CERAMIC ART IN CHINA. 339 



From 1506 to 1521. 



During the Chengte period (1506 to 1521), so far as the meager de- 

 tails c-hrouicled allow us to judge, while decoration in enamel colors 

 continued and the successful endeavors of the governor of Yunnan to 

 obtain further supplies of ]\Iohammedan blue caused attention to be 

 again turned to the production of porcelain ornamented with designs 

 in blue under the glaze, the ware most highh^ prized was that covered 

 with a yellow glaze, introduced under the previous reign, over patterns 

 engraved in the paste, and a red monochrome termed ehl-Jaing. This 

 term appears to have included two shades — one ^^ ])ao-shih-liung ^ or 

 "precious-stone red" already discussed under the Hsiiante period, 

 (p. 335). and the hsien-hmg^ a bright red, produced by a silicate of 

 copper. This color, the Chinese records state, could not be success- 

 fully produced subsequent to this period under the Ming dynasty, 

 owing seemingly to inabilit}" to maintain a suitable condition of atmos- 

 phere in the kiln^a difficulty explained hj M. Salvetat thus: 



Si ratinosphere du four est trop reductrice, le cuivre passe a I'etat de cuivre metal- 

 lique; si I'atmosphere du four est trop oxydante, la coloration rouge disjiarait et la 

 couverte devient verddtre {Recueil des travaux scientifiques de M. Ebelmen, Tome I, p. 

 437) ; le protoxj^de de cuivre seul donne un silicate d'une couleur rouge. ^ 



A curious kind of earthenware is mentioned by Hsiang Tzu-ching as 

 having been produced in the Yi-hsing district, of the department of 

 Changehou, Kiangsu province, by a celebrated potter named Kung 

 Ch'un. Teapots of this ware were of a light brown like felt, or covered 

 with a vermilion-red glaze. In either case the color is said to have 

 changed to a bright green when tea was poured in, and to have gradu- 

 all}^ reverted to its original color, line by line, as the liquid was poured 

 out. This curious peculiarity is said to have been merely the acci- 

 dental result of some change eli'ected by baking, but was highlj^ 

 prized by collectors — 500 ounces of silver ($750) having been paid for 

 the two specimens described by our author.*^ 



From 1522 to 1566. 



During the Chiaching period (1522 to 1566) the yellow glaze, so par- 

 ticularly affected during the two previous reigns, appears to have been 

 entirel}', and decoration in enamel colors to have been almost entirely, 

 a])andoned, the old stj'le of ornamentation in blue under the glaze 

 being chiefly admired, till the supply of that color from the west was 

 again exhausted during the later j^ears of this reign; and to the pres- 

 ent day the " blue and white" of this period is much sought after by 

 collectors. Apart from this, the only kind of ware at all remarkable 



' S. Julien, L'Histoire et la Fabrication de la Porcelaine Chinoise, p. 97. S. W. 

 Bushell, Chinese Porcelain before the Present Dynasty, Nos. 52, 78. 

 - S. W. Bushell, Idem, Nos. 44, 45. 



