Page 40 - Chinese Art, Vol II By Stephen W. Bushell

6 CHINESE ART.

pressing in moulds are clearly distinguished. The vessels are
described as made by two classes of craftsmen, called respectively
" "
t'ao-jcn, potters," and fang-jcn, moulders."
A curious account of the discovery of an ancient earthenware
coffin on the south of Tan-yang-shan is recorded in the annals,
in the fifth j^ear (a.d. 506) of the reign of Wu Ti, the founder of the
Liang dynasty ; it was described as five feet high, over four feet in
circumference, wide and flat-bottomed below, and pointed above,
opening in the middle like a round box with a cover ; while the
corpse was found buried inside in a sitting posture. The many
other objects of pre-historic pottery unearthed in China in recent
times are remarkably like, both in form and ornamental details,
the corresponding utensils of bronze which have been figured and
described in Vol. I., Chap. IV., so that they need not detain us
further. Pottery was, doubtless, the earliest material used for
meat offerings and libations of wine in ancestral worship, and it has
been retained ever since in the ritual of the poor, allhoi-gh supplanted
by bronze in the ceremonial of the rich. The pottery of the Chou
dynasty is occasionally incised with literary inscriptions of similar
character to those found on bronze vessels of the time, and it is used
by archaeologists in the study of the ancient script, as in the Shuo
Whi Ku Chou Pu cited in Vol. I., page 78, which reproduces many
ancient characters in facsimile from funeral relics of clay. During
the former Han dynasty, just before the Christian era, dates begin to
appear, generally in the form of a stamp impressed under the foot
of the piece, giving the title of the reign and the year, with the
addition, perhaps, of its cyclical number.
Bricks of the Han djmasty were also often stamped with dates,
to be dug up by future antiquaries on the sites of palaces, temples,
and walled cities, and figured by them in many volumes. Such
a brick is occasionally ground down to form a modern writer's ink
palette, with the old " mark " left intact. Bricks of this period are
often found moulded in relief with mythological figiires, as in the