Page 79 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

WARES OF "SUNG" DYNASTY

(about 1350). The porcelain stone was procured
from Hang-chou, as in the days of the Chang broth-

ers, but it gave a comparatively coarse, chalky pate.

A Chinese work, quoted by Dr. Hirth, says : " To

imitate the Ko-yao crackle it is impossible to make

the iron-coloured bottom. If the imitation has this

characteristic, its timbre is bad. Similarly it is im-

possible to reproduce the pale colour of the original

Lung-chuan ware. If the reproduction is accurate in

respect of colour, it will not ring. This is one of

the points in which the superiority of the old ware

becomes apparent."

It has been supposed that the Lung-chuan-yao was

pre-eminently the celadon ware of former times. Dr.

Hirth has helped to confirm this misconception.

Certainly if there is question only of the specimens

now procurable in bric-a-brac shops or existing in the

collections of Western amateurs, one may assert with

tolerable confidence that whenever they date so far

back as the Ming dynasty nine hundred and ninety-

nine out of every thousand were the work of the Chu-

chou potters. But really choice celadons belong either

to the Kuan-yao, the yu-yao, or the true Lung-chuan-
Ayao. These alone are of the highest quality.
fine

celadon glaze had been the chief aim of China's best

potters long before the days of the brothers Chang.
A book called the Po-wu-yao-lau, translated by Dr.
"
Hirth, says Kuan-yao as well as of Ko-yao vessels

there are pieces which have changed colour during

the firing (Yao-p'ieu} and exhibit figures resembling

butterflies, birds, fishes, unicorns, or leopards, inas-

much as the colour in part of the original enamel has

by some unaccountable process during the firing, un-

dergone a transmutation into light brown or red

VOL. IX. 4 49