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Plate 20.7 Probable fixing method for facing-bricks

recent archaeological finds at the pagoda site. These are The first example is a porcelain tile decorated in
stoneware wall-tiles with integrally moulded notches and underglaze blue. Two complete pieces in the British Museum
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tongues at the back which engage with corresponding are 23cm in size. Similar tiles excavated in Nanjing and at
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fixings set into the wall. Jingdezhen were found not to be decorated in the traditional
There are two designs. One bears in bas relief a crossed ‘blue-and-white’ of porcelain tablewares. Instead they were
vajra (thunderbolt) motif in yellow with a red ceramic ‘jewel’ produced painstakingly by covering the entire surface with
at its centre on a green ground banded by yellow. This cobalt underglaze colouring and then scraping into this the
design matches descriptions (by Loch) of ‘walls all lined with design whose revealed white body-colour was then
square porcelain tiles, each separate one embossed with a highlighted with trailed white slip. They are referred to as
small device in the centre...’ Fragments matching unused landi baihua zhuan 藍地白花磚 (‘blue-ground white decorated
examples from Mount Jubao were found on the pagoda site bricks’, or more simply ‘white on blue’). Five different
in 2008. The other design has polychrome green and patterns have been identified, and sherds found at the Da
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yellow floral scrolls decorated in perfect register to provide a Baoen Monastery in Nanjing are matched by samples
continuous ‘textile brocade’ pattern. Again, examples have excavated in the Xuande stratum at the imperial kilns at
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been found at both Mount Jubao and on the pagoda site Zhushan 珠山 in Jingdezhen where they were produced.
which match examples in private and museum collections. 19 As mentioned, it is not certain that they were floor tiles, or
even ever used in Nanjing, but might perhaps have been in
Parts attributable to the temple site but not necessarily transit via the capital for another destination (Pl. 20.8a–d).
to the pagoda The other example is represented by two almost complete
Some ceramic parts in collections match finds excavated pieces: one in the Sir Percival David Collection on display at
from Mount Jubao and the Da Baoen Monastery, but are not the British Museum and the other at the Victoria and Albert
noted in contemporary descriptions of the pagoda, and Museum in London. They are moulded and incised
therefore cannot yet be confidently associated with the polychrome stoneware pieces bearing a (repeating) design of
pagoda (and not another building nearby). confronted dragons and cloudlets in green on a yellow
Among these are what may be floor tiles, because they are ground. Their pattern matches sherds excavated at the Da
flat surfaced, thin and have no integral fixings at the back to Baoen Monastery. Significantly, the pieces in London are
suggest they are for walls. They are decoratively glazed and trapezoidal, 28cm long, 2cm thick and tapering very slightly
meticulously finished, but specimens are few. Two types are from a curved edge measuring approximately 19cm. Their
described below; one is in blue and white and the other in shape suggests that they were made for a circular laying
polychrome. However, no such floor tile has yet been found pattern and they have undercut edges, which suggests they
in situ, and there is no evidence in China of floors being laid could be floor tiles. The taper angle of the specimen in the
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with decorative glazework until very modern times. Even Sir Percival David Collection is 2.64º which, given the other
the most prestigious palace halls in the Ming and Qing dimensions, suggests a circular pattern with a diameter of
dynasties were floored with specially commissioned and 8.55m. A laying pattern of such a size could have been
laboriously made dense grey unglazed flooring bricks accommodated at many levels within the pagoda. However,
(jinzhuan 金磚), a speciality of Suzhou, from where with none of the contemporary accounts mentions such a
difficulty they were transported for the major imperial halls distinctive circular feature, and Loch’s account describes a
in Beijing. Given that plain unglazed flooring was reserved principal chamber that is square.
for the most exalted halls, it would be surprising (if these Other pieces in collections which claim provenance from
finely colourful tiles were indeed also for floors) that rules of the pagoda though not yet attributable are parts of wall
lèse-majesté or sumptuary apparently failed to discourage the decorations and roof finials, many of which match complete
use by lesser individuals of a decoratively superior pieces found at Mount Jubao and fragments excavated at
product. various sites in Nanjing. Prominent among these are
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The Porcelain Pagoda: A Persisting Enigma | 183