146 Beginnings of Porcelain 



Manchu dynasty, furnishing the well-known glazed tiles and bricks 

 for the palace, official buildings, and state temples of the metropolis. 

 Glazed tiles and bricks, however, were known in China long before the 

 time of the Yuan. They certainly existed under the Sung. Chou 

 Shan, who in a.d. 1177 accompanied an embassy sent by the Sung 

 Emperor from Hang-chou to the Court of the Kin dynasty at Peking, 

 reports that the palace of the Kin was covered with tiles, all coated 

 with enamels, their colors resplendent in the sunlight. 1 Ngou-yang 

 Siu (1007-72) speaks of glazed tiles. 2 Sir Aurel Stein 3 discovered in 

 the ruins of Ch'iao-tse bricks and tiles bearing in beautiful green glaze 

 scroll ornaments in low reliefs, and employed in a Stupa constructed 

 during Sung times. 4 Glazed tiles were likewise known under the T'ang. 

 A certain Ts'ui Yung •§! 8&, who lived in the T'ang era, erected on 

 Mount Sung in Ho-nan, in honor of his mother, a memorial temple 

 covered with glazed tiles (liu-li chi wa). The famous poet Po Ku-i 

 (a.d. 772-846) speaks of a pair of white-glazed (pai liu-li) vases. 5 

 Remains from buildings of this period show also the application of 

 glazing for architectural purposes. The bricks and tiles of the Han 

 and Wei periods, as far as we know them, are all unglazed, but it would 

 be premature to assert that glazing was then not applied to them. 6 



The continuity of Chinese tradition is vividly illustrated by the 

 fact that the term liu-li, in the same manner as in the Han period, 

 denotes glazed pottery also at the present time. From the T'ang 

 period onward, when porcelain came into vogue as a special class of 

 ceramic ware, a division of nomenclature took place, — liu-li remain- 

 ing reserved for common pottery, tiles, bricks, and other building- 

 material, while a new term was adopted for a porcelain glaze. The 

 porcelain enamel was styled yu ifi ("oil"), written also $ft ,lfi, 7 and 

 fflj. As far as I know, this term is first applied by Liu Sun of the T'ang 



1 Chavannes, Pei Yuan Lou (T'oung Pao, 1904, p. 189). Green-glazed tiles 

 were employed in the palace of the Sung Emperors, according to the Yii t'ang kia 

 huo written by Wang Hui in 1360 (Ch. 4, p. 4 b; ed. of Shou Shan ko ts'ung shu). 



* P'ei wen yiinfu, Ch. 51, p. 79 b. 



5 Ruins of Desert Cathay, Vol. II, p. 252. 



* Many remains of fine glazed pottery were found by Stein on his third expedi- 

 tion in the ruins of Karakhoto (A Third Journey of Exploration in Central Asia, 

 p. 39, reprint from Geographical Journal for August and September, 19 16). See 

 also the same author's Ancient Khotan, Vol. I, pp. 442, 482. 



6 T'u shu tsi ch'eng, xxvn, Ch. 334. 



* For further notes on this subject see Hobson, Chinese Pottery and Porcelain, 

 Vol. I, pp. 201 et seq. 



1 According to K'ang-hi's Dictionary, this character is first listed in the Tsi 

 yun (middle of the eleventh century). 



