Page 436 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

CHINA

hold tea which were often changed in the furnace like this

one. Its original colour is a light brown like felt, which

changes to a bright green when the tea is put in, gradually

reverting to its former colour, line by line, as the tea is

poured out. This is only a curious accidental peculiarity,

and yet modern virtuosi prize it most highly. This and the

following tea-pot I saw at the capital in the collection of a

prince, who had bought the two from Chang, a high officer

4^of Nanking, for 500 taels. Height, inches.

Tea-pot of Ming dynasty Yi-hsing pottery, made by
Kung-chun. Of vermilion red $ate^ changing to bright
Agreen when tea is poured in, as described above.
won-

derful transformation which I could not have believed had

I not seen it with my own eyes. Height, 5 inches.

It is of course obvious that pottery covered with
glaze could not change colour under the circum-
stances mentioned, and for the rest there is no doubt

whatever that glaze was not employed in the manu-
facture of this ware. The price mentioned by H'siang

more than seven hundred dollars for two little

pots, the one 4^, the other 5, inches high attests

the value placed on choice specimens of Yi-hsing-yao

by Chinese connoisseurs at the close of the Ming

dynasty. In Japan the fancy was still more marked.
There the ware has always been known as Shu-dei

(vermilion pottery) or Haku-dei (white pottery), and
a tea-pot of it forms an essential feature in every

chajin's equipage. Owing to this high appreciation

on the part of the Japanese tea-clubs, there has been

preserved in Japan an exceptionally accurate Chinese

record of the origin and manufacture of the Yi-hsing-

yao. The account owes nothing to Japanese research,

being merely transcribed from Chinese annals a fact
;

which suggests that if the story of the Yi-hsing-yao,

a ware certainly not standing at the head of Chinese

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