Page 167 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

CHAPTER VI

THE TECHNIQUE OF THE MING PORCELAIN

A LTHOUGH the processes involved in the various kinds of

/-^L decoration and in the different wares have been discussed
in their several places, a short summary of those employed

in the manufacture of the Ching-te Chen porcelain during the Ming
period will be found convenient. The bulk of the materials re-
quired were found in the surrounding districts, if not actually in
the Fou-liang Hsien. The best kaolin (or porcelain earth) was
mined in the Ma-ts'ang mountains until the end of the sixteenth
century, when the supply was exhausted and recourse was had to
another deposit at Wu-men-t'o. The quality of the Wu-men-t'o
kaolin was first-rate, but as the cost of transport was greater and
the manager of the Imperial factory refused to pay a proportion-
ately higher price, very little was obtained. The material for the
large dragon bowls, and presumably for the other vessels of ab-
normal size, was obtained from Yii-kan and Wu-yiian and mixed
with powdered stone (shih mo) from the Hu-t'ien district. Other
kaolins, brought from Po-yang Hsien and the surrounding parts,
were used by the private potters, not being sufficiently fine for

the Imperial wares.

The porcelain stone, which combined with the kaolin to form
the two principal ingredients of true porcelain, came from the
neighbourhoods of Yii-kan and Wu-yiian, where it was pounded and
purified in mills worked by the water power of the mountains, arriving
at Ching-t e Ch en in the form of briquettes . Hence the name petuntse, ^
which, like kaolin, has passed into our own language, and the term
shih mo (powdered stone) used above.

The glaze earth (yu fu) in various qualities was supplied from
different places. Thus the Ch'ang-ling material was used for the
blue or green (ch'ing) and the yellow glazes, the Yi-k*eng for the
pure white porcelain, and the T'ao-shu-mu for white porcelain and

^ QtiC^ pai tun tzu, white blocks.

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