Page 192 - The Arts of China, By Michael Sullivan Good Book

2oa Ch'enJung (jctivc 1235-1160), Thr Dragons, painted in 1244, could well have been executed thus, the
Nine Dragont. Detail of a handscroll. Ink
on paper. Southern Sung Dynasty dragons with his brush, the clouds with his cap; indeed, on the
original the imprint of some textile in the clouds can be seen quite
clearly.
CERAMICS: The art of the Sung Dynasty which we admire today was pro-
NORTHERN WARES duced by, and for, a social and intellectual elite more cultivated
than at any other period in Chinese history. The pottery and por-
celain made for their use is a natural reflection of their taste. Some
T'ang wares may be more robust, Ch'ing wares more perfectly
finished, but the Sung have a classical purity of form and glaze that
holds a perfect balance between the vigour of the earlier wares and
the refinement of the later. Although some of the porcelain for the
Northern Sung court came from kilns as far away as Chekiang and
Kiangsi, the most famous of the Northern Sung kuan ("official")
wares was manufactured in the kilns at Chien-tz'u-ts'un, near
Ting-chou in Hopei, where a white porcelain was already being
made in the T'ang Dynasty. The classic Ting ware is a finely pot-
ted, high-fired white porcelain, with a creamy white glaze that has
a brownish tinge where it runs into the "tear-marks" described in
early texts. The floral decoration of earlier pieces such as the mas-
terly tomb pillow illustrated here was freely carved in the
"leather-hard" paste before firing; later, more elaborate patterns
were impressed in the paste from pottery moulds. As the vessels
were fired upside down, the rims of bowls were left unglazcd and
often had to be bound with bronze or silver. Chinese connoisseurs
20J Vase, mei-p'ing. Stoneware covered recognise, in addition to the true pat ("white") Ting, a fine-
with black glaze. From Ho-pi-chi,
Monan (?). Northern Sung Dynasty grained fen ("flour") Ting, a tzu ("purple"—actually soy-sauce
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