# China: Its History, Arts, and Literature/Volume 1/Chapter 4

Chapter IV
THE CÉLADON
Thus far, this examination of early Chinese wares may be said to have led to three conclusions. First, up to the end of the thirteenth century, Chinese keramic experts, of deliberate choice, preferred pâte tendre or stone-ware to hard porcelain biscuit. The latter they were probably able to produce: indeed, some specimens of later Ting-yao may be placed in this category. But the former lent itself better to the solid, rich, and lustrous monochromatic glazes so much affected by the Sung potters. Secondly, the variety of wares produced in these early centuries of the art's history was not large. With one exception—the Chün-yao—monochromes alone were esteemed. The principal colours were green, verging more or less on blue; white, of different shades; purple; cinamon red, and black. These monochromes were ornamented with designs incised or in relief, more or less elaborate, and in the great majority of cases copied from ancient bronzes. Thirdly, among the wares of the period, céladons were facile principes. The potter's constant and highest aim was to produce the peculiar greenish cerulean glaze which had its origin in the Chai-yao of the tenth century.
​The term céladon was derived from the name of the hero of a novel—d'Urfé's L'Astrée—a courtier in rustic dress, who, in the seventeenth century, represented to Frenchmen the type of an amorous shepherd. On the stage this character was always clad in green, relieved by tints of blue or grey, and when specimens of Chinese Ju-yao, Kuan-yao, and Lung-chuan-yao began to come into French collections, the colour of the ware was identified with that of the shepherd's clothes. But long before Europe knew anything of such ware, large quantities of it had found their way to Arabia, Persia, Egypt, Morocco, the East Coast of Africa, Japan, India, Borneo, Ceram, and other places. The majority of such pieces were, of course, the more solid and heavier productions of the Chinese factories, and it is probably to their durable qualities, as much as to the esteem in which they were held, that they owed their preservation through long centuries. Their large numbers and the wide area throughout which they are found has suggested to some writers the idea that China alone must not be credited with their manufacture. Professor Karabacek, of Vienna, is foremost among these theorists. In the writings of Hâdschi Chalfa, a celebrated encyclopedist, who died in 1658, the Vienna savant found a passage to the effect that the precious, magnificent céladon dishes and other vessels seen in the seventeenth century were manufactured and exported at Martabân in Pegu." M. Jacquemart had already suggested a similar belief. Speaking of Persian Keramics, he wrote:—
Céladons are very common in Persia; they have the beautiful sea-green tint of the old Chinese céladons, and are to be recognised only by their style. Some are simply gadrooned ​or fluted, others have ornaments in relief in good taste. Pétis de la Croix mentions another coloured porcelain in his translation of the "Thousand and One Nights,"—the Martabani. "Six old slaves," he writes, "less richly dressed than those who were seated, immediately appeared; they distributed mahramas [blue squares of stuff used to wipe the fingers], and served shortly afterwards, in a large basin of martabani [green porcelain], a salad composed of whey, lemon-juice, and slices of cucumber." Chardin cites a green porcelain, which seems to be the same. He writes: "Everything at the king's is of massive gold or porcelain. There is a kind of green porcelain so precious that one dish alone is worth four hundred crowns. They say this porcelain detects poison by changing colour, but that is a fable: its price arises from its beauty and the delicacy of the material, which renders it transparent, although above two crowns in thickness." This last peculiarity has a great importance. It is impossible to suppose travellers would here allude to the sea-green céladon of which we have spoken above; this, laid upon a brown, close paste, approaching stone-ware, is never translucent. In the martabani, on the contrary, a thin, bright green glaze is applied upon a very white biscuit, which allows the light to appear through. It is most wonderful that a material so esteemed, and of so high a price, is not more common in our collections. Its name, on the other hand, leaves no doubt of its Persian nationality. Martaban (Mo-tama) is one of the sixteen states which composed the ancient kingdom of Siam; it may not be impossible, then, that we must restore to this kingdom the porcelain mentioned in the Arabian story. (Dr. Hirth's translation.)
Vase (Copied from Ancient Bronze) of Ju-Yao Céladon.
Sung dynasty. (Catalogue of H'siang.) Height 4½ inches. (See page 36.)
The céladon porcelain is extremely heavy. It is of a light green colour, and I believe that, in selecting this hue, the makers intended to imitate the colour of jadestone, and that this was the reason why it was so much appreciated. The articles which have been found in various countries between the island of Ceram on the one hand and Africa on the other, consist in dishes measuring up to about half a metre, covered by green enamel all over with the exception of a ring on the bottom, 1 to 2 centimetres in breadth and from about 10 to 15 centimetres in diameter, and being red-​brown in colour. The paste consists of white porcelain, but it appears that the red-brown colour of the ring has its origin in certain changes of colour produced on the surface of the paste in such parts as are not covered by the enamel, that is, the ring on which the vessel stood while being fired. The ring on the bottom is characteristic of these old céladons, and so is the heaviness and the colour. The musters are of all possible kinds. Thus, for instance, the fluted pattern is often seen. It is, like all ornaments shown in these porcelains, produced by first impressing or engraving it on the paste previous to the enamelling. By putting on the enamel, the concave parts of the surface, representing the pattern, were filled up deeper with this semi-transparent material than the plain parts of the surface, for which reason the white paste shines through in brighter tints where the enamel is thin, whereas the pattern appears in a somewhat darker shade. I have seen the lotus flower in the middle of these dishes, or the fish ornament, or some sort of a checkered pattern spread over the whole surface. These dishes never bear a mark underneath the enamel; it appears therefrom that they were made at a time when the custom of marking the period of manufacture did not yet exist.
It is a point of some interest to ascertain how Chinese céladons found their way in these early days to almost all the countries included in the region between Japan and the Key Islands. Dr. Hirth has investigated the subject with infinite pains and wide reference to sources of information. The results of his researches may be summarized here, as embodied in a pamphlet published in 1888 in Shanghai.
In the thirteenth century there were two important channels of traffic from the keramic centres of the Middle Kingdom to the outer world. The termini of these channels were at Hang-chow, the capital of Chêkiang (spoken of by Marco Polo under the name of "Quin-sai") and at Zaitun, a place ​about the exact position of which opinions differ, some sinologues placing it at Ch'üan-chou-fu, others at Chang-chou-fu with its port of Geh-kong, and others again interpreting the word to signify Amoy waters generally. It does not greatly matter which hypothesis be accepted. The important point is that a large outward commerce was carried on from both places, and that each was easily accessible from Lung-chuan, where quantities of céladon were manufactured at the close of the Sung dynasty. Lung-chuan, though now a poor, comparatively resourceless district, was then a place of considerable wealth, with fine roads in its neighbourhood and brisk tradal connections. Marco Polo, speaking of Zaitun, says:—"The river that flows by the port of Zaitun is large and rapid, and a branch of that which passes the city of Quin-sai (Hang-chow). At the place where it separates from the principal channel stands the city of Ting-ui. Of this place there is nothing further to be observed than that cups or bowls and dishes of porcelain ware are there manufactured." Hugh Murray and Colonel Yule supposed that by "Ting-yui" Marco Polo meant Ching-tê-chên. But Dr. Hirth has ingeniously shown that, in all probability, Ting-ui was no other than Lung-chuan, which during the Sung dynasty was called "Chien-chuan," a name that becomes Tindji in the Shanghai dialect. Dr. Hirth seems to attach undue importance to this identification, owing to his apparent belief that practically all the early Chinese céladons were manufactured at Lung-chuan, whereas it has been shown above that the finest types of such ware belonged to the Ju-yao and Kuan-yao. The specimens exported were undoubtedly of the commoner class for the most part. Their solidity made ​them easily portable, and their cheapness offered a further inducement. Ibn Batuta, describing how porcelain—so-called—was sent from China to India, and how it passed from country to country until it reached Morocco, says that in China it commanded about the same price as earthenware in Arabia. Much valuable information about the export trade from China in the thirteenth century is given by Chao Jukua, an author to whose works Dr. Hirth has been the first to call attention. He held the post of inspector of foreign trade and shipping in the maritime province of Fuhkien, about the year 1220, and in that capacity he compiled a work called "Annals of the various Districts (chu-fan-chih), which was happily embodied in the encyclopedia of the Ming Emperor Yung-lo (1403-1425), and thus preserved to later generations. In the days of this author, the city of Ch'üan-chou-fu in Fuhkien was the principal mart of China's foreign commerce. Thence the products of the Kingdom were exported to Borneo, to Cochin-China, to Java, to Sumatra, to Malabar, to Zanzibar, to Persia, to Japan, to Mecca, to Ceylon, to India, and to various other places. The nearest market was Borneo. Junks from Ch'üan-chou-fu proceeded direct to Bruni, on the north-west coast of that island, then a city of more than ten thousand inhabitants, its ruler attended by a numerous suite, and its safety guaranteed by soldiers wearing copper armour, with a fleet of over a hundred vessels. The arrival of a foreign ship was an occasion of much ceremony at Bruni. The king visited the ship, reaching it by a gangway covered with silk brocade, and an interchange of costly civilities took place during about a month before the question of trade ​might be broached. Ultimately the Court regulated the conditions under which commerce should be conducted and determined the prices to be paid. Despite all this luxury, the household use of keramic utensils had not yet become habitual. Joints and leaves of the Palmyra palm served for dishes and cups which were thrown away after the meal was finished. Soon, however, the products of the Chinese kilns began to be appreciated. Chao Jukua, in his list of articles sent to Bruni—as gold and silver coins, brocades of Chien-yang and other silks, deer's horns, glass beads and glass bottles, bangles, rouge, lacquered bowls and plates—mentions "vessels of green keramic ware," and elsewhere says that "white ware" was exchanged for incense, laka wood, yellow wax, and tortoise-shell produced in islands in the vicinity of Bruni. Constant importations of these keramic specimens gradually changed the habits of the people until, as described in Chinese annals of the sixteenth century, they freely employed porcelain utensils, and for wooden coffins in burying their dead substituted Chinese jars "having dragons represented on their outer surface." Marryat, in his History of Pottery and Porcelain, quotes the following from Low's Sarawak:—
Among the Dyaks are found jars held by them in high veneration, the manufacturers of which are forgotten; the smaller ones among the land and sea Dyaks are common. They are called Nagas, from the Naga, or dragon, which is rudely traced upon them. They are glazed on the outside, and the current value of them is 40 dollars; but those which are found among the Kyan tribes, and those of South Borneo, and among the Kadyans and other tribes of the north, are valued so highly as to be altogether beyond the means of ordinary persons, and are the property of the Ma​layan Rajahs, or of the chiefs of the native tribes. I never had an opportunity of seeing one of these valued relics of antiquity, but am told that, like the Nagas, they are glazed, but larger. They have small handles round them, called ears, and figures of dragons are traced upon their surface; their value is about 2,000 dollars. In the houses of their owners they are a source of great profit; they are kept with pious care, being covered with beautiful cloths. Water is kept in them, which is sold to the tribe, and valued on account of the virtues it is supposed to possess, and which it derives from the jar which has contained it. By what people these relics were made, and by what means they have been thus distributed and the veneration for them so widely spread, cannot be at this time determined. Some of the jars were sent from Banjor Massim to China by the Dutch, who hoped to make a profitable speculation by their credulity; but the artists of that country could not, though famed for their imitative powers, copy these with sufficient exactness to deceive the Dyaks, who immediately discovered they were not those they esteemed, and consequently set no value upon them. From their price, it is presumed that these jars are very rare.
This statement of Low's that the Chinese of later times were not able to reproduce the céladons of the Sung period, will be explained when the subsequent history of the manufacture is considered. As for the taste educated among the people of Borneo by gradual acquaintance with Chinese wares, Mr. Carl Bock's description of Dyak life, in The Head-Hunters of Borneo, conveys a good idea:—
Chairs and tables form no part of the furniture of an ordinary Dyak's house. . . . In a corner, near the fireplace, will generally be found stored a collection of crockery ware, for the Dyak is something of a china-maniac, and belongs to the modern æsthetic school, setting great store by the china vessels which he procures in exchange for the various products of the country from the Malay merchants, ​who again have purchased them from the Chinese traders at Singapore or Macassar.
The Dyak representative of the blue-china school, however, goes beyond the European devotee in his veneration of old crockery. Among his greatest treasures are a series of gudji blanga, a sort of glazed jar imported from China, in green, blue, or brown, ornamented with figures of lizards and serpents in relief. These pots are valued at from 100 florins to as much as 3,000 florins (8l. to 240l.) each, according to size, pattern, and above all, old age combined with good condition. According to the native legend, these precious vases are made of the remnants of the same clay from which "Mahatara" (the Almighty) made first the sun, and then the moon. Medicinal virtues are attributed to these urns, and they are regarded as affording complete protection from evil spirits to the house in which they are stored. A very full account of the various legends connected with these gudji blanga is given in Mr. W. H. T. Perelaer's most interesting work, "Ethnographische Beschrijving der Dajaks," pp. 112-120. That author, however, gives them different names, the nearest of approach to that by which I have always heard them called being Balanga.
This China craze among the Dyaks has proved, as in England, an excellent opportunity for the exercise of John Chinaman's skill; and very clever imitations of old vases, with cracks, chips, age-stains, and other indications of antiquity, most exactly reproduced by them, are offered for sale at Samarinda at five florins each; but, unlike many London connoisseurs, your Dyak is never taken in by these spurious gudji blangas, preferring to give hundreds of guilders for a real specimen. Each true plastic relative of the sun and moon has its pedigree, which is passed down from generation to generation.
Borneo, however, offered but a small market, comparatively speaking, for the keramic productions of the Middle Kingdom. Its interest in this context centers in the fact that its story supplies a strong confirmation of the conclusions recorded in previous ​chapters as to the true nature of early Chinese wares.
Concerning the other countries to which such wares were exported, Dr. Hirth extracts many details from Chao Jukua's work. In Cochin China, as well as in Cambodia, the local products were exchanged against Chinese "porcelain," umbrellas, gauze fans, lacquered wares, samshu, and sugar. In Java, which was within a month's sail of Ch'üan-chou-fu, via the Straits of Lingas, the pepper of the country was purchased with imitation gold and silver, with silks, damasks, drugs, cinnabar, alum, borax, lacquered ware, iron tripods, and "green and white porcelain." At Palembang in Sumatra there was a depôt of Chinese products and manufactures, where "gold, silver, porcelain, silk piece-goods, sugar, iron, samshu, ginger, rhubarb, and camphor" were stored for sale to Arab traders, who carried them to India, Africa, and Western Asia. This depôt seems to have existed from the T'ien-yu period of the Tang dynasty (904-907). At Lambri, in the north-west of Sumatra, "the last station before one enters the Indian Ocean in travelling from Sumatra to Ceylon," another depôt existed. Here, although "porcelain" was imported, it was doubtless intended for re-export chiefly, as the people are said to have eaten their meals from their hands and used household utensils of copper. From Lambri Chinese junks pushed on to Coilam, on the coast of Malabar, though this distant voyage does not seem to have been regularly undertaken. It is, however, distinctly stated that the products of Malabar were exchanged at Palembang against flower-tanks (probably of pottery), silks, "porcelain," camphor, rhubarb, cloves, etc. Chao Jukua, as translated by Dr. Hirth, ​says:—"The country of Ts'eng-po (Zanzibar) is on an island in the south of Hu-ch'a-la (Guzerate). In the west it is bounded by large hills; its inhabitants are of Arab descent and observe the rites of the Mohammedan religion; shey wear blue cotton cloth and shoes of red leather; their daily food consists of rice or flour cakes and roasted mutton. Their villages are mostly built terrace-shape in the ravines of wooded hills. The climate is warm, and there is no cold season. The products are elephants' teeth, raw gold, ambergris, and yellow sandal-wood. Every year the country of Hu-ch'a-la and the settlements on the sea-coast of Arabia send out ships to barter with this country (China), the articles of exchange being white cloth, porcelain, copper, and red cotton." The "porcelain " here spoken of was brought from Ch'üan-chou-fu to Guzerat by way of Palembang.
Among the countries to which China sold her keramic productions at this early epoch, she had no keener customer than Japan. It has already been noted that a brisk trade in Japanese lumber was carried on at Ch'üan-chou-fu in the days of Chao Jukua (1220). That author speaks of the Lo tree (Japanese Sugi, the well-known cryptomeria Japonica) as "attaining a height of from fourteen to fifteen ch'ang, and measuring fully four Chinese feet in diameter." Planks of this valuable timber were carried by Japanese junks to Ch'üan-chou, and it may be taken for granted that keramic wares formed part of their return cargoes. The Imperial Collection preserved at Nara teaches that, as long ago as the eighth century, Chinese glazed pottery was among the apparatus of Japanese aristocratic life. But of ware capable of being classed with either the Ju-yao, the Kuan-yao, ​or the Lung-Chuan-yao of the Sung dynasty, no specimens in Japanese possession can be confidently traced farther back than the fifteenth century, that is, to say, two hundred years subsequent to the time when Chao Jukua wrote. This uncertainty, however, must not be taken as indicating that no such specimens had found their way to Japan. It is a question simply of traditional and historical deficiencies. What is beyond doubt is that so soon as the Regent Yoshimasa's (1490) cultivation of the tea ceremonials turned popular fancy into the direction of dilletanteism, a part of the best outcome of the Chinese factories was diverted to Japan. The luxurious old ruler did not allow political conventionalities to interfere with the gratification of his new hobby. When he wanted a specimen of this or that ware, he despatched a special envoy to the Middle Kingdom, ostensibly to convey Japan's good wishes to its rulers, but really to bring back the coveted piece. Among these importations was a vase in shape and size closely resembling a fuller's mallet (Japanese kinuta). It was of fine clay, whiter and harder than the pâte of previous specimens, and the colour of its perfectly uniform, velvety glaze was greenish blue of wonderful depth and delicacy. To Japanese connoisseurs this piece seemed to stand at the summit of keramic skill. After it had remained for a time in Yoshimasa's collection at Higashi-yama, it was placed among the treasures of the Temple of Tōdaiji, whence, more than a century later, it passed into the possession of Iyeyasu, the great founder of the Tokugawa Dynasty. There is a tradition that this prince, being in need of funds for military purposes, pledged the wonderful vase for a sum of ten thousand ​pieces of gold, or about a hundred and fifty thousand pounds sterling. At any rate, the specimen was unanimously elevated to the rank of a standard, and thenceforth the best pieces of céladon were designated Kinuta-Seiji. At about the same time, another variety, of scarcely inferior quality, made its appearance. Its pâte and lustre were equal to those of the Kinuta class, but the colour was a little deeper, and many of the specimens had designs in relief or incised. The pattern held in the highest favour represented a scroll of peonies, but choice pieces, both in this and the former variety, were also distinguished by two fishes on the bottom, in high relief. This ware received the name of Tenriu-Seiji, in allusion to the fact that the first vase which came to Japan was presented to the Temple of Tenriu. A third variety—the sea-green of Western collectors—had coarse pâte, deeper and less delicate colour, and thicker glaze than either the Kinuta or Tenriuji. This was called the Shichi-kan-Seiji, a name derived from the rank of an official who first imported it into Japan. It is distinguished from the more prized varieties by its fuller green tint as well as by its greater solidity and heaviness.
Many are the pieces of céladon that have been handed down, as priceless heirlooms, from generation to generation in Japanese families. One, which still forms the gem of a well-known nobleman's fine collection, is the Chidori no koro, or Peewit Censer. Originally the property of the Regent Yoshimasa, it afterwards came into the possession of Hideyoshi, the Taikô, whose life it is said to have saved by a miraculous power of uttering a warning cry when danger was at hand. The legend relates that supernatural quality was firmly credited by the men of the time, ​and that the prince of Japanese robbers, Ishikawa Goemon, entering the Taikô's chamber with the intention of assassinating him, silenced the censer by muffling it in an an equally miraculous tabard. Such fables show in what degree of estimation a choice piece of céladon was held by mediæval Japanese, and how highly their appreciative sense was educated. This marvellous censer was a tiny cylindrical vase, about four inches high and as many in diameter. It had only three beauties, perfect uniformity of glaze, a wonderful colour, and the lustre of a gem. Yet it inspired its first owner with such poetic admiration that, carrying it home in his bosom and hearing the musical note of the peewit sounding over a moon-lit moor, it seemed to him a fitting thing to call the peerless censer after the solitary, soft-voiced bird.
The number of fine céladons remaining in Japanese collections is very great. Scarely a temple of note is without some example of the ware, whether vase or censer. Among these, however, the majority cannot safely be referred to factories of earlier date than the Yuan (1279-1368) or Ming (1368-1644) dynasty. It is, indeed, scarcely possible to distinguish between two specimens of Lung-chuan-yao dating respectively from the Sung and the Ming dynasty. The manufacture of the Ju-yao and original Kuan-yao céladons ended with the Sung era, but the manufacture of the Lung-chuan-yao continued at the Liu-tien and Chin-tsun kilns throughout the Yuan dynasty, and at Ch'u-chou-fu, in the same province of Chê-kiang, throughout a considerable portion of the Ming dynasty. At these same factories imitations of the Ju-yao and Kuan-yao were also made, and there is no reason to think that they differed greatly from their ​originals. Unfortunately, no accurate information is obtainable as to the time when the factory at Ch'u-chou-fu ceased to be active. The date may, however, be approximately fixed at the early part of the sixteenth century. Up to that time the characteristic iron-red pâte and thick, lustrous glaze of the Lung-chuan-yao were produced without much difficulty. A little later, during the Wan-li era (1573-1619), there flourished an expert nicknamed Hu-kung (Mr. Pots), or Hu-yin-tao-jên (the Taoist hidden in a pot), whose reproductions of the Kuan-yao and Ko-yao céladons of the Sung dynasty enjoyed considerable reputation. He appears to have shown some want of strength in respect of crackle, but his work was sufficiently excellent to make his name remembered, a fact from which it may safely be inferred that the manufacture of céladons of the old type had ceased to be carried on successfully before his time. Tradition says that he marked his pieces Hu-yin-tao-jên, but if this be so they must have been at once distinguishable from their prototypes.
Contemporaneous with, or perhaps a little earlier than, Hu-kung, an artist named Ngeu, who worked at the factory of Yi-hsing (a place situated on the western shore of the Tai-wu Lake, some few miles inland from Shanghai), is recorded as having imitated the ancient Ko-yao and Kuan-yao céladons. His ware was known as Ngeu-yao.
Neither of these manufactures possesses much practical interest except as showing that, at the close of the sixteenth century, céladons of the recognised class had become so difficult of production that skilled artists acquired permanent fame by imitating them. It is not to be supposed, of ​course, that the Ch'u-chou-fu potters had lost all their old ability. Doubtless they could still produce Lung-chuan-yao of the ordinary variety. But such tours de force as the delicate colours of the Chang brothers and of the Kuan-yao and Ju-yao, being to a great extent dependent upon individual expertness, had ceased to make their appearance in the market, and the connoisseurs of the Ming dynasty had learned to be so exacting that the comparatively heavy, impure monochromes of the Ch'u-chou factory no longer found favour in their eyes. It may be concluded that the ordinary class of céladons preserved in Japanese collections, as well as those to be found throughout the area of mediæval commerce described above, and finally the not infrequent specimens of inferior quality offered for sale in the markets of China to-day, date from a period prior to 1550.
It may, perhaps, seem to the reader that over much space is here devoted to the discussion of céladon alone. He must remember, however, that great misconceptions have hitherto been entertained by Western virtuosi as to the proclivities of Chinese amateurs in ancient times and the direction taken by the genius of early Chinese keramists. It is essential to clear away these errors if the student desires to form any just estimate of the progress of the keramic art. Alone among European authors, Mr. A. W. Franks, of the British Museum, with his wonted judgment, discerned something of the truth when he wrote in the preface to his well known Catalogue:—"Among the simple colours (of Chinese ware) the first place must be assigned to the bluish or sea-green tint, termed by the French céladon. It is probably of considerable antiquity, and it is remarkable that one of the earliest ​specimens of porcelain that can be referred to as having been brought to England before the Reformation, viz., the cup of Archbishop Warham, at New College, Oxford, is of this kind. By Persians and Turks it is termed martabani, and it is much valued by them as a detecter of poisonous food. Specimens of this porcelain were sent to Lorenzo de Medici in 1487 by the Sultan of Egypt. It owes its preservation, no doubt, to its great thickness." Probably the best examples of the ware to be found in Europe are those in the Kremlin at Moscow, where they were placed by the Empress Catherine.
Apart, too, from the historical aspect of the question, Chinese céladon is interesting for its own sake. Nothing but the evidence of actual observation could convey an idea of the enthusiastic admiration lavished upon this ware by both Chinese and Japanese amateurs. An estimate of its value, however, can be formed from the fact that for single pieces prices have been given far in excess of any European precedent. Even now the choicest specimens are so highly prized in China and Japan that very few find their way westward, more especially as the merits of the ware are by no means calculated to strike an uneducated eye. Like everything possessing real excellence, it improves upon acquaintance, and the collector can be very certain that, long after he has grown weary of elaborately decorated and brilliantly enamelled pieces, he will experience an ever-growing appreciation of the refined céladon, with its glaze of velvet-like lustre and its delicate green or bluish-green colour, which has baffled the skill of all Western workmen and can no longer be produced by the Chinese themselves.
​In order to complete this important branch of the subject, it will be advisable at once to carry the history of céladon down to modern times. In addition to the Lung-chuan-yao manufactured at Ch'u-chou-fu in Chêkiang, up to the middle of the sixteenth century, and the imitations of Ko-yao and Kuan-yao made by Hu-kung and Ngeu about the close of that century and the beginning of the next, céladons were also produced during the Ming dynasty at the Imperial Keramic Factory of Ching-tê-chên, in the province of Kiang-si. This factory's early history will presently be given. Here it is enough to say that, under the Ming emperors, its experts had become incomparably the most renowned in the Middle Kingdom. They produced many varieties of ware showing the highest technical skill and artistic excellence, and among these céladons were undoubtedly numbered. It is recorded that, in the year 1430, some twenty-five kilns, established at the beginning of the dynasty (1368) for the manufacture of large fish-bowls ornamented with dragons, were converted into céladon (Ching-yao) kilns, and that the ware produced at them, being intended for the use of the Court, was termed Kuan-yao. That these céladons, in name identical with, and in appearance closely resembling, the original Kuan-yao of the Sung dynasty, may often have been mistaken for the latter by connoisseurs of later times, is easily conceivable. They were, at any rate, beautiful examples of their class, and there can be no doubt that some of the most prized specimens of céladon now extant came from the hands of the Ching-tê-chên experts. How then are these Ching-tê-chên pieces to be distinguished from similar wares of earlier date and different place of manufacture? ​Dr. Hirth, who has made a special study of the subject of céladon, gives information, already quoted, the gist of which is that, while the céladons of the Ming and earlier eras manufactured at the Lung-chuan factories, had red, or reddish-brown pâte, the Ming céladons of Ching-tê-chên had white pâte. The rule is rough but, on the whole, trustworthy. It must not be too rigidly applied, however. For although a reddish tinge of greater or less intensity is essentially characteristic of the Lung-chuan-yao (including the Ko-yao), and perhaps of the Ju-yao, the Kuan-yao of the Sung dynasty is not necessarily thus distinguished.
During an interval of about thirty years preceding, and as many following, the fall of the Ming dynasty (1644), the keramic art in China lapsed into comparative neglect. But at an early period of the reign of Kang-hsi (1662-1722), during the present, or Tsing dynasty, an energetic revival took place, and fine céladons began once more to appear among the products of the Ching-tê-chên factory. Later on, during the reigns of Yung-ching (1723-1735) and Chien-lung (1736-1795), still greater attention was given to this class of ware. Two celebrated experts raised the keramic art to its highest point of excellence. They were Nien Hsi-yao, called also Nien-kung, who occupied the post of superintendent at the Ching-tê-chên factories under the emperor Yung-ching, and Tang Ying, who was associated with Nien from 1727 and succeeded him in 1736. The wares made at Ching-tê-chên under the direction of these masters are commonly known as Nien-yao and T'ang-yao. Among them many beautiful specimens of céladon are found. Sometimes an attempt was made to ​imitate old ware of the same type by artificially colouring the lower rim of the pâte. But in the majority of cases the potters frankly depended on the resources of their own skill and were fully justified by the result. For these Nien-yao and T'ang-yao céladons undoubtedly rank high among wares of the Middle Kingdom. They differ from their prototypes primarily in the nature of their pâte, which is true porcelain, fine, white, less dense and on the whole better manipulated than the Lung-chuan-yao biscuit. Their glaze, too, is thinner and less lustrous, lacking the wonderful depth and solid softness of the early céladons. In respect of colour, the comparison is difficult. The emerald tint of precious jade is seldom found, or the delicately fresh colour of young onion sprouts, or the indescribable nuance of bluish green that constituted connoisseurs' delight in preceding centuries. But, on the other hand, there is a wonderful gradation of tints from green so pale as to be almost grey to grass colour and azure. These restful and æsthetic monochromes deserve even more notice than they have received. In many of them the potter, not relying wholly on beauty of colour, heightened the decorative effect by adding elaborate arabesques and scroll patterns, incised or in relief; which designs, being executed with admirable skill, invest the Nien-yao and T'ang-yao céladons with great attractions for Western collectors, especially since the shapes are often fine and the dimensions of the pieces noble. Notably charming is a variety in which the decoration is made to appear like a tracery of white lace lying under the delicate green glaze. Good examples of these comparatively modern céladons are to be found in European and American collections, ​whereas the genuine old types are exceedingly rare. Very little knowledge is required to distinguish the two, for the thinner glaze and finer pâte of the Kang-hsi, Yung-ching, and Chien-lung pieces, constituting in themselves easily recognised indications, are often supplemented by year-marks, which are never found on Lung-chuan-yao, Ju-yao, Ko-yao, or Kuan-yao.
To conclude this part of the subject and as an interesting confirmation of the deductions recorded above as to the nature of Sung wares, it will be well to quote, from a book called the "Annals of Fu-liang," the following account of "Imitations of ancient wares, manufactured at Ching-tê-chên":—
Ware with iron-coloured pâte of the Ta-kuan era (1107-1111). Of this there were three kinds; namely céladon of dark and light colour, and moon-white. These three species of glaze had the same tint and lustre as the glaze of the vases manufactured for imperial use in the Ching-te period (1004-1007).
Ware with copper-coloured pâte and glaze imitating that of the Ju-yao of the Sung dynasty, without crackle. This and the preceding ware are of the same colour and brilliancy as the toilette basins of the Sung dynasty.
Ware with iron-coloured pâte and the glaze of the Ko-ki, or vases of the elder Chang. Of this there are two varieties; rice-coloured glaze and pale céladon. Each is of the same colour and lustre as the ancient Sung ware manufactured for imperial use in the Ching-te era (1004-1007).
Ware with copper-coloured pâte, glaze of the Ju-yao, and crackle of the fish-roe variety. With regard to the tint and lustre of the glaze, the same observation applies as in the preceding cases. Ware with the whitish, or meal-coloured, glaze of the Fun-ting-yao (the choicest variety of the Ting-yao) of the Sung dynasty. Ware with the glaze of the Chün-yao. Imitations of the five varieties of Chün-yao glaze manufactured for imperial use during the Sung dynasty come under this head. These varieties are:—violet, or ​sapphire-coloured glaze; red glaze, of the colour of the Japanese pear-blossom; aubergine glaze; green, or plumcoloured, glaze; and horses' lung glaze.
Farther on, in the same catalogue, it is stated that, while excavating at a place called Shang-hu, about five miles (English) from Ching-tê-chên, the remains of an old pottery of the Sung dynasty were found. Pieces of the ware manufactured there were picked up. Their glazes were of two colours, light green (céladon) and rice-white, or bluish white.
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