Page 142 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

76 Chinese Pottery and Porcelain

pierced and relief work in white, without the supplementary blue
designs, though rare, are yet to be seen in several collections. If
marked at all they usually bear the apocryphal date of Ch'eng Hua,
but an example in the Marsden Perrj'^ collection. Providence, U.S.A.,
has the T'ien Ch'i (1621-1627) date under the base, which no doubt

represents the true period of its manufacture. This intricate ling

lung work, which the Wan Li censor deprecated as too difficult and

elaborate, has been perpetuated, though it was probably never more
beautifully executed than in the late Ming period. The later ex-
amples are mostly characterised by larger perforations, which were
easier to manage. There are several references to the pierced and
relief decorations in the lists of porcelain supplied to the Court of

Wan Li, e.g. " brush rests with sea waves and three dragons in

relief over pierced designs, and landscapes," " landscape medallions
among pierced work," and " sacred fungus carved in openwork,
and figures of ancient cash." In the finer examples of pierced
work the most frequent design is the fret or key pattern often
interwoven with the four-legged symbol known as the swastika,
which commonly serves in Chinese for the character wan (ten thou-
sand), carrying a suggested wish for " long life," as expressed in
the phrase waii sui (Jap, banzai), ten thousand years. The pierced
patterns are carved out of the porcelain body when the ware has
been dried to a " leather-tough " consistency, and the manipulative
skill exercised in the cutting and handling of the still plastic material
is almost superhuman. Similar tours deforce distinguish the Japanese
Hirado porcelain, and Owen's work in our own Worcester ware
exhibits extraordinary skill, but I doubt if anything finer in this
style has ever been made than the ling lung bowls of the late Ming

potters.

Another form of decoration which, if not actually included in
the ling lung category, is at any rate closely allied to it, is the
fretwork cut deeply into the body of the ware without actually
perforating it, the holloAvs of the pattern being generally left
without glaze. This ornament is used in borders or to fill the
spaces between blue and white medallions after the manner of
the pierced fretwork, and it was evidently contemporaneous
with the latter, viz. dating from the late Ming period onwards

(Plate 68, Fig. 3).
It will be convenient here to consider another type of decoration

which was probably in use in the early periods of the Ming dynasty,