Page 122 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

64 Chinese Pottery and Porcelain

perhaps not carried so far as in the after periods. It is clear that

under such a system the individuaUty of the artists was completely

lost, and we never hear the name of any potter or painter who worked

at the Imperial factory. In the private factories probably the divi-

sion of labour was less rigorous, and it is certain that many of the

specimens were decorated by a single brush. But even so, signa-

tures of potters or painters are almost unknown ; and only one or

two private potters of conspicuous merit at the end of the Ming

period are mentioned by name in the Chinese books. Mr. Ts'ui,

for instance, has already been mentioned in the chapter on the

Chia Ching period, and three others occur in the annals of the Wan

Li period.

Of these, the most interesting personality was Hao Shih-chiu,^

scholar, painter, poet, and potter, who signed his wares with the

Hufanciful name yin iao jen - (Taoist hidden in a tea pot), to show

that he " put his soul " into the making of his pots. He lived, we

are told,^ in exaggerated simplicity, in a hut, with a mat for a door

and a broken jar for a window ; but he was so celebrated as a man
of talent and culture that his hut was frequented by the literati,

who capped his verses and admired his wares. The latter were of
great refinement and exquisitely beautiful, and his white " egg

shell" ^ wine cups were so delicate as to weigh less than a gramme.^

No less famous were his red wine cups, bright as vermilion, the

colour floating in the glaze like red clouds. They were named

liu hsia chan^ {lit. floating red cloud cups), which has been poetic-
ally rendered by Bushell as " dawn-red wine cups " and " liquid

dawn cups," and were evidently one of the reds of the chi hung

class produced by copper oxide in the glaze, like the beautiful wine

cups with clouded maroon red glaze of the early eighteenth century.

All these wares were eagerly sought by connoisseurs throughout

* ^ISiSA* There is an allusion in this name to the story of Hu Kung, a magician
of the third and fourth centuries, who was credited with marvellous healing powers.

Every night he disappeared, and it was found at length that he was in the habit of

retiring into a hollow gourd which hung from the door post. See A. E. Hippisley,

Catalogue of a Collection of Chinese Porcelains, Smithsonian Institute, Washington,

1900. Hao's porcelain is also known as Hu kung yao (the ware of Mr. Pots).

Tao» See lu, bk. v., fol. 10, and bk. viii., fol. 7, and T'ao shuo, bk. vi., fol. 26.

^ 10^ luan mu, " the curtain inside the egg," which conveys the idea of extreme

tenuity better than the most usual expression, " egg shell " porcelain.

^ Half a chu.