Page 50 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

CHINA

nine cases out of every ten, the clay required to imi-

tate their pate exactly was not procurable. The

Ting-yao of Ching-te-chen resembles the Sung ware

of Pechili in having tender pate, soft lustrous glaze

of the colour of rice-flour (white with a tinge of

buff), and decorative designs incised or in relief.

But, for the rest, it may be regarded as a special and

independent manufacture of great beauty and high

artistic quality. Precisely by what characteristics

except excellence of technique and generally harder

pate it may be distinguished from the Sung ware,
there is no possibility of explaining. The species of

tThiengF-ayna-oTicnhgi-efylayo,maornu"fariccteu-rfleodura"t Ching-te-chen was

glaze. The grape-

coloured and black varieties were not produced, so

far as is known.

Among the keramic manufactures of the Sung

dynasty, a ware of some importance was the Ki-chou-

yao, produced at Kichou, in the province of Kiang-si.

It does not, however, deserve to be separately classi-

fied, since it was virtually nothing more than an in-

ferior variety of Ting-yao. The pate is said to have

been thick and somewhat coarse, but the glaze was
rich and lustrous, showing the same white and grape-

purple colours as the Ting-yao. Associated with its

production are the names of a potter, Shu Hung, and

his daughter, Shu Chiao, who were noted for their

skill. Vases made by the latter were valued, accord-

ing to the Tao-lu, at several ounces of silver each.

There is some reason to suppose that the celebrated

"transmutation," or fla?nbe, ware to be spoken of
by and by had its origin at the Ki-chou potteries.

For a tradition is handed down to the effect that a batch

of vases, which happened to be in the oven just as a

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