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STONEWARE DURING THE SUI AND —silk and fourteen green-glazed Yue ware vessels
TANG DYNASTIES
(cats. 124, 125). With their very pale bodies, highly
Although Buddhism remained enormously glossy light-green glazes, and surfaces as tactile as a
influential until the end of the High Tang period, well-polished gem, they are exceptional indeed,
unmatched in quality by any other pieces surviving
ceramics did not reflect its influence for long. In from that time, even if closely related (cat. 123)." In
the early Tang dynasty and during the two brief the repository's inventory, they were listed as mise
periods that led up to it artistically, the Northern ("secret color") ware, a term well known from late
Tang poetry, which tells us that mise ware was made
Qi (550-577) and the Sui (581-618), Chinese at the Yue kilns. 12
potters again became more inward-looking. At the
Yue kilns in the south, which continued to make The fact that these green-glazed stonewares,
green-glazed stonewares, and at the Xing and other produced far away in the south, should be included
kilns in Hebei and Henan provinces in the north, in one of the richest repositories, among the most
which began to make white stonewares, quality exquisite and expensive gifts from the imperial
quickly improved. By the second half of the Tang,
potters were creating ceramics with most desirable court, clearly documents their elevated status. When
features: a clear and clean color, a glossy sheen, a
smooth tactile surface, and an even, flawless the Tang empire began to break up into smaller
appearance. The sheer beauty of such material made kingdoms, not long after the Yue wares at the
ornament superfluous.
Famen Temple site were made, the kings ofWu-
Yue and Xing wares were more than merely
practical; they were perhaps the first Chinese Yue, in whose domain the kilns were situated,
ceramics to be celebrated for their beauty. In the reserved Yue ware for their own use.
Chajing ("Classic ofTea"), an eighth-century text,
bowls ofYue (cats. 123—25) and of Xing ware White wares from the Ding or Xing kilns may have
played a similar role at another court. Some of
(cats. 126, 127) 9 are recommended for tea them are inscribed on the base with the character
—drinking then an activity of almost ritual guan ("official") (cats. 126, 127) or with similar
—intricacy and are compared, respectively, to jade
identifications. The significance of this inscription
and silver, two of the most highly prized materials
of the time. 10 Although the delicate green glaze of cannot yet be explained with any confidence, since
Yue ware can evoke the beauty and tactile quality such pieces have been discovered in Tang, Five
ofjade and the brilliant clear glaze over a white Dynasties (907-960), Liao (916-1125), and
body of Xing ware can be reminiscent ot silver,
these ceramics were neither conceived nor regarded Northern Song (960—1127) contexts. 13 One can
as substitutes for such elevated substances but rather
as their equivalents. These early literary references therefore only speculate about what special status
signal the dawn of connoisseurship in Chinese ceramics singled out in this way might have had.
The only other Tang stonewares besides clear- and
ceramics. green-glazed ones were those with black glazes,
often with light blue splashes, but for those no
In the early Tang dynasty. Buddhism had gripped elevated status can be claimed.' 4
not only the population at large but also the
imperial household. Buddhist temples regularly STONEWARE DURING THE SONG
received valuable offerings and thus became DYNASTY
veritable treasure houses. One of the foremost Stylistically, these undecorated monochrome wares
temples of the time was the Famen Temple, not far of the Tang are completely indigenous Chinese
products. They initiated a taste in ceramics that
from the Tang capital ot Chang'an (present-day found its fullest expression only during the Song
Xi'an); it held one of the most sacred relics, a finger dynasty (960—1279). Both aesthetically and
bone of the Buddha. In the mid-Tang period this technically, the Song dynasty represents a high
relic was repeatedly borne in procession with great
ceremony from the temple to the palace, and then point of Chinese culture and particularly of
returned with lavish donations from the court. The
Chinese ceramics. It was a time when exquisite
last donations might have been added in 874, when
materials and sophisticated workmanship were
the relic was sealed in a repository (see essay by combined with a calculated simplicity in form and
Helmut Brinker in this volume).
design.
When this repository was discovered in 1987 under
In contrast to the few workshops making fine
the Famen Temple pagoda, the Buddha bone was ceramics in the Tang, dozens of kiln centers had
round to be preserved among the most precious mastered the basic principles by the early Song.
Kilns that during the Tang had made only basic
objects of gold and silver, the rarest pieces of rock
crystal and glass, over seven thousand pieces of utensils which were not known by the kiln names,
refined their body and glaze materials and
improved potting and firing techniques to such a
degree that by the tenth century they were able to
CERAMICS IN CHINA: MAKING TREASURES FROM EARTH 126
