Huátíng

Huating lay within the Pingliang administrative region on the northwestern approaches to China. In 1328 the Yuan incorporated neighbouring Huaping County into its territory. When Ming forces reached Huating in 1369, Xu Da appointed Yang Sidao to manage local affairs and encourage displaced inhabitants to return. The reconstruction of local government therefore accompanied the recovery of households and cultivation after war.

The county also contained the ceramic centre of Ankou, where clay and coal supported a distinctive craft economy. Ming kilns produced glazed bowls, jars and dishes, while a temple to the pottery deity was completed in 1539 and rebuilt and enlarged in 1560. Zhao Shichun composed an inscription explaining the temple's construction and the place of pottery in everyday life. Warfare at the Ming-Qing transition dispersed craftsmen and slowed production; artisans later gathered again as the kilns recovered. Huating's history thus includes a manufacturing community whose work and religious institutions depended on the same local resources that supplied its furnaces.