Chinese Pottery And Porcelain - free ebook by R. L. (Robert Lockhart) Hobson

CHINESE POTTERY AND PORCELAIN

Statue of a Lohan or Buddhist Apostle, T'ang dynasty (618–906 A.D. ) Height with stand 50 inches. British Museum....

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CHINESE POTTERY AND PORCELAIN

AN ACCOUNT OF THE POTTER'S ART IN CHINA FROM PRIMITIVE TIMES TO THE PRESENT DAY BY R.L. HOBSON, B.A. Assistant in the Department of British and Mediæval Antiquities and Ethnography, British Museum. Author of the "Catalogue of the Collection of English Pottery in the Department of British and Mediæval Antiquities of the British Museum"; "Porcelain: Oriental, Continental, and British"; "Worcester Porcelain"; etc.; and Joint Author of "Marks on Pottery" Forty Plates in Colour and Ninety–six in Blac

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INTRODUCTION

W HEN we consider the great extent of the Chinese Empire and its teeming population—both of them larger than those of Europe—and the fact that a race with a natural gift for the potter's craft and a deep appreciation of its productions has lived and laboured there for twenty centuries (to look no farther back than the Han dynasty), it seems almost presumptuous to attempt a history of so vast and varied an industry within the compass of two volumes. Anything approaching finality in such a subject

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

A NDERSON , W., Catalogue of the Japanese and Chinese Paintings in the British Museum. 1886. B INYON , L., "Painting in the Far East." B RETSCHNEIDER , E., "Mediæval Researches from Eastern Asiatic Sources," Truebner's Oriental Series. 1878. B RINKLEY , C APT . F., "China, its History, Arts and Literature," vol. ix. London, 1904. B URTON , W., "Porcelain: A Sketch of its Nature, Art and Manufacture." London, 1906. B URTON , W., AND H OBSON , "Marks on Pottery and Porcelain." London, 1912. B USHE

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CATALOGUES AND ARTICLES IN PERIODICAL PUBLICATIONS

B AHR , A. W., "Old Chinese Porcelain and Works of Art in China." London, 1911. B ELL , H AMILTON , "'Imperial' Sung Pottery," Art in America , July, 1913. B ÖRSCHMANN , E., "On a Vase found at Chi–ning Chou," Zeitschrift für Ethnologie , Jahrg. 43, 1911. B RETSCHNEIDER , E., Botanicon Sinicum , Journal of the North–China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. New Series, Vol. XVI., Part 1, 1881. B RINKLEY , F., Catalogue of the Exhibitions at the Boston Museum of Arts, 1884. Burlington Magazine,

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CHAPTER I

THE PRIMITIVE PERIODS P OTTERY, as one of the first necessities of mankind, is among the earliest of human inventions. In a rude form it is found with the implements of the late Stone Age, before there is any evidence of the use of metals, and all attempts to reconstruct the first stages of its discovery are based on conjecture alone. We have no knowledge of a Stone Age in China, but it may be safely assumed that pottery there, as elsewhere, goes back far into prehistoric times. Its invention is

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CHAPTER II

THE HAN Chinese character DYNASTY, 206 B. C. TO 220 A. D. T WO centuries of internecine strife between the great feudal princes culminated in the destruction of the Chou dynasty and the consolidation of the Chinese states under the powerful Ch´in emperor Chêng. If this ambitious tyrant is famous in history for beating back the Hiung–nu Turks, the wild nomads of the north who had threatened to overrun the Chou states, and for building the Great Wall of China as a rampart against these dreaded inv

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CHAPTER III

THE T´ANG Chinese character DYNASTY, 618–906 A. D. T HE Chinese Empire, reunited by the Sui emperors, reached the zenith of its power under the world–famed dynasty of the T´ang (618-906 A. D. ). A Chinese general penetrated into Central India and took the capital, Magadha, in 648. Chinese junks sailed into the Persian Gulf, and the northern boundaries of the empire extended into Turkestan, where traces of a flourishing civilisation have been discovered in the sand–buried cities in the regions of

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CHAPTER IV

THE SUNG Chinese character DYNASTY, 960–1279 A. D. W ITH the Sung dynasty firmly established in 960 A. D. , the Chinese Empire entered upon a long period of prosperity rendered glorious by the cultivation of the arts of peace. It is true that the boundaries of the Empire were contracted and the Tartar tribes on the north–west had made good their independence and remained a constant menace to the frontiers of China. In 1127 the dam was broken and the desert warriors, no longer to be kept in check

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CHAPTER V

JU, KUAN, AND KO WARES Ju yao Chinese characters T HOUGH no authenticated example of Ju ware is known in Europe, it is impossible to ignore a factory whose productions were unanimously acclaimed by Chinese writers as the cream of the Sung wares. Its place of origin, Ju Chou, in the province of Honan, lies in the very district which was celebrated in a previous reign for the Ch´ai pottery, and it is probable that the Ju factories continued the traditions of this mysterious ware. Nothing, however,

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CHAPTER VI

LUNG–CH´ÜAN YAO Chinese characters I N discussing the celebrated Lung–ch´üan celadons, we are able to build our structure on a more solid basis. For one group of them, at any rate, is so familiar that we should be tempted to abandon the difficult Chinese descriptions and construct an essay on the ware from actually existing specimens, were it not that in so doing we should miss our chief opportunity of applying a living test to the Chinese phrases. The district of Lung–ch´üan in the prefecture o

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CHAPTER VII

TING YAO Chinese characters T ING ware is by general consent ranked among the finer Sung porcelains, and it is happily, like the Lung–ch´üan celadons, fairly well known to Western collectors. Its name derives from its place of origin, Ting Chou, the modern Chên–ting Fu, in the province of Chihli, where the manufacture of a white ware, if not actually a white porcelain, appears to have existed from remote times. Indeed, the "white ware ( pai tz´ŭ ) of Ting Chou" is mentioned in the middle of the

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CHAPTER VIII

TZ´Ŭ CHOU Chinese characters WARE A LARGE and important class of wares, closely related to the Ting group, was made at Tz´ŭ Chou, formerly in the Chang–tê Fu in Honan, and now included in the Kuang–p´ing Fu in Chihli. The name of the place, previously Fu–yang, was changed to Tz´ŭ Chou in the Sui dynasty (589–617 A. D. ), and as it was derived, as Chinese writers are careful to explain, from the tz´ŭ stone from which the ware was made, we may infer that this material, and no doubt the local potte

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CHAPTER IX

CHÜN WARES AND SOME OTHERS Chün Chou Chinese characters ware [251] T HE Chün ware is said to have been first made in the early part of the Sung dynasty at Chün Chou or Chün–t´ai, the modern Yü Chou in the K´ai–fêng Fu in Honan. Like the Lung–ch´üan celadon, thanks to its strength and solidity, it has survived in sufficient numbers to give us some idea of the qualities which Chinese writers have described in picturesque terms. That it finds no mention in the Cho kêng lu and the Ko ku yao lun seem

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CHAPTER X

MIRABILIA M ANY strange things are recorded by the early Chinese writers in connection with pottery and porcelain, and the tales are solemnly repeated from book to book, though occasionally a less credulous author adds some such comment as "This may be true, or, on the other hand, it may not." It is difficult, however, entirely to discredit the serious and circumstantial account given by a provincial governor of a curious custom which prevailed in his district. Fan Ching–ta, who was appointed ad

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CHAPTER XI

PORCELAIN AND ITS BEGINNINGS T HE reader will have noticed that the word porcelain, which was avoided in the discussion of the earlier periods, has insensibly crept into the chapters which deal with the Sung wares. It was no longer right or proper that it should be excluded, and it is high time that our attitude on the interesting question of its origin was defined. Unfortunately, that attitude is still—and must necessarily remain—one of doubt and uncertainty, but we can at least clear away some

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CHAPTER XII

CHING–TÊ CHÊN C HING–TÊ CHÊN, the metropolis of the ceramic world, whose venerable and glorious traditions outshine Meissen and Sèvres and all the little lights of Europe, and leave them eclipsed and obscure, is an unwalled town or mart ( chên ) on the left bank of the Ch´ang River, which flows into the Po–yang Lake, on the northern border of the province of Kiangsi. In ancient times it was known as Ch´ang–nan Chên, the mart on the south of the Ch´ang, but when the Sung Emperor Chên Tsung comman

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CHAPTER XIII

THE YÜAN Chinese character DYNASTY, 1280–1367 A.D. T HE Yüan dynasty, which lasted from 1280 to 1367, was established by Kublai Khan, grandson of the great Mongol conqueror, Genghis Khan. The Mongols completely subjugated China, and though their rule was comparatively brief, it had a disastrous effect on the artistic development of the country. The Mongol governors whose services to the reigning house had been rewarded by all the lucrative posts, made full use of their opportunities to enrich th

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CHAPTER XIV

KUANGTUNG Chinese characters WARES T HOUGH the province of Kuangtung has long been celebrated for its pottery, only very meagre information is procurable on the history of its factories. A single reference in the T´u shu [379] carries us back to the T´ang dynasty (618–906), when we learn that earthenware cooking vessels were made in the potteries ( t´ao chia ) of Kuang Chou (i.e. Canton), which when glazed were better than iron vessels and more suitable for the decoction of drugs. "A vessel of t

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CHAPTER XV

YI–HSING Chinese characters WARE T HE potteries at Yi–hsing Hsien, in the prefecture of Ch´ang–chou, in Kiangsu, at no great distance from Shanghai, have long been celebrated for elegantly shaped teapots of unglazed stoneware in red and other colours. They have, in fact, been honoured with a special book, the Yang–hsien ming hu hsi , [396] or "Story of the teapots of Yang–hsien" (an old name for Yi–hsing), written in the seventeenth century [397] ; but though extracts from this work occur in the

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CHAPTER XVI

MISCELLANEOUS POTTERIES I N addition to the factories which have received individual notice, there are numerous others which are only names to us; and, on the other hand, there is a host of nameless wares which have reached Europe at various times and through divers channels, and are now awaiting classification with very little chance of being definitely located. A consideration, however, suggested by the Chinese Commercial Guide [409] may help towards the grouping of these miscellaneous wares.

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TABLE OF CYCLICAL DATES FROM A.D. 4

It will be seen that cyclical dates without any indication of the particular cycle intended are merely tantalising. On the other hand when the reign is specified as well, the combination gives the most precise form of date. But unfortunately there are many cases in which the reign name is absent, and we can only judge the cycle by the style of the ware, a calculation which is always open to dispute. It is not often that the cycle is so clearly indicated by an indirect method as in the oft–quoted

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Chinese Pottery and Porcelain

AN ACCOUNT OF THE POTTER’S ART IN CHINA FROM PRIMITIVE TIMES TO THE PRESENT DAY BY R. L. HOBSON, B.A. Assistant in the Department of British and Mediæval Antiquities and Ethnography, British Museum. Author of the “Catalogne of the Collection of English Pottery in the Department of British and Mediæval Antiquities of the British Museum”; “Porcelain: Oriental, Continental, and British”; “Worcester Porcelain”; etc; and Joint Author of “Marks on Pottery.” Forty Plates, in Colour and Ninety-six in Bl

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LIST OF PLATES

CHINESE POTTERY AND PORCELAIN As we have already discussed, so far as our imperfect knowledge permits, the various potteries which are scattered over the length and breadth of China, we can now concentrate our attention on the rising importance of Ching-tê Chên. From the beginning of the Ming dynasty, Ching-tê Chên may be said to have become the ceramic metropolis of the empire, all the other potteries sinking to provincial status. So far as Western collections, at any rate, are concerned, it is

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Yung Lo (1403–1424)

The usual formulæ are employed by the T’ao lu in describing the Imperial ware of this reign. It was made of plastic clay and refined material, and though, as a rule, the porcelain was thick, there were some exceedingly thin varieties known as t’o t’ai [6] or “bodiless” porcelains. Besides the plain white specimens, there were others engraved with a point [7] or coated with vivid red ( hsien hung ). The Po wu yao lan , [8] reputed a high authority on Ming porcelains and written in the third decad

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CHAPTER II HSÜAN TÊ (1426–1435)

In this short reign, which Chinese writers regard as the most brilliant period of their porcelain industry, the number of kilns occupied with the Imperial orders had increased to fifty-eight, the majority of them being outside the Imperial factory and distributed among the private factories. According to the T’ao lu , [16] the clay used at this time was red and the ware like cinnabar, a statement which is difficult to reconcile with the glowing description of the jade-like white altar cups and o

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Chêng Tê (1506–1521)

The reign of Chêng Tê, though not mentioned in the Po wu yao lan and but briefly noticed in the T’ao shuo , must have been an important period in the history of Chinese porcelain. The yü ch’i ch’ang (Imperial ware factory) was rebuilt [88] and the direct supervision of a palace eunuch renewed. The porcelain, we are told in the T’ao lu , was chiefly blue painted and polychrome, the finest being in the underglaze red known as chi hung . An important factor in the blue decoration was the arrival of

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Lung Ch’ing (1567–1572)

We read in the T’ao shuo [142] that the Imperial factory was re-established in the sixth year of this reign (1572), and placed under the care of the assistant prefects of the district. This would seem to imply that for the greater part of this brief period the Imperial works had been in abeyance. Be this as it may, there was no falling off in the quantity of porcelain commanded for the Court, and the extravagant and burdensome demands evoked a protest from Hsü Ch’ih, the president of the Censora

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CHAPTER V WAN LI (1573–1619) AND OTHER REIGNS

The long reign of Wan Li, the last important period of the Ming dynasty, is certainly the best represented in European collections, a circumstance due to the ceramic activity of the time not less than to its nearness to our own age. In the first year of the reign orders were given that one of the sub-prefects of Jao-chou Fu should be permanently stationed at Ching-tê Chên to supervise the Imperial factory. It appears that he proved a stern taskmaster, and at the same time that the potters were s

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CHAPTER VI THE TECHNIQUE OF THE MING PORCELAIN

Although the processes involved in the various kinds of decoration and in the different wares have been discussed in their several places, a short summary of those employed in the manufacture of the Ching-tê Chên porcelain during the Ming period will be found convenient. The bulk of the materials required were found in the surrounding districts, if not actually in the Fou-liang Hsien. The best kaolin (or porcelain earth) was mined in the Ma-ts’ang mountains until the end of the sixteenth century

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CHAPTER VII MISCELLANEOUS PORCELAIN FACTORIES

Although from the Ming period onwards our interest is almost entirely centred in Ching-tê Chên, there were other factories which cannot be altogether ignored. A certain number have already been mentioned at the end of the first volume, our scanty information being drawn chiefly from the pottery section of the K’ang Hsi Encyclopædia. The same monumental work includes in another part [239] a discourse on porcelain ( tz’ŭ ch’i ), in which several additional factories are named. The passage in quest

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CHAPTER VIII THE CH’ING DYNASTY, 1644–1910

The reigns of the Manchu chieftains T’ien Ming, T’ien Tsung, and Ts’ung Tê (1616–1643) are included in the chronology of the Ch’ing or Pure Dynasty, but it is more usual to reckon that period from 1644, when the Emperor Shun Chih was firmly established on the throne after the suicide of the last of the Mings. Little is known of the ceramic history of the seventeen years during which Shun Chih occupied the throne. The official records which deal only with the Imperial factory are almost silent, a

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CHAPTER IX K’ANG HSI BLUE AND WHITE

Western collectors have agreed to give the place of honour to the K’ang Hsi blue and white. The Ming wares of the same kind, mainly from lack of adequate representation, have not yet been fully appreciated; and in the post-K’ang Hsi periods the blue and white took an inferior status, owing to the growing popularity of enamelled wares. The peculiar virtues of the K’ang Hsi blue and white are due to simple causes. Blue was still regarded as the best medium for painted designs, and the demand for i

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CHAPTER X K’ANG HSI POLYCHROME PORCELAINS

Broadly speaking, the polychrome porcelains of the Ming and K’ang Hsi periods are the same in principle, though they differ widely in style and execution. The general types continued, and the first to be considered is that in which all the colours are fired in the high temperature of the large kiln, comprising underglaze blue and underglaze red, and certain slips and coloured glazes. Conspicuous among the last is a pale golden brown commonly known as Nanking yellow, which is found in narrow band

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CHAPTER XI K’ANG HSI MONOCHROMES

In passing to the K’ang Hsi monochromes we enter a large field with boundaries ill defined. Many of the colours are legacies from the Ming potters, and most of them were handed on to after generations; some indeed have enjoyed an unbroken descent to the present day. Consequently there are few things more difficult in the study of Chinese porcelain than the dating of single-colour wares. In some cases the origin of a particular glaze has been recorded, and within certain limits the style of the p

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CHAPTER XII YUNG CHÊNG PERIOD (1723–1735)

The Emperor, K’ang Hsi, was succeeded by his son, who reigned from 1723–1735 under the title Yung Chêng. The interest which the new ruler had taken as a prince in ceramic manufactures is proved by a passage in the first letter (written in 1712) of Père d’Entrecolles in which he instances among remarkable examples of the potter’s skill a “great porcelain lamp made in one piece, through which a torch gave light to a whole room. This work was ordered seven or eight years ago by the Crown Prince.” W

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CHAPTER XIII CH’IEN LUNG (1736–1795)

The brief reign of Yung Chêng was followed by that of his son, who ruled under the title of Ch’ien Lung for a full cycle of sixty years, at the end of which he abdicated in accordance with his vow that he would not outreign his grandfather, K’ang Hsi. Ch’ien Lung was a devotee of the arts, and they flourished greatly under his long and peaceful sway. He was himself a collector, and the catalogue of the Imperial bronzes compiled under his orders is a classic work; but more than that, he was perso

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CHAPTER XIV EUROPEAN INFLUENCES IN THE CH’ING DYNASTY

Hitherto the references to European influence on Chinese porcelain have been of an incidental nature. But the use of Western designs on the porcelains of the Ch’ing dynasty, and especially in the eighteenth century, attained such large proportions that it is necessary to treat the wares so decorated as a class apart. A highly instructive collection of this type of porcelain is exhibited in the British Museum, where it has been subdivided in groups illustrating porcelain painted in China with Eur

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Chia Ch’ing (1796–1820)

There is little to distinguish the porcelain of this reign from that of Ch’ien Lung. The old traditions were followed and the high standard of technical skill was maintained to a great extent, though in the absence of original ideas the natural tendency was towards a gradual decline. The blue and white is a mere echo of the Ch’ien Lung blue and white, as is shown by a square jar in the Franks Collection, which bears the date corresponding to 1819. Another dated specimen in the same collection is

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Tao Kuang (1821–1850)

The reign of Tao Kuang is the last period of which collectors of Chinese ceramics take any account. It is true that the general deterioration which was already remarked in the previous reign became more and more conspicuous towards the middle of the nineteenth century. It seemed as though the wells of inspiration in China had dried up and the bankrupt arts continued to exist only by virtue of their past. Curiously enough the same wave of decadence was felt all the world over at this period, and

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Hsien Fêng (1851–1861)

In the third year of Hsien Fêng the T’ai p’ing rebels captured Ching-tê Chên and burnt down the Imperial factory, which was not rebuilt till 1864. The potters themselves were killed or scattered; and, naturally, marked examples of this reign are scarce. Such, however, as do exist are of little account, and may be regarded as continuations of the Tao Kuang manufacture. Bushell [478] mentions vases of good form painted in soft colours with nine five-clawed dragons on a white background, which is e

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T’ung Chih (1862–1873)

When the T’ai p’ing rebels had been expelled from the province of Kiangsi by the celebrated viceroy, Li Hung-chang, in 1864, the Imperial factory was rebuilt on the old lines by the new director, Ts’ai Chin-ch’ing. In the same year a list of the porcelain forwarded to the Emperor was drawn up, and it is published in the Chiang hsi t’ung chih [479] immediately after Hsieh Min’s list. It consists mainly of bowls, wine and tea cups, saucer dishes and plates classified as yüan ch’i (round ware), and

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Kuang Hsü (1875–1909)

Marked examples of this modern ware in the Franks Collection include a saucer with coloured sprays in a cloudy pink enamel ground; a covered cup with spout decorated in red with cartouches of seal characters accompanied by translations in the ordinary script, and a dish with blackthorn bough and pink blossoms in Tao Kuang style. In every case the ware is coarse-grained and rough to the touch, while the glaze is of the lustrous surface and “musliny” texture, which is characteristic of the ninetee

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CHAPTER XVI 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 wi

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CHAPTER XVII MOTIVES OF THE DECORATION

Chinese decoration, its motives and its meaning, might form the subject for a substantial and very interesting volume. But it can only be treated here in a summary fashion by enumerating a few of the motives which occur most frequently in porcelain. The designs on the earlier wares have already been discussed in the chapters dealing with the Ming and the preceding periods, but in view of the conservatism of the Chinese artists a certain amount of repetition will be inevitable in discussing the o

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CHAPTER XVIII FORGERIES AND IMITATIONS

The collector of Sung and Yüan wares, too, has many difficulties to surmount. The fine imitations made from the Yung Chêng period onwards, both in pottery and porcelain, fortunately are often marked; but sometimes the mark has been carefully removed by grinding, and the scar made up to look like the natural surface. The imitative wares made in Kuangtung, at Yi-hsing, and in various Japanese factories have been already discussed in the sections concerned; and there is pottery with lavender blue,

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