Page 53 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

WARES OF "SUNG" DYNASTY

art during that long interval. But in 1127 the Sung

emperors changed their capital from Peking to Nan-

kin, and that event, generally spoken of in Chinese
history as " the passage of the Sung to the south,"

resulted in the division of the empire into two King-

doms, the invading Tartars holding sway in the north,

and the Sung sovereigns reigning in the south. Tra-

dition says that the change of capital seriously influ-

enced the potter's trade. The factory at Ting-chou

in Pechili was transferred to Nan-chang in Kiang-si,

and the manufacture of Ting-yao, ceasing at the for-

mer place, was re-commenced at the latter. This

Nan-chang was in the immediate neighbourhood of

Ching-te-chen, the great centre of Chinese keramic

industry. But in the early part of the twelfth cen-

tury the resources of the place do not appear to have

been developed, for the Ting-yao produced there did

not enjoy as high a reputation as its northern prede-

cessor. Connoisseurs distinguished the two wares, that

of the northern factory of Ting-chou and that of the

southern factory of Nan-chang, as Pai-ting, or white

Ting, and Nan-ting, or osrou"threicren-flToiunrg." The latter
was also called Fan-ting,
Ting. The

manufacture of the former lasted from 960 to 1126;

that of the latter from 1 1 27 to I 279. These dates

refer, of course, to Sung Ting-yao only. The reader

will readily understand that as Nan-chang, or Ching-

te-chen, continued in after years to be the very

metropolis of Chinese pottery, its experts did not lose

but rather developed, their ability to produce Ting-

yao. Under the Sung emperors, however, it is asserted

that the material employed for the biscuit of the

Ting-yao made at Nan-chang was not so fine or close-
grained as that used by the Ting-chou potters. The