Page 66 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

i6 Chinese Pottery and Porcelain

Meanwhile, there is little doubt that the Han traditions were kept
alive, and the discovery of green glazed ware of Han type in the ruins

of Bazaklik, in Turfan,i a site which from other indications appears to
belong to the T'ang civilisation, shows that this type, at any rate,

was long-lived. Two vases from a grave on the Black Rock Hill
in Fu Chou, and now in the British Museum, which are proved

to belong to a period anterior to the seventh century, seem to com-

bine Han and T'ang characteristics. They are of dark grey stone-

ware with a mottled greenish brown glaze, ending considerably

above the base in a wavy line, which is a common feature of T'ang

wares.

It is highly probable that some of the tomb pottery discussed in

the next chapter belongs to the later part of this intermediate

period. Indeed among the pottery figures of this class there are

specimens with slender, graceful bodies and elaborate details of
costume (see Plate 7) which closely resemble the stone statues of
the Northern Wei and the Sui dynasties ; but with our present

imperfect information on the tomb finds, it will be more convenient

to treat these nearly related figures as one group.

Turning to Chinese literature, in default of other and more tangible
evidence, we read in the T'^ao shiio ^ of pottery dishes and wine vessels

in the Wei dynasty (220-264 a.d.), and in the T'ao lu of pottery made
at Kuan Chung, in the district of Hsi-an Fu, and at Lo-yang for
Imperial use. The poet P'an Yo, of the Chin dynasty (265-419
A.D.), speaks of " cups of green ware," The actual words used are
p'mo te'w,^ of which the former is elsewhere used to describe "the
bright tint of distant, well-wooded mountains," and as a sj^^nonym
for lij, (green), though, like the common colour word cliing, it is
capable of meaning both blue and green. The ceramic glaze which

most closely corresponds to the description piao is the bluish green

celadon best known from Corean wares, but we have not yet sufficient

grounds for assuming the existence of this particular type at such an

early date.

Another poet * of the same period bids his countrymen, when

^ Fragments of this -ware which were brought back bj' the Griinwedel expedition

in 1903 are in the Museum fiir Volkerkunde, in Berlin.

* See Bushell, op. cit., p. 97.

^ )li§- See also Bushell's translation of the Tao shuo, pp. 97 and 98.

* Tu Yu, in his " Verses upon Tea." See T'ao shuo, Bushell's translation, p. 98.

MW^WThe words used are Ch'i ise t'ao chien for which Bushell has given the

free and rather misleading version, " Select cups of fine porcelain."