Page 314 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

CHINA

those employed for the Sung Nan-ting, and the pot-

ters being the same, it is evident that the wares could

have differed only in decorative features, if they
differed at all. H'siang, in his " Illustrated Cata-

logue," referring to the specimen of Shu-fu-yao de-
picted there, says that " in its paste and form, in the
colour of its glaze, and in the engraved design, it is

altogether like a Ting piece." Hence the conclusion

must be that the Nan-ting of the Sung dynasty and

the Shu-fu-yao of the Tuan (12791360) represented

no points of appreciable difference.

Entering the Ming dynasty an important distinction
has to be noted. Researches show that until the close

of the fourteenth century hard-paste porcelain was
Ascarcely manufactured at all in China.
few speci-

mens rudely decorated with blue under the glaze are

attributed to the Sung and Tuan keramists but
;

though, if their genuineness be admitted, they dem-

onstrate that the ability to make hard-paste porce-

lain was not wanting in those early days, they at the

same time prove that, comparatively speaking, little

care was bestowed on its manufacture. From the

Tung-lo era (14031424) of the Ming dynasty, how-
ever, not only did hard-paste porcelain become one

of the choice products of Ching-te-chen, but also it

reached a stage of expert manufacture incompatible

with any hypothesis of sudden development or newly
acquired knowledge. H'siang says that the white

Tung-lo porcelain was made after the Tuan Shu-fu-

yao, itself an indistinguishable reproduction of the
Sung Ting-yao. It might be concluded, therefore,
that the Tung-lo ware also belongs to the soft-paste
variety. But here precisely the connoisseur has to

make a distinction. Though from the Tung-lo era

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