102 Beginnings of Porcelain 



of Yu (Yii kung), forming a section of the Shu king, pottery is conspicu- 

 ously absent. In pre-Han and Han times it had not yet reached such 

 a state of perfection that it would have been brought to the immediate 

 attention of the sovereign, or was eligible to take a place in the im- 

 perial chambers. It is conceivable that pottery of the class of our 

 porcelanous ware was entitled to admission to Court, and answers to 

 the tribute ware produced at Kuan-chung. 



The origin of this mysterious and much-discussed term ts'e has been 

 referred to the Han period by several European authors, but nobody 

 has yet furnished any actual proof that the word really occurs in con- 

 temporaneous records of that age. Even Bushell 1 merely states, 

 "We know that the word ts'e, which means porcelain in the present 

 day, first came into use during the Han dynasty, and Mr. Hippisley 

 takes this coining of a new word to designate the productions of that 

 age to be a strong argument in favor of the early date. Others, more 

 sceptical, before reaching any decision, ask to be shown actual speci- 

 mens of translucent body that can be certainly referred to the period." 

 Seven years later, Bushell became more confident and positive in his 

 assertion of the origin of porcelain under the Han. In his work "Chi- 

 nese Art," 2 an assurance to this effect is given in three passages. The 

 word and character ts'e, according to him, is first found in books of 

 the Han dynasty. Again he asserts that the Chinese attribute the 

 invention to the Han dynasty, when a new character ts'e was coined to 

 designate, presumably, a new substance; 3 and that "still we may 

 reasonably accept the conclusion of the best native scholarship that 

 porcelain was first made in the Han dynasty, without trying, as Stanislas 

 Julien has tried on very insufficient grounds, to fix the precise date of 

 its invention." 



The only piece of evidence that has ever been produced to prove 

 the existence of the term ts'e under the Han is the citation of this word 

 in the glossary Shuo wen. Sceptics will naturally raise the question 



1 Oriental Ceramic Art, p. 20 (New York, 1899). 



•Vol. II, pp. 4, 17, 20. 



* The fact cited by Bushell on this occasion — that "the official memoir on 

 'Porcelain Administration' in the topography of Fou-liang says that, according 

 to local tradition, the ceramic works at Sin-p'ing (an old name of Fou-liang) were 

 founded in the time of the Han dynasty, and had been in constant operation ever 

 since" — is not conclusive for a plea on behalf of porcelain at the time of the Han. 

 That tradition, if correct, merely goes to show that kilns for the manufacture of 

 pottery were established in that locality under the Han, while it implies nothing 

 definite as to the specific character of this pottery. The fact that Fou-liang turned 

 out porcelain at a later period does not allow of the inference that what was pro- 

 duced there in the era of the Han likewise was porcelain. 



