Page 272 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

144 Chinese Pottery and Porcelain

Ssij-t'iao and Jih-nan.^ That produced in Ta-ch'in (the eastern

—provinces of the Roman Empire) is in ten colours pink, white,

black, yellow, blue, green, deep purple, deep blue (or green), red,

and brown. Liu-li was originally a natural substance.- Yen
Shih-ku,^ commenting in the Annals of the Han Dynasty, says,
'At the present time they commonly use molten stones, adding
a number of chemicals and then pouring the substance (into moulds)

and forming it ; but it is unsubstantial, brittle, and not a successful

Wueasting.' In the Northern Wei dynasty, in the reign of T'ai

(424-451 A.D.), a man of the Ta Yiieh-chih* who came to trade at

the capital, said he could make liu-li by melting stones. Eventu-
ally he collected the ore and made it {liu-li), and the finished article

surpassed the original in its brilliance and colour. The method
has been handed down to the present day, and it was probably

only an accidental intermission which occurred in the Sui dynasty.

But the Chinese castings are brittle in substance, and when hot
wine is poured into them they fly to pieces in the hand. What a
pity the Yiieh-chih method has been handed down instead of

"
Ch'ou's !

The allusions to melting stones, casting, etc., in this passage
leave no doubt that the liu-li, as made in China, was a kind of glass,

imitating a natural stone. ^ It is, in fact, usually translated in

the dictionaries as " opaque glass," and in connection with pottery

—it has the sense of glaze e.g. liu li wa " glazed pottery."

We can now return to Ho Ch'ou, who " took green ware and

made liu-li.''^ ^ It has been thought that what he made must

have been a kind of porcelain, but there is no indication of any

^ The first two are apparently unidentified, but Jih-nan is Cochin China, whither,
no doubt, the substance came as an article of trade.

* Early writers refer to it as pi liu li, which is a transcription of the Sanskrit Vaidurya,
a stone supposed to be of the beryl type, but the identification is a matter of dis-
pute. See Laufer, Jade, p. Ill, footnote.

A3 seventh-century writer.

* The Ta Yiieh-chih have been identified with the Massagetse, who in the fifth

century were in possession of Afghanistan. See Bushell, T'ao shuo, op, cit., p, 100.

^ The substance is discussed at length in connection with pi-liu-li by Laufer ( Jade,
pp. 109-112), but this author seems very loath to admit the meaning glass for liu-li,

though he allows that it is a common term for ceramic glaze. But the passage quoted
above from the T'ao shuo can hardly be explained in any other way than in refer-

ence to a kind of glass.

•The exact words of the text are f^ti^li^^^l^iEM^ (Ch'ou i lu tz'u wei chih

ijH chin wu i). " Ch'ou took green ware and made it (liu-li) not different from the

real."