Page 45 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

WARES OF "SUNG" DYNASTY

Chapter III

WARES OF rHE "SUNG" (960-1279}
DTNASTT

the conclusions hitherto stated

have been based chiefly upon written records,

ALTHOUGHand therefore lack the certainty imparted by
actual examination of a number of authentic
specimens, the student can be reasonably sure that up

to the middle of the tenth century the highest achieve-

ment of the Chinese keramist was stone-ware or semi-
porcelain, and that his glazes were all monochromes,
green, white, and muddy yellow, the first two being

intended to imitate jade.
Henceforth firmer ground is trodden. Japanese

annals and traditions assist, especially as their trust-
worthiness is established from point to point by a re-

markable work which Dr. S. W. Bushell of the British

Legation in Peking, recently translated. It is a man-

uscript entitled Litai ming fs'u fou p'u, or "Illustrated

Description of the Celebrated Wares of different

Dynasties." The author, Hsiang Tuan-p'ien, was a
writer and artist of renown, who flourished during
the second half of the sixteenth century. An ardent
virtuoso, he devoted much of his time to collecting

choice specimens of the wares of the Sung, Tuan, and

Ming dynasties. From the pieces which thus came