Page 377 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day
P. 377
CHAPTER XIII
^mch'ien lung (1736-1795)
THE brief reign of Yung Ch§ng was followed by that of his
son, who ruled under the title of Ch'ien Lung for a full
cycle of sixty years, at the end of which he abdicated in
accordance with his vow that he would not outreign his grandfather,
K'ang Hsi. Ch'ien Lung was a devotee of the arts, and they flour-
ished greatly under his long and peaceful sway. He was himself a
collector, and the catalogue of the Imperial bronzes compiled under
his orders is a classic work ; but more than that, he was per-
sonally skilful in the art of calligraphy, which ranks in China
as high as painting ; and he was a voluminous poet. It is no
uncommon thing to find his compositions engraved or painted
on porcelain and other artistic materials. Bushell ^ quotes an
example from a snuff bottle in the Walters Collection; there is
a bowl for washing wine cups in the Eumorfopoulos Collection
with a descriptive verse engraved underneath, and entitled,
"Imperial Poem of Ch'ien Lung"; and a beautiful coral red
bowl in the British Museum has a similar effusion pencilled in
gold in the interior.
His interest in the ceramic art is further proved by the com-
mand given in 1743 to T'ang Ying to compose a description of the
various processes of manufacture as a commentary on twenty
pictures of the industry which belonged to the palace collections
;
and one of the earliest acts of his reign was to appoint the same
celebrated ceramist in 1736 to succeed Nien Hsi-yao in the con-
trol of the customs at Huai-an Fu, a post which involved the supreme
control of the Imperial porcelain manufacture.
There is little doubt that T'ang Ying ^ was the most distinguished
of all the men who held this post. He is, at any rate, the one whose
achievements have been most fully recorded. He was himself a
prolific writer, and a volume of his collected works has been
> 0. C.A., p. 50. =^^
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