Page 53 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

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Hsuan Te (1426-1435) 19

Bushell, who visited the temple several times, gives a minute

description of the image, which contains the following passage ^
" The figure is loosely wrapped in flowing drapery of purest and

bluest turquoise tint, with the wide sleeves of the robe bordered
with black and turned back in front to shovv' the yellow lining

;

the upper part of the cloak is extended up behind over the head

in the form of a plaited hood, which is also lined with canary yellow."

To the ordinary reader, such a description would be conclusive.

A fine example of IMing porcelain, he would say, decorated with

the typical coloured glazes on the biscuit. Bushell's comment,
however, is that the " colours are of the same type as those of the

finest flower pots and saucers of the Chiin Chou porcelain of the
Sung dynasty." It should be said that the temple bonzes insist

that they can trace the origin of the image back to the thirteenth

century. If these are indeed the typical Chiin Chou glazes, then

all our previous information on that factory, including Bushell's

own contributions, is worthless. In another work,- however, the
same Avriter states that it (the image in question) is " really

—enamelled in ' five colours ' turquoise, yellow, crimson, red brown

and black," This is precisely what we should have expected,

and it can only be imagined that Bushell in the other passage was

influenced by the statement in the Thing ya that it was a furnace

transmutation piece, a statement probably based on the super-
stition that it was a miraculous likeness of the goddess, who her-
self descended into the kiln and moulded its features. As to the
other temple tradition, that it was made in the thirteenth century,
it is not necessary to take that any more seriously than the myth
concerning its miraculous origin, which derives from the same

source.

It is hardly necessary to state that all the existing specimens

of this class (and they are fairly numerous) do not belong to the
Hsiian Te period. Indeed, it is unlikely that more than a very

small percentage of them were made in this short reign. Whether
the style survived the Ming dynasty is an open question ; but

it is safe to assume that it was largely used in the sixteenth

century.

The discussion of this group of polychrome porcelain leads
naturally to the vexed question of the introduction of enamel

painting over the glaze. By the latter I mean the painting of

1 Bushell, 0. C. A., p. 152. * Translation of the Tao sbuo, op. cit., p. 51.