In Chinese porcelain decorations most - if not all - shapes and decorations has a symbolic value based on a shared culture and set of beliefs. A vase for example represents a feminine (yin) shape which somehow would need to be balanced by a similar amount of masculinity (yang). The rules and possible combinations are near endless and is what makes Chinese art unique and fascinating the deeper you look.
The decorations could be everything from a clear iconographic representation of a specific deity or show a famous play or historical event that would be readily recognized by the user. A number of symbols could also be combined to create a rebus based on homonyms, same sounding names. Like a bat, for example, could be read as "happiness" since the word for bat, fu 蝠, is also pronounced fu 福, as in good fortune or blessing.
To facilitate this, there needed to be a general agreement about how everything should be drawn or represented in as few colors or in as few few brush strokes as possible.
To some extent this came natural to the Chinese which very language were many characters began as simplified images - pictograms.
The problem the porcelain painters faced was thus how to suggest natural objects using only cobalt blue under the glaze. To solve this a shared decorative vocabulary, or pictorial convention were adhered to, where rocks, water, leaves, trees, clouds, borders, and figures were rendered in recognizable ways. These conventions changed only very slowly and even small differences can help in defining a likely date.
The established decorative canon were transmitted through workshop practice and pattern books.
In Chinese, painting manuals and model books are primarily referred to as 画谱 (huà pǔ) or 画图 (huà tú). These instructional woodblock-printed texts provided historical examples and compositions for landscapes, figures, birds, and flowers.
The most famous historical examples of these manuals include:
芥子園畫譜 (Jièzǐyuán Huàpǔ / The Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting) Compiled from 1679 to 1701 during the Qing Dynasty. This is the most renowned and widely used instructional book in the history of Chinese painting.
十竹斋书画谱 (Shízhúzhāi Shūhuà Pǔ / Ten Bamboo Studio Collection of Calligraphy and Painting)Printed in the 17th century by Hu Zhengyan, this is celebrated as the earliest multi-color printed book in history, capturing the subtle colors and textures of watercolor paintings.
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