Page 44 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

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2 Chinese Pottery and Porcelain

I should add that the author of the T'ao shuo, after accepting the
earher references to the art, inconsistently concludes : " I humbly

suggest that the origin of pottery should strictly be placed in the

reign of Yu Ti Shun, and its completion in the Chou dynasty "

(1122-256 B.C.).

Unfortunately, none of the writers can throw any light on the

first use of the potter's wheel in China. It is true that, like several

other nations, the Chinese claim for themselves the invention of

that essential implement, but there is no real evidence to illumin-

ate the question, and even if the wheel was independently dis-

covered in China, the priority of invention undoubtedly rests with

the Near Eastern nations. Palpable evidence of its use can be

seen on Minoan pottery found in Crete and dating about 3000 B.C.,

and on Egyptian pottery of the twelfth dynasty (about 2200 B.C.) ;
while it is practically certain that it was used in the making of the

Egyptian pottery of the fourth dynasty (about 3200 B.C.).

So far, the Chinese have nothing tangible to oppose to these

facts earlier than the Chou writings, in which workers with the

wheel {fao jen) are distinguished from workers with moulds {fang
jen), the former making cauldrons, basins, colanders, boilers, and

vessels {yu), and the latter moulding the sacrificial vessels named

Wekuei and tou. learn that at this time the Chinese potters also

used the compasses and the polishing wheel or lathe. With this

outfit they were able, according to the T'ao shuo, to effect the
" completion " of pottery.

Whatever the truth of this pious statement may be, reflecting

as it does the true Chinese veneration of antiquity, it is certain,,

at any rate, that the potter was not without honour at this time

for we read in the Tso Chuan^ that " 0-fu of Yii was the best potter

Wuat the beginning of the Chou dynasty. Wang relied on his

skill for the vessels which he used. He wedded him to a descendant

of his imperial ancestors, and appointed him feudal prince of

Ch'en."

Examples of these early potteries have been unearthed from

ancient burials from time to time, and the T'ao shuo describes

numerous types from literary sources. But neither the originals,

as far as we know them, nor the verbal descriptions of them, have

anything but an antiquarian interest.

^A work of the fifth century B.C., quoted in the Ching-te Chen T'ao lu, bk. ix.,,

fol. 1.