Yánshén

Yanshen was a manufacturing town among the hills of central Shandong, renowned for its glass and ceramics. Glassmaking grew in scale from the late Yuan, and under the early Ming an imperial workshop here produced tribute for the court. Private furnaces also multiplied, fashioning beads, lamps, screens and chess pieces for sale as far away as Beijing and Jiangnan. Craftsmen organised their own association in the late Ming, while the industry continued to expand under the Qing. In 1665 the local scholar Sun Tingquan described the town's ceramics, glass and coal in his Miscellaneous Records of Yanshan. In 1734 Yanshen became the seat of the newly established Boshan County.