Page 208 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

122 Chinese Pottery and Porcelain

the same passage gives an alternative theory, viz. " this name has

been derived by some Chinese of less weight from that of Lang

Shih-ning, an artist protege of the Jesuits/ who also lived in the

reign of K'ang Hsi, and whose pictures are still appreciated."

The evidence for all these versions seems to be equally defective.

They are, in fact, mere assertions, and the reader can take his

choice of any of them, provided he does not insist on Mr, Mitford's

date (anterior to 1610), for all authorities are now agreed that the

lang yao is a K'ang Hsi production. The fact is that the name

has been handed down without any explanation, and the current

theories are of comparatively modern construction. The secret of

the lang yao consisted in the first instance in the knowledge of means

to produce a brilliant red glaze from copper oxide. It was not a

new discovery, but merely a revival of the wonderful " precious
stone " red of the early Ming period. ^ The supplies of some essential

ingredient for this colour had failed in the Chia Ching period,^ and

the secret of the true colour had been temporarily lost. This secret

was now recovered probably by a potter of the name of Lang, and

that name has been associated with it ever since. So far from the

lang yao being limited to the early part of the reign of K'ang Hsi

or to the few years when Lang T'ing-tso might have been con-

cerned with it, there can be little doubt that the sang de hoeiif red

or red lang yao is the special colour described in detail by Pere

d'Entrecolles in 1712, and again in 1722 under the significant name
of yu li hung, or " red in the glaze." The reader can judge for
himself from the description given in the second letter ^ : " This

red inside the glaze is made with granulated red copper and the

Apowder of a certain stone or pebble of a reddish colour. Christian

doctor told me that this stone was a kind of alum, used in medi-

cine. The whole is pounded in a mortar and mixed with a boy's

* See also Hippisley, Catalogue, p. 346, where another version is given wliich makes
this Lang actually a Jesuit missionary, a version which Mr. Hippisley alterv;ards aban-
doned when research in the Jesuit records failed to discover any evidence for the state-
ment.

* See p. 11.

» See p. 34.
* Op. cit.. Section ix. The paragraph in the first letter runs : " II y en a d'entiere-

ment rouges, et parmi celles-1^, les unes sont d'un rouge k I'huile, yeou li hum ; les
autres sont d'un rouge souffld, tschoui hum (ch'ui hung), et sont sem6es de petits points
k peu pr6s comme nos mignatures. Quand ces deux sortes d'ou\Tages rdiississent dans
leur perfection, ce qui est assez difficile, ils sont infmiment estimez et extrSmement

chers."