Page 110 - Chinese Art, Vol II By Stephen W. Bushell

20 CHINESE ART. —

The Arabs at this time were well acquainted with glass and could
hardly have mistaken the material, so that their evidence is of
special value.
Passing on to the Emperor Shih Tsung (954-959) of the Posterior
Chou, a brief dynasty established at K'ai-feng-fu just before the
Sung, we havj a glimpse of a celebrated production known after-
wards as Ch'ai Yao, Ch'ai being the name of the reigning house.
The porcelain was ordered at this time by imperial rescript to be :
" As blue as the sky. as clear as a mirror, as thin as paper, and as resonant
as a musical stone of jade."
This eclipsed in its delicacy all that preceded it and soon became
so rare that it was described as a phantom.
The various delicate wares referred to in the above extracts have
all probably long since disappeared and we must be content with
literary evidence of their existence. The Chinese delight in literary
research, as much as they fear to disturb the rest of the dead by
digging in the ground, so that we have no tangible proof, so far, of
the occurrence of true porcelain, and can only hope for the future
appearance of an actual specimen of early date. Still we may
reasonably accept the conclusion of the best native scholarship
that porcelain was first made in the Han dynasty, without trying,
as Stanislas Julien has tried on very insufficient grounds, to fix
the precise date of its invention.

CLASSIFICATION OF CHINESE PORCELAIN.
A correct classification should be primarily chronological, and
the specimens should be, secondarily, grouped under the headings
of the localities at which they were produced, and, thirdly, each
group may be subdivided, if necessary, according to the fabric,
technique, and style of decoration of the pieces of which it is com-
posed. Perhaps it may be permitted here to sum up results, and
to refer those interested in the subject to my too bulky Oriental
Ceramic Art for further details and references to better authorities.