Spatial organization and interaction mechanisms in Jingdezhen ceramic production: visual analysis of the Qianlong-era Tao Ye Tu

The Qianlong edition of the Tao Ye Tu (Ceramic Production Illustrations) serves as an essential visual resource for understanding the porcelain production of the Qing dynasty. This study positions this album within the broader contexts of woodblock prints, imperial court paintings, and export albums to affirm the Qianlong court version as the most reliable foundation for spatial analysis. By examining the album as both a technical document and a cultural artifact, this paper links its visual rhetoric to broader debates in the fields of visual culture studies and global production network theory. Building on this framework, our analysis deciphers the interaction mechanisms between ceramic production and the spatial environment in Jingdezhen, examining how these relationships were shaped by the specific socio-economic conditions of the Qianlong reign, including imperial patronage systems, technological exchanges facilitated through cross-cultural contact, and the expanding global trade networks that characterized the period. Through meticulous image analysis, the production scenes are categorized into three spatial types: rural, courtyard, and ritual. This classification reveals an advanced integration of ecological adaptation, process aggregation, economic efficiency, and human-centric design. The analysis also accentuates the artists’ employment of spatiotemporal integration and separation, the balance between realism and idealization, and the dynamics between physical and metaphorical space. This study not only deepens our understanding of the spatial organization of ceramic production during the Qing dynasty but also articulates how visual materials were employed to construct an idealized representation of the industry, one that reflected the prevailing social structure and distinct aesthetic principles of the time.