Page 56 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

CHAPTER III

cii'exg hua fii'-^ (1465-1487) and other reigns

HEI Ch'eng Hua porcelain shares with that of the Hsiian Te

period the honours of the Ming dynasty, and Chinese writers
are divided on the relative merits of the two. Unfortunately,
no material remains on which we might base a verdict of our own,

but we may safely accept the summing up which the Po wu yao Ian,
the premier authority on early Ming wares, gives as follows ^ : "In
my opinion, the blue and white porcelain of the Ch'eng Hua period

does not equal that of the Hsiian Te, while the polychrome of the
Hsiian period does not equal that of the ' model ^ emperor's ' reign.
The reason is that the blue of the Hsiian ware was su-ni-p'o ^ blue,

whereas afterward it was all exhausted, and in the Ch'eng Hua period
only the ordinary blue was used. On the other hand, the poly-

chrome {wu is'ai) decoration on the Hsiian ware was deep and thick,
Jieaped and piled, and consequently not very beautiful ; while on the

polychrome wares of the Ch'eng Hua period the colours used were

thin and subdued,^ and gave the impression of a picture." ^ Else-
where we read that the Hsiian Te porcelain was thick, the Ch'eng

Hua thin, and that the blue of the Hsiian blue and white was pale,
that of the Ch'eng Hua dark; but on this latter point there are
many differences of opinion, and among the wares made at the
Imperial factory in the Yung Cheng period we are told that there
were " copies of Ch'eng Hua porcelain with designs pencilled in

pale blue {tan ch'ing)" ®

The only types of Ch'eng Hua porcelain considered worthy of

mention by Chinese writers are the polychrome, the blue and white,

^ Po wu yao Ian, bk. ii., fol. 9 verso.

^* hsien. The emperor Ch'eng Hua was canonised as Hsien Tsung.

3 See p. 12.
* vS'/i^ c/i'/cn Ian. The T'ao shuo, quoting this passage, uses a variant reading,

cli'ien sMn f^, which Bushell renders " whether light or dark."

* yu hua i, lit. " have the picture idea."
« See Bushell, O. C. A., p. 385.

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