Page 213 - 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) 127

yellow, the monochrome brown or purple (tzu), the monochrome
green, the souffle (ch'ui) red and the souffle blue, were also beauti-
ful. The Imperial factory under the administration of T'ang-ying

imitated these glaze colours.

Most of these colours explain themselves. The souffle red is
no doubt the same as the ch'iii hung described by Pere d'Entrecolles
and discussed above with the so-called lang yao. The souffle blue
will be no other than the familiar " powder blue." But the " spotted
yellow" is an ambiguous term, for the Chinese huang pan tien^
might mean a yellow glaze spotted with some other colour, a mottled
yellow, or even a glaze with yellow spots like that of a rare vase
in the Eumorfopoulos Collection, which has a brown black glaze
flecked with greenish yellow spots.

Bushell identified the spotted yellow glaze with the " tiger
skin," with its patches of green, yellow and aubergine glazes applied
to the biscuit, which in the finer specimens is etched with dragon

designs.

This is practically all the direct information which the Chinese
annals supply on the K'ang Hsi period, but in contrast with this
strange reticence we have a delightful account of the industry at
Ching-te Chen during this important time in the two oft-quoted
letters^ written by the Jesuit father, d'Entrecolles, in 1712 and 1722.

The worthy father's work lay among the potters themselves, and
his information was derived from first-hand observation and from
the notes supplied by his potter converts, with whatever help he
was able to extract from the Annals of Fou-liang and similar native
books. No subsequent writer has enjoyed such a favoured position,
and as his observations have been laid under heavy contribution
ever since, no apology is necessary for frequent reference to them

in these pages.

ing " crystals of saltpetre and ferruginous earth (Jer ologiste terreux)." Another chiao

which signifies " beautiful, delicate," is applied to the Hung Chih yellow in Hsiang's

Album. See vol. ii., p. 28.
1 Lit. " yellow distribute spots." See, however, p. 190.

* See 0. C. A., p. 317.

^ The two letters were published in Letires edifiantes el curieuses. They are reprinted
as an appendix to Dr. Bushell's translation of the T'ao shuo. They have been well
translated by WiUiam Burton, in his Porcelain, Chap. ix. ; Bushell gave a precis of them
in his O.C. A., Chap, xi., and Stanislas Julien quoted them extensively in his Porcclaine

Chinoise.