains of imperial quality in museums and in private
collections come from Jingdezhen. Recent excavations
show that white porcelains were produced as early as the
Five Dynasties. By the Ming Dynasty, very high quality
pieces were produced, with a fine-grained body and thick
glaze giving rise to small ripples called "orange peel."
In this paper, we use principal component analysis to
study the relationship between the porcelain bodies of
66 Jingdezhen pieces and 13 different Jingdezhen raw
materials for porcelain making. Table I gives the chem-
ical compositions of the seven major and minor chemical
constituents ( S i 0 2 , A1203, Fe203, K20, Na20, CaO, and
MgO) for the 66 pieces of Jingdezhen porcelain bodies
from the Five Dynasties to the Qing Dynasty. 21 Table II
gives the mean concentration of each chemical constit-
uent in each dynasty for the Jingdezhen porcelains given
in Table I.
Table III gives the chemical composition (Si02, A1203,
Fe203, TiO2, CaO, MgO, K 2 0 , N a 2 0 , and MnO) of 13
Jingdezhen raw materials: R1-R9, ~R10 (see Ref. 6, which
also contains R1-R4 and R7), and R l l - R 1 3 . 2 For pur-
poses of porcelain production, R10 has to be normalized
to 100 % without ignition loss, and for purposes of com-
parison, for R l l - R 1 3 the values of FeO have been con-
verted to Fe203. The raw materials listed are of two types:
kaolin (R1-R3) and porcelain stone (R4-R13).
In general, kaolin contains too much alumina ( ~ 4 0 % )
and too little flux and therefore will not vitrify at tem-
peratures below 1400°C. As such high temperatures were
difficult to attain, pure kaolin alone could not be used
to produce porcelain. However, Chinese porcelain stone
is suitable for making porcelain because it is plastic like
kaolin and contains enough fusible materials, mainly in
the form of potassium mica known as sericite.
P R I N C I P A L C O M P O N E N T ANALYSIS
The objective of principal component analysis is to
take multiple variables (in this case, the concentrations
of the oxides of seven major and minor elements: SiO2,
A1203, Fe203, CaO, MgO, K20, and Na20) and find linear
combinations, with principal component 1 having the
largest variance, principal component 2 the second larg-
est variance and so on. Therefore, if the data are highly
correlated positively or negatively, we can reduce the
number of dimensions drastically from 7 to 2 or 3, de-
pending on the data, since in general there is a good deal
APPLIED SPECTROSCOPY
TABLE I. Chemical composition of Chinese porcelains from the Five Dynasties to the Qing Dynasty for Jingdezhen porcelain bodies (wt %).
Code in the Type of Chinese
No. Code original porcelain bodies Dynasties Si02 AI20a Fe~03 K20 Na20 CaO MgO
1 F1 150 Celadon body Five Dynasties 75.16 16.92 2.19 2.37 0.14 0.40 0.64
2 F2 T2-1 White Glaze body Five Dynasties 77.48 16.93 0.77 2.63 0.35 0.80 0.51
3 F3 T2°2 White Glaze body Five Dynasties 76.96 18.04 0.81 2.97 0.25 0.57 0.35
4 F4 TS3-1 White Glaze body Five Dynasties 74.58 19.24 1.12 2.35 0.56 1.27 0.20
5 F5 TS3-2 White Glaze body Five Dynasties 75.84 18.33 1.00 2.44 0.40 0.73 0.76
6 S1 JHYQ-1 Yingqing body Song 75.48 18.37 0.86 2.63 1.34 0.57 0.03
7 $2 JHYQ-2 Yingqing body Song 74.71 18.40 0.84 2.92 1.00 0.63 0.18
8 $3 JHYQ-4 Yingqing body Song 75.91 17.24 0.83 2.47 2.15 0.55 0.13
9 $4 JHYQ-5 Yingqing body Song 77.32 16.54 0.65 2.87 0.39 0.87 0.54
10 $5 JHYQ-7 Yingqing body Song 74.86 18.14 0.93 2.37 1.83 0.62 0.62
11 $6 JHYQ-8 Yingqing body Song 75.60 16.31 1.12 2.62 2.68 0.59 0.43
12 $7 S10-1 Yingqing body Song 75.41 18.15 0.81 2.95 0.46 0.96 0.63
13 $8 S10-2 White Glaze body Song 76.52 18.80 0.70 2.71 0.29 0.35 0.11
14 $9 S10-5 White Glaze body Song 75.92 18.53 0.71 2.99 0.49 0.76 0.30
15 S10 S10-6 White Glaze body Song 77.39 17.54 0.63 2.85 0.21 0.54 0.35
16 Sll $9-1 Yingqing body Song 76.24 17.56 0.58 2.76 1.02 1.36 0.10
17 S12 $9-2 Yingqing body Song 74.70 18.65 0.96 2.79 1.49 1.01 0.50
18 S13 $9-5 Yingqing body Song 77.79 16.16 0.59 3.25 1.14 0.40 0.16
19 Y1 Q4 Blue-and-White body Yuan 72.75 20.24 0.93 2.87 1.78 0.24 0.15
20 Y2 Q5 Blue-and-White body Yuan 72.64 21.08 0.97 2.69 1.52 0.20 0.18
21 Y3 $9-4 Yingqing body Yuan 72.94 19.86 0.88 2.11 2.78 0.56 0.30
22 Y4 SHUFU-2 Shufu body Yuan 73.75 19.52 1.40 3.18 2.03 0.18 0.21
23 Y5 SHUFU-3 Shufu body Yuan 72.73 20.70 1.16 2.74 2.39 0.14 0.17
24 Y6 SHUFU-4 Shufu body Yuan 72.15 21.59 1.19 2.81 2.12 0.06 0.18
25 Y7 SHUFU-5 Shufu body Yuan 73.06 20.89 1.17 2.84 1.96 0.10 0.25
26 Y8 SHUFU-6 Shufu body Yuan 72.71 21.43 1.25 3.07 1.57 0.18 0.20
27 Y9 Y-11 Blue-and-White body Yuan 74.58 19.53 0.81 2.72 2.34 0.04 0.17
28 Y10 Y-8 Blue-and-White body Yuan 74.91 19.47 0.16 3.03 2.39 0.90 0.08
29 Yll Y-2 White Glaze body Yuan 72.28 21.83 0.91 3.25 0.78 0.93 0.28
30 Y12 Y-5 Blue-and-White body Yuan 71.95 20.75 0.84 2.73 2.76 0.15 0.16
31 M1 MJVR1 Coloured Glaze body Ming 74.93 18.03 0.70 3.21 1.66 0.12 0.19
32 M2 SM10-1 Blue-and-White body Ming 73.35 20.76 1.25 3.26 0.42 0.60 0.21
33 M3 MM-1 Blue-and-White body Ming 75.31 18.20 0.73 4.28 1.75 0.65 0.16
34 M4 MM-2 Blue-and-White body Ming 74.39 20.49 0.87 3.52 0.63 0.41 0.18
35 M5 MM-4 Blue-and-White body Ming 76.03 19.17 1.04 3.26 0.14 0.53 0.26
36 M6 M-I' Blue-and-White body Ming 72.84 19.03 0.60 3.11 3.54 0.75 0.30
37 M7 M1 White Glaze body Ming 73.58 20.05 0.90 2.87 2.01 0.53 0.14
38 M8 Q12 Blue-and-White body Ming 74.05 19.97 0.79 3.13 1.16 0.13 0.16
39 M9 M-1 Blue-and-White body Ming 73.66 21.24 0.59 3.12 0.60 0.12 0.15
40 M10 MM-6 Blue-and-White body Ming 72.80 20.64 1.66 4.08 0.14 0.54 0.31
41 Mll MM-7 Blue-and-White body Ming 74.63 18.83 1.25 3.18 1.15 1.02 0.26
42 M12 MM-8 Blue-and-White body Ming 74.35 18.33 1.27 3.81 1.09 1.31 0.28
43 M13 M10 White Glaze body Ming 74.53 19.97 0.84 3.18 0.60 0.45 0.15
44 M14 M-4 Blue-and-White body Ming 73.38 18.49 1.24 3.30 1.00 1.21 0.18
45 M15 M-7 Blue-and-White body Ming 74.29 19.41 0.88 3.80 1.42 0.27 0.20
46 M16 M5 Blue-and-White body Ming 73.99 18.90 1.08 3.05 1.69 1.19 0.27
47 M17 MM-10 Blue-and-White body Ming 74.75 18.53 0.77 4.02 1.89 0.66 0.23
48 M18 MM-9 Blue-and-White body Ming 75.33 18.99 0.76 3.36 1.60 0.39 0.22
49 M19 MM-11 Blue-and-White body Ming 73.48 20.20 1.02 3.79 1.86 0.42 0.20
50 M20 M-8 Blue-and-White body Ming 73.59 19.61 0.87 3.46 1.95 0.46 0.17
51 M21 M-9 Blue-and-White body Ming 75.62 19.12 0.99 3.55 0.86 0.24 0.18
52 M22 M3 Blue-and-White body Ming 71.69 20.69 1.26 3.37 1.55 1.01 0.28
53 M23 MM-13 Blue-and-White body Ming 72.42 21.69 0.74 3.51 0.95 1.02 0.18
54 Q~ C-1 Blue-and-White body Qing 68.07 25.82 0.83 3.04 1.54 0.36 0.11
55 Q2 C-2 Blue-and-White body Qing 65.76 28.57 0.84 3.22 0.83 0.50 0.12
56 Q3 Cll Five Colours body Qing 66.33 26.33 1.37 2.91 2.44 0.65 0.09
57 Q4 C12 Blue-and-White body Qing 68.59 24.08 1.15 3.13 2.35 0.71 0.30
58 Q~ C14 Five Colours body Qing 66.67 26.25 0.91 2.56 2.15 1.25 0.33
59 Q8 C17 Doucai body Qing 65.09 26.72 1.06 3.11 2.57 1.62 0.13
60 Q7 C4 Blue-and-White body Qing 70.22 22.97 0.81 3.49 1.18 0.68 0.11
61 Qs C13 Famille-rose body Qing 67.78 26.25 0.84 3.28 1.12 0.71 0.16
62 Q9 C15 Famille-rose body Qing 66.27 27.42 0.77 3.07 1.29 1.36 0.13
63 Q~o C22 Blue-and-White body Qing 65.81 30.51 1.07 1.81 0.26 0.22 0.15
64 Q~I C5 Blue-and-White body Qing 70.38 24.10 0.82 3.33 0.69 0.66 0.15
65 Q12 C20 White Glaze body Qing 67.28 27.20 0.67 3.41 0.95 0.63 0.18
66 Q13 C21 Blue-and-White body Qing 68.93 24.25 0.84 2.38 1.87 0.74 0.20

of redundancy in the original variables, as most of them p l e s f r o m f i v e p e r i o d s ( F i v e D y n a s t i e s = 5, S o n g = 13,

are measuring similar things. Y u a n = 12, M i n g = 23, a n d Q i n g = 13) f o r m a d a t a m a t r i x
For porcelain bodies, the concentrations of the oxides X~N×M) w h e r e X,m is t h e v a l u e o f t h e c o n c e n t r a t i o n of
of seven major and minor elements measured on 66 sam- c o m p o u n d m m e a s u r e d o n s a m p l e n. T h e m e a n 2m a n d

APPLIED SPECTROSCOPY 1489

TABLE II. The mean concentration of each chemical constituent in on the principal components, we auto-scaled the d a t a to
each dynasty for Jingdezhen porcelains (wt %). have zero m e a n and unit variance:
Num-
b e r of
Xnm - - Xm
z,m (3)
sam- 8m
Dynasties ples SiO2 A1203 Fe203 K20 Na20 CaO MgO
T h e principal c o m p o n e n t s P are calculated 22 as linear
Five Dynasties 5 76.00 17.89 1.18 2.55 0.34 0.75 0.49 combinations of the original variables (concentrations of
Song Dynasty 13 75.99 17.72 0.79 2.78 1.12 0.71 0.31
Yuan Dynasty 12 73.04 20.57 0.97 2.84 2.04 0.31 0.19 c o m p o u n d s ) so t h a t the first principal c o m p o n e n t has
Ming Dynasty 23 74.04 19.58 0.96 3.44 1.29 0.61 0.21 the largest variance, the second principal c o m p o n e n t has
Qing Dynasty 13 67.44 26.19 0.92 2.98 1.48 0.78 0.17 the second largest variance and is orthogonal to the first,
and so on. This calculation is expressed as
M
s t a n d a r d deviation sm of the concentration of each com- P.k = ~_~ ZnrnVrnk (4)
p o u n d are given by: m=l
where Pnh is the value of the k t h principal c o m p o n e n t
• m = ~f x.m (1) for sample n, a n d vmh the ruth t e r m of the k t h eigenvector
n=l
of the (M x M ) correlation matrix.
1 N
s~ - ~ (x,m - ~m)2. (2)
N- ln= 1 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
For each raw material, N = 67 since principal c o m p o n e n t One R a w M a t e r i a l for P o r c e l a i n B o d i e s . Figure 1 shows
analysis is p e r f o r m e d on the 66 pieces plus I raw material, a plot of principal c o m p o n e n t s 1 and 2 for the 66 pieces
b u t m is still 7, as explained later. T o avoid the concen- of J i n g d e z h e n porcelains (Table I) a n d the 13 raw ma-
tration of any c o m p o u n d from having too m u c h influence terials (Table III) using the seven chemical constituents

£,,4/
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R1 R3° o R2 2-------~QING
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X~l?
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• FIVE DYNASTIES --2~/ ~/SONG
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• YUAN
× MING A R10
• QING ~ R6
o RAW MATERIALS (KAOLIN)
"--4
" RAW MATERIALS (PORCELAIN STONE) A R13

"-5 ~ R5
FIG. 1. Plot of principal components 1 and 2 for 66 pieces of Jingdezhen porcelains and 13 different raw materials using the concentrations of
seven chemical constituents (SiO2, A12Q, Fe203, CaO, MgO, K20, and Na20).

1490 Volume 46, Number 10, 1992

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MIXED RAW MATERIALS --4
(KAOLIN + PORCELAIN STONE)

FIG. 2. P l o t of principal c o m p o n e n t s 1 a n d 2 for 66 pieces of Jingdezhen porcelain and various mixtures of two types of raw materials: kaolin
(R3) and porcelain stones (R8, R9, a n d RI0) u s i n g t h e c o n c e n t r a t i o n s of seven chemical c o n s t i t u e n t s (SiO2, A1203, Fe203, CaO, MgO, KzO, and
Na20).

(SiO2, A1203, Fe203, CaO, MgO, K20, and Na20). Each
point for the raw material was obtained by applying prin-
cipal component analysis to the 66 Jingdezhen porcelains
plus that raw material. In other words, to plot the 13
points for the raw materials in Fig. 1, we performed prin-
cipal component analysis 13 times.
The appreciable overlap between porcelains from the
Five Dynasties and the Song Dynasty indicates the use
of similar raw materials. The complete segregation, as
between Qing porcelains and Yuan porcelains or between
Yuan porcelains and Song porcelains, indicates that rath-
er different compositions of raw materials were used. As
discussed previously, 2° in Fig. 1 from right to left the
percentage of silica in the porcelain body decreases and

TABLE III. Chemical composition of raw materials used in Jingdezhen porcelain bodies (wt %).
Code in
No. original ~ Name Si02 A1203 Fe~03 TiO2 CaO MgO K20 Na20 MnO Total
R1 R1 Xingzi kaolin (refined clay) 54.60 41.30 1.46 -.. 0.15 0.22 2.01 0.19 0.16 100.09
R2 R2 Mingsha kaolin 55.62 37.89 1.27 0.06 0.37 0.26 3.02 1.15 0.37 100.01
R3 R3 Mingsha kaolin (refined clay) 53.60 40.47 1.11 0.05 0.50 0.28 2.82 1.07 0.16 100.06
R4 R4 Qimen porcelain stone 76.20 16.30 0.58 0.09 1.90 0.36 3.92 0.61 0.02 99.98
R5 R5 Qimen porcelain stone 73.00 18.45 0.69 0.07 2.20 0.42 4.82 0.56 0.01 100.06
(refined clay)
R6 R6 S a n b a o p e n g porcelain stone 71.70 18.10 0.70 -.- 0.55 0.09 4.10 4.77 ... 100.01
R7 R7 N a n k a n g porcelain stone 78.74 15.50 0.79 ... 1.50 ..- 2.87 0.44 0.06 100.00
R8 R8 Yaolidongshi porcelain stone 80.50 14.45 0.85 0.07 0.38 0.46 3.54 0.19 ..- 100.44
R9 R9 Shoxiwu porcelain stone 77.70 16.20 1.18 0.13 0.03 0.24 3.97 0.56 0.04 100.05
R10 a S a n b a o p e n g porcelain stone 74.78 15.56 0.71 ... 0.71 0.16 4.19 3.85 0.04 100.00
Rll b N a n k a n g porcelain stone 77.50 16.60 0.67 ... 0.80 0.40 3.20 0.90 .-. 100.07
R12 b Porcelain s t o n e (Vogt, 1900) 76.10 18.00 1.11 -.. 0.20 0.20 4.10 0.40 ... 100.11
R13 b S a n b a o p e n g porcelain stone 77.80 14.50 0.44 -.. 0.20 0.10 2.10 4.60 P20~ 100.04
0.30
"Note: (a) Data have been normalized to 100% w i t h o u t ignition loss. (b) FeO values have been converted into Fe203 values.

APPLIED SPECTROSCOPY 1491


R3
-" ":# --"-~r. - _ 60°/o ~
I I
x
QING
o RAW MATERIALS (KAOLIN)
A RAW MATERIALS (PORCELAIN STONE)
® MIXED RAW MATERIALS
(KAOLIN.PORCELAIN STONE)
FIG. 3. Plot of principal components 1 and 2 for 66 pieces of Jingdezhen porcelains and various mixtures of two types of raw materials: kaolin
(R3) and porcelain stones (R4, R l l , and R12) using the concentrations of seven chemical constituents (SiO2, A1203, Fe~O3, CaO, MgO, K20 and
Na20).
that of alumina increases as a function of time from the
Five Dynasties to the Qing Dynasty, with the exception
of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, when this trend was
reversed.
The raw material kaolin comes from the high ridge
known as Kaolin, which is about 28 miles from north-
north-east Jingdezhen. As kaolin has a high alumina
( ~ 4 0 % ) and low silica (~55%) content, the kaolin raw
materials R1-R3 appear clustered on the left of Fig. 1.
Obviously, these points on the graph are far away from
any of the points for Jingdezhen porcelains, and there-
fore could never have been used for one-material por-
celain production. Therefore, Xingzi kaolin (R1) or
Mingsha kaolin (R2 and R3) must be mixed with por-
celain stone for the production of Qing, Ming, Yuan, and
certain Song porcelains.
Similar raw materials were used during the Five Dy-
nasties and part of the Song Dynasties because of the
appreciable overlap of porcelains during these periods.
The most likely candidate would be the Nankang por-
celain stone (R7 and R l l ) . Thus, during these periods,
Jingdezhen porcelain bodies were made of porcelain stone
only. In the figure, the Five Dynasties piece at the top
is F1 and is not typical, as it has an extremely high iron
content (> 2 % ).
Figure 1 also indicates the possible use of Qimen por-
celain stone (R4), Shoxiwu porcelain stone (R9), and
1492 Volume 46, Number 10, 1 9 9 2
C'q
t-- 4
Z
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Z
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n / FIVE DYNASTIES
8
- #oo/o
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--4
Vogt porcelain stone (R12) as a one-material porcelain
stone during the Song Dynasty. Furthermore, it seems
likely that Yaolidongshi porcelain stone (R8) and San-
baopeng porcelain stone (R6, R10, and R13) could not
be used alone for the production of Jingdezhen porcelains
unless they were mixed with kaolin. It is interesting to
note that the refined Qimen porcelain stone (R5, refined)
is located at the extreme bottom whereas the unrefined
Qimen porcelain stone (R4) is located near the Song
pieces, indicating that the Qimen porcelain stone used
in Song porcelain production was not washed and refined.
Mixed Raw Materials for Porcelain Bodies. From Fig.
1, it is evident that from the time of the Yuan Dynasty
(and later part of the Song Dynasty) porcelains made in
Jingdezhen were composed of a mixture of porcelain stone
and kaolin. In order to study quantitatively the propor-
tion of kaolin added to the porcelain stone, we first looked
at the possible candidates for kaolin and porcelain stone,
selecting appropriate ones for further investigation.
With regard to kaolin, Xingzi kaolin (R1) was not used
until the late nineteenth century 1 and therefore will be
left out of our discussion. The most typical kaolin used
in Jingdezhen is Mingsha kaolin from Fuliangdong xiang,
28 miles away. We used the refined Mingsha kaolin (R3)
instead of Mingsha kaolin (R2) in its natural state, since
it is R3 that was used in porcelain production.
As for porcelain stones, the following six were chosen:
 kaolin (wt°/o) kaolin (wt °/o) TABLE IV. Estimate of the percentage of kaolin used in Jingdezhen
I porcelain bodies during the various dynasties (wt %).
R4 (Qimen) 60 R10 (Sanbaopeng)
60 Estimate of percentage of
Name of some
typical porcelain kaolin used in porcelain bodies
stone used in Five Dy-
,o No. Jingdezhen nasties" Song" Yuan Ming Qing
R4 Qimen 0 4-10 15-25 10-20 30-55
R8 Yaolidongshi a a 25-35 20-30 40-65
R9 Shoxiwu 0 3-10 20-30 15-25 35-60
R10 Sanbaopeng a a 10-20 5-15 30-60
Rll Nankang 0 0-8 18-25 10-20 35-60
D R12 Porcelain stone a 0-5 10-22 5-18 25-55
F S Y M O F S Y M Q (Vogt, 1900)
"Note: (a) Porcelain stone not used during the period under consid-
eration.
R8 (Yootidongshi) Rll (Nankang)
60 60
T a b l e IV gives the e s t i m a t e of the p e r c e n t a g e of kaolin
used in J i n g d e z h e n porcelain bodies during the various
40 40 dynasties, a n d these are p l o t t e d in Fig. 4. F r o m Fig. 2,
if Yaolidongshi porcelain stone (R8) were used during
the Five D y n a s t i e s a n d early Song, the p e r c e n t a g e of
20 20 kaolin a d d e d would be a r o u n d 15%, which is m o s t un-
likely. Hence, we conclude t h a t it was n o t used a t t h a t
time. Irrespective of the porcelain stone used, Fig. 4 shows
t h a t the a m o u n t of kaolin a d d e d increases as a function
F S Y M Q F S Y M Q of time, except for a reversal during Y u a n a n d Ming
Dynasties. In addition, an unusually large p r o p o r t i o n of
kaolin was used during the Qing D y n a s t y , reaching as
R9 (Shoxiwu) R12 (Vogt) high as a b o u t 60%. Such large additions of kaolin in-
60 6O crease the t e m p e r a t u r e a n d the range of firing t e m p e r -

40

20
D ,o
atures, which in t u r n enhance the quality a n d s t r e n g t h
of the b o d y a n d glaze of J i n g d e z h e n porcelains. T h e re-
m a r k a b l e quality a n d s t r e n g t h of high-kaolin J i n g d e z h e n
porcelains could be seen f r o m the excellent condition of
the N a n k i n g cargo 17 of over 100,000 pieces of Qianlong
blue-and-white, salvaged in 1985 f r o m a ship t h a t s a n k
in a b o u t 1750.

F S Y M Q F S Y M Q ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
FIG. 4. Plot of the percentage of kaolin added to porcelain stones as We wish to thank Miss Ng Soo Ngo for drawing the diagrams. Younan
a function of time, where F = Five Dynasties, S = Song, Y = Yuan, M Hua wishes to acknowledge with thanks the hospitality of the De-
= Ming, and Q = Qing. partment of Physics of National University of Singapore.

1. Li Jiazhi and Guo Yanyi, "Famous White Porcelain of the Various

R4 (Qimen), R8 (Yaolidongshi), R9 (Shoxiwu), R10 (San-
baopeng), R l l (Nankang), a n d R12 (Vogt). T h e others
are o m i t t e d since R7 ( N a n k a n g ) is similar to R l l , b o t h
R6 a n d R13 (Sanbaopeng) are similar to R10, a n d R5
was not used in Jingdezhen, as discussed above.
T h e chosen M i n g s h a kaolin (R3) was t h e n m i x e d with
individual porcelain stones (R4, R8, R9, R10, R l l , or
R12) in varying p r o p o r t i o n s f r o m 10% to 60% kaolin.
P r i n c i p a l c o m p o n e n t analysis was t h e n p e r f o r m e d on the
66 pieces of porcelain b o d y f r o m J i n g d e z h e n together
with one of these points, as shown in Figs. 2 a n d 3 for
principal c o m p o n e n t s 1 a n d 2. Actually, Figs. 2 a n d 3
could be p l o t t e d as one figure a n d are s e p a r a t e l y p l o t t e d
for clarity.
Figure 2 shows that, with the exception of those of the
Five D y n a s t i e s a n d p a r t of Song D y n a s t y , practically all
J i n g d e z h e n porcelains are b o u n d e d within the triangle
f o r m e d b y R3 (Mingsha kaolin), R8 (Yaolidongshi por-
celain stone), a n d R10 ( S a n b a o p e n g porcelain stone).
Dynasties in the North and South of China," in Scientific and
Technical Achievements in Ancient Chinese Pottery and Porce-
lain, Li Jiazhi, Chen Xianqui, Zhang Fukang, Guo Yanyi, and Chen
Shiping, Eds. (Shanghai Scientific and Technical Publishers,
Shanghai, 1984).
2. M. S. Tite, I. C. Freestone, and M. Bimson, Archaeometry 26, 139
(1984).
3. Li Guozhen and Guo Yanyi, Technological Bases o[ Famous Chi-
nese Porcelain (Shanghai Scientific and Technical Publishers,
Shanghai, 1985).
4. A. M. Polland and E. T. Hall, "Provenance Studies of Oriental
Porcelain by Chemical Analysis," in Scientific and Technological
Insights on Ancient Chinese Pottery and Porcelain (Science
Beijing, China, 1986).
5. N. Wood, Transact. Orient. Ceram. Soc. 50, 37 (1986).
6. Guo Yanyi, Archaeometry 29, 3 (1987).
7. C. T. Yap, National Palace Museum (Taipei) Bulletin 19(3), 1
(1984).
8. C. T. Yap, Oriental Art 32, 48 (1986).
9. C. T. Yap, Archaeometry 28, 197 (1986).
10. C. T. Yap, Appl. Spectrosc. 40, 839 (1986).
11. C. T. Yap, X-Ray Spectrom. 16, 55 (1987).
12. C. T. Yap, Appl. Spectrosc. 41, 1446 (1987).

APPLIED SPECTROSCOPY 1493

13. C. T. Yap, X-Ray Spectrom. 16, 229 (1987).
14. C. T. Yap, Zeitschrift fur Naturforschung 42A, 1253 (1987).
15. C. T. Yap, J. Archaeol. Sci. 16, 173 (1988).
16. C. T. Yap, X-Ray Spectrom. 18, 31 (1989).
17. C. T. Yap, Appl. Spectrosc. 45, 584 (1991).
18. C. T. Yap, Appl. Spectrosc. 46, 843 (1992).
19. C. T. Yap and Y. N. Hua, "A Study of Chinese Porcelain Raw
Materials for Ding, Xing, Gongxian, and Dehua Wares," submitted
for publication (1992).
20. C. T. Yap and Y. N. Hua, "Principal Component Analysis of Chi-
1494 Volume 46, Number 10, 1992
nese Porcelains from the Five Dynasties to the Qing Dynasty,"
submitted for publication (1992).
21. Chen Shiping and Chen Xiangqiu, "The Comprehensive Summary
of the Chemical Composition of Various Ancient Chinese Porce-
lains," in Scientific and Technical Achievements in Ancient Chi-
nese Pottery and Porcelain, Li Jiazhi, Chen Xianqui, Zhang Fu-
kang, Guo Yanyi, and Chen Shiping, Eds. (Shanghai Scientific and
Technical Publishers, Shanghai, 1984).
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