Page 111 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

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The Tang Dynasty, 618-906 a.d.

Chou dynasty, who reigned for five years from 954 to 959) ; that

its colour was sky blue ; that it was " rich, refined, and unctuous,"

and had fine crackle-lines ; that in many cases there was coarse

yellow clay on the foot of the wares ; and that it was rarely seen
in the writer's time. Elsewhere ^ we read that, according to tradi-
tion, Shih Tsung, on being asked what kind of ware he would require

for palace use, commanded that its colour for the future should

be " the blue of the sky after rain as seen in the rifts of the clouds." ^

As early as the sixteenth century the Ch'ai ware had virtually
ceased to exist, and a writer ^ of that time tells us " Ch'ai ware is
no longer to be found. I once saw a fragment of a broken piece
mounted in a girdle-buckle. Its colour was brilliant, and answered
to the usual description of the ware, but the ware itself was thick."

A century afterwards the ware was nothing more than a tradition,

and later it developed a legendary character. Fragments of it
were said to dazzle the eyes, and when worn on armour to turn

aside missiles in battle.*

Chinese writers have been troubled by the apparent incon-
sistency of the descriptions, "thin as paper" and "having coarse
yellow clay on the foot." The latter may, however, merely refer
to patches of coarse clay or sand which had served to support the
ware in the kiln, and which had partially adhered to the base, a

thing not uncommon in the earlier manufactures. The expression

has, however, led some later writers ^ to identify the Ch'ai ware
with a fairly well-known type of comparatively soft buff pottery,

coated with a luscious turquoise or pale lavender blue glaze, which

^ In the T'ao shuo, bk. ii., fol. 5 verso.

^ili%#S^^^"" y" ^"° ^''^" ch'ing gun p'o ch'u che. It will be observed that

the colour word used is ch'ing, which has the meaning of blue or green, indifferently.

3 Chang Ying-wen, in the Ch'ing pi tsang, written at the end of the sixteenth

century.

* In tlie Ja shih wo wen, quoted in the T'ao la, bk. ix., fol. 19, where we are told
that " merchants bring fragments of Ch'ai ware to sell for 100 ounces of silver. They

say that if inlaid in the helmet at the approach of battle, they are able to turn aside
the fire implements {huo ch'i)."

'" For example, in the Li t'a k'an k'ao ku ou pien, a modern work, we find : " As
to what they call at present Yiian and Chiin wares, these in material, colour, sound,
and brilliancy are similar to Ch'ai yao, but they diiler in tliickness, and are perhaps
the common folk's imitation wares, and not the Imperial Shih Tsung ware. But
we are not yet able to say. If the ware has sky blue colour, clear and brilliant on
a coarse yellow brick-eartli body, and rings like bronze, it must be Ch'ai ware. As to
Chiin ware . . . the specimens have in every case red colour and variegated sur-

face. . . ."

—I