Though this period happens to coincide with the lifetime of Ho Ch´ou, neither his name nor any other has been associated with the event by the Chinese, and it is highly probable that porcelain only came into being by a process of evolution from pottery and stoneware, the critical moment arriving with the discovery of deposits of kaolinic earth. As a mere speculation, I would suggest that the deposits were those at Han tan, the modern Tz´ŭ Chou, which supplied material for the Ting Chou potters.[313] It is, at any rate, significant that the new name, which we are led to suppose was derived from the tz´ŭ stone,[314] was given to that place in the Sui dynasty.
Numerous literary references from this time onwards have already been quoted which are highly suggestive of porcelain. The "false jade vessels" of T´ao Yü in the early years of the seventh century; the eighth–century tea bowls of Yu Chou and Hsing Chou which were compared respectively to jade and ice, to silver and snow, the former being green and the latter white. The twelve cups used for musical chimes by Kuo Tao–yüan; the white bowls immortalised by the poet Tu "of ware (tz´ŭ) baked at Ta–yi, light but strong, which gives out a note like jade when struck."
The quality of translucency which in Europe[315] is regarded as distinctive of porcelain is never emphasised in Chinese descriptions. I can find no mention of it in any of the earlier writings,[316] and the first unmistakable literary evidence of its existence[317] comes from a foreign source. The Arab traveller, Soleyman, who describes his experiences in China in the ninth century, states that "they had a fine clay (ghādar) from which bowls were made, and in the transparency of the vessels the light of the water was visible; and they were (made of) fine clay."[318] This statement practically proves the existence of translucent porcelain in the T´ang dynasty, and we confidently await the arrival of specimens from Chinese excavations. Some of the export porcelains of the time have been actually unearthed at Samarra on the Euphrates by Professor Sarre,[319] of the Kaiser Friederik Museum, Berlin, and they include (1) bowls of gummy white porcelain with unglazed gritty base; (2) greenish white ware; (3) yellowish white with small crackle; and (4) a pure white porcelain with relief designs, such as birds and fishes, under the glaze. Other pottery found on that site included mottled ware of typical T´ang type, and a creamy white of the Tz´ŭ Chou type with brown spots.[320]
From considerations of form and the general character of the ware, I am inclined to regard three specimens in Plates 44 and 45 as belonging to the T´ang period. Fig. 1 of Plate 44 has a thin ivory white glaze running in gummy drops and clouded with pinkish buff staining outside and with a reddish discoloration within. Fig. 2 of the same Plate is remarkable in many ways. It is so thin as to seem to consist of little else but glaze, and is consequently almost as translucent as glass. The colour of the glaze is pearly white powdered with tiny specks, and the crackle is clearly marked. The base is flat and discloses a dry white body of fine grain. But its most conspicuous feature is the arresting beauty of its outline, which recalls some choice specimen of Græco–Roman glass, and displays a classic feeling frequently observed in T´ang pottery and in the Corean wares which owe so much to T´ang models.
Fig. 2, Plate 45, shows the celebrated phœnix ewer belonging to Mr. Eumorfopoulos which has proved so difficult to classify.[321] It is a white porcellanous ware translucent in the thinner parts, and the glaze is of light greenish grey with a tendency to blue in places. The form and ornament show strong analogies with specimens of T´ang pottery. The neck, for instance, may be compared with Fig. 2 of Plate 14; the phœnix head and the foliate mouth with Fig. 1 of Plate 9, and the carved ornament on the body with Fig. 3 of Plate 14.
Among the Sung wares many of the white Ting specimens are found to be translucent in their thinner parts, and these may be fairly regarded as porcelain proper. A considerable number of other white porcelains have come over of late under the description of Sung wares, and many of them are certainly early enough in form and style to belong to that period. They are true hard porcelain, translucent, and of a creamy white colour. Being for the most part without decoration, they can only be judged by their forms, and in view of the conservative habits of the Chinese, it would be rash to assert too emphatically their Sung origin. Yüan and even early Ming dates are suggested by the more cautious critics; but the possibility of a Sung origin having been established, I am inclined to give the evidence of form its full weight.
There are, besides these, other well–defined types of translucent porcelain which may confidently be attributed to a period as early as the Sung, but here the possibility—nay, probability—of a Corean origin has to be considered. It is certain that many of them have been found in Corean tombs; the provenance of the rest is doubtful. One type is a delicious smooth white porcelain with glaze of faintly bluish tinge, highly translucent, and worked very thin at the edges. The base of the vessels (usually small shallow bowls or saucers) is unglazed, and shows a soft–looking sugary body of close texture, rather earthy than glassy, and slightly browned by the fire. They have, in fact, almost the appearance of a "soft–paste" porcelain like that of Chelsea. These are so different from any known Chinese type that I strongly incline to a Corean origin for them. Another type is of hard but translucent ware with glaze of distinctly bluish tinge. A bowl in the British Museum is a good example of this. Of the usual conical form, it has a plain outside, and the inside is decorated with an incised design of not very clear meaning, but apparently a close foliage ground with highly formalised figures of boys. If this interpretation is correct, it is a conventional rendering of the well–known pattern of boys in foliage, Chinese in origin, but frequently used by the Corean potters. The design ends in Corean fashion, about an inch below the rim, leaving a plain band above it. The glaze is a faint bluish colour all over, and is powdered with specks, a fault in the firing; the base is almost entirely unglazed, and the biscuit, where exposed, has turned reddish brown. The style of this piece is strongly Corean. The same peculiarities in the base are shared by another type of small bowl, usually decorated inside with a sketchy design in combed lines. Some of these are creamy white; others are bluish white with a decided blue tinge in the well of the bowl where the glaze has formed thickly.[322] Another group, which is also said to be represented among the Corean tomb wares, is practically indistinguishable from the creamy white Ting Chou porcelain.
Plate 44.—Early Translucent Porcelain, probably T´ang dynasty.