# China: Its History, Arts, and Literature/Volume 1/Chapter 5

Chapter V
SUNG AND YUAN WARES (Continued).
THE reader must not suppose that in the preceding pages he possesses an exhaustive catalogue of wares manufactured during the Sung era. Many minor kilns were active in addition to those mentioned in these pages; but as their products were invariably imitations of the Ting-yao, Ju-yao, Lung-chuan-yao, or Chün-yao types, and as they differed from their originals in inferiority of technique only, to enumerate them here would be at once confusing and uninstructive. It is, nevertheless, probable that some of the specimens which have been preserved as examples of Sung chefs-d'œuvre are in reality the outcome of minor factories. By way of illustration mention may be made of a kiln at Su-chou, in the province of Nanwhei, where it is recorded that large quantities of imitation Ting-yao were produced under the Sung dynasty. When the true products of Ting-chou became rare, this Su-chou-yao was greedily purchased by dealers who sold it as genuine Ting-yao. A neighbouring factory at Sz'-chou devoted itself to similar work, and its outcome fell into the hands of persons who valued cheapness as much as quality. Thus there doubtless still exist specimens honestly dating from the Sung ​era, but not to be regarded as truly representative examples of the wares after which they are named.
The record arrives now at the keramic metropolis of China, Ching-tê-chên. Here during the past eight centuries have stood the Imperial Factories, and here have been produced the vast majority of the works upon which the fame of Chinese potters rests. Ching-tê-chên is situated on the banks of the Chang-kiang, a branch of the great Yangtze-kiang, in the province of Kiang-si. Its potteries were established in the sixth century under the Chin dynasty (557–588). The place was then known as Chang-nan-chin (town on the southern bank of the Chang), but in the Ching-tê era (1004–1007) of the Sung dynasty its name was changed to Ching-tê-chên (town of the Ching-tê era). This change was in commemoration of the establishment of a special factory for the production of pieces to be used by the Court. Under each succeeding dynasty, the Yuan Mongols, the native Ming, and the Tartar Tsing, Ching-tê-chên continued to be the great centre of the potter's art. Under the Yuan emperors the inspector of the factories was no less a personage than the Governor of Kiang-si, and in 1369 the Ming sovereign appointed a special magistrate to act as overseer. M. d'Entre-colles, in his Lettres édifiantes, gives the following interesting account of the place as it was in his time (1625):–
Ching-tê-chên wants only walls to merit the name of city and be comparable with the vastest and most populous towns in China. These places named Chên, of which but few exist, but which are easy of access and have a large trade, are generally without walls, perhaps in order that they may extend and grow as much as they please; perhaps be​cause their facilities for the import and export of goods are better when no enclosure exists. There are 18,000 families at Ching-tê-chên. Some are large merchants whose dwellings occupy a vast space and contain a prodigious multitude of workmen. It is commonly said that the place has a million souls in it. For the rest, the town is at least a league in length, on the banks of a fine river. It is not merely a heap of houses, as might be supposed. The streets are as straight as a line. They intersect and cross each other at fixed distances. The whole space is occupied by them, and the houses are, if anything, too close together; the streets too narrow. Passing through them, one imagines oneself in the midst of a fair. On all sides are heard the cries of porters making their way along. The expense of living is much more considerable than at Ju-chou, for everything that is needed has to be imported, even to the wood for the kilns. Yet, despite the high cost of living, Ching-tê-chên is the asylum of a number of poor families who have not the means of subsisting in the neighbouring villages. Young people and men of the poorest physique find employment. Not even the blind and the deformed fail to make a living by grinding the colours. "In ancient times," says the history of Fu-liang, "Ching-tê-chên counted only three hundred porcelain kilns." At present it has fully three thousand. No wonder that conflagrations are often seen there, for which reason several temples have been erected to the God of Fire. The worship and the honours paid to this deity do not diminish the number of calamities. A short time ago, eight hundred houses were reduced to ashes. They will be quickly rebuilt, if one may judge by the multitude of carpenters and masons employed in the quarter. The profits made by letting shops render the Chinese very active in repairing losses of this kind. Ching-tê-chên is situated in a vast plain surrounded by high mountains. The mountain on the east, forming the city's background, takes the shape of a semi-circle on the outer side. From these hills issue two rivers which join. One of them is small, but the other is very large and forms a fine port, nearly a league long, in a vast basin where the ​stream loses much of its rapidity. Sometimes, in this wide area of water, one sees as many as two or three rows of ships ranged one behind the other. Such is the spectacle presented when one emerges from one of the passes into the port. Clouds of flame and smoke, rising in different places, direct attention to the width, the depth, and the shape of the city. At night, one might imagine oneself looking at a vast city all on fire, or an immense furnace with numerous outlets. Perhaps this environment of mountains forms a situation suitable for the porcelain industry. It is astonishing that a place so populous, where such wealth exists, where an infinity of junks arrive daily, and where there are no enclosing walls, should be governed by a solitary mandarin without the least failure of good order. In truth, Ching-tê-chên is only a league from the district of Fu-liang and eighteen leagues from Ju-chou, but it must be confessed that the police system is admirable there. Each street has a head-man appointed. Each head-man has ten subalterns, each of whom is responsible for ten houses. Their duty is to preserve good order, repair at once to the scene of any disturbance, quell it and give information of it to the mandarin, under pain of the bastinado, which is liberally used. Often the head-man himself vainly gives notice of a trouble and declares that he has taken every step to calm it. There is always a disposition to lay the blame on his shoulders and he escapes a beating with difficulty. Each street has barricades which are closed at night, and must not be opened without certain signals. Moreover, the Mandarin of the district goes his rounds frequently, and so do the mandarins of Fu-liang, from time to time. Further, strangers are not permitted to sleep at Ching-tê-chên. They must either pass the night in the ships, or lodge with some acquaintance who is responsible for their good behaviour. The police preserve perfect order and establish complete security in a place rich enough to excite the cupidity of an infinity of thieves.
As to the nature of the work done at this great industrial centre during the first cycle of its existence, ​nothing is known. It is recorded that an emperor of the Sui dynasty (583 A.D.) ordered the potters of the district to furnish keramic wares to the Court by way of impost. Not till the beginning of the seventh century, however, is any clue obtained as to the wares themselves. The Tao-yao and Ho-yao—described in a previous chapter—then made their appearance and were compared to white jade. The manufactures of the place received no further notice for nearly four hundred years, when, in the period Ching-tê (1004—1007), the Sung emperor Chin-tsong conferred on the workers in a special factory the title of "Keramists to the Court." When it is remembered that under the Sung rulers wares of such note as the Ting-yao, the Kuan-yao, the Ju-yao, and the Chün-yao, were produced, the conclusion cannot be avoided that the potters of Ching-tê-chên must have developed a high degree of skill to be honoured by such a distinction. The Tao-lu, though nominally a history of Ching-tê-chên keramics, does not describe the wares manufactured there at this epoch, further than to say that their pâte was white and comparatively thin, that their surface was polished and lustrous, and that they were distinguished alike by the éclat of their glaze, the fineness of their biscuit, and the elegance of their shape. Imitations of them are said to have found ready purchasers throughout the empire. That alone would suffice to show that the wares did not differ from their contemporaries in excellence of technique. They were, in fact, céladons, and white, or rice-white, pieces. The emperor ordered that specimens intended for imperial use should be marked Ching-tê nien chi, which signifies "made (chi) in the Ching-tê year." In what ​manner this mark was originally made, whether by means of a seal or by a graving tool, tradition does not say. It was the first instance of using marks in this manner, and with three exceptions—the Chün-yao, the Kwang-yao (ware of Canton), and the boccaro of Yi-hsing—the practice does not seem to have been extended to the manufactures of other kilns. At Ching-tê-chên, however, it continued uninterruptedly until the seventeenth century.
It thus appears that at Ching-tê-chên also céladons of the finest quality and wares of the Ting-yao type were potted during the Sung era. In respect of these wares the test of red or iron-brown pâte does not apply, as it does in the case of the Lung-chuan-yao and Ju-yao.
The student comes now to the Yuan dynasty of Mongols. This period of less than a century (1279—1367) was not favourable to the development of art industry. No marked progress took place in keramics. The Mongol sovereigns did not greatly patronise the industry. During the period when Kublai Khan held his Court at Cambaluc, an active demand certainly sprang up for the products of factories celebrated under the previous dynasty. To imitate such pieces successfully was probably the highest aim of most of the skilled potters. One among these, an expert called Pong Chun-pao, is mentioned in the "History of Ching-tê-chên Wares." He had his kiln at Hoshu, in the province of Nanwhei, and there he manufactured pieces which, from their close resemblance to the Ting-yao of the preceding dynasty, were commonly called Shin-tin-ki, or "new Ting ware," but sometimes also Ho-yao, from the place of their manufacture, and sometimes ​Pong-yao, after the name of their maker. In the neighbourhood of Ching-tê-chên also, at Hu-tien-shi, there was a factory the productions of which are specially mentioned under the name of Hu-tien-yao. Specimens of this ware are to be found occasionally to-day. They owe their preservation to their durability rather than to their beauty. The pâte is thick and dense, without any of the delicacy of porcelain, and the glaze is muddy yellow, not lacking, however, in lustre or uniformity. The surface of these pieces is generally relieved by deeply incised designs of somewhat archaic character, figure subjects being most common. Some examples are preserved in Japanese collections, where they are known as Ningyo-de (figure-subject variety), in allusion to the nature of the incised designs.
Without dwelling further upon minor products of the Yuan period, which were simply imitations of antecedent types, attention may be at once directed to the ware regarded as so essentially representative of the dynasty by Chinese connoisseurs of the present day that they call it Yuan-tsü, or "Yuan porcelain." It is not, however, porcelain, but heavy stone-ware, having dense, fine pâte, gray or reddish gray, and wholly opaque. The beauty of the ware resides entirely in the glaze, which deserves admiration. The body colour is that peculiar delicate blue, aptly compared to moon-light, which has already been spoken of in connection with the Chün-yao of the Sung period, and in it are seen floating splashes or clouds of blood red. Sometimes the clair-de-lune surface is speckled with red, after the fashion of the Chun-yao, of which, indeed, the Yuan-tsü is evidently an off-shoot and for which some specimens of it may ​readily be mistaken. The glaze is unusually thick and lustrous, carrying with it an idea of wonderful depth and richness. Crackle is sometimes present, but many of the finest pieces are without this addition. The ware being very solid and durable, examples are not infrequent. They are chiefly bowls and small cups, the latter of the choicest description and very highly valued by Chinese connoisseurs. Imitations made in the Ming and Tsin dynasties are, however, tolerably common and not easy to distinguish from the genuine pieces. The chief differences are that the glaze of the former is comparatively thin, the pâte finer, and the bottom of the specimen more neatly finished. The connoisseur will of course understand that when later experts of Ching-tê-chên, possessing all the materials and more than the ability of their predecessors, undertook to imitate the latter's pieces, they may have excelled, but were not likely to fall short of, their originals. It is not by any means to be supposed that the richly glazed and delicately coloured specimens of so-called "Yuan-tsü" offered for sale by Chinese dealers are all genuine examples of the Yuan ware. A majority of them are imitations, generally more beautiful than the real Yuan-tsü itself.
Although under the Yuan, as well as under the Sung, dynasty the Chin-tê-chên factories continued to be specially distinguished by imperial patronage, they did not entirely monopolise the duty of supplying the palace. Pieces of exceptional excellence appear to have been either purchased at the ordinary workshops or presented by manufacturers in lieu of taxes. According to the author of the Tao-lo, the nature of the service required of the official factories was so onerous that only private kilns enjoyed prosperity. ​Unfortunately, of such kilns few records have been preserved. Whatever their achievements, Ching-tê-chên eclipsed them sufficiently to become alone traditional. A book quoted in the Tao-lu says:—"The vases of Ching-tê-chên, made of plastic clay, are of perfect whiteness and without faults." And again:—"The white and the céladon vases used in the provinces of Chêkiang, of Hupeh, of Szechuen, and of Kwangtung, come from the Ching-tê-chên factories." Pieces destined for the Court were distinguished as Shu-fu-yao, or "ware for the use of the palace." They were sometimes marked Shu-fu. The author of the Tao-lu speaks of these wares as the product of private workshops, but his evident meaning is that their manufacture was not confined to Government kilns. The latter were not constantly employed in supplying the wants of the palace. Often a money tax was levied from them in lieu of keramic services, and at such times they naturally devoted themselves to working for the ordinary market. Thence, doubtless, arose the habit of distinguishing between wares intended for sale and those for imperial use. The chief variety of this Shu-fu-yao was white. It was in fact an imitation of the celebrated Ting-yao of the preceding dynasty. H'siang, in his "Illustrated Catalogue," shows a specimen of the ware. He describes it as a small bottle-shaped vase, decorated with dragons in the midst of clouds and having lion's-head handles, all faintly engraved in the paste, under a white glaze. He then goes on to say:—"The porcelain of our own (Ming) dynasty, of the reigns of Yung-lo and Hsuan-te, decorated with patterns engraved under a white glaze, was made after the imperial porcelain. The Shu-fu porcelain itself was copied from the Ting-​chou porcelain of the Northern Sung dynasty, and this bottle, in its paste and form, in the colour of the glaze, and in the engraved design, is altogether like a Ting piece." The Tao-lu also gives the following particulars about the Yuan dynasty Shu-fu-yao:—"So soon as an order reached the factory, steps were immediately taken to execute it. The clay used had to be fine, white, and plastic. It was preferred that these vases should have little thickness. The majority of them had a small base and moulded flowers. Some also were ornamented with gold and had flowers in relief (of glazing material). The vases with large bases were uniform and brilliant. In the interior of these vases the words Shu-fu were marked. Imitations of them were made by private potters, but inasmuch as when there was question of vases destined to be presented to the emperor, only ten were chosen out of every hundred, it will be seen that humble private manufacturers could not attain the necessary perfection."
It will further be remembered that during this dynasty Lung-chuan céladons continued to be manufactured at Liu-tien. Summing up the keramic products of the time, they are Lung-chuan and Ching-tê-chên céladons (the latter differing from the former in quality of pâte and delicacy of colour); white soft-paste ware of Ching-tê-chên, and finally the remarkable Yuan-tsü with its clair-de-lune body-glaze and blood-red marking. Under the same dynasty porcelain decorated with blue under the glaze was also manufactured, but it will be more convenient to speak of this later on, as well as of another product, then in its elementary stage, porcelain or
The keramic annals of the Yuan dynasty may be concluded by noting that opportunities for the westward export of the products of Chinese kilns continued much as before "The Mongol rulers" (according to Dr. Hirth's "Ancient Chinese Porcelain") were masters of Bagdad as well as of Peking, and constant intercourse took place through Central Asia between the east and west of that gigantic empire. The journeys of Marco Polo and Ibn Batuta bear witness to the continuance of the sea trade between the coast of China and Arab provinces. Batuta states distinctly, as regards porcelain, that 'it is exported to India and elsewhere, passing from country to country till it reaches us in Morocco.' The Chinese themselves, during the Mongol period, were pervaded by a desire to extend their power by maritime warfare, and whatever may have been the success of Kublai Khan's expeditions against Japan, Java, and other southern islands, they show that maritime enterprise had not declined among his subjects on the coast of China." This state of warlike effervescence was not particularly well suited to the circulation of the products of peace, but the fact that Bagdad and Peking were ruled by the same sceptre, is in itself sufficient to indicate that Chinese wares must have found their way westward in considerable quantities.
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