CERAMIC ART IN CHINA. 319 



tury Hsiang' Tzu-ching writes in the preface to hi.s catalogue, '"In the 

 present day men search for a fragment of this porcelain without Ijeing 

 able to find one. and declare it to be but a phantom."' 



EARLIEST rORCELAIN EXTANT DATES FROM SUXG DYNASTY. 



In truth, the description which has l)een attempted of the varieties 

 of porcelain hitherto enimierated possesses merely a historical interest. 

 No specimens manufactured prior to the advent of the Sung dynasty 

 have survived to the present day. and even of the Sung productions the 

 finer kinds have entirely disappeared. Such specimens as have weathered 

 the storms and dangers of the subsequent eight centuries are, so far as 

 I am aware, only celadons of considerable solidity — chiefly Lungch'iian 

 or Chiinchow ware — or small pieces of ik) great fineness. Three cen- 

 turies ago even the finest varieties were already' scarce, as is evident 

 from a passage in the P^ing Ima-p^u^ an essay on flower-pots and flowers 

 in pots, from the pen of Chang Ch'ien-te, an author who wrote near the 

 close of the Ming dynast}-, that is, about the beginning of the seven- 

 teenth century: 



In anc-ient tiaies no vases were made of porcelain, and up to tlie T'ang dj-nasty 

 all such vessels were of copper. It Mas not till then that pottery came into vogue. 

 After this period we find a large immber of classes of porcelain, such as the kinds 

 known as Ch'ai (that described above), Ju, Kuan, Ko, Ting, Lungch'iian, Chiinchou, 

 Changsheng, "Wuni (all of the Sung dynasty period), Ilsiiante, and Ch'enghua(of the 

 Ming dynasty). Among antiquities, copper articles are the best; of porcelain, the 

 Ch'ai and Ju kinds, though the best of all, have ceased to exist; Kuan, Ko, Hsiian, 

 and Ting porcelains are the most precious curiosities of the present day; whereas the 

 porcelains called Lungcih'iian (the heavy old celadons of modern collectors), Chiin- 

 chou, Changsheng, Wunie, and Ch'enghua are esteemed as objects of oidy secondary 

 value." - 



As Chang Ch'ien-te further sa3''s that he constantly met with speci- 

 mens of Juchou porcelain, and since vases of that ware are figured 

 in Hsiang Tzu-ching's catalogue, it would appear that this highly 

 esteemed porcelain must have disappeared from the market towards 

 the close of the sixteenth eenturj'. It is curious, too, that while Chang 

 Ch'ien-te places the productions of the Ch'enghua period (1465 to 1487) 

 at the foot of the list of porcelains of "only secondary value," the 

 prices paid for this ware within a century of its production were ver}' 

 high. In Hsiang Tzu-ching's catalogue the price paid for a tazza-sbaped 

 cup is stated to have been 60 taels (or $90 gold); and of two miniature 

 wine cups he saj's, "these are choice .specimens of the wdne cups of 

 this celebrated reign, and are valued at 100 taels ($150 gold) the pair, 

 yet now even for this mone}" it is impossible to get them. " ^ 



*S. AV. Bushell, Chinese Porcelain before the Present Dynasty, \>. Tl. 



^ F. Hirth, Ancient Chinese Porcelain, p. 10. 



^S. W.Bushell, Chinese Porcelain before the Present Dynasty, No. 5."), 59. 



