Page 95 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

Chia Ching (1522-1566) 43

MmM^Cups decorated^ with the characters /w ^/iow ^'ang ning

(happiness, long life, peace, and tranquillity).

A blue and white vase with these characters in medallions

framed by cloud scrolls on the shoulders is shown on Plate 68.

Miscellaneous Motives.

The waterfalls of Pa Shan EUl in the province of Szechuan.
Gold weighing-scales {ch'eng ciiin W^^).

A design named san yang k'ai Vai H^H^, a phrase alluding

to the " revivifying power of spring," and said by Bushell to be
symbolised by three rams. Cf. Fig. 2 of Plate 122.

The mark of the Chia Ching period, though not so freely used
as those of Hsiian Te and Ch'eng Hua, has been a favourite with
Japanese copyists, whose imitations have often proved danger-
ously clever. Still, there are enough genuine specimens in public
and private collections in England to provide a fair representation
of the ware. In studying these the blue and white will be found
to vary widely, both in body material and in the colour of the blue,

according to the quality of the objects.
Plate 77 illustrates a remarkably good example of the dark but

vivid Mohammedan blue on a pure white ware of fine close grain
with clear glaze. The design, which consists of scenes from the life

of a sage, perhaps Confucius himself, is painted in typical Ming style,
and bordered by ju-i cloud scrolls and formal brocade patterns.
The Chia Ching blue is often darker - and heavier than here, resembling
thick patches of violet ink, to use Mr. Perzynski's phrase. This
powerful blue is well shown in the large vase given by Mr. A. Bur-

man to the Victoria and Albert Museum (Plate 72), and by a fine

ewer in Case 22 in the same gallery. The latter has an accident-
ally crackled glaze on the body with brownish tint, due, no doubt,

to staining.

On the other hand, a large double-gourd vase in the British
Museum, heavily made (probably for export), is painted with the

eighteen Arhats, or Buddhist apostles, in a dull greyish blue, which

^ hua :^. Bushell {Tao shuo, p. 146) has rendered this -with " flowers and inscrip-
tions, etc." In many cases in these lists it is almost impossible to say whether the
word hua has the sense of flowers or merely decoration. The present passage fu shou
k'ang ning hua chung seems to demand the second interpretation.

* This dark blue Chia Ching ware was carefully copied at the Imperial factory in
the Yung Ch8ng period. See p. 203.