Zhushan is a small hill in the centre of Jingdezhen. For two dynasties, the imperial kilns stood here.

In 1928, a group of painters gathered around that hill. They did not fire imperial wares or mass-market goods — they painted one thing: porcelain plaques.

These were the painters who would come to be called the "Zhushan Eight Friends".

When the Qing fell in 1911, the imperial kilns shut down. Jingdezhen lost its biggest customer overnight.

Add to that war, foreign porcelain imports, and disrupted shipping — early twentieth-century Jingdezhen was arguably at its lowest point in three centuries.

And yet, at precisely this moment, a group of painters came together.

Strictly speaking, the "Zhushan Eight Friends" were never a fixed group. It was a loose circle; over the years more than a dozen painters joined.

The most often cited are Wang Qi, Wang Dafan, Wang Yeting, Deng Bishan, Bi Botao, He Xuren, Cheng Yiting, and Liu Yucen.

Wang Qi was the initiator. He began as a dough-figure sculptor, then turned to porcelain plaques, specialising in figures. He followed the style of the Qing painter Huang Shen — spare lines, vivid expressions.

The others each had their speciality: Wang Dafan on figures, Wang Yeting on landscape, Deng Bishan on fish, Bi Botao on birds and flowers, He Xuren on snow scenes.

They met once a month, bringing their work, adding inscriptions and comments for each other. This "literati gathering" format was a first in Jingdezhen.

Before them, most Jingdezhen painters were "painting porcelain" — lotus scrolls, dragons, phoenixes, eight treasures. All fixed patterns, mass produced.

The Eight Friends painted "paintings" — landscapes, figures, birds, flowers. Every piece had composition, negative space, an inscribed poem, a seal. They were not decorating an object; they were creating a painting on an object.

Their technique was called new famille rose.

New famille rose absorbed the "boneless" and wash techniques of Chinese painting. It was closer to paper-and-silk painting than older famille rose — softer colours, richer layering, capable of ink-wash effects on porcelain plaques.

More importantly: they inscribed text and used seals. That had once been the privilege of literati painters. Now it moved onto porcelain.

A porcelain plaque became a medium a literatus could "write and paint" on.

Porcelain plaques by the Zhushan Eight Friends are now blue-chip at auction. A Wang Qi figure plaque can fetch several million RMB. Wang Dafan and Wang Yeting pieces also reach million-RMB levels.

Why so expensive? Three reasons:

First, scarcity. They were a workshop, not a factory. Over a lifetime, each might paint only a few hundred plaques. With wartime losses, intact survivals are few.

Second, status. They were the first generation to move from "craftsman" to "painter". This identity shift is rare in art history. Buying their work is buying a piece of Jingdezhen's modern history.

Third, aesthetic independence. They were not painting to order — they were painting their own mood. Landscape as refuge, figures with a scholar's wit, birds and flowers with quiet ease. That "painting for oneself" quality is unique in the history of porcelain.

Today the Zhushan Eight Friends have become a school. Many contemporary porcelain painters follow their path. But the flavour of Republican literati — that cannot be painted again.