Page 215 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

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Tz u Chou Ware 105

Chang/ and on some of them we find additional inscriptions con-

taining the words ku hsiang (of old Hsiang) and hsiang ti (of the

region of Hsiang). Hsiang, I find, is the old name of Chang-te
Fu, the prefecture in which Tz'ii Chou is situated, and this fact

definitely connects the ware with the factories under discussion.

At the same time the relatively large number of these pieces in our
collections and the style of Chang's mark seem to indicate that

they are of fairly recent date, probably not older than the seven-

teenth century.

On the other hand, a greater age has been credited to these

pillows in the belief that they are " corpse pillows " recovered

from ancient tombs, a theory for which a quotation from a Ming

writer in the T'ao shuo is responsible. ^ It is stated that " the pillows

of ancient porcelain that are two feet and a half long and six inches

broad may be used. Those only one foot long are known as ' corpse

pillows,' and are among the things found in ancient tombs and
;

even when these are of white Ting Chou porcelain of the Sung

dynasty, they ought not to be used." Now the pillows made by

Chang and others are rarely more than a foot long, and accord-

ing to this passage should be regarded as corpse pillows. But I

cannot help thinking that either the measurements given are in-

correct, or that the figures are inaccurately quoted ; for apart from

the difficulty of making porcelain pillows thirty inches long, such

a size would be wholly unnecessary, and is, in fact, more than

twice the length of the ordinary Chinese pillow, as we know from

existing examples in various materials. At the present day there

is no such distinction in size between the two sorts of pillow,

and de Groot ^ assures us that the head of the corpse is rested

on a small pillow " not differing from those in use among the

living."

From the same passage in the T'ao shuo we learn that a curious

belief existed in China that porcelain pillows were " efficacious in
keeping the eyes clear and preserving the sight, so that even in
old age fine writing can be read," and that this beUef obtained

as early as the Sung dynasty, much use of such pillows having
been made in the court of Ning Tsung.

Among the many types of Tz'u Chou ware, old and new, figures

and statuettes, usually of deities, played an important part. There
are examples of coarse modern figures in the British Museum,

iSee p. 221. 2 See Bushell, op. cit., p. 122. » Op. cit., vol. i., p. 91.

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