Page 116 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day
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CHAPTER V
^^WAN LI (1573-1619) AND OTHER REIGNS
THE long reign of Wan Li, the last important period of the
Ming dynasty, is certainly the best represented in European
collections, a circumstance due to the ceramic activity of the
time not less than to its nearness to our own age. In the first year
of the reign orders were given that one of the sub-prefects of Jao-
chou Fu should be permanently stationed at Ching-te Chen to
supervise the Imperial factory. It appears that he proved a stern
taskmaster, and at the same time that the potters were severely
burdened by excessive demands from the palace. The picture
drawn by the censor in the previous reign of the afflicted condition
of the potters, and the story told elsewhere ^ how they had made
intercession daily in the temple of the god that the Imperial orders
might be merciful, are fitting preface to the tale of the dragon
bowls told as follows by T'ang Ying,^ the director of the factory
in the first half of the eighteenth century.
" By the west wall of the Ancestral-tablet Hall of the spirit
who protects the potters is a dragon fish bowl {lung kang). It is
three feet in diameter and two feet high, with a fierce frieze of dragons
in blue and a wave pattern below. The sides and the mouth are
perfect, but the bottom is wanting. It was made in the Wan Li
period of the Ming. Previously these fish bowls had presented
great difficulty in the making, and had not succeeded, and the*
superintendent had increased his severity. Thereupon the divine
T'ung took pity on his fellow potters, and served them by alone
laying down his life. He plunged into the fire, and the bowls came
out perfect. This fish bowl was damaged after it had been finished
and selected (for palace use), and for a long time it remained aban-
doned in a corner of the office. But when I saw it I sent a double-
yoked cart and men to lift it, and it was brought to the side of
1 See T'ao lu, bk. viii., fols. 10 and 11, quoting from the Ts'ao I'ien yu chi.
3 Tang ying lung kang chi, quoted in the Too lu, bk. viii., fols. 11 and 12.
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