The industry seems to have ended abruptly at the beginning of the Yüan dynasty, the story being that when the Sung minister Wên was passing by all the ware in the kilns turned to jade, and the potters, fearing that the event might reach the Emperor's ears, closed down the kilns and fled to Ching–tê Chên. The meaning of this myth has never been satisfactorily explained, but it was pointed out that a large number of Yung–ho names appear in the early lists of Ching–tê Chên potters, and the Ko ku yao lun asserts that excavations on the site of the kilns were made in the Yung Lo period (1403–1424), and that several kinds of jade cups and bowls were found—cautiously adding, however, that this might or might not have been the case. The ruins of the Yung–ho potteries seem to have been still visible in the fifteenth century.[227]
From a passage in the T´ao lu we learn that crackle was a speciality of some of the Yung–ho potters. Under the heading of Sui ch´i yao[228] (crackle wares), we are told that "these are the wares made in the Southern Sung period. Originally, they were a special class of the ware made at Yung–ho Chên.... The clay was coarse but strong, the body thick, the material heavy. Moreover, there were 'millet coloured' (mi sê) and pale green (fên ch´ing) kinds.[229] The potters used hua shih (steatite) in the glaze, and the crackle was in running lines, like a broken thing. They smeared and blackened the ware with coarse ink or ochreous earth; then they finished it. Afterwards they rubbed it clean, and it was found to have hidden lines and stains of red or black, like cracked ice, beautiful to look at. There were besides pieces with plain crackled ground, to which they added blue decoration." This appears to be the first mention of painted blue decoration, and if it is true that it was made in the Sung period, it carries this important method back farther than has been usually supposed. Possibly the ware was of the same type as the coarse crackled porcelain, with roughly painted blue designs, found in Borneo and Malaysia, where it is credited with great antiquity. There is a very interesting specimen in the Kunstgewerbe Museum, Berlin, which bears on this question. It came from Japan, where it had been treasured as a Chinese tea bowl of the Sung period, and it has a brownish green crackled glaze painted in dark blue with the characters O mi t´o fo (Amitabha Buddha), which was sometimes written in this way as a charm against evil.
CHAPTER VIII
TZ´Ŭ CHOU
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 potteries, assumed importance at this early date. There were, in fact, a few fragments of pottery of the Tz´ŭ Chou type, decorated with brown spots, among the Chinese wares found on the ninth–century site of Samarra, in Persia, by Professor Sarre (see p. 148); and a finely painted fragment of a Tz´ŭ Chou vase in the Anthropological Museum at Petrograd was brought from a site in Turfan, which was in all probability as early as the tenth century. Moreover, it is constantly asserted by traders in China that this or that piece of painted Tz´ŭ Chou ware was found in a T´ang tomb, and in many cases, such as that of the brown–painted vase with lotus design mentioned on p. 33, the form of the specimen and the style of the decoration are quite consistent with a T´ang attribution. There is, however, no information on the subject earlier than the Sung dynasty, when the Tz´ŭ Chou factories enjoyed a high reputation.[230] The Ko ku yao lun gives the following brief notice of them under the heading "Old Tz´ŭ wares":—
"Old Tz´ŭ wares (tz´ŭ ch´i) were made at Tz´ŭ Chou, in the Chang–tê Fu in Honan. Good specimens closely resemble Ting ware, but have not the tear–stains. There are, besides, specimens with engraved and painted[231] ornament. The plain white pieces command a higher price than Ting ware. The recent (i.e. late fourteenth century) productions of the factory are not worthy of consideration."