[347] Chinese characters yin hua, Chinese characters hua hua, and Chinese characters tiao hua.
[348] The text is Chinese characters fa yün, lit. "emit mist," perhaps in the sense of "clouded."
[349] These are literal renderings of hai mu and hsüeh hua, but I have no clue to their meaning.
[350] The text is Chinese characters Shua chio, lit. "sport corners."
[352] yin hsiu, lit. "silver embroidery or painting."
[353] Chinese characters p´u ch´un, which literally means "rush (or matting) lips."
[354] Chinese characters lung hsien, lit. "play lute."
[355] See Giles's Dictionary.
[356] Chinese character. Bushell renders it "trumpet–shaped beakers."
[357] Lit. "animal rings."
[358] Bk. vii., fols. 24 and 25.
[359] Chinese characters lit. "pivot palace"; i.e. Imperial palace.
[360] Lit. "five–coloured."
[361] ch´ing hei. Bushell renders the two words "greenish black."
[362] Chinese characters i yu ch´uang chin wu sê hua chê. The expression ch´uang chin, which also occurs in the Ko ku yao lun, apparently carries the idea of gilding, though its literal meaning ("originate gold") is very vague. Bushell renders the phrase "pencilled with designs in gold," and Julien "rehaussée d'or."
[363] Op. cit., Fig. 21.
[364] See Burlington Magazine, August, 1909, p. 298.
[365] Bk. v., fol. 3 verso.
[366] huang hei, lit. "yellow black."
[367] The village Chinese characters Hu–t´ien Shin and the pagoda are marked in the map of Ching–tê Chên (T´ao lu, bk. i., fol. 1) on the south of the river and opposite to the Imperial factories.
[368] China and Japan, vol. ix., p. 303.
[369] See T´ao lu, bk. ii., fol. 4 verso; and Julien op. cit., p. 42.
[370] Chinese characters. See T´ao lu, bk. vii., fol. 10 verso.
[371] Chinese characters.
[374] Chinese character. Bushell (O.C.A., p. 186) renders "wide shallow bowls."
[375] Chinese characters. The handles may be either long stems or handles in the modern sense, but both these types are found on far more ancient wares, e.g. the tazza or high footed goblet in Chou pottery, and the small cups with round handles of the T'ang dynasty.
[376] Chinese characters, lit. "exhort dishes." Bushell renders "rounded dishes." They were probably flat–bottomed shallow bowls, used as saucers.
[377] Chinese character t'ai p'an, lit. "terraced dishes."
[378] Ko ku yao lun, bk. vii., fol. 25 verso.
[379] The T´u shu, Section xxxii., Part viii., section entitled T´ao kung pu tsa lu, fol. 1 verso; quoting from the Ling piao lu i Chinese characters, by Liu Hsün, of the T´ang dynasty.
[380] Bk. vii., fol. 16. "This is the ware which was first made at Yang–chiang Hsien Chinese characters in the Chao–ch´ing Fu in Kuangtung. It is, in fact, an imitation of the Yang–tz´ŭ ware. Consequently, the Records of the Province state that the productions of Yang–chiang in Kuangtung include 'porcelain wares' (tz´ŭ ch´i). I have seen incense burners (lu), vases (p´ing), cups (chien), plates (t´ieh), bowls (wan), dishes (p´an), pots (hu), and boxes (ho) of this manufacture. They are very ornamental and bright, but in taste, fineness, elegance, and lustre they are not equal to porcelain wares. Nor have they been able to avoid the occurrence of flaws exposing the body, which are unsightly. Still they are imitated at T´ang's manufactory, the imitations being admirable in their elegance and lustre, and excelling the Kuang yao. These, like the Tz´ŭ–Chou and Hsü–Chou types of ware, are none of them made of porcelain clay." The T´ao chêng chi shih states: "He (i.e. T´ang Ying) imitates singularly well the Kuang yao glaze, being particularly successful with the spotted blue (ch´ing tien Chinese characters) kind of glaze. Following this author, imitations were also made of the copies produced at T´ang's factory." The greater part of this passage seems to contain a confusion of ideas. Yang–tz´ŭ Chinese characters or "foreign porcelain" was the name given to the painted Canton enamels which are described on the next page of the T´ao lu under that heading. The passage beginning "I have seen" and ending "equal to porcelain wares" is taken almost verbatim from the sections which deal with Canton enamels and cloisonné enamels. The remark on "imitation of the Yang–tz´ŭ ware" could by no stretch of imagination be applied to the mottled Kuang yao; but it does apply to the large group of porcelain obtained in the white from Ching–tê Chên and painted at Canton precisely in the style of the Canton enamels (see vol. ii., p. 243). This is no doubt what the author had in his mind. The sentence about the unsightly flaws can apply to either the enamels or the Kuang yao, but more particularly to the latter. For the rest, "T´ang's factory" is the Imperial factory at Ching–tê Chên, which was under the management of the celebrated T´ang Ying between 1728 and 1749.
[381] From its supposed resemblance to the colour of the sea–snail (namako).
[382] Cat. B.F.A., 1910, K 43. Like so many Chinese dates, this was cut in the ware after the firing, but there is every reason to suppose that it indicates the true date of the manufacture. Sir Arthur has since presented this tray to the British Museum.
[383] Op. cit., vol. ii., p. 15.
[384] Modern English potters produce flocculent glazes of the Canton type by means of zinc, and Mr. Mott, of Doulton's, showed me a specimen illustrating the effect of zinc which was remarkably like the glaze of Plate 47 both in the blue dappling and the greenish frosting. Possibly the use of zinc was known to the Kuangtung potters and gave them their characteristic types of glaze. Other effects resembling the Canton glazes were produced by Mr. Mott by both zinc and tin in the presence of cobalt and iron.
[385] Japan and China, vol. ix., p. 261.
[387] Such a piece from the British Museum collection is figured in the Burlington Magazine, January, 1910, p. 218.
[388] See Burlington Magazine, January, 1910, p. 220.
[389] I am indebted to Mr. A.W. Bahr for much information on these and the Yi–hsing Chün imitations.
[390] Three beautiful examples were exhibited at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1910, (Cat., K 20, 23 and 41), on the last of which the lavender tints on the sides passed into a glassy pool of brilliant peacock blue.
[391] There is an interesting example of this crystalline glaze in Mrs. Potter Palmer's collection. It is a bowl of coarse grey porcelain, with blue glaze on the exterior. Inside is a crimson red glaze of Canton type, in the centre of which is a pool of amber glass. The explanation seems to be that we have here a bowl of coarse export porcelain treated at a Canton factory with their crystalline glaze.
[392] Richards, Comprehensive Geography of the Chinese Empire, 1908, p. 210.
[393] Richards, op. cit., p. 209. "Considerable trade is carried on in tea, porcelain, etc."
[394] S. Wells Williams, Commercial Guide to China, 1863, p. 13. Speaking of pottery the author says: "The charges for freight forbid it to be carried far, and manufactures of it are numerous; that for Canton is at Shih–hwan." No doubt this is Shih–wan Chinese characters. Another name for Canton pottery is Shakwan ware, which is probably a variant of Shih–wan.
[395] Catalogue spécial de la Collection Chinoise à l'Exposition Universelle, Paris, 1878, pp. 10–12.
[396] Chinese characters.
[397] By Chou Kao–ch´i. See Bushell, O.C.A., p. 635.
[398] F. Brinkley, Japan and China, vol. ix., pp. 355–63.
[399] Op. cit., figs. 45 and 46.
[400] A tael is about one Mexican dollar and a third, i.e. approximately thirty pence.
[401] Four of the most celebrated names, however, are incidentally mentioned in the T´ao lu (bk. vii., fol. 11 verso), viz. (1) Shih Ta–pin Chinese characters; (2) Li Chung–fang Chinese characters; (3) Hsü Yu–ch´üan Chinese characters; (4) Ch´ên Chung–mei Chinese characters; and (5) Ch´ên Chün–ch´ingChinese characters.
[402] The Yang–hsien ming hu hsi (quoted in the T´ao lu, bk. viii., fol. 8 verso) states that Ch´ên Chung–mei began by making porcelain at Ching–tê Chên. "It was exceedingly clever, and of an ornamental kind, made with supernatural ingenuity. But the results of his trade were far from sufficient to establish a name, so he gave it up and came to Yang–hsien (i.e. Yi–hsing). He took a delight in blending the teapot clays, putting his heart and soul into the work, and his ware was considered superhuman."
[403] I have seen specimens of Yi–hsing red ware coated with a dappled bird's egg glaze of blue green ground flecked with crimson, a type which was thought to represent the "Chün glaze of the muffle kiln." See vol. ii., p. 217.
[404] For this and other information on the subject, see M.L. Solon's paper on "The Noble Buccaros" in the North Staffordshire Literary and Philosophic Society's Proceedings, October 23rd, 1896.
[405] See T´ao lu, bk. vii., fol. 11 verso: "(Ou ware) was made in the Ming dynasty by a man of Yi–hsing ... who took the name of Ou, and everybody called it Ou's ware. It included wares which imitated Ko ware in crackle, Kuan and Chün wares in colour. Ou's bright coloured glazes were very numerous. The wares consist of flower dishes, stands for boxes, etc. The glazes with red and blue markings are particularly choice. At Ch´ang–nan the factory of T´ang used to imitate them." The last sentence refers to the celebrated T´ang Ying, who supervised the Imperial factory at Ching–tê Chên from 1728–1749. The statement that Tang's factory imitated them is no doubt based on the oft–quoted list given in the Chiang hsi t´ung chih of wares made at the Imperial factory about 1730, which include "glazes of Ou. Imitations of the old ware of the potter named Ou, including two kinds, that with red and that with blue markings."
[406] In the list quoted in the last note. The words are Chinese characters, Yi hsing kua yu. The word kua, which means "suspended, applied," is probably inserted because the Yi–hsing ware was usually unglazed.
[407] A similar effect is produced by zinc and tin on modern English wares. See note on p. 168. It has been suggested that these minerals were used on the Kuangtung stonewares, and appearances, at any rate, point to their presence in the Yi–hsing flambé glazes as well.
[408] Dr. Laufer collected a considerable series of wares made in certain modern factories which he visited in China, and they may be seen in the Field Museum, Chicago, and in the Natural History Museum in New York.
[409] S. Wells Williams, Chinese Commercial Guide, 1863, p. 132.
[410] Op. cit., p. 114.
[411] A coarse blue and white porcelain, often decorated with dragons which overlap the rim and are continued on the reverse of the bowls and dishes, seems to belong to one of these provincial factories. The glaze is thick and bubbly, and the blue of the decoration rather dull and dark; but these pieces have a certain age, and belong to the first half of the eighteenth century, for they were copied at Worcester and Lowestoft. They often have marks "of commendation," such as hsi yü ("western jade"), etc.
[412] The Ch´in ting ku chin t´u shu chi ch´êng, section viii., subsection named T´ao kung pu hui k´ao, fol. 15.
[413] Chinese character sung hsiang, rendered "turpentine" by Bushell, O.C.A., p. 264.
[414] Chinese character wu ming i, "nameless rarity," the designation under which cobalt was imported in the Sung dynasty. (See Bushell, O.C.A., p. 439.)
[415] Chau Ju–kua, translated by F. Hirth and W.W. Rockhill. St. Petersburg, 1912.
[416] Ancient Chinese Porcelain, op. cit. See also p. 86.
[417] See Chau Ju–kua, Introduction, p. 9.
[418] e.g. gusi, rusa, naga, tempajan, blanga.
[419] Chinese Pottery in the Philippines, by Fay–Cooper Cole, with a postscript by Berthold Laufer, Field Museum of Natural History, Publication No. 162, Chicago U.S.A., 1912.
[420] Ibidem, p. 14.
[421] Kochi, the Japanese name for Kochin China, seems to have been used in a vague and comprehensive sense for Southern China, and we understand by Kochi yaki the old pottery shipped from the coast towns of Fukien and Kuangtung. This category in Japan seems to include not only a variety of earthenware with coloured glazes—green, yellow, aubergine, turquoise, and violet—but the coarser, yellowish white wares of the t´u ting (see p. 90) type. See Brinkley, op. cit., vol. ix. p. 29.
[422] On the subject of pottery among the Dyaks in Borneo, see H. Ling Roth, The Natives of Sarawak and British North Borneo, vol. ii., p. 284; A.W. Neuwenhais, Quer durch Borneo, vol. ii., plate 40; Hose and McDougall, The Pagan Tribes of Borneo, 1912, vol. i., pp. 64 and 84, and plates 46–48. See also A.B. Meyer, Alterthümer aus dem Ostindischen Archipel.
[423] Cat. B.F.A., 1910, I., 11.
[424] A little flask in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Case 24, No. 809, 1883) of this type of ware with a green glaze was obtained in 1883 in the neighbourhood of Canton. Possibly a portion of this group comes from one of the Canton factories, but it is the kind of ware which might have been made in any pottery district, and there are quite modern examples of the same type of glaze and biscuit in the Field Museum of Chicago which were manufactured at Ma–chuang, near T´ai–yüan Fu, in Shensi.
[426] T´u Shu, op. cit., section T´ao kung pu hui k´ao, fol. 9.
[427] Ching is the name of the old state of Ch´u, which included Hunan and Hupeh, so that the expression here used covers an enormous tract of Central China. See T´u shu, section T´ao kung pu tsa lu, fol. 2.
[428] T´u Shu, section T´ao kung pu chi shih, fol. 2 recto.
[429] Chinese character and Chinese character.
[430] This appears to mean that the glaze covering up the reliefs filled all the surrounding hollows and made an even surface.
[431] i.e. ware of the Hsüan Tê period (1426–1435 A. D.).
[432] T´u Shu, section T´ao kung pu hui k´ao, fol. 10.
[433] O.C.A., p. 637.
[434] Made at Pilkington's Tile Works, Clifton Junction, by Manchester.
[436] T´u Shu, section entitled T´ao kung pu tsa lu, fol. 2 verso.
[438] T´u Shu, section xxxii, T´ao kung pu hui k´ao, fol. 9.
[439] T´ao lu, bk. vii., fol. 10 verso.
[440] Quoted in the T´ao lu, bk. ix., fol. 2.
[441] Recorded in the T´ang Shu, the passage in question being quoted in the encyclopædia, T´u Shu, section xxxii, T´ao kung pu chi shih, fol. 1 verso.
[442] See the T´u Shu, section T´ao kung pu hui k´ao, fol. 7 verso.
[443] It was completed in 1430, and destroyed by the T´aip´ing rebels in 1853.
[444] In the section T´ao kung pu hui k´ao, fol. 9.
[445] Catalogue spécial de la Collection Chinoise, op. cit., pp. 10–12. The exhibits from Amoy included "carreaux de pavage, tuiles pour toitures."
[446] See Catalogue B.F.A., 1910, L. 1.
[447] See Dr. Voretzsch, Catalogue of Chinese Pottery.
[448] See T'ao lu, bk. viii., fol. 14 verso (quoting the I chih): "In the sixteenth year of K'ang Hsi the district magistrate, Chang Ch'i–chung, a man of Yang–ch'êng, forbade the workmen of Ching–tê Chên to inscribe on the porcelain vessels the nien hao of the Emperor or the handwriting (tzŭ chi Chinese characters) of the holy men, to prevent their being broken and injured."
[449] See Catalogue B.F.A., 1910, E 4.
[450] This qualification is very necessary, because there are plenty of inferior pieces with the Ch'êng Hua mark which are quite modern.
[451] The Ch´ien Lung enamelled Imperial ware is frequently marked in red within a square panel reserved in the opaque bluish green enamel which so often covers the base.
[452] For the complete tables of cycles see Mayers, op. cit., p. 362.
[453] Though the reign of K´ang Hsi officially dates from 1662, in reality it began with the death of the previous Emperor in 1661; see p. 216.
[454] O. C. A., p. 79.
[455] Vol. ii., p. 167.
[456] Vol. ii, p. 34.