Page 197 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

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Ting yao 99

of decoration, and we are left quite in the dark as to its real

nature.

The industry seems to have ended abruptly at the beginning
of the Yiian dynasty, the story being that when the Sung minister

Wen was passing by all the ware in the kilns turned to jade, and

the potters, fearing that the event might reach the Emperor's ears,

closed down the kilns and fled to Ching-te Chen. The meaning
of this myth has never been satisfactorily explained, but it was
pointed out that a large number of Yung-ho names appear in the

early lists of Ching-te Chen potters, and the Ko ha yao lun

asserts that excavations on the site of the kilns were made in
the Yung Lo period (1403-1424), and that several kinds of jade

—cups and bowls were found cautiously adding, however, that

this might or might not have been the case. The ruins of the
Yung-ho potteries seem to have been still visible in the fifteenth

century.^

From a passage in the T^ao lu we learn that crackle was a

speciality of some of the Yung-ho potters. Under the heading of
Sui chH yao ^ (crackle wares), we are told that " these are the wares
made in the Southern Sung period. Originally they were a special
class of the ware made at Yung-ho Chen. . . . The clay was coarse
but strong, the body thick, the material heavy. Moreover, there
were ' millet coloured ' {mi si) and pale green {fen chHng) kinds.
The potters used hua shih (steatite) in the glaze, and the crackle
was in running lines, like a broken thing. They smeared and
blackened the ware with coarse ink or ochreous earth ; then they
finished it. Afterwards they rubbed it clean, and it was found
to have hidden lines and stains of red or black, like cracked ice,

beautiful to look at. There were besides pieces with plain crackled
ground, to which they added blue decoration." This appears to
be the first mention of painted blue decoration, and if it is true

that it was made in the Sung period, it carries this important
method back farther than has been usually supposed. Possibly

the ware was of the same type as the coarse crackled porcelain,
with roughly painted blue designs, found in Borneo and Malaysia,
where it is credited with great antiquity. There is a very interest-

^ See Ko ku yao lun, loc. cit.

^ 5^11 ^- T'ao lu, bk. vi., fol. 7 recto and verso.

^ These must have resembled Ko yao. Hence, perhaps, the comparison in value
between the fair Shu's ware and the Ko yao, p. 98.