FOOTNOTES:
[1] In the Kuei ch´ien chih quoted in the T´ao lu, bk. ix., fol. 10.
[4] In the Ai jih t´ang ch´ao, quoted in the T´ao lu, bk. ix., fol. 18 verso.
[5] The pi sê, or "secret colour," is used as a general term for glazes of the celadon type, among which the writer in question includes all the celebrated wares of antiquity from the T´ang "green (ts´ui) of a thousand hills," the Yüeh ware, the Ch´ai "blue (ch´ing) of the sky after rain," to the Sung Ju, Kuan, Ko, Tung–ch´ing, and Lung–ch´üan wares.
[6] e.g. the K´ao Kung chi, a relic of the Chou dynasty (1122–256 B. C.).
[7] T´ao shuo, bk. ii., fol. 1. See S.W. Bushell, Chinese Pottery and Porcelain, being a translation of the T´ao shuo, Oxford, 1910, p. 34.
[8] A work of the fifth century B. C., quoted in the Ching–tê Chên T´ao lu, bk. ix., fol. 1.
[9] Chinese Pottery of the Han Dynasty, Leyden, 1909, pp. 10–14.
[10] Quoted in the Ching–tê Chên T´ao lu, bk. ix. fol. 1.
[11] Loc. cit.
[13] See Hirth, China and the Roman Orient.
[14] Berthold Laufer, Jade, Field Museum of Natural History, Publication 154, Anthropological Series, vol. x., Chicago, 1912, pp. 232 and 233.
[15] Occasionally of potters.
[16] La Sculpture sur pierre en Chine au temps des deux dynasties Han, Paris, 1893. A few of these are figured by Bushell in Chinese Art, vol. i. See also Chavannes, Mission archéologique dans la Chine septentrionale, Paris, 1909.
[17] If geological arguments could be accepted at their face value, a vase found at Chi–ning Chou, in Shantung, would go far to prove the existence of a highly sophisticated glazed pottery at a date not less than 500 years B. C. The find is described and illustrated in the Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, Jahrg. 43, 1911, p. 153, by Herr Ernst Börschmann. The vase, which is 10 cm. high, is of globular form, with a short straight neck and two loop handles. It is of hard buff ware, with a chocolate brown glaze with purplish reflexions of a metallic appearance, and the glaze covers only the upper part of the exterior and ends in an uneven line with drops. One would say Sung or possibly T'ang, and of the type associated with the name Chien yao. This pot was found not in a tomb, but in the undisturbed earth at a depth of seven metres, by a German architect, while sinking a well; and a reasoned case from the stratification of the soil is made out to prove that it must have at least an antiquity of twenty–four hundred years. It is, however, proverbial that geological arguments applied to relatively modern archæology lead to results more startling than correct; and I refuse to accept this solitary specimen as evidence to upset the whole theory of the evolution of Chinese pottery. For it must do nothing less. This piece is of a style which is at present unknown before the T'ang dynasty. It has nothing in common with Han pottery as we know it, still less with Chou, and to accept its Chou date would be to believe that an advanced style of manufacture was in use 500 years B. C., that it was forgotten again for some twelve centuries, and then reappeared in precisely the same form. Fukien white porcelain seals have been found in an Irish bog in positions from which geologists might infer a colossal antiquity, but the history of porcelain has not been disturbed on that account; and I cannot help thinking that this strange phenomenon at Chi–ning Chou must be regarded in much the same light.
[18] Berthold Laufer, Pottery of the Han Dynasty, Leyden, 1908.
[19] Laufer seems to have mistaken it for the beginning of the regular Chinese crackle (see op. cit., p. 8). The Han green glaze contains a large proportion of lead oxide and is coloured with oxide of copper.
[20] See Bushell, Chinese Pottery and Porcelain, p. 96. "In the tomb of the Empress Tao, consort of Wu Ti (140–85 B. C.) there was found one lac–black earthenware dish."
[21] One of these, in the form of a small roller, by which a continuous pattern could be impressed, is figured by Laufer, op. cit. Plate xxxvi.
[22] See Burlington Magazine, December, 1913, where it is published with a note on the inscription by F.S. Kershaw.
[23] Burial Customs in Szechuan, Journal of the North–China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. xli., 1910, p. 58, etc.
[24] A very large series of Han sepulchral pottery, including most of the known types, is in the Field Museum, Chicago; but most of our large museums possess specimens enough to give a good idea of the ware.
[25] Bk. ix., p. 3, quoting the Chêng tzŭ t´ung, which in turn quotes the Han Shu, or Han Histories. Presumably this is the Nan Shan near Lung Chou, in Shensi.
[26] Fragments of this ware which were brought back by the Grünwedel expedition in 1903 are in the Museum für Völkerkunde, in Berlin.
[27] See Bushell, op. cit., p. 97.
[28] . See also Bushell's translation of the T´ao shuo, pp. 97 and 98.
[29] Tu Yü, in his "Verses upon Tea." See T´ao shuo, Bushell's translation, p. 98. The words used are Ch´i tsê t´ao chien for which Bushell has given the free and rather misleading version, "Select cups of fine porcelain."
[30] tz´ŭ 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.)
[31] J.J.M. de Groot, The Religious System of China. Leyden, 1894, vol. ii., p. 383.
[32] Loc. cit., p. 807.
[33] Loc. cit., p. 808.
[34] De Groot, loc. cit., p. 401.
[35] Loc. cit., p. 696.
[36] Loc. cit., p. 808.
[37] De Groot, loc. cit., p. 809.
[38] De Groot, loc. cit., p. 717.
[39] Loc. cit., p. 718.
[40] Who visited China about 1280.
[41] No doubt this mortuary pottery was made locally to supply local needs, and there is no occasion to refer it to any of the better known pottery centres, though we do find mention of an imperial order for sepulchral ware sent to the potters at Hsin–p´ing (the old name for the district town of Ching–tê Chên) in the T´ang dynasty. See T´ao lu, bk. viii., fol. 2, quoting from the Hsiang ling ming huan chih.
[42] See A Glossary of Reference on Subjects Connected with the Far East, by H.A. Giles, Shanghai, 1900. "The practice among Chinese women of cramping the feet is said by some to have originated about 970 A. D. with Yao Niang, concubine of the pretender Li Yü. The lady wished to make her feet like the new moon. Others say that it was introduced by Pan Fei, the favourite of the last monarch of the Ch´i dynasty, 501 A. D."
[43] See the Toyei Shuko (Illustrated Catalogue of the ancient Imperial Treasure called Shoso–in, by Omura Seigai, Tokyo, 1910), Nos. 154, 155 and 156.
[44] Another common characteristic of the T'ang base is a central ring, or one or two concentric circles incised on the wheel.
[45] Laufer (Jade, p. 247) sounds a note of warning about the reconstruction of many of the T'ang figures. They were very frequently broken in the course of excavation, and when a head was missing its place was commonly supplied from another find. Another and more serious warning is given by F. Perzynski in the Ostasiatischer Zeitschrift, January to April, 1914, p. 464, in an article describing forgeries of coloured T'ang figures, and vases and ewers with mottled green and yellow glazes, in Honan Fu.
[46] Ruins of Desert Cathay, vol. ii., p, 195. Similarly bowls with spotted glaze are indicated in several of the silk pictures found by Sir Aurel Stein at Tun–huang, which are temporarily exhibited in the King Edward VII. galleries in the British Museum.
[47] Fragments of similarly glazed ware were discovered by Sir Aurel Stein on sites in Turfan, which were supposed to be of T'ang date (see p. 134).
[48] In a paper by Sir C. Hercules Read in the fifteenth number of Man, a publication of the Anthropological Institute.
[50] See A.W. Bahr, Old Chinese Porcelain and Works of Art in China, Plate IV.
[52] Ruins of Desert Cathay, vol. 11., fig. 197.
[53] Mr. C.L. Freer has in his collection in Detroit a vase of hard reddish ware with a freely drawn lotus design in brown under a pale green glaze, with parts of the flower in dry reddish brown slip or pigment over the glaze. It has the characteristic T´ang base and appears to belong to that period.
[54] The small rosettes which commonly occur In the inlaid Corean designs recall these stamped T´ang patterns. Indeed the analogy between the Corean patterns in general and those found on T´ang pottery is most significant.
[55] It is now in the collection of Mrs. Potter Palmer.
[56] Yesdijird III., after his overthrow by the Arabs In 641, fled to Merv, and there appealed for aid to the Chinese Emperor. He does not appear to have fled for refuge to China, as has been sometimes asserted.
[57] The classical prototype is seen in a vase In the Fourth Vase Room (Case C) in the British Museum, on which we find two similar figures in relief surrounded by a grape vine scroll.
[58] Since writing the above note my attention has been drawn to a delightful article in the Neue Rundschau (Oct., 1913, p. 1427) by F. Perzynski, entitled Jagd auf Götter. Mr. Perzynski describes his hazardous journey to an almost inaccessible cave temple on a mountain top near Ichou in Chihli, and there is little doubt that this is the place from which our wonderful figure came. He speaks of the hill as the Acthlohanberg, implying a tradition of eight of these figures of Lohan, which had apparently been concealed in this and other caverns for safety during a period of iconoclasm, such as occurred in the ninth and the thirteenth centuries, when thousands of Buddhist shrines were wrecked. He found the shrine bare of the Lohan, except for a few fragments. The rest had been pillaged, and several of the figures had evidently been broken in the attempt to remove them through the narrow aperture of the caves, or to conceal them afterwards. Parts of them, and a sadly damaged Lohan, were actually shown to him in the neighbourhood; and he afterwards succeeded in obtaining a complete figure and a torso, which were exhibited by him in Berlin. On the altar of the shrine he found an incense burner of glazed ware, which he attributed to the Yüan dynasty, and there was a tablet recording the restoration of the altar in the reign of Chêng Tê (early sixteenth century). It is interesting to note that Mr. Perzynski assumed at once that these figures are of T´ang date. Incidentally, he mentions a visit to a hill which he calls the Kuanyinberg, where a cavern temple exists containing the remains of a colossal statue of Kuanyin. It is now broken, but Mr. Perzynski saw it standing in its enormous stature of three metres high, to which must be added a stand a metre high and two in width. This figure was originally in glazed pottery, possibly also of the T´ang period, but a great part of it had been restored in wood and plaster in the seventeenth century.
[59] See Japanese Temples and their Treasures, by Shiba–junrokuro, with translations by Mr. Langdon Warner, Tokyo, Shimbi Shoin, 1910, vol. ii., nos. 238, 268, and 300.
[60] .
[62] , sometimes written .
[63] ts´ui sê. Ts´ui is the colour of "a bird with blue–green feathers: a kingfisher" (Giles), and it seems to have been used indifferently to express a bluish green colour and greenish blue like turquoise. In Lu Kuei–mêng's poem it suggests the colour of distant hills. A passage in a seventeenth–century work, the Ch´i sung t´ang shih hsiao lu (quoted in the T´ao lu, bk. ix., fol. 8), seems to imply that there were lustrous reflections in the glaze of some of the Yüeh wares. It runs, "Yüeh yao cups with small feet are of the light green (ch´ing) of the chestnut husk; when turned sideways they are the colour of emerald green jade (fei ts´ui)."
[66] See T´ao shuo, bk. ii., fol. 5 recto, quoting the Sung work, Kao chai man lu, and T´ao lu, bk. ix., fol. 9, quoting a twelfth–century work, the Ch´ing pi tsa chih, "The pi sê vessels were originally the wares offered daily to the house of Ch´ien when it ruled over the country. No subject was allowed to have them. That is why they were called pi sê."
[67] Bk. v., fol. 4 recto.
[68] See T´ao shuo, bk. ii., fol. 5 verso.
[70] See ch. vi.
[71] Bk. vii., fol. 13 recto.
[72] T´ang kuo shih pu, quoted in the T´ao shuo; see Bushell's translation (Chinese Pottery and Porcelain), p. 36. It is worthy of note that Hsing Chou was in the same district as Tz´ŭ Chou, which has long been celebrated for its pottery. See p. 101.
[73] As stated in Yo fu tsa lu, a tenth–century work on music, quoted in the T´ao shuo, bk. ii., fol. 4 recto. Twelve cups were used, and they were sometimes marked with numerals.
[74] Not to be confused with the more celebrated Ting Chou in Chihli.
[75] ho , a coarse cloth or serge, used to suggest a brownish tint; cf. sê ho ju t´ung = colour ho like copper.
[76] As quoted in the T´ao lu (see Julien, p. 5). The reference does not appear in the British Museum copy of the Ko ku yao lun.
[77] Quoted in the T´ao shuo, bk. ii., fol. 5 recto, and bk. v., fol. 3 recto.
[78] Ku Ying–t´ai in the Po wu yao lan, published in the T´ien Ch´i period (1621–1627).
[79] By Ts´ao–chao in 1387; republished in a revised and enlarged edition by Wang–tso in 1459.
[80] In the T´ao shuo, bk. ii., fol. 5 verso.
[81] yü kuo t´ien ch´ing yün p´o ch´u chê. It will be observed that the colour word used is ch´ing, which has the meaning of blue or green, indifferently.
[82] Chang Ying–wên, in the Ch´ing pi tsang, written at the end of the sixteenth century.
[83] In the Ju shih we wên, quoted in the T´ao lu, bk. ix., fol. 19, where we are told that "merchants bring fragments of Ch´ai ware to sell for 100 ounces of silver. They say that if inlaid in the helmet at the approach of battle, they are able to turn aside the fire implements (huo ch´i)."
[84] For example, in the Li t´a k´an k´ao ku ou pien, a modern work, we find: "As to what they call at present Yüan and Chün wares, these in material, colour, sound, and brilliancy are similar to Ch´ai yao, but they differ in thickness, and are perhaps the common folk's imitation wares, and not the Imperial Shih Tsung ware. But we are not yet able to say. If the ware has sky blue colour, clear and brilliant on a coarse yellow brick–earth body, and rings like bronze, it must be Ch´ai ware. As to Chün ware ... the specimens have in every case red colour and variegated surface...."
[87] I have seen, for instance, a remarkable ware of white porcellanous type, with a transparent glaze of a faint bluish tinge, to which the name Ch´ai was boldly given. It was certainly an early type, perhaps as early as the Sung dynasty, but it belonged to a class of porcelain which is almost certainly Corean. The only specimen I have seen with a mark of the Posterior Chou period is not a blue–glazed piece but a large vase with wonderful purplish black glaze of the Chien–yao type in the Eumorfopoulos collection. The mark, however, has been cut at some time subsequent to the manufacture, and can only be regarded as reflecting some unknown person's opinion as to the date of the piece.
[88] Jade, op. cit., p. 17.
[89] See L. Binyon, Painting in the Far East, chap. ix.
[90] Porcelain, A Sketch of its Nature, Art and Manufacture, p. 56.
[91] This colour is quite distinct from the turquoise of the demi–grand feu, a more lightly fired colour familiar on the later porcelains.
[92] Mr. Burton's practical experiments and the beautiful results obtained by following out his conceptions of Chinese methods are well known to all admirers of the Lancastrian pottery.
[93] A late sixteenth–century work, published with translations by Dr. S.W. Bushell, 1908, under the title of Porcelain of Different Dynasties.
[94] I have already had occasion to criticise the inconsistencies in the colouring, etc. of this work. See Burlington Magazine, April, 1909, p. 23.
[95] Quoted in the T´ao lu, bk. ix., fol. 9 verso. We gather from this passage that Ju Chou potters were summoned to the Imperial precincts at K´ai–fêng Fu; for Ju Chou itself is some distance from the capital.
[96] The Liu ch´ing jih cha—a Ming work quoted in the T´ao shuo—describes it as "in colour like Ko ware, but with a faint yellowish tinge"; and the more modern T´ao lu (bk. vi., fol. 2) speaks of it as having "clay fine and lustrous like copper."
[97] tan ch'ing, according to the Ko ku yao lun.
[98] luan pai; according to the Po wu yao lan. Of three specimens figured in Hsiang's Album (op. cit., pp. 19, 22 and 34), two are described as yü lan (i.e. sky blue), and fên ch'ing (pale blue or green), and the third is undescribed.
[99] Pt. i., fols. 8 and 9.
[100] It is not clear what these markings were, whether spots in the glaze or a kind of crackle. The simile of "crabs' claws" is applied to crackle in other passages.
[102] This interesting list, given in the Chiang hsi t'ung chih, bk. xciii., fol. ii., is summarised in vol. ii., ch. xii. It is also quoted in the T'ao lu, and translated by Bushell, O.C.A., p. 369.
[103] See Bushell, O.C.A., plate 77.
[104] In a passage referring to modern imitations, the T´ao lu (bk. vii., fol. 10) states that "at Ching–tê Chên, the makers of the large vases known as kuan ku (imperial antiques) for the most part imitate the colour of Ju yao glaze. Beautiful specimens of these (imitations) are commonly called 'blue of the sky after rain.'"
[105] P. 39. Account of a mission to Corea in 1125 by Hsü Ching.
[106] Hsiang's Album, op. cit., Fig. 19.
[107] Son of the author of the Ch´ing pi tsang. His father (see p. 53) declared that he had seen Ju porcelain.
[108] In the Cho kêng lu, published in 1368, but of special interest because it repeats the statements of a Sung writer, Yeh–chih, author of the Yüan chai pi hêng.
[109] Op. cit., plate 20.
[110] Cosmo Monkhouse, Chinese Porcelain, plate 1, and Bushell, Chinese Art, vol. ii., pg. 7.
[111] Liu Yen–t´ing.
[112] It would seem as if the manufacture had never entirely ceased at Ju Chou, for we read in Richard's Geography, p. 61, "The environs (of Ju Chou) were formerly very industrial, but have lost their activity. The manufacture of common pottery is still carried on and gives it some importance."
[114] The T´ao lu (bk. vi., fol. 2 verso). It is obvious that the term Kuan yao (Imperial ware) is liable to cause confusion, as it might be—and indeed was—equally applied to any ware made at any time at the Imperial factory. In recognition of this fact the Sung Kuan yao was sometimes named in later writers Ta Kuan ware, after the Ta Kuan period.
[115] A passage quoted in T´ao lu, bk. ix., fol. 13, from an eighteenth–century work, the Wên fang ssŭ k´ao, forms a commentary on this attitude. "The old capital Kuan factory," It says, "had only a brief existence, so that we must consider the Hsiu nei ssŭ make to be first and the 'recent wares' to be second."
[116] The list of wares made at the Imperial factories at Ching–tê Chên about 1730, and published in the Chiang hsi t´ung chih (vol. xciii., fol. 11), refers to the imitation of Kuan wares as follows: "Ta Kuan glazes on an iron–coloured body. These are three kinds—yüeh pai, fên ch´ing, ta lü—all imitating the colour and lustre of Sung ware sent to (or from) the palace (nei fa sung ch´i)." There is no reason to suppose that Ta Kuan here is more than a mere synonym for Kuan (ware).