[:en]Along with ancient Egypt, Babylon, and India, China is one of the four ancient great civilizations of the world. Home to one of the world’s most complex civilizations, China has over 5 000 years history. China is the appellation of the country given by foreigners. The porcelain china is the translation of the place name Changnan (昌南). The latter was the old name for the porcelain town of modern Jingdezhen (景德镇). In the early Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220), people made pottery. For this reason, they built their cave-houses and cut logs. Later, in the Tang Dynasty (618-907), people combined white porcelains from the Gaoling Mountain in Changnan town with the advantages of celadon from the Xing kiln. As a result of this combination, they produced a kind of green and white porcelain. This porcelain was bright and smooth. It was also given the name of artificial jade. As in Europe porcelain was not made before the 18th century, Chinese porcelain became famous and was exported to Europe in large quantities.
Interestingly, in Europe, people regarded Changnan porcelain as something precious and would take proud in possessing one. As time passed, people in Europe forgot the meaning of Changnan. Moreover, they switched the original name of porcelain of the word “china” to the place of its origin- China. Hence, for them, Changnan represented porcelain and China. In the Jingde reign of the Song Dynasty (960-1279), Emperor Zhenzong loved Changnan porcelain very much. Therefore, he ordered to build official cave-houses to make porcelain of all kinds. Porcelains paid as tributes to the emperor were required to print with “made in the Jingde reign” at the bottom. Since then, Changnan town became Jingde Town. Currently, Jingdezhen is a prefecture-level city in northeastern Jiangxi province. It is still known as the “Porcelain Capital” as pottery has been produced there for 1 700 years.[:]
