Page 29 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

PORCELAIN AND POTTERY

ware which, by being exposed to an unusual degree

of temperature in the kiln, often acquired a certain

transparency though his pate remained soft enough to
be marked with a knife.

Recently Dr. Hirth discovered two interesting

pieces of evidence. The first is a statement by a
writer (Tao Yin-chii) who flourished in the early part

of the sixth century, to the effect that a substance

called pai-ngo was then much used for painting pic-
tures. The second is an assertion in the pharmaco-

poeia of the Tang dynasty (compiled about 650 A.D.)

that this same substance had been employed to make
Nowkeramic ware during recent generations.
pai-

ngo is nothing more or less than kaolin, and Dr. Hirth

concludes that the silence of the former writer a

celebrated authority on pharmaceutical and scientific
subjects as to the use of this mineral for keramic

purposes, may be taken to prove that it had not yet

begun to be thus employed ; or, in other words, that
the manufacture of true porcelain proper had not yet
been commenced. Assuming the correctness of this
inference, and combining it with the statement in the
Tang pharmacopoeia, it would follow that the first
production of porcelain in China dates from the close
of the sixth century of the Christian era. In further
confirmation of this opinion, the same writer quotes
the following passage from an essay on flower-pots by
Chang Chien-te, published about the year 1620:
" In ancient times no vases were made of porcelain.

Up to the Tang dynasty (i.e. the beginning of the yth

century) all such vessels (for flowers) were made of
copper : it was not till then that pottery came into

vogue." But Chang's statement proves nothing as
to true porcelain and Dr. Hirth's inferences are not

conclusive.

ii