Page 194 - The Arts of China, By Michael Sullivan Good Book

drops" and metal rim, Ting-yao was no longer good enough for
palace use, kilns were set up to make a new kuan ware, both at Ju-
chou and within the confines of the capital itself. The latter kilns
have long since been buried or swept away in the floods that pe-
riodically inundate the Yellow River Valley, and it is not known
for certain what kind of porcelain they produced, although the
Palace Museum authorities in Taiwan have recendy published a
number of fine pieces, close both to Ju-yao and to Hangchow
kuan-yao, as products of the Kaifeng imperial kilns. Ju-yao, one of
the rarest of all Sung porcelains, has been more positively identi-
fied. It has a buff or pinkish-yellow body, covered with a bluish-
io7 Jar. Chiin ware. Stoneware covered
with lavender-blue glare splashed with
grey glaze with a lavender tint, netted over with a fine crackle-like
purple. Sung Dynasty.
mica. The shapes, chiefly bowls, brush washers, and bottles, arc
of an exquisite simplicity matching the quality of the glaze. Ju-
chou was also one of several centres in addition to the large factory
in T'ung-ch'uan-hsien, north of Sian, that produced "northern
celadon"—an apt name for a stoneware often richly decorated
with carved or moulded floral designs under a dull green glaze. A
kind of celadon had been made at Yao-yao in T'ung-ch'uan-hsien
as early as the Six Dynasties, but when the Sung expanded to ab-
sorb Chekiang, production and quality in the Yao-yao kilns seem
to have been influenced by the Yiieh potters, some of whom may
have been sent to North China.
Much more closely related to Ju, however, is the well-known
208 Jar, Tz*u-chou ware. Stoneware Chiin ware, made not only at Chun-chou and Ju-chou but also at
slipped and painted in black under a other centres in the neighbourhood of Ho-pi, Anyang, and Tz'u-
transparent glaze. Sung Dynasty.
chou. The finest Chun was of palace quality, and so is sometimes
called kuan Chiin by Chinese collectors. The potting is much
heavier than that of Ju-yao, however, and myriads of tiny bub-
bles, which burst on the surface of the thick lavender-blue glaze,
give it a seductive softness and warmth. It was the Chiin potters
who discovered that spots of copper oxidised in the glaze during
firing produced crimson and purple splashes, a technique which
they used with exquisite restraint. On later varieties of Chiin
ware, however, such as the numbered sets of flower pots and bulb
bowls made in the Ming Dynasty at Tc-hua and Canton, these
flambe effects were often used with tasteless extravagance.
The Tz'u-chou wares represent perhaps the most striking ex-
ample of the extent to which the discoveries of the last fifteen
years have altered the ceramic picture. Tz'u-chou is a convenient
name for a large family of North China stonewares decorated
chiefly by painting under the glaze or by carving or incising
through a coloured slip. The technique of underglaze painting had
been tentatively tried out in Hunan during the T'ang Dynasty, but
the Tz'u-chou potters of the Sung used it with easy mastery. The
unaffected grace and confidence of the brush drawing give the
Tz'u-chou wares an immediate appeal, although until very re-
cently they have been considered too close to a peasant art to com-
mand the respect of educated people in China itself.
209 Vase, mei-p'ing, Tz'u-chou ware
Stoneware with designs carved through The kilns at Tz'u-chou arc well known, and still active today,
black to white slip under a transparent but recent Chinese excavation and research have revealed that the
glaze. From Hsiu-wu, Honan. Sung
Dynasty. "North China decorated stoneware," as perhaps it ought to be