Introductory 8i 



It will be noticed that these nine bits, in their forms and decorations, 

 decidedly agree with the mortuary Han pottery, 1 and that, taken 

 merely as ceramic types, they represent archaic types of Han art. 

 On the other hand, however, apart from their technical composition, 

 they have in common some characteristic features which are not 

 found in Han pottery. To these belong the curious loop handles, 

 obviously imitative of a knotted rope or a basketry handle, and the 

 geometric wave patterns. The latter, it will be remembered, occur 

 also in the relief bands on many vases of Han pottery, but are of a 

 different style, in the manner of realistic waves. There is in our col- 

 lection only one unglazed, gray Han pottery vase with a geometric 

 wave design approaching that in the above group; but it is a much 

 bolder and freer composition, and not so neat and refined as in the 

 porcelanous vases. Even in some shapes, the traditional rules of the 

 Han may not be quite strictly observed; they may be less stern and 

 rigorous, and, while dignified and partially imposing, treated with 

 somewhat greater individual freedom. This, however, is rather a 

 point of sentiment or impression than a ponderable argument. The 

 deviations from the standard Han pottery are insignificant when con- 

 trasted with what the two groups have in common. The best tradition 

 and spirit of Han art are preserved in these nine productions. 



The comparative scarcity of this ware is notable, and gives food 

 for serious reflection. As the writer was able to secure on his last 

 expedition for the Field Museum many hundreds of pieces of Han pot- 

 tery of all types and descriptions, while several thousand specimens 

 have passed through his hands during the last fifteen years, and as he 

 could hunt up only nine representatives of this novel (porcelanous) 

 ware, these numbers may be regarded as the relative (certainly not 

 absolute; proportions in which the two classes of pottery are to be found, 

 and, we may add, were made in the past. Two inferences may be 

 drawn from this phenomenon, — this peculiar ware was the product 

 of only a single kiln or of very few kilns; and these kilns did not flourish 

 during the Han period, but either at its very close, or even, and more 

 probably, toward the middle or end of the third century. This point 

 will be more fully discussed hereafter. 



1 In speaking of Han pottery, it should be understood that in this case the term 

 "Han" does not refer to the chronologically exact boundaries of a dynastic period, 

 but to an archaeological epoch, a certain phase of ancient Chinese art, which is 

 not necessarily gauged by the dates 206 B.C. and a.d. 220. There is naturally 

 an overlapping at both ends, and we have, at least for the present, no means of 

 determining exactly either the beginning or the end of Han art. This much seems 

 certain, that the middle and the latter part of the third century a.d. have thor- 

 oughly remained under the influence of Han tradition. 



