Page 223 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

PORCELAIN DECORATED

productions of the imperial factory attained their

highest point of excellence. Tang was especially

ordered by the Emperor to design plaques repre-

senting the various processes of porcelain manufacture,

and to accompany them by detailed explanations.

The result was twenty-two plaques, in connection

with which a celebrated Chinese author wrote of

Tang : ' Alone he deliberated on the flower and

the fruit (that is to say, on the brilliant and solid

qualities of porcelain), and his individual genius

supplied all the resources he required. He renewed

the manufacture, long interrupted, of jars decorated

with dragons (i.e. monster vases for gold fish) and

wares of Chun (vide Chiin-yao of the Sung dynasty)

and revived the processes of ancient *

experts.

All these eulogies, though well merited on the

whole, must be taken with reserve so far as regards

blue-and-white porcelain. Speaking technically, the

Chien-lung potters were not less expert than those

of Kang-hsi and Tung-ching in any direction. Their

fates were just as fine and hard, their glazes as bril-

liant and their decorative designs as happy. They

continued to manufacture the delicate and beauti-

ful Kai-pien-yao and hard-paste egg-shell with un-
surpassed skill. Yet in one important respect their

blue-and-white ware showed inferiority. The
quality of the blue was not so pure. Whether a

less choice mineral was used or whether the pro-
cesses of preparing it and this hypothesis seems
scarcely tenable had deteriorated, there can be
little doubt that the Chien-lung blue stands almost
in the same relation towards the Kang-hsi and Tung-
ching colour as that occupied by the Wan-li blue

of the Ming dynasty in comparison with its prede-

173