Page 220 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

:

no Chinese Pottery and Porcelain

berry, dappled purple and crimson, and other tints, are made of

a clay which, though dark-coloured on the exterior, shows con-
siderable refinement and closeness of texture within. It is, in
fact, a porcellanous ware of whitish grey tone. It is noticed that
these pieces are almost always marked with incised Chinese numerals,

and there are critics who would confine the Chiin wares to this
group alone. But it is clear from a passage in the Po wu yao Ian ^
that there were other types in which the body was of " yellow

sandy earthenware," coarse and thick, and without refinement,
with all the characteristics, in fact, of the ware which these same
critics habitually relegate to the category of YiXan tz'il, or ware
of the Yiian dynasty. But we shall return to this question later.
Modern Chinese collectors, we are told,^ in recognition of these
distinctions, classify Chiin wares in two groups, tz'u fai (porcelain
body) and sha fai (sandy, or coarse-grained, body).

The Chiin glazes are of the thick, opalescent kind which flows
sluggishly and often stops short of the base in a thick, wavy roll

or in large drops. On the upper edges of the ware they are thin

and more or less transparent and colourless, but in the lower parts
and the hollows in which the glaze collects in thick masses the
depth and play of the colour are wonderful. These irregularities
are specially noticeable on the coarse bodies, but even on the more
refined specimens where the glaze has a smoother flow and more
even distribution, the colour is never quite continuous or unbroken.

In the opalescent depths of the glaze, bubbles, streaks, hair-lines,

and often decided dappling are observed, and a scarcely perceptible

crackle is usually present.'^ Some of these markings which varie-

^ Bk. ii., fol. 7 verso. In discussing tlie glazes with mixed colour, the autlior says
" Of these wares, the sword-grass bowls and their saucers alone are refined. The other
kinds, like the garden seats, boxes, square vases, and flower jars, are all of yellow sandy
earthenware. Consequently, they are coarse and thick, and not refined." The first

sentence is difficult, and has given rise to much discussion. The word ti, which Bushell
has (rightly, I think) rendered saucers, literally means " bottom " or " base." Hirth

reads it, " Those which have bottoms like the flower pots in which sword-grass is grown
are considered the most excellent " ; and Julien appears to have quite misunderstood
the application of the passage. The original is ifc^'fiifl^iiStl&ft®- The shallow

saucers in which the deep flower pots stood are often included among the bulb

bowls. See Plates 37 and 40.
* See the excellent account of the Chiin wares by Mrs. Williams in the introduction

to the Catalogue of a Loan Exhibition of Chinese, Corean, and Japanese Potteries held

by the Japan Society of New York, 1914.

* Shrivelled glaze is sometimes seen on the Chun types of pottery. Probably this
was at first, at any rate, an accidental effect ; but it is the prototype of the " dragon