Page 288 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

156 Chinese Pottery and Porcelain

see that the work was carried on in the same intermittent fashion,
the potters receiving land to cultivate instead of payment, living
round the master of the pottery, and being liable to be summoned
to the kilns when required. The opening of the kilns in those days
was in some measure dependent on the success of the harvest, and
in any case the work depended on the season, as the paste would
freeze in winter, and could not be worked.

The hills which surround Ching-te Chen are rich in the materials
required by the potters, china clay and china stone of various

qualities, fireclay for the seggars (cases to protect the porcelain

in the kiln), or for mixing in the coarser wares, and numerous other
minerals. There was water-power which could be used in the
mills for crushing and refining the minerals, and abundant wood

for firing. Although coal is worked nowadays not many miles

away, the potters still adhere to the wood, which has served their
kilns from time immemorial. It should be added that at the present

— —day and no doubt for some time past the local clays have been

supplemented from various districts, supplies coming overland
from Chi-men and by water from greater distances.

A good Chinese map of Ching-te Chen is given in the T'ao lu

(bk. i., fol. 1), and a large map of the district is attached to Mr.
W. Clennell's report, which is easily obtainable.

This description of Ching-te Chen has led us far from the period
with which we are at present concerned. In the Sung dynasty
the place had already arrived at considerable importance, and
the record of its 300 kilns implies a very large population. The
excellence of its porcelain had already won for it the onerous privi-
lege of supplying Imperial needs, and, as we have seen, it was con-
secrated under the new and Imperial name of Ching-te Chen in
the opening years of the eleventh century. The earliest existing
record of its productions, the Memoirs of Chiang, written at the
beginning of the fourteenth century, tells us that the Sung porce-
lains made at Ching-te Chen were pure white ^ and without a flaw,
and were carried for sale to all parts under the proud name of " Jao
Chou jade." It rivalled the " red porcelain " of Chen-ting Fu
and the green of Lung-ch'iian in beauty.

^ An incidental reference to -white porcelain bowls at Hsin-p'ing (the old name

for the district town of Ching-te Chen) in 1101 a.d. occurs in the Ch'ang nan cliih (quoted
in the T'ao lu, bk. viii., fol. 15). It is a verse on the subject of tea drinking : " The
white porcelain is quickly passed from hand to hand all night ; the fragrant vapour

fills the peaceful pavilion."