Page 201 - 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 VIII
THE CH'iNG fH DYNASTY, 1644-1910
THE reigns of the Manehu chieftains T'ien Ming, T'ien Tsung,
and Ts'ung Te (1616-1643) are included in the chronology of
the Ch'ing or Pure Dynasty, but it is more usual to reckon
that period from 1644, when the Emperor Shun Chih |l[^Jp was
firmly established on the throne after the suicide of the last of the
Mings. Little is known of the ceramic history of the seventeen years
during which Shun Chih occupied the throne. The official records
which deal only with the Imperial factory are almost silent, and
when they do speak it is merely to chronicle failures. It is clear,
however, that the Imperial factory at Ching-te Chen had again been
opened; for orders were sent in 1654 for a supply of large "dragon
bowls " for the palace gardens. They were to be 2| feet high,
3 1 feet in diameter, 3 inches thick at the sides, and 5 inches at
the bottom. For four years the potters wrestled with this difficult
order without success. This time there was no "divine T'ung "
to purchase success by a holocaust of himself; and eventually the
Emperor was persuaded to withdraw the command. No better
fortune attended an order given in 1659 for oblong plaques (3 feet
by 2^ feet, and 3 inches thick) which were intended for veranda
partitions.
Beyond these two negative items there is no information of
the reign of Shun Chih in the Chinese books, and the porcelain
itself is scarcely more illuminating, for authentic marked examples
Aof this period are virtually unknown. figure already men-
tioned as bearing the date 1650 belongs rather to the pottery
section, but it shows that the traditions of the Ming glazes of
the demi-grand feu were still kept alive. The blue and white
and the polychrome made in the private factories at this time
have been discussed with the transition wares (pp. 89 and 90), and
for the rest we can only assume that the Shun Chih porcelains
are not to be distinguished from those of the last Ming reigns
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