CHINESE PORCELAINS
Not to know something of Chinese porcelains, their history and their
periods, is to be denied a pleasurable interest. The old porcelains of
China are the ancestors of all china-wares of the world, and never have
the finest antique fabriques of the Celestial Kingdom been surpassed or
even equaled in beauty and texture.
The potter’s craft, as we all know, had its origin in the dim ages of
the past. Even the discovery of true porcelain must be dated so far back
that we have no authentic record of the era of its origin.
The literature of China ascribes the invention of true porcelain to some
twenty-five hundred years before Christ, but we cannot be certain that
the art of porcelain-making was known and practised until, perhaps,
after the seventh century. While Chinese literature of the early periods
abounds in references to porcelain, we have not a single authentic dated
piece of the very early dynasties. It seems plausible to advance the
theory that true porcelain was an invention or discovery of the Han
dynasty (206 B.C.). The Japanese writer Okakura-Kakuzo has suggested
that to the alchemists of the Han dynasty came accidentally the
discovery of the wonderful porcelain glaze. The literature by Chinese
authors of the T’ang dynasty is rich in references to porcelain. The
poet Tu (803-852), for instance, says:
The porcelain of the Ta-yi kilns is light yet strong,
It rings with a low jade note and is famed throughout the city.
The fine white bowls surpass hoar frost and snow.
The white bowls of Hsing-chou in Chihli and the blue bowls of Yuen-chou
in Che-kiang were highly esteemed and celebrated in song and story.
Their resonance of tone was such that musicians were said to have
utilized them.
The Arabs and Chinese were conducting a flourishing trade during the
eighth and ninth centuries. To Soleyman, one of the early Arabian
traders who wrote an account of his journeyings, we owe the first
mention of China in the literature of the world outside the empire. “In
China,” said he, “they have a very fine clay which they manufacture
vases from, as transparent as glass; water is seen through them.”
Bushell (“Chinese Art,” vol. II) tells us that in the time of the
Emperor Shi Tsung (954-959) of the brief Posterior Chou dynasty
established at K’ai-fêng-fu prior to the Sung dynasty, an imperial
rescript ordered porcelain “as blue as the sky, as clear as a mirror, as
thin as paper and as resonant as a musical stone of jade.”
All the porcelains of the times we have referred to seem long since to
have disappeared and the only knowledge of them which we have to-day is
through the literature of their contemporary writers. The Sung dynasty
(960-1280), the Yuan dynasty (1280-1367), and the Ming dynasty
(1368-1643) open up to us surer knowledge as specimens of the time are
available to students. The porcelains of the Sung and Yuan dynasties may
be classed together. The ceramic production (_yao_) made in the province
of Honan in the town now called Ju-chou-fu--a Sung dynasty porcelain
therefore designated as _Ju-Yao_--stands famous for the qualities of its
blues, which Chinese poets assure us rival the blue blossoms of the
_Vitex incisa_, the Chinese “Sky Blue Flower.”
The imperial ware of the Sung dynasty was the _Kuan Yao_ (two Chinese
words signifying “official ceramic kiln”). Then there was the _Yo Yao_
porcelain, the early crackled ware; and the _Ting Yao_, a porcelain
having a delicate resonant body. This seems to be the most commonly met
with among the wares of the Sung period. The _Lung-ch’üan Yao_ of the
Sung wares is the famed Celadon ware made in the province of Che-kiang.
The Celadon ware of this dynasty is distinguished by its onion-sprout
green color. The Celadon wares of later periods turn more either to
greyish greens or to sea-green hues.
The _Chün yao_ faience was the product of _Chün-chou_, now Yü-chou, a
town of the province of Honan. Marvelous indeed were its glazes of
unsurpassed brilliancy and beauty of color. The transmutation _flambés_
were especially notable.
In the reign of Yung Cheng (1723) the emperor sent a list of Chün-chou
pieces to be reproduced by the imperial potteries in Chung-te-chen, from
which (record of this being extant) we are able to glean some knowledge
of the great variety of glaze colors of the earlier period. In this list
appeared crimson-rose, japonica-pink, sky-blue, plum-color, dark purple,
millet-yellow, flambés, etc. Early in the eighteenth century all these
glazes and colors were reproduced with marvelous skill, but the new
white body was probably infinitely superior to the early body.
The Chien Yao Ware of the Sung dynasty was produced in Fu-kien
province, where lustrous black-enameled tea ceremonial cups were
manufactured. These were dappled with specks of white resembling the
effect of hare’s fur and partridge breasts. The Japanese treasure these
pieces, to which they have given the name “Hare-fur Cups,” above almost
any other varieties of Chinese porcelain.
We now come to the Ming dynasty, and in the reign of Wan-li (1573-1619)
the art of making and decorating porcelain had so advanced that native
contemporaries were fond of declaring there was nothing that could not
be made of the porcelain. The cobalt blues came into favor in this
period, and it is also the time of the famed “Mohammedan blue.” European
and American collectors have given a great deal of attention to the
blue-and-white porcelains that came in with the close of the Ming
dynasty. It was between 1662 and 1722, however, that the very flower of
the blue-and-white porcelain was produced. This marks the reign of K’ang
Hsi.
The K’ang Hsi period (1662-1722) was the culminating one of Chinese
ceramic art. Of this porcelain, Bushell says:
The brilliant renaissance of the art which distinguishes the reign
of K’ang Hsi is shown in every class; in the single-colored
glazes, _la qualité maîtresse de la céramique_; in the painted
decorations of the _grand feu_, of the jewel-like enamels of the
muffle-kiln, and of their manifold combinations; in the pulsating
vigour of every shade of blue in the inimitable “blue and white.”
He also tells us porcelains of the _famille verte_ class pervade the
period while those of the _famille rose_ class may be said to have
ushered in its close. The greens that give the porcelains of the
_famille verte_ and the _famille rose_ classes their names are indeed
gem-like in their beauty. Precious, too, to the collector are the
Blue-and White or the Black Hawthorn Jars of the period. Hawthorn is a
misnomer, for the prunus blossom and not the Hawthorn blossom furnishes
the _motif_ of the decoration. It is interesting to note that the
_Prunus_ blossoms in the white on the blue ground crossed by white
zigzag lines represents to the Oriental fancy the flowers falling on ice
breaking up in the springtime.
The master quality of fine porcelain is its glaze and the glazes of old
Chinese porcelains have never been surpassed. The reigns of Yung Chêng
and his celebrated son, Ch’ien Lung, who lend name to the period from
1723 to 1796, sustained the perfection of Chinese porcelain. The
decadence of the art begins with the modern period, from 1796 to the
present.
The marks on Chinese porcelains are various in character and come under
one or more of the following divisions: marks of date, hall-marks, marks
of dedication and good wishes, marks in praise of the piece of porcelain
inscribed, symbols, and other pictorial marks and potters’ marks. It is
not necessary here to go into the intricacies of these, but they furnish
a fascinating study. This, too, is true of the designs that are to be
found on the decorated pieces of Chinese porcelain. The casual observer
will pick up a piece and admire or dismiss it on the judgment of the
general impression it makes upon his artistic sensibilities. Not so with
the connoisseur, who takes into consideration color, texture, glaze,
and, quite as much as these (so far as intellectual interest is
concerned), the story the design tells.
The porcelains of China, like the sword-guards of Japan, offer the
native artists a vast wealth of mythological and folklore subjects. Then
symbolism and occasion are closely cemented in Oriental thought, and if
the collector of old Chinese porcelains finds their decoration puzzling
at times in its significance, how absorbing are its unravelings!
Since the time of Queen Elizabeth the Western world has recognized the
beauty and the decorative value of the porcelains of China, and at no
time have they sunk in regard. Rarities are no longer likely to be found
hidden away, or acquired for a posy. At the same time, the possession of
a single object and some knowledge of the evolution in ceramics that led
to it are interesting.