(4) White ware, plain[114] or with engraved designs under the glaze (an hua, lit. secret ornament).
(5) Ware with brown glaze in two varieties, tzŭ chin (golden brown), and chin huang (golden yellow), with dragon designs engraved under the glaze. These are the well-known lustrous brown glazes, the former of dark coffee brown shade, and the latter a light golden brown.
(6) Ware with mixed colours (tsa sê), which included bowls and dishes decorated in iron red[115] (fan hung) instead of the “fresh red” (hsien hung); others with emerald green colour (ts’ui lü sê); bowls with phœnixes and flowers of Paradise in yellow in a blue ground; cups with blue cloud and dragon designs in a yellow ground; boxes with dragon and phœnix designs engraved under a yellow glaze; dishes with design of a pair of dragons and clouds in yellow within a golden brown (tzŭ chin) ground; and globular bowls with embossed[116] ornament in a single-coloured ground.
To these types Bushell adds from other similar lists crackled ware (sui ch’i), tea cups of “greenish white porcelain” (ch’ing pai tz’ŭ), which seems to be a pale celadon, and large fish bowls with pea green (tou ch’ing) glaze.
The source of the designs of the porcelain is clearly indicated in the following passage in the T’ao shuo[117]: “Porcelain enamelled in colours was painted in imitation of the fashion of brocaded silks, and we have consequently the names of blue ground, yellow ground, and brown gold (tzŭ chin) ground. The designs used to decorate it were also similar, and included dragons in motion (tsou lung), clouds and phœnixes, ch’i-lin, lions, mandarin ducks, myriads of gold pieces, dragon medallions (p’an lung, lit. coiled dragons), pairs of phœnixes, peacocks, sacred storks, the fungus of longevity, the large lion in his lair, wild geese in clouds with their double nests, large crested waves, phœnixes in the clouds, the son-producing lily, the hundred flowers, phœnixes flying through flowers, the band of Eight Taoist Immortals, dragons pursuing pearls, lions playing with embroidered balls, water weeds, and sporting fishes. These are the names of ancient brocades, all of which the potters have reproduced more or less accurately in the designs and colouring of their porcelain.”
The following analysis of the designs named in the Chia Ching lists will show that the blue and white painters of the period took their inspiration from the same source:—
Floral Motives.
Celestial flowers (t’ien hua), supporting the characters shou shan fu hai
, “longevity of the hills and happiness (inexhaustible as) the sea.”