A Prince and his Porcelain Cup illustrated by Li Jian Translated by Yijin Wert

"The little prince was very lonely without any friends in the palace. He looked at all the porcelain pieces in the palace and loved them. Every day he carefully wiped his mother's favourite porcelain cup."  The cup he loves is called The Chicken Cup. In a fit of rage the little boy breaks this precious cup.

Image Source: Commons Wikimedia

The Prince takes the cup to a porcelain craftsman and over time the wise old man shows the boy how his cup was made from clay on the potters wheel, the care that need to be taken with painting on the design, and finally the placement in the very hot kiln. The little prince comes to realise this is a complex process and his broken cup cannot be repaired. In later years when he became the Emperor, the little prince is still thinking about his mother's cup. He summons the best craftsmen and finally "The Emperor's wish can true. It was like his mother's favourite cup had returned to him."

You can see some art from this book here.

The chicken cup is from the Ming Dynasty. The word chicken in Chinese is similar to the word luck and so chickens symbolise fortune and happiness. Read more here.

About the Chicken cup: "In the world there are ... less than 20 pieces real Chenghua doucai chicken cups  still in existence, and most of then are collections of famous museums ... The cup has a flared mouth, with shallow curvature of its sides, and shallow ring foot. It is decorated with two pairs of chickens and their young, a rooster and a hen leading their young to feed. The illustration is full of life."

About Li Jian: Li Jian graduated from Hebei Normal University in 2001, majoring in Chinese Painting. Formerly a middle school art teacher, children's book editor and a partner in an illustration studio, Li now owns his own illustration studio focusing on illustrations for children's fairy tales. He has many bilingual books about Chinese culture and stories, such as his Chinese Zodiac Series and the stories of Mulan and Zheng He. Source - Shiny Lantern

A Prince and his Porcelain Cup is a dual language text in English and Chinese. Here are some other books illustrated by Li Jian. He has an excellent series which feature the animals of the Chinese zodiac. Tiger Brother will be published in 2022 (The Year of the Tiger). 

I suggest you also look for A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park as a companion text to share with an older reader. This is a story set in Korea which also focuses on the skills involved with pottery.