CERAMIC ART IN CHINA. 323 



crackled celadons in color, though somewhat darker in shade, there 

 seems no reason to doubt that its real tint was bluish-g-reen — that is, 

 celadon- — especially as the specimens of this ware illustrated in the cat- 

 alogue translated ])y Doctor Bushell are so painted.' Hsiang Tzu'- 

 ching. the author of this catalogue, after describing a vase 6^ inches 

 high, which is stated to have cost 150,000 cash, or about $150 gold, 

 savs, ** Specimens of Juchou ware are ver3'rare, and. when met with, 

 are usually plates and bowls. A perfect unbroken vase like this is 

 almost unique, and as it excels Kuan and Ko porcelain both in form 

 and glaze, it is far more valuable." Within three or four decades 

 later, as has already been stated, it seems to have been impossible to 

 find an}' specimens at all of this ware. 



KUAN-YAO. 



Kuan-yao — that is, official or Government porcelain — was the produce 

 of the imperial factories established under the Sung dj'nast}' between the 

 years HOT and HIT at Pienliang. the present department of K'aifeng, 

 in Honan province, and after the removal southwards of the court 

 before the advancing ^Mongols, at the southern capital, Hangchou, in 

 Chehkiang province. During the Takuan period (1107 to 1110) the 

 shades specially affected were, first, pale white like the moon, the 

 French clalrde June; second, pale bluish-green; and third, dark green; 

 but during the Chingho period (1111 to HIT) the onl}- color employed 

 was l)luish-green, both dark and pale in tint. This porcelain was very 

 thin, and in some cases crackled all over so finely as to resemble crab's 

 claws, with the red brim and iron-colored foot distinctive of the true 

 celadon. The Po-iou-yao-lan^ quoted in the T^io-shuo" Treatise on 

 Pottery (chap. 2, p. 9), explains this latter expression as follows: 



As regards Kuan-yao, it should he known that the porcelain earth found at the foot 

 of the Fthighuang-shan, or Phwnix hill, near Hangchou, is red; for this reason the 

 foot (the base on which the vessel rests when being fired, and which is therefore not 

 covered by the enamel), resembles iron in color. This was at the time called "red- 

 mouthed and iron-footed." The term "red mouth" refers to the brim or opening of 

 the vessel, which becomes red by the enamel flowing down and away from it, so as to 

 be much thinner on the brim than it is on the body of the vessel, thus allowing spots 

 of red paste to become visible. 



Doctor Hirth. after quoting this explanation, adds: 



The red or iron colored bottom, usually appearing in the shape of a ring, is a char- 

 acteristic feature of the Lungch'iian celadons; but if the above explanation is c-or- 

 rect, the bottom of Lungch'iian vessels differed from Kuan-yao bottoms, since the 

 paste of Hangchou celadons (the southern Kuan-yao) is said to be red in itself, 

 whereas that of the Lungch'iian-yao is originally white, and merely turns red in such 

 parts of the surface as are not covered by the enamel.^ 



' S. Julien, L'Histoire et la Fabrication de la Porcelains Chinoise, p. 63. S. W. 

 Bushell, Chinese Porcelain before the Present Dynasty, Nos. 19, 22, 34. 

 ^ F. Hirth, Ancient Chinese Porcelain. 



