The old name of Fou-liang was Hsin-p´ing, and according to the Annals of Fou-liang the manufacture of pottery[324] was traditionally held to have begun in the district of Hsin-p´ing in the Han dynasty. In the same passage the development of the local industry is traced by means of a few significant incidents. In the first year of Chih Tê in the Ch´ên dynasty (583 A.D.) the potters of the district were called upon to provide plinths for the Imperial buildings at Chien-k´ang (afterwards Nanking), but the plinths, when finished, though cleverly made, were not strong enough to carry the weight of the columns. In the fourth (or, according to another reading, the second) year of Wu Tê of the T´ang dynasty (621 A.D.), "porcelain jade"[325] was offered as tribute to the Emperor under the name of false jade vessels (_chia yü ch´i_), and from this time forward the duty (of supplying the Emperor) became an institution,[326] and a potter named Ho Chung-ch´u gained a great reputation. In the Ching Tê period of the Sung dynasty, as already stated, officially manufactured porcelain was sent to the capital, where it supplied the needs of the palaces and great establishments. In the T´ai Ting period of the Yüan dynasty (1324-1327) the porcelain factory came under the inspection of the Intendant of the Circuit, who supplied the required wares when orders had been received, and closed the factory if there were no orders (from the Court). Continuing into the Ming dynasty, the same authority gives details of the various administrative changes which may perhaps be "taken as read," one or two important facts only calling for mention. Thus in the thirty-fifth year[327] of Hung Wu, we are told that the factories were opened, and that supplies of porcelain were sent to the Court. There seems to have been some difference of opinion about the building of the Imperial Ware Factory (_Yü ch´i ch´ang_). Some authorities place this event in the Hung Wu period, but the _Chiang hsi t´ung chih_,[328] though quoting the other opinions in a note, mentions only the building of the Imperial Factory in the reign of Chêng Tê (1506-1521) in the main text, viz.: "In the beginning of the Chêng Tê period the Imperial Ware Factory was established for dealing specially with the Imperial wares." The Imperial establishment was burnt down in the Wan Li period, and again destroyed in the revolt of Wu San-kuei in 1675, but the most serious blow dealt to the prosperity of Ching-tê Chên fell in the T´ai p´ing rebellion in 1853, when the town was sacked and almost depopulated. The Imperial Factory was rebuilt in 1864, and the industry has in a great measure revived, though it is still but the shadow of its former greatness.