Page 331 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

K'ang Hsi Monochromes 195

It remains to consider the white porcelain, that is to say the

porcelain which was intended to remain white and undecorated

with any form of colouring. White was the colour used by the

Court in times of mourning, and large services of white porcelain

were made for the Emperor on these occasions. But it is not to

be supposed that all the beautiful white wares were made solely

for this purpose. 1 They have always been highly esteemed by the

Chinese from the early Ming times, when the Yung Lo bowls and the

white altar cups of Hsiian Te were celebrated among porcelains,

down to the present day. Many exquisite whites were made in the

early reigns of the Ch'ing dynasty, and as with so many of the perennial

Wemonochromes their exact dating is full of difficulty. are not

concerned here with the hlanc de chine or white porcelain of Te-hua

in Fukien, which has already been discussed, but with the white of

Ching-te Chen, the glaze of which is distinguished from the former
by its harder appearance, and its bluish or greenish tinge.

The latter was made to perfection in the K'ang Hsi period.

Having no colours to distract the eye from surface blemishes, nothing

short of absolute purity could satisfy the critic. In choice specimens

the paste was fine, white and unctuous, the glaze clear, flawless,

and of oily lustre, ^ the form was elegant and the potting true. Such

pieces without blemish or flaw are the very flower of porcelain, whether

they be of eggshell thinness {fo fai), half eggshell {pan i'o Vai)y

or of the substance of ordinary wares.

But though innocent of colour the white porcelain was rarely

without decoration. The finest Imperial services were usually

delicately etched under the glaze with scarcely visible dragon designs.

Other kinds have the ornament strongly cut, such as the eggshell

cups and saucers with patterns of hibiscus, lotus, or chrysanthemum

petals firmly outlined, or the vases with fuH-bodied designs in low

relief obtained by carving away the ground surrounding the pattern.^

Others have faint traceries or thickly painted patterns in white

1 White was also used in the worship of the Year Star (Jupiter). Other colours
which have a ritual significance are yellow, used In the Ancestral Temple by the Emperor,
and on the altars of the god of Agriculture and of the goddess of Silk ; blue, in the
Temple of Heaven and in the Temple of Land and Grain ; and red, in the worship of

the Sun.
* Brinkley has aptly described it as " snow-white oil."
3 Cf. P6re d'Entrecolles, second letter, section xviii. : " (The designs) are first out-

lined with a graving-tool on the body of the vase, and afterwards lightly channelled
around to give them relief. After this they are glazed."