FINE ARTS NK 4165 P73 •·. | B 1,410,756 Chinese Pottery A SHORT HISTORICAL SURVEY *** N Biti 14 白日 ​Ma .... i £ 4 · 7 " Acknowledgement For encouragement and material assistance in the printing of this first edition the author is indebted to certain friends in Northville, Michigan. University of Michigan Libraries St 1817 ARTES SCIENTIA VERITAS : 1 A short historical survey by James Marshall Plumer = CHINESE POTTERY With Illustratoris POSE 175 Fine Arts NK 4165 P73 THE UNIVERSITY PRINTS BOSTON pandag 366240 کہ توتر O 184 GLAZED POTTERY LOHAN Nelson Gallery, Kansas City T'ANG DYNASTY 618-906 A. D. 201 HOME 20 Fine s • CHINESE POTTERY t Trane!! Live Cert 2164 Ceramic manufacture in China antedates the dawn of Chinese history and articles of fired clay were common in every period of Chinese culture. Aside from China itself where the soil of every province abounds with shattered fragments, ancient Chinese pottery had a wide distribution abroad. Korea has examples from Han (206 B.C.-220 A.D.) and every dynasty thereafter. In Japan, T'ang dynasty (618-907) lead-glazed examples were included in offerings to Buddha at the opening of To-dai-ji, Nara in 752 A.D. and are still preserved in the Sho- so - in. High fired T'ang Yüeh ware was in use in Mesopotamia at Samarra between 838 and 883 A.D. and at about the same time, or soon after, in Egypt. Turkey was early the recipient of celadon and blue- and-white wares, some designed especially for Mohammedan use. Lung-ch'üan celadon from the Sung (960-1280 A.D.) and Ming (1368-1644 A.D.) dynasties and blue-and-white ware are found throughout the Philippine Islands, all the Dutch East Indies including Borneo and Bali, Malaya, and India. More recent- ly, China has supplied porcelain to all her own people who have emigrated to the South Seas and indeed all over the world. European and American imports of Chinese ceramics, perhaps with the exception of common Canton ware such as was cleared commercially through Lowestoft, depended largely on sporadic and fickle demands of connoisseurship. GUILD SYSTEM Chinese potters still ply their craft under group systems: family, village, or guild, which have en- sured amazing uniformity in wares for centuries at a time. Undisturbed by the caprice of individual potters, these groups have always been strongly influenced by their inherited local traditions, and by a continuous consumers' demand for wares meeting tradition- al standards. The artist was ever outshone by his art. And thus it is that white porcelain, "blanc de Chine", of Te-hua, Fukien, and the blue-and-white ware of Ching-tê-chen, Kiangsi each still preserve a living tradition of 500 years. The famous green celadons of Chekiang and the brown and white Tz'u- chou wares, despite some shifting of locality and gradual falling off in the last few centuries may each claim a record of at least 1,000 years. K 2 It is true that certain names have come down to us such as the Chang brothers of Lung-ch'üan and the Wang family of Chang-tê (-fu), but these are the names of master craftsmen associated with wares rather than with individual pieces. It is even more typical of the Chinese tradition that some master potters who never signed a pot are known to posterity through posthumous deification. CRAFTSMANSHIP Chinese ceramic wares, often termed all together as "Chinese pottery" are classified by the Chinese under three broad headings. (1) wa ch'i or EARTHENWARE, glazed or unglazed, (2) t'ao ch'i or STONEWARE, usually glazed, (3) tz'u-ch'i or PORCELAIN, glazed, resonant and sometimes but not necessarily translucent. The Chinese at one time or another have been unexcelled craftsmen in all these fields. Simple coil and paddle methods, common in prehistoric times have never been entirely discarded. Conversely, the potter's wheel so closely associated with latter-day porcelain was known in very early times. Certainly rapid turning in the manufacture of pottery was practiced long before the first mil- lenium, B.C. Clay slip in one or more layers was used inadvertently or intentionally from earliest times. Methods of embellishment included polishing (like the so-called "glaze" of Greek ceramics), painting, incising, comb-marking, kneeding, embossing, reticulating, glazing, plain and crackled (or crazed), and enamelling. Natural effects were admired and cleverly controlled. The use of molds, including both ratrices and matrices, and slip casting were common processes at various times. The use of saggers in firing was common in the Sung Dynasty (960-1280 A.D.) and possibly much earlier. Few indeed are the ceramic processes that have not been practiced in China-and the influ- ence of her potters' art has been felt from time to time over all Asia, and has had tremendous influence on European ceramic products from the fifteenth century onwards. Indeed every piece of true porcelain the world over must be considered as possessing a Chinese ancestry. Not without reason is it known as chinaware. - BRICKS AND TILES. In the simplest category of ordinary earthenware is chuan wa (bricks and tiles or terra cotta) to which belongs much of the Great Wall itself, a large portion of this structure being built of hugh grey bricks. Inscriptions appear on enough of these to show their continual use for construction and repair over a period of at least 2000 years. Similar large bricks were normally used for the handsome mas- sive walls that still enclose most of the old cities of China. - Plain grey clay tiles, heavy and durable, form the most common roofing throughout most of modern China and their continued use can be demonstrated at least as far back as the Chou Dynasty (1122-249 B.C.), some extant examples bearing Chou-style ornament. Other architectural features frequently made of brick or ti`e are flooring, flagging and the walls of buildings and courtyards. K From tomb walls of the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-220 A.D.) and perhaps earlier, come hollow, rectangu- lar tiles as much as six feet long and typically bearing stamped or painted ornaments. High fired glazed roof tiles of the Yuan, Ming, and Ch'ing Dynasties are famous. Yellow tiles were reserved for imperial usage for buildings under imperial patronage, e.g., on the roofs of the "Forbidden Cities” of Pei-p'ing, K'ai-fêng, Nanking (no longer standing), and the Manchu capital, Fêng-t'ien (Moukden) and for the outer surfaces of the "iron" pagoda at K'ai-fêng and the so-called "porcelain" pagoda at Nanking (now de- stroyed). Other buildings such as the Temple of Heaven, Pei-p'ing, have roofs of blue tile; still others of green. Such roofs usually bear architectural ornaments of sacred, supernatural character. Typical are pairs of fire-eating dragon-fish facing each other from the opposite ends of ridgepoles, and repre- senting opposing natural forces in proper balance. Tile work, in relief, including the further colors white, black, and occasionally purple is found as in the Ming dragon screens of Pei-p'ing and Ta-t'ung (Shansi). PREHISTORIC WARES Remains of many types of red, black, grey and white earthenware, undreamed of before the 1920's, have been discovered over all northern China from Ching Hai (Kokonor) into Manchuria. Most dramatic to Western scholars is the Yang-shao pottery (with related P'an-shan and Ma-ch'ang groups), tentatively dated 3500-3000 B.C. Typical of these are large buff or reddish burial and storage pots, made by coil and paddle and often rapidly turned (perhaps wheel-made) and painted in red and black with formal reli- gious symbols, plus occasional naturalistic symbols such as cowrie shells. Human heads appear modelled on some covers. It compares favorably with similar neolithic pottery of Susa, Anau, and Tripolje (South Russia) and the Indus Valley as also with the pueblo pottery of the American South West. Also of great 3 087 PAINTED POT FROM KANSU Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm THE UNIVERSITY PRINTS BOSTON YANG-SHAO (PREHISTORIC) 4 importance are the black and grey groups, such as those found at Ch'êng-tzu-Yai, Shantung, related in some instances to the Yang-shao types but more frequently than the latter to recognizable Chinese bronze forms, e.g., hollow-legged tripods (li) and stem-cups (tou). Corded paddle marks are typi- cal as are clay ribbon appliqué and highly polished black slip. Some of this remarkable polished ware is as thin as porcelain (1/16"). Of scattered archaeological finds south of the Yangtze, notable are the polished black ware found at Lian-chu, near Hang-chou and grey wares paddle-marked with repeated square, losenge and "f" symbols, etc. from Lamma Island, Hongkong. These like many of the northern finds point to continuation into historic times. Most of the wares, north and south, have been found in association with artefacts of other materials such as stone and bronze. SHANG AND CHOU WARES Most distinctive of the Shang (-Yin) dynasty (1766-1122 B.C.) is a kaolinic white earthenware orna- mented with carved cicadas, dragons, t'ao t'ieh, etc. conveying deep concepts of life, death, and im- mortality in the same language of symbols and in the same style as those employed in the Shang ritual bronzes. These and cruder grey to reddish wares (carry-overs of prehistoric types) have been uncov- ered by Chinese Government excavations at Anyang, the site of the Shang capital. It seems likely that certain prehistoric wares (notably black and grey) carried on through Shang into Chou (1122-249 B.C.). The latter period saw the rise of glazed earthenware, the glaze perhaps first appearing on vessels through a natural process from wood-ash settling on the hot clay during firing. As the heat of the firing was increased through development of the kilns together with selection of natural clays high in kaolin, glazed stoneware was produced before the end of Chou. Berthold Laufer's "protoporcelain" so daringly postulated as a post-Han ware in 1917 may indeed not only be recognized as such but must be understood as having a pre-Han origin. - - - HAN WARES (206 B.C.-220 A.D.). Best known and originally common north of the Yangtze and also found in Korea was a lead-glazed earthenware, the body of which fired either grey or red and the glaze of which was usually a dark opaque green, patinating through burial to a light silvery hue. The shapes, appropriate to an essentially heavy ware, are sturdy. The ornaments typically molded in relief include lively hunting scenes with mountains, trees, clouds, dragons, tigers, bears, and mounted riders. Formal symbols are also found, particularly, as on Han bronzes, the t'ao t'i eh-and-ring signifying the Jaws of Death and the Way through it. Sacred and secular uses were met with such objects as grain jars, censers with hill- shaped covers (Po Shan lu), ladles, candlesticks, and, for funerary use, models of towers, farms, farm animals, and people. Examples in good condition of the originally common painted Han earthware are rare. Hence the Boston tiles with swift brush drawings of Han men and women in costume are of paramount interest. The protoporcelain which Laufer found rare in North China is comparatively plentiful in the South. A kaolinic stoneware with controlled ash glaze, it bespeaks a different background and other cultural environment. Typical embellishment includes "herringbone" or zoomorphic handles, wavy comb mark- ings and incised bird-headed clouds. A Han kiln-site, excavated by Olav Janse in Annam, produced wares fitting closely the cultural pat- tern south of the Yangtze. HAN TO TANG During the four post-Han and pre-T'ang centuries, the indigenous custom of making funerary objects persisted. Clay figurines (ming ch'i) were simply and admirably modelled and decorated with slip and and pigment, but ordinarily not glazed. Musicians, maidservants, domestic and miraculous animals, minor deities such as personifications of the zodiac signs, etc., continued to be made for burial over the very same period, curiously, that saw the development for aboveground use of an entirely different school of sculpture (in stone and bronze) devoted to Buddhist iconography. Constant in style but refresh- ingly different in their many types, these figures are generally assigned to the "Six Dynasties" or Wei period (386-589 A.D.). In general, knowledge of this period is very scant, aside from the above and the notable exception of Yüeh ware. S YÜEH WARE Thanks to investigations by Archibald Brankston in 1937 at an inundated kiln-site at Chiu-yen, near Hang-chou, it is known that Yeh-the first great porcelanous stoneware and first true celadon, indeed one of the most important of China's ceramic wares-was already being manufactured close to the end of Han. Through it, an early ceramic culture spreading from Chekiang through Fukien and Kwangtung to 5 HOUSE MODEL (Painted Pottery) Nelson Gallery, Kansas City TOMB FIGURE: YOUTH (Unglazed Clay) PAINTED TILE, DETAIL: MEN IN CONVERSATION Museum of Fine Arts, Boston HAN DYNASTY 206 B. C.-221 A. D. 6 Lamma Island, (Hongkong) and Annam, is linked to early Sung. Typical from the beginning are excellent wheel-thrown shapes and transparent thin green glaze in perfect bond with a compact light grey body. The product of deeply religious folk, Yüeh ware is rich in symbolism, the earlier sacred frog, bear, lion, sheep, t'ao-t'teh, fish, and sun symbols gradually giving way in popularity to dragon, phoenix, parrot, tortoise, duck, butterfly, lotus, etc. during T'ang and early Sung. Typical in the infinite variety of objects made were wine-pots and teapots, cups, bowls, basins, censers, candlesticks, bird-seed dishes, whistles, pillows and even tombstones. Distinctive of successive periods are reel-repeat bands and molded appliqué ornament, bird-headed spouts, square sockets for wooden handles, and swift needle-fine engraving sometimes combined with very low relief. At the great kiln-sites by the Shang- lin Hu (a lake near Yü-yao) are found all grades from coarse to delicate, evidence pointing to a flourish- ing activity during and after T'ang. Potsherds dated 978 A.D. indicate continued operation under the newly established Sung Dynasty. Others marked Nei, "Inner (Palace)", confirm for certain pieces at least reservation for imperial use. Known to connoisseurs as pi-se-yao ("secret color ware”) many pieces warrant the early descriptions: "misty autumn green", "like ice", "like jade", "like tender lotus leaves." Simpler Yüeh-like wares were also made in very early times near Foochow and Ch'êng-tu. Aside from exports abroad already noted, Yüeh potters emigrating to Korea profoundly affected the celadon of that country. S T'ANG WARES (618-906 A.D.) South of the Yangtze the green Yüeh ware was paramount, although according to the Ch'a Ching, "Book of Tea", some tea drinkers preferred a white ware from Hsing-chou, Chekiang. A highly por- celanous grey ware was produced near Ching-te-chen, Kiangsi. The north was supplied with numerous wares not classifiable by site. Funerary figures of people, horses, camels, pigs, ducks, guardians, etc., were usually lead-glazed in mixed colors: yellow, green and white, and rarely blue. More meticulously modelled and frequently more pretentious than those of Wei, they reflect the prosperousness of the era. Jars, vases and pots of the period exhibit as robust and noble shapes as ceramic art affords. Solid but neatly bevelled bases, full bodies, narrow necks, firm mouths and rims and well-made handles are typical. White and buff earthenwares glazed like the grave figurines, and white and grey stonewares bearing either transparent feldspathic (?) neutral or greenish glaze or opaque grey, white, black and brown glaze are characteristic. In one kind the black or brown glaze is relieved by large streaked milky-blue splashes. In nearly all wares the body clay and glaze were both generously used and often the only ornament is the natural running of the glaze. Ornate medallioned and appliqué examples reflect the existence also of cosmopolitan and exotic taste. A marbled ware of brown and white clays cleverly kneaded so as to produce different patterns, and bearing usually a neutral transparent glaze was also made. Buddhist emblems, particularly the lotus, were in constant use. During the post-T'ang "Five Dynasties" (906-960 A.D.), the most famous wares were Yüeh in the South and Ch'at in the North, the former flourishing under patronage of the Wu-Yueh kings, the latter under a single emperor, Shih Tsung (954-959 A.D.). Said to have been made at Chêng-chou in Honan, little is known of Ch'at beyond the tantalizing description: "blue as the sky after rain". SUNG WARES (960-1280). Heirs to the soundest of pottery traditions and all the secrets of T'ang, the master potters of Sung developed a number of wares that have never since been equalled. Their success depended on exploita- tion of the natural properties of clay and the natural effects of firing in conjunction with rare manual skill, an eye for subtle proportion and sound knowledge alike of good use and sophisticated symbolism. Despite the fame of the specific wares referred to below, it must be remembered that there were hun-. dreds of other wares that are still unknown or unidentifiable. The general standards were so high, how- ever, that the mere designation of a pot as "Sung-tz'u" (Sung ceramics) amongst potters is considered praise enough. Celadon from Lung-ch'üan ("Dragon Springs"), southern Chekiang, gradually supplanted Yüeh. This Lung-ch'üan ware has a dark to light grey or white body and a glaze varying from many rich green and bluish-green hues (clair de lune, sea-green, etc.) to extremes of grey and straw color. The glaze may be clear and transparent, with scattered bubbles, or dully translucent; it varies to the touch (an important consideration in Chinese use and connoisseurship) from smooth and glassy to unctious “like congealed lard," and tends to run or gather attractively. Normally, specimens are heavy, with incised, carved or appliqué ornament, and show a natural crackle or craze which darkens with age. Censers, large vases, plates, rice bowls are most typical. Two rare types attributed to the Chang brothers, Ko (for the elder) and Chang, or kinuta as the Japanese call it, were intentionally crackled and smooth un- crackled, respectively. Occasional brown-spotted Lung-ch'üan pieces are called by the Japanese term, - 7 JAR (Three-color Glaze) The Art Institute of Chicago 30 SEATED LADY (Three-color Glaze) Charles B. Hoyt Collection, Cambridge CUP RESEMBLING GREEK RHYTON Mrs. Walter Sedgwick Collection, London T'ANG DYNASTY 618-906 A. D. 8 Courtesy, Hentze LADY (Pottery) ex-Haase Collection, Paris WARRIOR (Pottery) Private Collection, Kansas City TOMB FIGURE: PRANCING HORSE Mr. and Mrs. H. V. Jones Collection, Kansas City MAN (Pottery) Royal Ontario Museum of Archaeology, Toronto 9 TOMB FIGURE: LOADED CAMEL Charles B. Hoyt Collection, Cambridge PLATE (Three-color Glaze) The Art Institute of Chicago AMPHORA VASE Charles B. Hoyt Collection, Cambridge 10 VASE, LUNG-CH'UAN WARE The Art Institute of Chicago SUNG DYNASTY 960-1279 A. D. BOWL, YUEH WARE Metropolitan Museum, New York SUNG DYNASTY (960-1279 A. D.) OR EARLIER 11 BOWL, TING WARE Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 12 tobi seiji. ly burns red. The Lung-ch'üan body when exposed, due to presence of ferric or ferrous oxide, typical- Hence the term "iron foot" for unglazed bases. A similar, perhaps more plebian ware, "northern celadon," much of it made in exquisite molds, comes from Honan, which also produced the famous Ju, a much disputed collector's item. Two official celadons, both with controlled crackle, were "northern kuan" made at K'ai-feng, geniune specimens being rare, and "southern kuan" made after 1127 when Hang-chou became the cap- ital. Kiln-sites there reveal an unrivalled ware of astonishing thinness of body, thickness of glaze and subtlety of potting-obviously catering to imperial taste. The body may be white but frequently is very dark; the glaze covers a wide range of soft greys, blue-greys and greens, and rarely straw color. Ob- jects were sometimes ground down after biscuit firing and fired several times to increase thickness of glaze and size of crackle spacing. The famous white Ting ware made near Ting-chou, (Ting-hsien), Hopei, exemplifies a usual con- dition prevailing at Sung potteries, being produced in various grades from coarse to fine so as to meet different uses and different pocketbooks. The poorest peasant in Sung China could afford wares that are priceless today. Pai Ting is a creamy white translucent and resonant porcelain; fen Ting, is greyer and sturdier; t'u Ting, is frankly heavier with a dark grey body dipped in white slip and a transparent glaze. The ware lent itself to the most delicate linear and comb-marked under-glaze orna- ment which took the form of floral symbols, ducks and reeds, etc. The name Ting was early asso- ciated with white Kiangsi wares, nicknamed nan Ting, or "southern Ting". White and off-white por- celain types were found by Brankston both near Ching-te-chen and at the Yung-ho site near Chi-an(-fu). G - Of two Ho-pei kiln sites investigated by Prof. Fujio Koyama near Ting-chou in 1941, one at Chien- tzu-ts'un evidently produced the more sophisticated pieces, while another at Yen-shan-ts'un seems to have specialized in coarser types. Beside the white examples,fine black and brown shards were found by him at the former site, and fragments of white-rimmed black bowls at the latter, thus our concept of the term, "Ting" has been greatly expanded. Furthermore these finds at once dramatically under- mine the long accepted Western term "Honan temmoku” and confirm Chinese tradition with respect to Black Ting and "Red" Ting. Much of the northern ware, especially t'u Ting, has been excavated at Chü-lu-hsien, a market town on the Grand Canal wiped out by flood in 1108. Also recovered from Chü-lu-hsien were many examples of Tz'u-chou ("Porcelain Prefecture") ware, made at the town of that name in Hopei, in which white, brown, and black slip and glaze were com- bined in a number of ways with the white and buff body clays. Techniques include carving through one clay, light or dark, to reveal another, both being covered with transparent glaze. Underglaze brown painting-bamboo sprigs, vines, peony, lotus, birds, animals, etc.-is in character with brushwork of the great Sung painters. Storage jars, tall-necked vases and pillows are well-known types. Occasional examples were covered, with a transparent garish blue or green glaze. Rare though generally poor examples of late Sung to Yuan (1280-1368 A.D.) bear overglaze enamel painting in red, green and yellow. The brown-and-white stock-in-trade, however, has had continued manufacture to modern times. From Chün-chou came Chin ware in two grades, not always sharply distinguishable: (1) tz'u t'at or "porcelain body" and (2) sha t'at or "sandy (coarse) body", the glaze of which is typically an opaque robin's-egg blue, plain or marked with crimson, pink, or strawberry splashes. Many other variations including purple and grey-green are known in this glaze which is usually thick, sometimes streaked, and may exhibit an "orange-peel" or "chicken-skin" texture on the surface--or equally ad- mired "earthworm tracks", vestiges of cracks in congealing immature glaze. Too heavy in color for most Chinese, the ware is, nevertheless, the pride of many a collector and the despair of many a potter who would copy it. Flower-pots numbered according to size, bulb-bowls, censers, vases and rice bowls are typical products. - In the Ching-tê-chen area in Kiangsi, the "shadowy blue” ying-ch'ing porcelain was made alike in thinness and in ornament to Ting, but with more granular body and glassier glaze. Freehand and molded ornament were both employed-as with Ting -for bowls and saucers (often silver rimmed) and many other objects. The color range includes grey and white, as well as many watery shades of blue. One of the most renowned wares, at least among the tea drinkers of China and Japan, and one of the humblest, was Chien. This ware is known also by the Japanese name temmoku from association of a single bowl brought to Japan from the sacred Buddhist mountain, T'ien-mu-Shan in Chekiang. Excavations in 1935 proved that it was made near the village of Shui-chi rather than at either Chien-yang or Chien- ning (as many accounts have it) in northern Fukien. Produced in tea-growing hills, it apparently was a simple local product that found favor and fame abroad. It has a porous grey to black body and a glaze that may be plain black or brown or it may show streaked effects over black called "hare's fur” and "partridge feather," "oil spot," etc., gathering in a thick welt or "tear drops" short of the base. Even in Sung, it was imitated at the Yung-ho kilns near Chi-an(-fu), Kiangsi where embellishment was added by brush, leaf or stencil to a brown glazed white body. It is called, for convenience, “Kiangsi temmoku". - 13 VASE, KUAN WARE Freer Gallery of Art, Washington VASE, KO WARE Sir Percival David Collection SUNG DYNASTY 960-1279 A. D. 14 BULB BOWL, CHUN WARE BOWL, CHIEN WARE Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 15 BOWL, YING CH'ING TYPE Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 16 VASE WITH FIGURES OF MEN, TZ'U CHOU WARE Charles B. Hoyt Collection, Cambridge VASE WITH DRAGON DESIGN, TZ'U CHOU WARE Nelson Gallery, Kansas City 17 Copyright reserved COVERED JAR WITH FLORAL DESIGN, TZ'U CHOU WARE Sir Percival David Collection, London 18 "Northern temmoku" is the long used Western term for various black and brown wares of Honan and Hopei, in which white and buff bodies, painted ornament (e.g., brown over black) and "oil spot" effects predominate. Actually, heavy specimens may often be safely attributed to Tz'ǎ-chou and thin plain examples, rightly or wrongly, are likely to be called "black Ting." The coming of the Mongols and the establishment of the Yuan dynasty (1280-1368) had little effect on the potter's art in China-and most of the Sung wares continued in production. The problematical Shu fu palace ware, a faintly bluish white porcelain, is one of the few specifically Yuan dynasty works. Of importance to ceramics outside of China was a visit of King Rama Kamheng of Siam (Thai) to Kublai Khan, the first Mongol occupant of the Dragon Throne. One of the results of this visit was the emigration of several hundred potters to Siam. Informal excavations at Sawankalok and Sukotai show obvious influence of China particularly with respect to the celadons. MING WARES (1368-1644) Under patronage of the Ming emperors the long maturing porcelain tradition received tremendous impetus. With inexhaustible supplies of the essential elements in porcelain, kaolin (china clay), and petuntse (china stone) at hand, and with a slow swing in the people's tastes to white porcelain, the wares of Ching-tê-chen and lesser sites soon overshadowed all the grand wares of Sung. Unfortunately, rejecting the grey clays eliminated one of the important visual effects of so many of the Sung wares, that of toning down the color of the glazes over them. Furthermore, what some, anciently or modernly, might hold to be "impurities" in the dark clays of Sung, e.g. presence of iron in Lung-ch'üan and Chien, were as often as not the source of the color of the glaze itself. Thus, "purification" of the body and glaze left white wares that could be and were developed as white monochromes on the one hand or as white wares decorated by adding color. Some Sung wares survived and continued to flourish, notably the reliable solid durable celadon made at Lung-ch'üan and as time went on in other places in the district. Some examples can indeed be iden- tified as "Yuan" or "Ming" and even "Ching" which have so maintained their integrity as to be easily recognizable as in the direct Sung tradition. Many others exhibit careless or novel shapes, whiter bodies and thinner weaker greens, and a general falling away from the old standards. Many conscious reconstructions of Sung types were made, entailing such effects as simulating in brush-work the natural “iron foot" of Sung! The Tz'u-chou situation is analagous to that of Lung-ch'üan. The old tradition lived, though old secrets were sometimes forgotten in following new trends. The ornament tended to increase in meticu- lousness, so that both the slap-dash boldness and the finesse of the earlier ornaments and shapes were too often lost. Some excellent embellishment in two or more shades of brown is found in Yuan and Ming. White monochrome porcelains, mentioned by travellers such as Ibn Batuta as early as the T'ang dynasty, have continued manufacture in one place or another to the present day. A collection of white wares alone would be of great interest and variety. Most delicate of the Ming white wares was that made for imperial use during the Yung-Lo period (1403-1424) and known, because of its thinness as t'o t'at, "bodiless" or as "eggshell" porcelain. The decoration is unnoticeable unless held up to the light. Also famous in Ming times, and remarkable for continuation with little or no change to the pres- ent,is the white Tê-hua made in the village of that name in Fukien. Known alternatively as "Hinghwa" ware and as white Chien ware (not to be confused with black Sung Chien) it became the rage of early European collectors and many of the finest specimens known as blanc-de-Chine are to be found in France. Aside from all sorts of household utensils and scholars' desk pieces such as brush-holders, the ware is famous for admirably modelled figures. These include Buddhist images of Kuan-yin (God- dess of Mercy), "Kuan Lao-yeh" (God of War), Mt-lo-fo (Maitreya) and Taoist images of the pa hsien (Eight Imortals) all in sizes appropriate to household shrines. Also made were temple paraphernalia such as three legged incense-burners and vases in the shape of the sacred double gourd and traditional decorative objects like imitation rhinosceros-horn cups ornamented with plum blossoms. All these items are of a smooth milky or ivory white, thin or thick, heavy or delicate, solid or hollow according to requirement, but always of high-grade porcelain. Malcolm Farley, who visited Te-hua with a party from Foochow in 1935 also gathered there many potsherds of blue-and-white ware. Blue-and-white porcelain known in Yuan, and probably made as early as Sung, eventually came to rival and finally overtake celadon as the standard household ware all over China. Special interest was shown by the Ming emperors who, one after another, beginning with T'ai Tsu of the Hung Wu period (1368-1398), patronized Ching-tê-chen. Specimens attributed to the first emperor must be accepted with reserve, though collectors are on safer ground with respect to the famous blue-and-whites of the Yung Lo (1403-24), Hsuan Tê (1426-35) Ch'êng Hua (1465-87), Hung-Chih (1488-1505) and laterreigns. The blue employed for underglaze decoration is cobalt oxide, a mineral that must be ground to a fine powder and mixed with water before application with the brush. A small amount goes a long way 19 and painting on the "thirsty" clay body requires speed and control. The Yung Lo blues are distinctively very dark ("deep kingfisher" to smoky black) with a tendency to drift attractively like wisps of smoke into the clear glaze. This blue was undoubtedly the su-ni-p'o ch'ing or "Mahommedan blue" said to have been imported from Persia. Careful firing is an essential part of the process. The clear deep quality of the Hsüan Tê blues set a standard for all later times. In contrast to this, the native color, dull grey-blue to blue-black-not without an appeal of its own-is easy to distinguish. The latter is found in all the blue-and-whites of Wan Li (1573-1619) and other times when the foreign supply was cut off. The types of ornament in blue-and-white are always more detailed and elaborate and often more labored than in Sung wares-yet alike in the neverfailing symbolic purpose. Flowers, vines, fish, legendary scenes and, on the imperial pieces, the 5-clawed dragons abound. Imperial "Ming yellow" (Hsüan Tê, Ch'êng Hua, Chêng Tê (1506-1521) and Chia Ching (1522-1566), the most famous of the Ming monochromes, is a white porcelain in which a coat of yellow glaze was applied over a colorless glaze before firing-the under-side being left white and bearing, in Mahomme- dan blue, the reign name enclosed in a double circle. The yellow, near lemon but never greenish, is none other than the symbolic color of the Son of Heaven, i.e. the color of the Sun, as source of life- giving power brought down to earth in the person of the emperor. Other Ming monochromes, also comparatively rare, include black, copper-red and iron-red, cobalt blues, aubergine and apple-green. The latter was used often over a crackled glaze. San-ts'at, "3-color", is the name given to handsome 'heavy pots decorated in low-fired glazes laid on rather crudely in areas outlined in threads of clay, the technique being somewhat like cloisonné. This is the Ming development of the Han-T'ang lead glaze tradition. Green, yellow, aubergine, dark blue, turquoise and transparent (for white) are the colors employed, often more than three at a time. Wu-ts'al, “5-color", is an elastic term for many-colored enamelled wares too numerous to de- scribe in detail. The tendency, as the dynasty advanced, seems to have been to develop more mixtures and arrangements of colors, including gold, and more clever technical devices till the resultant objects call to mind a flower garden, a piece of embroidery or a work in cloisonné--obliterating all suggestion of the potter's art which, of course, is always there underneath. Even the most gaudy specimens, how- ever may be taken as documents of a superb and flourishing culture. The elements of the aesthetically dazzling ornaments were always meaningful symbols. Earthenware objects for garden, desk, tea-table, and nursery were manufactured from the 16th century at I-hsing, Kiangsu, and at Fatshan near Canton. The significance of these wares, glazed sparingly if at all, is that they thrived in the heyday of brilliant glazes relying for their color appeal on the polished surface of common black, brown and yellow clays. - CH'ING WARES (1644-1911) The Manchus, succeeding to a native dynasty, followed the splendid precedent of the Mongols in main- taining the cultural traditions of the conquered country. Almost every ceramic ware of Ming had a successor and nearly every ware of Sung was copied. It was a prolific era in which craftsmen became more and more involved in mass production and catered to an increasing popular demand for curiosities. Modern potters rightly marvel at the technical achievements of Ch'ing. This was the age which pro- duced, with equal virtuosity, tiny snuff-bottles or porcelain vases big enough to hold a man. There were indeed certain remarkable developments, encouraged by imperial patronage particularly during the three great reigns of K'ang Hsi (1662-1723), Yung Chêng (1723-1736) and Ch'ien Lung (1736-1796). From the K'ang Hsi reign come the finest "ox-blood" or "crushed ruby red” Lang-yao and the re- lated pink "peach-bloom", as well as "apple-green", "mirror-black" and many other monochromes. Ordinary ginger-jars, decorated with well drawn prunus blossoms against crudely painted solid cobalt background brought ridiculous prices in the West. Other curious fads of the 18th and 19th century Western collectors were the clumsy and gaudy vases grouped under their predominating color: famille vert, famille rose, famille noire, etc. Chinese and Japanese collectors enjoying color in smaller doses have preferred "tea-dust" glaze with its subtle hues as many as the flavors of the tea leaf. In addition to the decorative use of the familiar old symbols, there is, in the painted ornament of household wares-blue-and-white predominating—a mine of folklore material. Pretty scenes and popular tales veil an inner wealth of deep metaphysical content. In the so-called "love-chase pattern," for example, in which the huntsman, riding with his beloved on one horse, and shooting downward slays a rabbit, two symbols of the flesh are involved. The lower symbol (the rabbit standing for carnality) is destroyed by virtue of the hunter's aim together with the balance maintained on the higher symbol (the horse standing for the flesh as vehicle, versus target). In modern China, despite terrific upheavals and set-backs, ceramic wares of all sorts are made in every province, with Ching-tê-chen still holding the leadership. Obtainable in the open market are 20 temple images and censers, toys and desk ornaments, vases, winejars, pillows, deep oval Soochow bath-tubs, fertilizer cisterns, cups bowls, soup-spoons and fish plates--all evidence that the ceramic traditions continue to be very much alive. October 1, 1947 University of Michigan PAINTED POTTERY VESSEL: DETAIL Hashimoto Kansetsu Collection, Kyoto TRE ATE 2001 EVOR BRINKLEY, F., China (Vol. IX, London 1906) BURTON, W., A General History of Porcelain, Vol. I., (London 1921) BUSHELL, S. W., Chinese Porcelain before the Present Dynasty (Peking 1886) -- Oriental Ceramic Art (Walters Collection, New York 1891) Chinese Art (London 1909) BIBLIOGRAPHY Description of Chinese Pottery and Porcelain (a translation of the T'ao shuo, Oxford 1910) -- Porcelain of Different Dynasties (Trans. of Hsiang Yuan-p'ien, Album., Oxford 1908) PELLIOT, P., Le Pretendu Album des Porcelaines de Hiang Yuan - pien (T’oung Pao, Vol. XXXII, 1, Leiden 1936) - DILLON, E., Porcelain (New York) FRANKS, A. W., Cagalogue of a Collection of Oriental Porcelain and Pottery (London 1879) GRANDIDIER, E., La Ceramique Chinoise (Paris 1894) GULLAND, W. G., Chinese Porcelain (London 1902) HYDE, J. A. L., Oriental Lowestoft (New York 1936) HIPPISLEY, A. E., The Ceramic Art in China (Report of National Museum 1888) HIRTH, F., Ancient Porcelain (1888) MEYER, A. B., Lung Ch'uan Yao (Berlin 1889) LAUFER, BERTHOLD, Chinese Pottery of the Han Dynasty (Leyden 1900) -- Chinese Clay Figures (Chicago 1914) Beginnings of Porcelain in China (1917) COLE, F. C., Chinese Pottery in the Philippines (Chicago 1912) BEYER, H. O., New Data on Chinese and Siamese Ceramic Wares of the 14th and 15th Centuries (Philippine Magazine, Vol. 27, Manila 1930) HOBSON, R. L., Chinese Pottery and Porcelain (1915) -- Wares of the Ming Dynasty (1923) - -- Later Ceramic Wares of China (1925) Handbook of the Pottery and Porcelain of the Far East (1937) Chinese, Corean and Persian Pottery in the Eumorfopolous Collection (6 Volumes, 1925-28) -- A Catalogue of Chinese Pottery and Porcelain in the Collection of Sir Percival David, Bart. (London 1943) -- Port Sunlight, England--Lady Lever Art Gallery HOBSON and HETHERINGTON, Art of the Chinese Potter (1923) HETHERINGTON, A. L., Early Ceramic Wares of China (1922 and 1924) -- Chinese Glazes (New York 1937) ANDERSON, J. G., Children of the Yellow Earth PALMGREN, N., Kansu Mortuary Urns. (Palaeontologia Sinica Ser. D., Vol. III, fasc. 1, 1934) HO TIEN - SHIH, The Prehistoric Site in the Black Earthen-wares in Lian-Chu District, Hangchow (Shanghai 1937) WU, G. D., Prehistoric Pottery in China (London 1938) CREEL, H. G., The Birth of China (London 1936) WHITE, W. C., Tomb Tile Pictures of Ancient China (Toronto 1939) 21 BOSCH - REITZ, S. C., (and Williams, R. S.), Catalogue of an Exhibition of Early Chinese Pottery and Sculpture (New York 1916) ORIENTAL CERAMIC SOCIETY, Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society (London 1921....) INSTITUTE OF ORIENTAL CERAMICS (TOKYO) Oriental Ceramics (1929……..) BALLOT, M. J. and DE VASSELOT, J. J., Chinese Ceramics (Louvre Museum, Paris 1922) HANNOVER, E., Pottery and Porcelain (Vol. II, The Far East, London 1925) SARRE, FT., Die Keramic von Samarra (Berlin 1925) HENTZE, C., Chinese Tomb Figures (London 1928) thing GESELLSCHAFT FÜR OSTASIATISCHE KUNST, Chinesische Kunst (Berlin 1929) CHINESE GOVERNMENT, Illustrated Catalogue of Chinese Government Exhibits for London (Shanghai, 1935, Vol. I and II) ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS, INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION OF CHINESE ART (1935-36) 22 ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS, A Commemorative Catalogue (London 1935-36) ASHTON, L. and GRAY, B., Chinese Art (London 1935) BLUETT, E. G., Ming and Ch'ing Porcelains (London 1933) BRANKSTON; A. D., Early Ming Ware of Chingtechen (Peking 1938) PLUMER, J. M., The Place of Origin of Chien Ware (The Illustrated London News, October 26, 1936) The Place of Origin of Yüeh Ware (The Illustrated London News, March 13, March 20, 1937) -- The Humble Ware of Chien (Magazine of Art, March 1937) (Washington) -- The Potter's Art at Cleveland (Tz'u-chou Ware) (Magazine of Art, April 1940) (Washington) Certain Celadon Potsherds from Samarra Traced to Their Source (Ars Islamica, Vol. IV, 1937) FOSTER, J. A., Ching the Potter (Bulletin of the American Ceramic Society, Vol., No. 12, December 1938) -- CHEN WAN LI, Yüeh Ch'i T'u Lu (Description of Yüeh Ware, Shanghai 1937) CHEN CHAO MING, Symbolism in Chinese Porcelain Decoration (Bulletin of the American Ceramic Society, Vol. 20, No. 6, June 1941) COX, W. E., Pottery and Porcelain (Vol. I and II, New York 1944) LEACH, B., A Potter's Book (London 1940) The foregoing text is substantially as prepared for the Encyclopedia Americana and is published here with permission of the editor. In connection with the text, the reader is referred to University Prints, Nos. ◊ 86-8, 1374, 168, 184, 199-202, 243-9. ال The pen and ink sketch of the crane is after the slip ornament on a large Tz'i-chou rice bowl in the Kelekian collection. It is a symbol for the IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. ¦ DO NOT REMOVE OR MUTILATE CARD ! ¿ M Le ܀ *** 繼 ​*. C A ܐ ܀ T NOV Spr THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN 1901 JUN 1 Pris AS 1902 i 2006 DATE DUE * ܝܐ ܀ [add] JUS HO 3 9015 01685 0268 * *. 11 ܠܢ ܀ M. UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN TO 4. *** • P **** **** I + 1. ว ކ : }