Page 209 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

K'ang Hsi (1662-1722) 123

urine and the ordinary porcelain glaze ; but I have not been able
to ascertain the quantities of the ingredients, for those in possession
of the secret take good care not to divulge it. This mixture is
applied to the porcelain before it is fired and no other glaze is used

;

but care has to be taken that the red colour does not run to the

bottom of the vase during the firing. They tell me that when they

intend to apply this red to porcelain they do not use porcelain stone
{petuntse) in the body, but they use in its place, mixed with the
porcelain earth (kaolin), a yellow clay prepared in the same manner
as the petuntse. Probably it is a kind of clay specially suited to
receive this colour." Would that the worthy father had named

the possessors of the secret ! Had it been a Jesuit family, is it

likely that he would not have said so ? But here, at any rate,
is not only such an accurate description of the manufacture of the
satig de boeuf red that little need be added to it, but also a valuable
commentary on the obscure passages in which the allusion is made
to the brilliant red of the Hsiian Te and other early Ming periods.
For what is the reddish stone or pebble but the " red precious stone
from the West," which played a mysterious part in the pao shih
hung of the Hsiian Te period ? Chinese tradition has imagined
this stone to have been the ruby, on the impossible assumption that
the red colour of the glaze was derived from the red of the ruby.
But it was, in all probability, cornaline (the 7na nao used in the
Sung porcelain of Ju Chou) or amethystine quartz, and its only
function would have been to increase the brilliancy and transparence

of the glaze, the red colour being entirely due to copper oxide. It

is interesting, too, to note that the composition of the porcelain

body was varied to suit this red colour, and that a yellow clay was
substituted for the porcelain stone, in view of the alleged diffi-

culties in obtaining the proper " earth for the fresh red [hsien hung) "
in the Chia Ching period. In a similar manner a more earthy com-
position was found to be more sympathetic than the pure white

porcelain to some of the other monochromes, as may be observed

in existing specimens of turquoise blue.
The lang yao, then, is the chi hung of the K'ang Hsi period, the

brilliant blood red commonly known by the French name sang de

Aboeuf, and to-day it is one of the most precious monochromes.

choice example illustrated on Plate 88 shows the changing tints
from a brilliant cherry red below the shoulder to the massed blood
red where the fluescent glaze has formed thickly above the base.