Page 142 - Chinese Art, Vol II By Stephen W. Bushell

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28 CHINESE ART.
glaze colours turned out here in former times may be gathered
from a list of (hiin-chou pieces sent down from the palace to he
reproduced at the imperial potteries at Ching-te-chen in the reign
of Yung Cheng, the list comprising (i) rose crimson, (2) pyrus
japonica pink, (3) aubergine purple, (4) plum colour, (5) mule's
liver mixed with horse's lung, (6) dark purple, (7) yellow-millet
colour (mi-se), (8) sky blue, (9) furnace transmutations (yao-pien),
or flambt's. These were all reproduced in due course during the
first half of the eighteenth century on porcelain, and the new white
body was in marked contrast, we are told, with the sandy ill-levigated
paste of the original pieces.
The only remaining porcelain ware of the Sung dynasty which
requires a word of notice is the Chien Yao, produced in the province
of Fuhkien, where the black-enamelled cups with spreading sides,
so highly appreciated for the tea ceremonial of the time, were made.
The lustrous black coat of these cups was speckled and dappled
all over with spots of silvery white, simulating the fur of a hare or
"
the breast of a gray partridge, hence the names of hare's fur cups,'
and " partridge cups," given them by connoisseurs. These little
tea cups were valued also by the Japanese at immense prices ancj
were mounted by them with silver rims and cunningly pieced
together when broken with gold lacquer.
The more recent Chien Yao, it must be noted, which has been
fabricated since the time of the Ming dynasty at Te-hua, in the
same province, is altogether different from the Chien Yao of the
Sung which has just been described, being the velvety white porce-
lain sometimes known as hlanc de Chine, which will be noticed
presently.

Ming Dynasty (1368-1643).
The Ming dynasty is famous in the annals of Chinese ceramic
art, which made such great advances under its rule, that in the
reign of Wan Li, as the native writers say, there was nothing that