Page 67 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

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The Han Dynasty, 206 b.c. to 220 a.d. 17

selecting cups for tea-drinking, to choose the ware of Eastern Ou, a
place in the Yiieh territory, and apparently in the neighbourhood
of, if not identical with, the Yiieh Chou, which was celebrated for

its wares in the T'ang dynasty. The period of the "Northern and
Southern Dynasties " provides but two references, to a kind of
wine vessel known as " crane cups " but otherwise unexplained,
and to chiin-cliih of fine and coarse ware,^ which appear to have

been Buddhist water vases for ceremonial washing, or Kundikd,
which the Chinese have transcribed in the form Chun-cliih-ka.

Buddhism was making great strides in China at this time. It
was proclaimed the state religion of the Toba Tartars or Northern Wei,
who ruled the north from 386 to 549 a.d., and Buddhist thought
and the canons of Buddhist art were now firmly imposed upon the
Chinese. The rock sculptures of this period visited and photo-
graphed by Chavannes show unmistakable traces of the Grasco-
Buddhist art of Gandhara ; and in one remarkable instance among
the figures which were sculptured round the entrance of a Buddhist
grotto were deities with a thyrsus like .that of Dionysus and a

trident like Poseidon's.

In the annals of the brief Sui dynasty (581-617 a.d.), we find

that a man named Ho Ch'ou succeeded in exactly imitating a glassy

material called liu U by rneans of green ware. The exact meaning

of this interesting passage is discussed elsewhere (p. 144), but it is
difiicult to imagine any but a porcellanous ware which could satisfy

the conditions implied. Under the circumstance it is not sur-
prising if theorists see in this green ware {lii tz'ii) something in the

nature of the later celadon porcelain.

Note on the Early Chinese Tomb Wares

With reference to the figures of men and animals and the other
objects which were placed in the ancient tombs of China, much

information will be found in Dr. J. J. M. de Groot's Religious System
of China. The fundamental idea underlying these burial prac-
tices seems to have been that the soul of the dead was the actual
tenant of the grave ; but it is not clear in every case whether the
sepulchral furniture was provided in expectation of a bodily resur-
rection, or in the belief that it would minister to the wants of the

1 te'u wa, a phrase which Bushell has translated " porcelain and earthenware,"
though it is improbable that porcelain was meant at this early period (see Chap. XI.).

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