Page 170 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

86 Chinese Pottery and Porcelain

typical ornament as well) were made in Egypt and Persia in the
late Middle Ages. At a short distance they might often be taken
for Chinese, but on inspection the body will be found to have that

soft, sandy texture which is an unmistakable characteristic of the
near-Eastern pottery.

It is impossible to leave the subject of celadon without a few
words on the distribution of the ware in the Middle Ages, though
I have no intention of embarking on the lengthy discussion whiclJ^
the interesting nature of the subject invites, nor of reopening the

much-debated Celadon/rage which elicited many interesting con-

tributions 1 from Professors Karabacek, A. B. Meyer, and Hirth,
and Dr. Bushell. Probably no single article of commerce can

tell so much of the mediaeval trade between China and the West

as the old celadon porcelains whose fragments are constantly
unearthed on the sites of the old-world trading stations. The
caravan routes through Turkestan and the seaborne trade through
the Eastern Archipelago and the Indian Ocean to the Persian Gulf,

Red Sea, and east coast of Africa can be followed by porcelains

deposited at the various trading centres and ports of call. Much,
too, has been learnt from the writings of Chinese, Arab, and Euro-
pean travellers and geographers. Professor Hirth, as early as
1888, worked out the principal routes of Chinese seaborne trade
from the " Records of Chinese Foreign Trade and Shipping," ^
compiled by Chao Ju-kua about 1220 a.d., starting from the Tingui ^
of Marco Polo, which he identifies with Lung-ch'iian itself, and
finishing in Egypt and Zanzibar. The porcelain was carried by
land and river to the great port of Ch'iian-chou Fu, and thence
in junks to Bruni in Borneo, Cochin China, and Cambodia, Java,
Lambri, and Palembang, in Sumatra, where the traders of the
East and West met and exchanged goods. Thence the trade pro-
ceeded to Quilom in Malabar, Guzerate, Cambray, and Malwa,
and as far as Zanzibar. Numerous other localities might be men-

1 In the Oeslerreichische Monatschrifl, January, 1885, and succeeding numbers,

A. B. Meyer's Alterthumer aus dem Osiindiscben Archipel, etc. etc.

» The Chu fan chih, the author of -which was Imperial inspector of foreign ship-

Aping, etc., in the province of Fukien. See Hirth, Ancient Chinese Porcelain : Study

in Chinese Medieval Industry and Trade, Leipsig, 1888 ; and the translation of the

Chu fan chih, published by Hirth and Rockhill, 1912.
« Where Marco Polo (see Yule, bk. ii., p. 218) states that " they make vessels of

porcelain of all sizes, the finest that can be imagined . . . and thence it is exported

all over the world."