Page 289 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

Chlng-te Chen 157

The Ko ku yao lun describes the Imperial ware of this time as

" thin in body and lustrous," and mentions " plain white pieces

with contracted waist," adding that the specimens " with unglazed
rim," ^ though thin in body, white in colour, lustrous, and sur-
passingly beautiful, are lower in price than the Ting wares.

It is not too much to assume that some of this " Jao Chou jade "
has survived to the present day, and we may look for it among
the early translucent white porcelains, of which a considerable number
have reached Europe during the last few years. Many of these have

Sung forms and the Sung style, though, of course, plain white wares

are always difficult to date. In the specimens to which I refer

the glaze is usually of a warm ivory tone, tending to cream colour
;

it is hard and usually discontinued in the region of the base, both
underneath and on the side, and the exposed body is rather rough

to the touch. (See Plate 24, Fig. 1.)

It is not clear whether w^e are to infer from the comparison with

Lung-ch'iian ware quoted above that the Ching-te Chen potters
produced a celadon in the Sung dynasty, but it is probable enough
that they did so, and that the green or greenish white {ch'ing pai) ^
made in the Yiian period was a continuation of this. If we can
believe the statement in the T^ao lu, they began early to copy the
wares of other factories, imitating the Chiin Chou ware at the end
of the Sung period and the crackled Chi Chou ware in the Yiian.

It seems to me possible that the reference to the imitation of
Chiin ware may be explained by an interesting passage from a late
twelfth- century ^ wTiter quoted in the T'^ao hi, who says that in the
Ta Kuan period (1107-1110) there Avere among the Ching-te Chen

wares " furnace transmutations " {yao pien) in colour red like

cinnabar.'* He is inclined to attribute this phenomenon to the

fact that " when the planet Mars in the Zodiac approaches its
greatest brightness, then things happen magically and contrary
to the usual order." The potters were evidently disturbed by

the appearance of the wares, and broke them. He tells us, further,

that he stayed at Jao Chou and obtained a number of specimens

^ §1 P mao k'ou che, lit. " hair mouth things." Bushel! renders " with unglazed

mouth." See Ko ku yao lun, bk. vii., fol. 24 verso, under the heading of " Old Jao

wares."

'^ See p. 160.

3 Chou Hui, author of the Ching pa tsa chih, a miscellany published in 1193, quoted

Taoin lu, bk. viii., fol. 6 r. and v.
^ Cf. descriptions of Chiin Chou ware, chap. ix.