Page 216 - The Arts of China, By Michael Sullivan Good Book

however, that by the mid-fourteenth century the quality of Lung-
ch'iian wares was beginning to fall off, the probable reason being
the competition from the factories at Ching-te-chen in Kiangsi.
During the Sung Dynasty, the finest products of the Ching-te-
chen kilns had been white porcelains, chiefly ch'ing-pai ware and
an imitation of the northern Ting-yao. But by the beginning of
the fourteenth century new techniques were already being ex-
plored. The Annals of Fou-liang, written before 1 322, notes that at
Ching-te-chen "they have experts at moulding, painting, and en-
graving." Painting we will consider in a moment. Moulding and
engraving can be seen in the so-called shu-fu ("privy council")
wares. It seems likely that the shu-fu was the first ware to be made
at Ching-te-chen on imperial order. It comprises chiefly bowls
and dishes with incised, moulded, or slip decoration — generally
consisting of flower sprays, lotus leaves, or phoenixes amid
clouds—under a bluish-white (ch'ing-pai) glaze. Sometimes the
237 Kuanyin. Ch 'ing-pai porcelain characters "shu-fu" are included, or other auspicious words such
Excavated in the remains of the Yuan
capital, Ta-lu (Peking). Yuan Dynasty. as fu ("happiness"), shou ("long life"), or lu ("emolument").
Closely related to these are the stem cups, ewers, bottles, and jars
whose decoration consists of applied reliefs, often in zones sepa-
rated by pearl beading, and the figurines, chiefly the bodhisattvas,
which were used in domestic shrines. Several exquisite examples,
including the Kuanyin illustrated here, have been excavated from
Yuan-period sites in Peking.
UNDERGLAZE Another of the innovations at Ching-te-chen which may have oc-
RED AND BLUE curred before the middle of the fourteenth century was painting in
copper red under the glaze, a technique that may have originated
in Korea. Some of the most attractive early Chinese examples are
the bottles with graceful pear-shaped body and flaring lip deco-
rated with sketchily drawn flower-sprays or clouds. During the
Ming Dynasty the designs become more elaborate, but the copper
red had a dull colour and a tendency to run, and was consequently
abandoned in the fifteenth century in favour of the more manage-
able underglaze cobalt blue. For a while, attempts were made to
combine not only underglaze copper red and cobalt blue but also
beading, carving, and openwork. The wine jar illustrated here,
excavated at Pao-ting in Shensi, is a splendid example of the ex-
travagant blending of techniques that is so typical of Yuan taste.
In the whole history of ceramics, probably no single ware has
been so much admired as Chinese blue and white. It has been imi-
tated injapan, Indochina, and Persia, and it was the inspiration of
the pottery of Delft and other European factories; its devotees
have ranged from the hcadhunters of Borneo to Whistler and Os-
car Wilde, and its enchantment is still at work. There is much de-
bate as to when blue and white was first made in China. Under-
glaze painting had been practised in Hunan and Szechwan as early
as the T'ang Dynasty, more successfully in the Tz'u-chou wares of
the Sung. There are reports of blue-and-white shards being found
in the dedicatory deposit of a Sung pagoda in Chckiang, but the
earliest securely dated piece yet discovered was found in a tomb of
1 3 19 at Chiu-chiang in Kiangsi, while the most famous is the pair
ed material