1 66 Beginnings of Porcelain 



is formed by two wooden disks about three inches thick, the upper one 

 being fifteen inches, the lower eighteen inches, in diameter, connected 

 by four perpendicular bars somewhat over seven inches long. It is 

 poised on the top of a spindle planted in a hole of sufficient depth, which 

 passes through a hole in the lower disk, and enters a socket in the under 

 side of the upper disk; and the potter, sitting on the edge of the hole, 

 turns the wheel round with his left foot. The largest wheel is about 

 twice the size of the smallest in every way. This description fits very 

 well the illustration of a potter's wheel in the T'u shu tsi cWeng (see 

 Fig. 2), except that the two wheels are here connected by two vertical 

 bars, and that the whole apparatus is above ground, so that the potter 

 is obliged to stand. 



Although the real study of Korean pottery remains to be made, 1 

 the general development of the art in its main features can be clearly 

 traced. We may distinguish four principal periods, — first, a prehis- 

 toric or neolithic period prior to the cultural contact of Korea with 

 China, during which primitive vessels without the application of the 

 wheel were turned out, that represent a uniform group with the pre- 

 historic pottery found in the Amur region, Manchuria, Saghalin, and 

 Japan; 2 second, the period of the Silla kingdom (57-924) heralded by 

 the introduction of Chinese culture, in the wake of which the forms of 

 the ancient Chinese sacrificial vessels as well as dishes for every-day 

 use and the potter's wheel made their appearance; third, the Korai 

 period (925-1392), centring around Song-do, where glazed pottery, also 

 porcelain, was produced according to models and traditions of Chinese 

 Sung ware; and, fourth, the modern period after 1392. Here we are 

 concerned only with the second or the first historic period, which is 

 characterized by the novel feature of the wheel and by new and elegant 

 shapes based on Chinese prototypes. We have authentic records in 



1 Compare in particular A. Billequin, Notes sur la porcelaine de Cor6e {T'oung 

 Pao, Vol. VII, 1896, pp. 39-46); E. S. Morse, Catalogue of the Morse Collection 

 of Japanese Pottery, pp. 25-31, and the study of P. L. Jouy, quoted below; J. 

 Platt, Ancient Korean Tomb Wares {Burlington Mag., Vol. XX, No. 106, 1912, 

 pp. 222-230, 2 plates); Petrucci, Korean Pottery {ibid., 1912, p. 82, 2 plates), 

 and letter of J. Platt {ibid., 1913, p. 298); A. Fischer, Oriental. Archiv, Vol. I, 1911, 

 pp. 154-157, plate XXXIV). 



2 As to the Amur region, a great quantity of pottery fragments was dug up by 

 G. Fowke in 1898 (compare his report Exploration of the Lower Amur Valley, 

 Am. Anthr., Vol. VIII, 1906, pp. 276-297); this collection is in the American Museum 

 of Natural History, New York. The Japanese archaeologist Torii found similar 

 material in eastern Mongolia and Manchuria {Journ. of the College of Science, 

 Tokyo, Vol. XXXVI, No. 4, pp. 49 et seq., and No. 8 of the same volume, 

 PP- 9> 3°~4l> 62-64, 71, and plates XIV-XVIII, XXIII). Neolithic Korean pot- 

 tery is described by ShOzaburi Yagi {Journ. Anthr. Soc. of Tokyo, Vol. XXX, 1915, 

 p. 178). 



