Page 119 - China, 5000 years : innovation and transformation in the arts

The Tang expression "green-glazed ware in the

south and white-glazed ware in the north" refers to
the regional predominance of these two types:
white porcelain, as typified by the Xing ware of
Neiqiu in Hebei Province, and green-glazed ware,
as typified by theYue ware of eastern Zhejiang.

Among northern white porcelains, Ding ware from

Quyang in Hebei Province later displaced Xing

ware (fig. 3).

This exhibition includes a variety of green-glazed

wares, among them mise (or bise) ware, denoting a
hue once "reserved" to the use of local rulers in
Zhejiang Province. Two such pieces, discovered in
1987 in the underground chamber of the Famen
Temple in Fufeng county, and an octagonal bottle
from the collection of the Palace Museum in
Beijing (cats. 123-25), are representative of Yue
ware of the Tang dynasty.

Although green-glazed ware has a long history in

China, prior to the Tang dynasty porcelains were

merely utilitarian, not objets d'art for the elite. It

was not until the successful firing of mise Yue ware

during the Tang that such ceramics began to be

admired by the gentry. For the last millennium,

however, scholars have failed to agree on the

identity of mise Yue ware, on the actual dates of its

production, and on the location of the kilns. In

1995, an international symposium on mweYue ware

was held in Shanghai. Participants discussed the

porcelains found in 1987 in the underground palace

of the Famen Temple pagoda, the efforts in recent

years to locate and classify theYue ware kilns in

Zhejiang, and both Yue wares and presumably mise

AYue
wares from various 2 rough consensus

sites.

was reached. Regarding the definition of the term

mise: the most common glaze color of Tang dynasty

Yue ware is a yellowish green, like mugwort; the

Yue wares found at the Famen Temple site,

however, are a much different and rarer hue of

green. Therefore we may assume, provisionally, that

mise refers specifically to the hue of these Famen

Temple green-glazed wares.

Two pieces of white porcelain, marked with the Fig. 4. Celadon jar with two lugs, inscribed with charactei
guan. Five Dynasties (907—960). Yue u>are;h. 28.6 an,
character guan, were unearthed in 1985 at diam. >it mouth p.j an. I 'nearthed in 1970 from .1 Five
Huoshaobi in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province (cats. 126, Dynasties tomb in Banqiao, Un'an, Zhejiang Province.
Zhejiang Provincial Museum.
127). They are probably late Tang Ding ware. Many

pieces of white porcelain unearthed in recent years
trom late Tang, Five Dynasties, and Northern Song
sites have been marked with the character guan, and

the majority of these are Ding ware. The same
character also appears on Yaozhou ware and Yue

ware (fig. 4). This guan cannot denote the fabled

Guan ware, because many superb pieces of Ding,
Yue, and Yaozhou ware are not marked guan;
moreover, not .ill the pieces so marked are
outstanding. During the Tang dynasty a
"Yinguanshu" Office served the court.' One of its

THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHINESE CERAMICS 117