Page 265 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

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Mirabilia 137

the butterflies floated on the surfaee of the water, fluttering about

as if aHve." It was an unnatural proceeding for butterflies in any

case, and we can quite understand why " those who saw this, all

maintained secrecy and did not divulge it."

A somewhat similar poetic licence is taken by the same author

in another passage with reference to certain cups and bowls, appar-

ently of the Sung dynasty, which were found in the K'ang Hsi

period on the site of an old temple. " The bowls had a minute wave

Wupattern which moved and undulated as in a picture by Tao-

tzu. As for the cups, when a little water was poured into them
four fishes arose out of the sides and swam and dived."

But most curious of all were the Chinese views on the subject
of " furnace transmutations " {yao pien) and the fables which

sprang from them. At the present day the strange behaviour of

metallic oxides, notably copper, under certain firing conditions,

is w^ell known and turned to good account. But in early times,
when the unexpected happened, and a glaze which contained an

infinitesimal quantity of copper oxide was accidentally subjected

to an oxidising or reducing atmosphere in the kiln (by the admission
of air or smoke at the critical moment), instead of coming out a

uniform colour, was streaked and mottled all over with red, green
and blue, or locally splashed with crimson or mixed colour, the
potters saw in the phenomenon something supernatural. It was
a terrifying portent, and on one occasion, we are told, they broke

the wares immediately, and on another they even destroyed the

kilns and fled to another place.

However, the irregular formation of the Chinese kilns greatly
favoured these accidental effects, and in time they became com-

paratively common, so that these true " furnace transmutations "
were taken for granted; and though they were not clearly under-

stood before the end of the K'ang Hsi period, fairly rational ex-
planations of them were offered by some of the late Ming writers.
Thus the curious splashes of contrasting colour which appeared on

the Kuan, Ko and Chiin wares were attributed to the " fire's

magical transmutation."

In these cases only a partial transmutation had taken place,

affecting the glaze alone. But the idea of transmutation in the
fire was carried farther in the Chinese imagination, and stories
grew of cases in which " the vessel throughout was changed and
became wonderful." Su Tung-p'o has, for instance, left a poem on

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