Page 296 - Chinese porcelains collected by Mr. and Mrs. Charles P. Taft, Cincinnati, Ohio, by John Getz
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GLOSSARY
masters of the Sung, Yuan, and Ming dynasties cate the years of his reign. It dates from the
and doubtless originally drawn from biographies
of famous heroes and scholars. Among the beginning of the new year after his accession,
most elaborate subjects may be noted those and it is supposed to signify the qualities of the
founded on the episodes of history, a large pro- Emperor. The " nien-hao " of the Emperor
Kuang-hsu (who is now reigning) means " in-
portion being instances connected with the rise
herited luster.
and fall of the Han dynasty (206 B.C. to 220
It must be noted that the whole of a year in
A.D.). which an emperor dies is always attributed to
Aside from the historical domsun, these early
his reign, so that the reign of his successor be-
masters were remarkably felicitous in rendering gins only on the first day of the following year,
the wilder forms of picturesque beauty in land-
scape, showing towering silicic or rocky peaks, when a new " nien-hao " is adopted, it being
rugged cliffs, and gnarled old trees, cascades,
winding streams, and cultivated valleys. These contrary to etiquette to mention the personal
elements the Chinese artist presents on porcelain name of a Chinese sovereign.
in a thousand never-failing embellishments of
interest ; or, again, he shows more simple mo- The practice was introduced under the Han
tives of floral or vegetable life, no more ambi- dynasty, when the monarch, on his accession to
tious than a bit of bamboo or pine twig, or a
branch of the plum or peach, a magnolia or the throne (163 B.C.), selected a title for his
peony in bloom, with a bird or two in symbol- reign in place of the title of Prince So-and-so,
ism of a virtue or of good wishes. which had been usually employed prior to the
time of Shih Huangti, 22 1 B.C. These titles
Mythical zoology also holds an important were usually so chosen as to be of happy au-
place in his art motives, and is drawn upon very gury ; but if, in spite of such good omen, dis-
often for the embellishment of porcelam, if for order or misfortune ensued, or some other rea-
no other reason than that these fabulous ani- son seemed to render a change advisable, one
mals appertain to Buddhism and Taoism, are title would be abandoned in favor of another.
often special emblems. This title is termed nien-hao, " the year desig-
nation, " because so long as it lasts the date of
Marks, on Chinese porceleiins, are divided into all events is chronicled as such-and-such a year
of such-and-such a " nien-hao.
—various classes, viz.: Nien-hao
1 Date-marks, in two modes Upon his death, however, the Emperor re-
ceives an honorific title, under which the reli-
and dynastic. gious ceremonies due to him are offered, and
which is therefore termed the mUo-hao, or
2. Hall-marks.
3. Marks of dedication and good wishes. " temple designation."
4. Marks in praise of the pieces on which
The dates upon porcelain are usually re-
they are inscribed. corded by the use of the " nien-hao " as above
5. Symbols and other pictoricJ marks. described. The practice of marking the date
6. Potters' marks. of manufacture was instituted by the Emperor
Chen Tsung of the Sung dynasty, when, on
The full list vnW be found in several works
on Oriental ceramics and marks. the establishment of the government factory at
King-te-chen, he ordered that each article
MARTABANI, a term applied by the Persians manufactured should be marked with the
"nien-hao" then used: " Ching-te, 1004 to
and Turks, in ancient times, to celadon ware, 1007."
valued especially by them on account of its
supposed quality of acting as a detector of Since that time, putting aside monochromes,
poison. which, in probably the majority of instances,
bear no mark, they have been employed un-
MUFFLE-KILN (called by the French "petite
— —interruptedly, except dunng a portion of K'ang-
feu "), a kiln used for soh glazes or colors con-
hsi's reign, i.e.. in 1677, when the magis-
taining a large proportion of lead that diffuse or
trate in charge at King-te-chen forbade the
vitrify easily. practice alike of inscribing the date and of
portraying the actions of celebrated person-
NiEN-HAO, the name adopted by a Chinese ages, on the ground that if the article were
emperor, after ascending the throne, to indi-
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