Page 129 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

SUNG AND YUAN WARES

Pong-yao, after the name of their maker. In the

neighbourhood of Ching-te-chen also, at Hu-tien-shi,
there was a factory the productions of which are

specially mentioned under the name of Hu-tien-yao.

Specimens of this ware are to be found occasionally

to-day. They owe their preservation to their dura-
bility rather than to their beauty. The pate is thick

and dense, without any of the delicacy of porcelain,

and the glaze is muddy yellow, not lacking, however,
in lustre or uniformity. The surface of these pieces

is generally relieved by deeply incised designs of
somewhat archaic character, figure subjects being

most common. Some examples are preserved in
Japanese collections, where they are known as

Ningyo-de (figure-subject variety), in allusion to the
nature of the incised designs.

Without dwelling further upon minor products of
the Yuan period, which were simply imitations of

antecedent types, attention may be at once directed

to the ware regarded as so essentially representative
of the dynasty by Chinese connoisseurs of the present
day that they call it Yuan-tsu, or " Yuan porcelain."
It is not, however, porcelain, but heavy stone-ware,
having dense, fine pate, gray or reddish gray, and

wholly opaque. The beauty of the ware resides

entirely in the glaze, which deserves admiration.

The body colour is that peculiar delicate blue, aptly

compared to moon-light, which has already been
spoken of in connection with the Chun-yao of the
Sung period, and in it are seen floating splashes or
clouds of blood red. Sometimes the clair-de-lune

surface is speckled with red, after the fashion of the

Chun-yao, of which, indeed, the Yuan-tsu is evidently

an off-shoot and for which some specimens of it may