Page 264 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

CHAPTER X

MIRABILIA

MANY strange things are recorded by the early Chinese
writers in connection with pottery and porcelain, and the
tales are solemnly repeated from book to book, though

occasionally a less credulous author adds some such comment as

" This may be true, or, on the other hand, it may not." It is

difficult, however, entirely to discredit the serious and circumstan-
tial account given by a provincial governor of a curious custom

which prevailed in his district. Fan Ching-ta, who was appointed
administrator in Kuang-si in 1172, tells ^ us that "the men of
Nan (-ning Fu) practise nose-drinking. They have pottery vessels

such as cups and bowls from the side of which stands up a small
tube like the neck of a bottle. They apply the nose to this tube

and draw up wine or hot fluids, and in the summer months they
drink water. The vessels are called nose-drinking cups. They say

that water taken through the nose and swallowed is indescribably

delicious. The people of Yung Chou have already recorded the
facts as I have done. They grow a special kind of gourd for the

purpose." Another extract from the same writer's works alludes
to " drums with contracted waist " made of pottery in the villages
of Lin-kuei and Chih-t'ien. The village people made a speciality
of the manufacture of this pottery {yao), and baked it to the

correct musical tone. On the glaze, we are told, they painted
red flower patterns by way of ornament. The allusion to painting

in red on the glaze at this early period is interesting, but it is
quite likely that the designs were only in some unfired pigment.

Some of the stories may be regarded merely as figurative descrip-

tions of the superhuman skill of the artist in rendering " life-move-
ment." Thus we are told^ of "four old porcelain (iz'ii) bowls

painted with coloured butterflies. When water was poured in,

^ In the Kuei hai yH Mng chih, quoted in the T'ao lu, bk. ix., fol. 2 verso.

2 In the 2<ing chai ts'ung hua, quoted in the T'ao lu, bk. ix., lol. 4.

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