Antique Chinese and Japanese Porcelain collector's help and info page

GLOSSARY

Minyao

Ming minyao porcelain bowl people ware

This is a Chinese porcelain bowl from a provincial kiln near Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province. I like to think of this as a typical minyao peoples ware. A good and perfectly well made porcelain bowl from the Ming dynasty, Chenghua period (1465-87) but, not made for the emperor but for the ordinary Chinese people. But, minyao is of course more than this kind of porcelain, it is all porcelain that was not designed, ordered by and made for the Emperor.

Min (people) yao (ware). Chinese porcelain made for trade, export and the common population as in; not on Imperial command and, for the Emperor. During Ming and Qing dynasties it could be porcelain made at any other kiln except; on Imperial command and, at the Imperial porcelain kiln at Zhushan (Pearl hill), in Jingdezhen, Jiangzi province.

Often contrasted are the wares called Guanyao or Official wares. During previous dynasties stoneware and ceramics could be made and sent to the Empror as a kind of tax. This wares was called Guan (official) yao.

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