Page 104 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day
P. 104
40 Chinese Pottery and Porcelain
The Ch^a Ching enumerates five other T'ang factories which
suppUed tea bowls, all of them inferior in reputation to the Yiieh
WuChou kilns.
Ting Chou t[]{ in the Hsi-an Fu,^ in Shensi ;
*)W
Chou ^iW in the Chin-hua Fu, in Chekiang ; Yo Chou g-'H'l in
^Hunan ; Shou Chou
•}[] in Kiangnan ; and Hung Chou ^t
»I>H,
the modern Nan-ch'ang Fu, in Kiangsi, the district in which is
Ching-te Chen, afterwards the ceramic metropolis of China. Of
these wares we have only the meagre information that the Yo
Chou ware was of green (ch'ing) colour ; the Shou Chou ware,
yellow ; and that the Hung Chou ware was a brownish colour,^
and made the tea appear black. The Hung Chou factory is also
named in the Ko ku yao lun,^ which tells us that " vessels made
Aat Hung Chou in Kiangsi are yellowish black in colour." sixth
factory, apparently of some reputation though not mentioned in
the Ch'a Ching, is named in a poem by Tu Fu, president of the Board
of Works, ^ in the T'ang dynasty, who says : " The ware (tz'u) baked
at Ta-yi is light but strong. It gives out, when struck, a sound
like the plaintive note of the Chin-ch'eng jade. The white bowls
of your Excellency surpass the frost and snow. In pity hasten
myto send one to the pavilion of studies." Ta-yi was in the
department of Ch'iung Chou, in Szechuan,
The five brief dynasties which fill the interval between the
T'ang and Sung periods are only known to ceramic history for
two wares, the identity of which remains a matter of conjecture.
The first is the pi se ware of Yiieh Chou, which has already been
discussed ; and the second is the celebrated but intangible Ch'ai
ware. Chinese writers wax poetical over the Ch'ai ware. " Men
of old," says a late Ming writer, ^ " described Ch'ai ware as blue
like the sky, brilliant like a mirror, thin like paper, and resonant
like a musical stone." An earlier and less hyperbolical description
of it given in the Ko ku yao lun ^ states that it was made at Cheng
Chou, in Honan, and named cJiai by Shih Tsung (of the Posterior
^^ Not to be confused with the more celebrated Ting Chou %\ in Chih-li.
* /20 1^, a coarse cloth or serge, used to suggest a brownish tint ; cf. s& ho ju Cung
= colour ho like copper.
^ As quoted in the T'ao lu (see Julien, p. 5). The reference does not appear in
the British Museum copy of the Ko ku yao lun.
* Quoted in the T'ao shuo, bk. ii., fol. 5 recto, and bk. v., fol. 3 recto.
6 Ku Ying-t'ai in the Po wu yao Ian, published in the T'ien Ch'i period (1621-1627).
* By Ts'ao-chao in 1387 ; republished in a revised and enlarged edition by Wang-
tso in 1459.
