Page 117 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

Wan Li (1573-1619) 59

the Ancestral-tablet Hall of the god, where it adorns a high plat-
form, and sacrifice is offered. The vessel's perfect glaze is the god's

fat and blood ; the body material is the god's body and flesh
;

and the blue of the decoration, with the brilliant lustre of gems,

is the essence of the god's pure spirit."

The deification of T'ung was a simple matter to the Chinese,

who habitually worship before the tablets of their ancestors ; but
he seems to have become the genius of the place, and in this capacity

to have superseded another canonised potter named Chao,^ who

had been worshipped at Ching-te Chen since 1425.

To add to the difficulties experienced by the potters in satis-

factorily fulfilling the Imperial demands, it had been reported in

1583 that the supplies of earth from Ma-ts'ang were practically

worked out, and though good material was found at Wu-men-t*o,

which is also in the district of Fu-liang, the distance for trans-

port was greater, and as the price was not correspondingly raised

the supply from this source was difficult to maintain. Consequently

we are not surprised to learn that in this same year another memorial

was forwarded to the emperor by one of the supervising censors,

Wang Ching-min, asking for alleviation of the palace orders, and

protesting specifically against the demands for candlesticks, screens,

brush handles, and chess apparatus as unnecessarily extravagant.

It was urged at the same time that blue decoration should be sub-

stituted for polychrome, and that pierced work {ling lung) should

not be required, the objection to both these processes being that

they were difficult to execute and meretricious in effect.

It is stated in the T'ao lu - that the supply of Mohammedan blue
had ceased completely in the reign of Wan Li, and that on the

other hand the chi hung or underglaze copper red was made, though

it was not equal in quality to the hsien hung or pao shih hung " of

the earlier periods. Both these assertions are based on the some-

what uncertain authority of the T'ang shih ssu k'ao, and though

the truth of the second is shown by existing specimens, the first

is only partially true, for there are marked examples of Moham-
medan blue in the British Museum and probably elsewhere. Either
there were supplies of the Mohammedan material in hand at the

' Chao "was supposed to have displayed superhuman skill in the manufacture of
pottery in the Chin dynasty (265-419 a.d.).

2 Bk. v., lol. 8.
^ For explanation of these terms, see p. 10.