Page 32 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

CHINA

which had been lost. He succeeded in producing

green stone-ware, for which some have claimed the
distinction of having been the first celadon manufac-

tured in China, though no reason is apparent for thus
differentiating it from the faience of the Wei dynasty.

Beyond this meagre account, however, nothing is

known of the nature or quality of this production.

Contemporaneous with Ho Chou, that is to say,

living at the beginning of the seventh century, was

an expert called Tao Yii, a name signifying " keramic

jade," and therefore probably derived from the nature

of the man's productions. For he succeeded in turn-

ing out stone-ware so closely resembling green jade

the Chinese beau-ideal of precious substances

that his pieces were distinguished as Chia-yu-kiy or

vases of artificial jade. This man seems to have ped-

dled his wares himself, from which fact an idea may,

perhaps, be gathered of the insignificance of the in-

dustry in his time. His example nevertheless imparted

such an impetus to the art that the district of Chang-

nan, where he resided, became famous for its keramic

wares. Chang-nan was known in later times as

Ching-te-chen, the great keramic capital of the Mid-
dle Kingdom. It had already acquired a name for
such work. Some twenty-five years before Tao Yii's

time, the first emperor of the Sui dynasty had ordered

(583 A.D.) the people of Chang-nan-chin to send

him, by way of impost, vases of the products yao and

fsu, that is to say keramic ware. It would therefore

seem that the potters of Chang-nan-chin (afterwards
Ching-te-chen) had become sufficiently expert, at the

close of the sixth century, to be distinguished by the

receipt of an order from the Palace that their first
;

keramist of note (Tao Yii) nourished at the beginning