Page 199 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

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CHAPTER VIII

TZ'U CHOU ^'k] WARE

ALARGE and important class of wares, closely related to the
Ting group, was made at Tz'ii Chou, formerly in the Chang-te
Fu in Honan, and now included in the Kuang-p'ing Fu in
Chihli. The name of the place, previously Fu-yang, was changed to
Tz'ii Chou in the Sui dynasty (589-617 a.d.), and as it was derived,

as Chinese writers are careful to explain, from the iz'u stone from

which the ware was made, we may infer that this material, and no

doubt the local potteries, assumed importance at this early date.
There were, in fact, a few fragments of pottery of the Tz'ii Chou type,

decorated with brown spots, among the Chinese wares found on the
ninth-century site of Samarra, in Persia, by Professor Sarre (see p.
148) ; and a finely painted fragment of a Tz'u Chou vase in the An-
thropological Museum at Petrograd was brought from a site in

Turfan, which was in all probability as early as the tenth century.
Moreover, it is constantly asserted by traders in China that this
or that piece of painted Tz'u Chou ware was found in a T'ang tomb,

and in many cases, such as that of the brown-painted vase with

lotus design mentioned on p. 33, the form of the specimen and
the style of the decoration are quite consistent with a T'ang attri-
bution. There is, however, no information on the subject earlier
than the Sung dynasty, when the Tz'ii Chou factories enjoyed a

high reputation. 1 The Ko ku yao lun gives the following brief

notice of them under the heading " Old Tz'u wares " :
" Old Tz'u wares {tz'u ch'i) were made at Tz'u Chou, in the

Chang-te Fu in Honan. Good specimens closely resemble Ting

ware, but have not the tear-stains. There are, besides, specimens

with engraved and painted ^ ornament. The plain white pieces

command a higher price than Ting ware. The recent (i.e. late

^ See T'ao lu, bk. vii., fol. 13 verso.
" Hsiu hua, lit. " embroidered ornament," but see p. 91.

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