A SHORT ACCOUNT OF THE EARLY HISTORY OF PORCELAIN
Perhaps what we have said will inspire our readers with the desire to
know something of the origin of the potter's art in China. This cannot
be definitely fixed. It is lost in antiquity. Far back, centuries
before the Christian era, possibly when Egyptian civilisation was at
its height, legendary history refers to the invention of pottery and,
indeed, places the invention of pottery thousands of years B.C. We have
no definite information as to what was made, but we may fairly assume
that in those remote times the vessels made were only course clay, rude
in form, sun-dried or badly baked in an open fire. Then, possibly, the
first efforts at glazing were produced and ornamented, the surface
was decorated by drawings with a stick in transverse scratches or
concentric rings, and simple bits of clay stuck on to the soft surface
formed the first applied ornament, gradually developing, and ever far
in advance of Western barbarism. The manufacture reaches the period
where actual records were available during the Wei dynasty, 220 A.D.,
when two potteries were recorded as making porcelain for Imperial use.
The string of dynasties which follows have but slight interest for the
collector. The marks we give (see Marks) range from the Sung dynasty,
960 A.D., to the Tsing dynasty, which came into power in 1644 and
continues to the present day. Though we read of porcelain blue as the
sky, shining as the looking-glass, thin as paper, giving a sound like
a musical stone, we could scarcely hope to find a specimen after the
lapse of so many hundred years. Besides, if we did, the piece would be
unique and even the experts would doubt its identity. Still, the tiny
fragments of this precious ware are recognised in China, and are so
valuable that the Chinese have them mounted as personal ornaments.
The first of the dynasties shown in our list has a real claim for
consideration, that is, the Sung dynasty, which lasted from 960 to 1279
A.D. The Emperor Chin-tsung, who reigned from 954 to 1007 A.D., adopted
as his title name, or _nien hao_, on coming to the throne, King-te,
and he founded the royal manufactory at Chang-nan-Chin, henceforward
known as King-te-chin. This city remained for many centuries the
greatest manufactory of Chinese porcelain. Here, then, we have definite
history of a city in the Chinese provinces of Kiang-si, with a present
population of 500,000, in which porcelain has been manufactured for
centuries, and where the manufacturing is still carried on, although,
through wars and insurrections, the work has now and then been
suspended for varying periods. There were numerous other factories in
thirteen other provinces, notably in Ho-nan, which had no less than
thirteen. Historical incidents occur which show that Oriental porcelain
was by slow degrees making its way Westwards. Saladin (1137 to 1193),
Sultan of Egypt and Syria, who defended Acre for two years against the
Crusaders, sent forty pieces of finest porcelain to Nur-ed-din Mahmud,
who recovered Syria from the Crusaders. That celebrated Venetian
traveller and author, Marco Polo, writing in 1280, described a visit
to a Chinese factory, and stated that the porcelain was exported all
over the world. The Yuen dynasty (1279-1367) saw the advent of Roman
Catholic missionaries and Florentine traders. They came to Pekin and
Hang-chow; and far off Cathay, the land of mystery, romance, and
poetry, first made acquaintance with the Western barbarians. We read
of porcelain of this period having been moulded, modelled, and painted
with flowers. The most noted potter, Pung, was not famous for his own
individual work of designing new forms or inventing new colours, but
for copying the older wares, and we shall never have an opportunity of
seeing his work, which, though beautiful, was very thin and brittle.
VII
THE MING
DYNASTY