Historical Observations and Conclusions 99 



are reliable and correctly reproduced. In the geographical chapters 

 of the T'ang Annals we find under each locality an enumeration of the 

 taxes in kind annually sent to the Court, and the T'ai p'ing huan yii ki 

 of Yo Shi gives a still more extensive list of the products of the empire 

 during that period. The following localities are known as having 

 produced porcelain under the T'ang: — 



1. Hing chou J& 'M (modern Shun-te fu in Chi-li) turned out white 

 porcelain vessels & dfj B (T'ang shu, Ch. 39, p. 6; and T'ai p'ing huan 

 yii ki, Ch. 59, p. 5), which were accepted as taxes. 



2. Ting chou % M in Chi-li (T'ai p'ing huan yii ki, Ch. 62, p. 4 b) ; 

 the T'ang Annals do not mention porcelain among its products. 



3. Yu chou #8 'M (modern Yung-p'ing fu in Chi-li), according to 

 T'ai p'ing huan yii ki, Ch. 69, p. 6. 



4. Jao chou fl 'M in Kiang-si (T'ai p'ing huan yii ki, Ch. 107, 



P-3)- 



5. Yue chou %& 'H\ (modern Shao-hing fu in Che-kiang), according 

 to T'ang shu (Ch. 41, p. 4 b) and T'ai p'ing huan yii ki (Ch. 96, p. 5). 



6. Ho-nan fu (according to T'ang leu tien, Ch. 3, p. 4 b, ed. of Kuang 

 ya shu kii, 1895; an< i T'ai P'ing huan yii ki, Ch. 3, p. 8b). 



As may readily be seen from Julien's translation (pp. 28 and 6), 

 only two of these localities (Nos. .1 and 5) are mentioned in the King 

 te chen t'ao lu as having produced porcelain under the .T'ang (not, how- 

 ever, Nos. 2-4) ; while several others are so designated, which cannot be 

 verified from coeval documents. 1 



As established by archaeological evidence, porcelain was an accom- 

 plished fact under the T'ang (618-906) ; and there is further good reason 

 to assume that it existed in the latter part of the sixth century. 2 It is 

 futile, of course, to look for an inventor of porcelain, as has been done 

 by E. Zimmermann. 3 This invention of an inventor of porcelain is a 

 romance, not history. Chinese records know absolutely nothing about 

 such an inventor, simply for the reason that he never existed. Porce- 

 lain is not an ''invention," that can be attributed to the efforts of an 



1 In the writer's forthcoming second part of Chinese Clay Figures will be found 

 a chapter on T'ang pottery. 



* Bushell, Description of Chinese Pottery, p. xu; Hobson, Chinese Pottery 

 and Porcelain, Vol. I, p. 147. In 1844, during the negotiations preceding the 

 Franco-Chinese Treaty, one of the Chinese envoys, Chao Chang-li, well acquainted 

 with the antiquities of his country, assured N. Rondot that the manufacture of 

 porcelain could be traced back only as far as the middle of the sixth century (see 

 Journal China Branch Roy. As. Soc, Vol. XXXII, 1897-98, p. 73). 



1 Orientalisches Archiv, Vol. II, 191 1, pp. 30-34; and Chinesisches Porzellan, 

 p. 24. I strictly concur with Hobson (/. c, Vol. I, p. 145) in his criticism of Zim- 

 mermann's hypothesis. 



