Page 287 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

Ching-te Chen 155

made in 1905, of a Journey in the Interior of Kiangsi,^ from which

I have taken the following paragraphs :
" During the last forty-five 3^ears Ching-te Chen has had time

to recover, in a very large measure, from this last calamity, but
it is said to be not so busy or so populous as before the T'ai p'ing

rebellion.

''Everything in Ching-te Chen either belongs to, or is altogether
subordinate to, the porcelain and earthenware industry. The very
houses are for the most part built of fragments of fireclay (called

' lo-p'ing-fu ') that were once part either of old kilns or of the

fireclay covers in which porcelain is stacked during firing. The
river bank is covered for miles ^ with a deep stratum of broken
chinaware and chips of fireclay, and, as far as one could judge,
the greater part of the town and several square miles of the sur-
rounding country are built over, or composed of, a similar deposit.

A great industry, employing hundreds of thousands of hands, does

not remain localised in a single spot for 900 years without giving
to that spot a character of its own.

" This is perhaps what struck me most forcibly in Ching-te Chen

—that it is unlike anything else in China. The forms, the colour,

the materials used in the buildings, the atmosphere, are some-

what reminiscent of the poorer parts of Manchester, but resemble
no other large town that I have ever visited.

"At present there are 104 pottery kilns in the town, of which

some thirty or so were actually in work at the time of m}'' visit.
The greater part of the kilns only work for a comparatively short
season every summer. During this busy season, when every kiln
is perhaps employing an average of 100 to 200 men, the population
of Ching-te Chen rises to about 400,000, but of this nearly, if not
quite, half are labourers drawn from a wide area of country, chiefly
from the Tuch'ang district, who only come for the season, live
in rows of barrack-like sheds, and do not bring their families with
them."

It is interesting to compare this modern account with the
Memoirs of Chiang, ^ written in the Yiian dynasty, from which we

1 By Walter J. Clennell, H.M. Consul at Kiu-kiang, printed for H.M. Stationery

Office.

2 The long river front, " crowded for three miles by junks," was a feature of the

place, which was sometimes known as the " thirteen li mart." A li is about 630

English yards.

3 See p. 159.