Plate 28.—Vase of bronze form with two bands of raised key pattern.
Thick creamy glaze, closely crackled and shading off into brown with faint tinges of purple. (?) Kiangnan Ting ware. Fourteenth century. Height 15 1/2 inches. Koechlin Collection.
In Kiangsu, the western portion of Kiang–nan, is the "white earth village" Pai–t´u Chên,[217] where potteries existed from Sung times, making a ware of the local clay, very thin, white and lustrous, beautiful in form and workmanship. Thirty kilns were worked, chiefly by families of the name Tsou, under the direction of a headman, the potters numbering several hundreds.
Under the heading of Hsi yao,[218] the T´ao shuo alludes to four factories in the province of Shansi, which are interesting to–day in view of the various wares excavated in the railway cuttings now under construction in that province. A fuller description of these potteries is given in the T´ao lu, which mentions P´ing–yang Fu in the southern half of Shansi as a pottery centre in the T´ang and Sung dynasties, where the ware was white but disqualified by a glaze lacking in purity. At Ho Chou, in the same district, a superior ware was made as early as the T´ang dynasty, which was even considered worthy of mention in the Ko ku yao lun, probably because of the connection of P´êng Chün–pao (see p. 94) with this place in the Yüan dynasty. The T´ao lu tells that the Ho ware was made of fine rich material, the body unctuous and thin, and the colour usually white, and that it was more beautiful than P´ing–yang ware—a qualified compliment! A coarse pottery made at Yu–tzü Hsien, in the T´ai–yüan prefecture in the north, and at P´ing–ting Chou in the west, complete the quartet. The former dated from T´ang times, and the latter, dating from the Sung, was made of a dark–coloured clay which gave a dusky tinge to the white glaze. A small melon–shaped vase, reputed to have come from a tomb in Shansi, is shown in Plate 11. It has a hard, buff grey body, with a dressing of white slip and white glaze, the effect of the combination being a pleasing surface of solid–looking ivory white. A factory which made white wares in the neighbouring province of Shansi is named in the twelfth century Ch´ing po tsa chih.[219] It was situated at Huang–p´u Chên, in Yao Chou, where, as we are told in the T´ao shuo, they had at an early date made flat–bottom bowls which were called "little seagulls." The place is near Hsi–an Fu.
Wares of the t´u ting, the "earthy" Ting, type, with creamy glaze, were made at Nan–fêng Hsien,[220] in the province of Kiangsi, during the Yüan dynasty; and at Chi Chou[221] in the same province there were factories in the Sung dynasty which deserve some attention. The latter were situated at Yung–ho Chên, in the Chi Chou district, in the prefecture of Chia–an Fu, and one of the productions appears to have resembled the purple (tzŭ) Ting ware, though it was coarser and thicker, and of no great merit. The Ko ku yao lun[222] speaks of five factories in this place producing white and purple (tzŭ) wares, flower vases of large size and considerable value, and small vases which were ornamented, and crackled wares of great beauty. The best of these potteries belonged to a man named Shu
. We are further informed by the Chü chai tsa chi[223] that Shu, the old man (Shu wêng), was skilled in making ornamental objects, and that his daughter, Shu chiao (the fair Shu), excelled him. Her incense burners and jars of various kinds commanded a price almost equal to that of Ko yao. The author proceeds to describe a dish and a bowl in his own collection as of "grey ware with invisible blue[224] glaze, which was capable of keeping water sweet for a month." It has been assumed that the decoration of the "small vases" was painted,[225] but the expression in the text (yu hua)[226] gives no clue to the kind of decoration, and we are left quite in the dark as to its real nature.