PORCELAIN SHAPES IN THE CH’ING DYNASTY
A considerable number of the forms which Chinese porcelain assumes have
been described in the chapters dealing with the Ming wares; but these
may be usefully supplemented by a rapid survey of those employed by
the potters of the Ch’ing dynasty. The latter will, of course, include
many of the former because the Chinese delight in reproducing the older
types.
The brief summary of the eighteenth-century porcelain forms given in
the opening pages of the _T’ao shuo_[484] begins in the correct style
with the reproductions of the ancient ritual vessels _tsun_, _lei_,
_yi_, _ting_, _yu_ and _chüo_. These are all bronze forms, _tsun_ being
applied to wine vessels, _lei_ to vases ornamented with the meander
pattern known as “cloud and thunder” scrolls,[485] _yi_ to bowl-shaped
vessels without feet, _ting_ to cauldrons with three or four legs and
two handles, _yu_ to wine jars with covers, and large loop handles for
suspension, and _chüo_ to libation cups of helmet and other shapes.
The bronze forms are commonly decorated with bronze patterns such as
the key-fret, archaic dragon and phœnix scrolls, cicada pattern, ogre
heads and bands of stiff (banana) leaves, either painted, moulded,
engraved, or carved in relief; and the complicated bronze shapes are
usually fashioned in moulds, and in many cases furnished with ring
handles attached to monster heads. Another ritual type manufactured
in porcelain as well as bronze is the altar set of five pieces (_wu
kung_), which consists of a _ting_ or tripod incense vase, two flower
vases, and two pricket candlesticks. A humbler altar set was composed
of a single censer or a tazza-shaped cup (Plate 93, Fig. 1) for
flowers, and a pair of lions on stands fitted with tubes for holding
sticks of incense. The bronze forms have always been used by the
Chinese potters, but they were specially affected in the archaising
period of Ch’ien Lung.
In the Western judgment, however, which is unbiased by the associations
of these antique forms, the true pottery shapes, made on the wheel,
will appear far more attractive; for nothing can surpass the simple
rounded forms which sprang to life beneath the deft fingers of the
Chinese thrower. Their simplicity, grace, and perfect suitability
for their intended uses have commended them as models to the Western
potter far more congenial than the cold perfection of the Greek
vases. Naturally they vary in quality with the skill and taste of the
individual, but a high level of manual skill ruled among the Chinese
potters, and their wheel-work rarely fails to please.
It would be useless to attempt to exhaust all the varieties of
wheel-made forms. Many of them are due to slight alterations of line
according to the caprice of the thrower. It will be enough to enumerate
the principal types and to note a few of the more significant changes
which came in at ascertained periods. By comparing the illustrations
in different parts of this book, and better still, by comparing the
specimens in some well classified collection, the reader will soon
learn to notice the periodical changes of shape. To take the familiar
bottle-shaped vases as an instance, there is probably no shape on which
more numerous changes have been rung, nor one which is more susceptible
to the individual touch; and yet the trained eye will generally
distinguish the K’ang Hsi bottle from the later forms, though the
distinction is often more subtle than that which separates the typical
K’ang Hsi form (Plate 123, Fig. 2) from that with depressed body and
straight wide neck (Plate 128, Fig. 3), which is characteristic of the
Ch’ien Lung period.
The K’ang Hsi bottles vary in themselves in length and slenderness
of neck, and in the form of the body, which may be globular, ovoid,
barrel shaped or pear shaped. Again they are often of double or even
triple gourd shape, or plain with a bulbous swelling on the upper part
of the neck or actually at the mouth. The last variety are called
“garlic-shaped” bottles by the Chinese. The normal types are used to
hold a single spray or a flowering branch, but there are others with
slender necks tapering to a point which are designed for sprinkling
perfumes and are generally known as sprinklers.
Of flower vases there are numerous varieties: egg-shaped vases;
baluster-shaped vases with spreading mouth; high-shouldered vases
with small mouth, the _mei p’ing_ of the Ming period; beakers (_ku_)
with slender body, swelling belt in the middle and flaring mouth;
the so-called _yen yen_ vase with ovoid body and high neck with
trumpet mouth,[486] which is used for some of the choicest K’ang
Hsi decorations (Plate 101); the _Kuan yin_[487] vase of ovoid form
with short neck and spreading mouth; the cylindrical vase with short
straight neck and spreading mouth (Plate 103), called by the French
_rouleau_ and by the Chinese “paper-beater” (_chih ch’ui p’ing_),
whence our name “club-shaped.” A smaller form of the same is known to
the Chinese as _yu ch’ui p’ing_ (oil-beater vase).
There is besides the wide oval jar or _potiche_ with dome-shaped cover
(_tsun_), and the more slender form known as _t’an_, which often has a
lion or _ch’i-lin_ on the cover serving as a knob; the tall cylinder
to hold arrows and the low cylinder for brushes, and numerous pots and
jars for various uses.
Most of these rounded forms have counterparts among the square and
polygonal vases which are made in moulds or built up by the difficult
process of joining together flat bats of clay. The square vases made
by the latter method were a source of much trouble to the potters
owing to the danger of imperfect jointing or of warping in the kiln.
Fig. 1 of Plate 104 illustrates an effective type of the square
vase with gracefully tapering body, the four sides of which are so
often appropriately decorated with the flowers of the four seasons.
Occasionally the angles are flattened, giving an irregular octagonal
form. Another form selected for sumptuous decoration is the square vase
with pendulous body and two dragon handles figured on Plate 97; and
another is the arrow stand and square tube with deeply socketed stand
and railed border (Plate 118).
The pilgrim bottle supplies an effective model with a flattened
circular body, small neck and foot, and loops on the periphery to carry
a cord. These loops tended to disappear when the form had lost its
first significance and was only regarded as a vase.
The list of Imperial wares made in the reign of T’ung Chih includes
vases for divining rods of square form with low round neck and base,
ornamented with _pa kua_ designs in relief; vases with apricot
medallions and tubular handles like Fig. 1 of Plate 123. Other familiar
types are the bag-shaped vases with the mouth tied with silk, melon
and gourd forms, and the vase shaped like a double fish erect on its
tail or a single fish rising from waves.
To quote a few of the types named in the _T’ao shuo_[488]:--“For
holding flowers there are vases from two or three inches to five or
six feet high, round like a _hu_, round and swelling below like a
gallbladder (_tan_), round and with spreading mouth and contracted
below like a _tsun_, with flat sides and full angles like a ku, upright
like bamboo joints, square like a corn measure (_tou_), with contracted
mouth and flattened sides, with square and round flutings, and cut in
halves with flat backs for hanging on walls.”
For pot-pourri and for fragrant flowers to perfume the rooms various
covered jars were provided, hanging vases with reticulated sides
(Plate 114), and boxes with perforated covers. For growing plants
there were deep flower pots and shallow bulb bowls, and the large and
small fish bowls were used for growing water-lilies as well as for
keeping gold-fish; and shallow bowls were apparently used as arenas for
fighting crickets.[489] As for the vessels in which the crickets were
kept, various suggestions have been made in reference to the “cricket
pots” mentioned in Chinese books, and the name is sometimes given to
reticulated vases and boxes; but we are told that the cricket prefers a
damp dwelling, and that their pots were consequently made as a rule of
absorbent earthenware. There is a snuff bottle decorated with crickets
in the British Museum, and one is represented perched on an overturned
pot from which he has apparently escaped, the lid having fallen off.
This pot is of ordinary ovoid jar form apparently ornamented with
incised fret pattern.
The apparatus of the library table is peculiarly Chinese; and
as calligraphy and painting were regarded as among the highest
accomplishments, so the potter lavished on the implements of the writer
his most ingenious fancies and his most beautiful workmanship. There
were porcelain handles for the pencil brush called _pi kuan_; a brush
rest (_pi ko_) of many fanciful forms (see Fig. 3 of Plate 60) of which
a miniature range of hills was the commonest; a bed (_pi ch’uang_)
for it to lie down on, and a cylindrical jar (_pi t’ung_) for it to
stand up in; vessels called _hsi_ to wash it in, usually of shallow
bowl form or shaped like crinkled lotus leaves or in some such dainty
design. There were rests for the writer’s wrist and paper weights of
fantastic form. For the ink (_mo_), there is the pallet (_mo yen_) for
rubbing (Plate 94, Fig. 2), and a bed for the ink-cake (_mo ch’uang_),
a screen (_yen p’ing_) behind which it was rubbed, small water pots
(_shui ch’êng_) in innumerable shapes and served by a tiny ladle, and
water droppers (_shui ti_) of quaint and ingenious designs.[490] There
were rollers for picture scrolls (_hua chou_) with porcelain ends, and
stands for books in the form of small elegantly shaped tables with
three or four legs often beautifully painted in enamels on the biscuit.
With these is the incense-burning apparatus which consists of incense
box (_hsiang ho_), the vase to hold the tiny tongs and shovel used for
the charcoal and incense, and the urn or burner (_shao hsiang lu_).
The last appears in very varied shapes, of which the most usual is
the tripod cauldron (_ting_) with upright ear-handles. Others take
the purely fantastic form of figures of animals, birds and even human
beings with open mouth or nostrils to emit the smoke. Tiny vases for a
single flower are usually placed upon the writing table, the furniture
of which is completed by seals (_yin_), which are commonly modelled
after Han dynasty jades with handles in form of camels, tortoises,
dragons, tigers, etc., and small boxes to contain the seal vermilion
(_yin sê ch’ih_).
Other porcelain objects which combined use and ornament were plaques
(_pan_) for screens and slabs for inlaying in pillows, beds, couches
and verandah partitions; actual pillows of oblong or semicircular shape
with concave surface, the inside hollow and capable of being filled
with fragrant herbs; bowls, shaped like the Buddhist alms bowl, for
holding black and white chess pieces, and the other requisites for
chess (_wei-ch’i_) or _gô_.
With regard to the plaques, we learn that the Emperor Shun Chih gave
an order in 1659 for oblong plaques 3 feet by 2½ feet and 3 inches in
thickness, but these like the large fish bowls were beyond the powers
of the potters at that time. Indeed Père d’Entrecolles tells us that
in 1712, the date of his first letter,[491] the potters had much
difficulty in executing the orders given by the European merchants for
plaques for table tops, etc., and that the largest practicable size
was only about a foot square. No advantage was obtained by giving them
additional thickness to prevent the fatal warping in the kiln, and
it was found better to make the two faces in separate slabs united
by cross pieces. Bushell points out that these double plaques were
frequently sawn apart and mounted in screens, etc., as separate panels.
The complete plaque is usually decorated on one side with a figure
subject and on the other with flowers.
We should mention also among miscellaneous objects the beautiful
hanging lanterns of eggshell thinness or perforated in openwork
patterns; the barrel-shaped garden seats; the curious hat stands,
a sphere on top of a tall stem or a little box mounted on long
curved legs, the top in either case being hollow and perforated to
hold perfumes or ice or charcoal according to the season; boxes of
all kinds; small personal ornaments such as hair-pins, ear-rings,
girdle-clasps, rosary beads, thumb rings, fingernail covers, tubes for
mandarin feathers, buttons and pendants; the little bottles or flasks
originally intended for drugs but afterwards consecrated to snuff when
the Spaniards or Portuguese had introduced the tobacco plant into China
at the end of the sixteenth century; and finally the ornamental heads
of opium pipes made chiefly in pottery.
For household use the _T’ao shuo_ enumerates rice spoons, tea spoons
(_ch’a shih_), sets of chop sticks, vessels for holding candle snuffs,
wax pots, vinegar droppers, washing basins (_tsao p’ên_), pricket
candle sticks (_têng ting_), pillows (_chên_), square and round, tubs
(_p’ên ang_), jars (_wêng_) with small mouth, alms bowls (_po_) with
globular body and contracted mouth, plates (_tieh_), and bowls (_wan_);
and for tea and wine parties and dinner services, tea pots, wine
vessels, bowls, and dishes of every sort.
Bowls (wan) are found in many sizes and shapes, the commonest being the
small rice bowl; the shallower type was used for soup (_t’ang wan_).
There are deep bowls with covers which might almost be described as
jars, and there are tea bowls with covers used for infusing tea in the
absence of a tea pot. In drinking from these it was usual to tilt the
cover very slightly so as to leave only a narrow egress for the tea and
to prevent the leaves accompanying it.
When a tea pot was used, the liquid was served in a tea cup (_ch’a
chung_) of tall upright form without handle[492] or cover. The
Chinese cup is not furnished with a saucer in European style, but
there are straight-edged trays which serve a similar purpose, holding
one or more cups, and the old tea bowls and wine cups used to be
provided with a circular stand with hollow ring in which the base of
the cup could be inserted. The tea pot itself does not seem to be older
than the Ming dynasty, and before that time tea bowls only had been
used, the vessels with spouts and handles being reserved for wine and
other liquids.
A tiny bowl is the usual form of wine cup, but beside these there are
goblets with deep bowl, and the shallow-bowled _tazze_ with high
stems, like the early Ming “stem cups.” For ceremonial purposes, the
wedding cups and libation cups were shaped after bronze ritual vessels
or rhinoceros horn cups; and wine cups for ordinary use sometimes
take the ornamental form of a lotus leaf or a flower. The commonest
form of wine ewer is the Persian type with pear-shaped body, long
graceful handle and spout. Others take fanciful forms like that of a
peach or aubergine fruit, a gourd or melon. The peach-shaped ewer with
opening under the base is the original of our Cadogan tea pot, and we
need be surprised at nothing in Chinese art when we find this same
principle and practically the same form in a ewer of T’ang date in the
Eumorfopoulos collection. The tall cylindrical ewers with body jointed
like a bamboo, and the front shaped at the top like a tiara, are used
for sweet syrups.
The Chinese dish is for the most part saucer-shaped. When over half a
foot in diameter it is called _p’an_, the smaller dishes or platters
being named _tieh_. There are large dishes for fragrant fruits to
perfume the room, and lotus-leaf shaped dishes for sweetmeats and
various small trays of fanciful form for the dinner table; and there
are the “supper sets” consisting of a varying number of ornamental
trays which can be used separately, or joined together to form a
pattern suggesting a lotus or some other many-petalled flower.
In addition to the native Chinese forms there is a host of specialised
objects made for export and designed in foreign taste; such as the deep
bowls with pagoda covers for Siam; weights to hold down the corners of
a mat for India, in form like a door knob mounted on a circular base;
narghili bowls and ewers for Persia, besides the bottle-shaped pipes
with mammiform mouthpieces, which sometimes take animal or bird forms
such as those of the elephant or phœnix; round covered dishes for
Turkey; and all the familiar objects to meet European requirements. The
sets of five vases (three covered jars and two beakers) are a purely
European garniture intended for the mantelpiece or the sideboard.
There are, besides, all manner of figures--human, animal, or
mythical--but they belong rather to the chapter on ornamental motives.