THE CERAMIC ART IN CHINA. 391 



T'ANG DYNASTY, 618 TO 906 



Under the suceeeding, the T'ang dynasty, which ruled from 618 to 

 906, the manufacture appears to have spread over the greater part of 

 the empire, and to have reached in some places a degree of excellence 

 far in advance of that previously attained. The following varieties^re 

 specifically enumerated (in the reverse order of their merit) : 

 The Hungchou-yao, a yellow black porcelain from Hungchow, the pres- 

 ent department of Kan-ch'ang, in Kiangsi province. 

 The Shou-yao, a yellow porcelain, from Shouchou in (present) Kiangsu 



province. 

 The Yo-yao, a blue porcelain according to Julien, but the color was 

 more probably a pale green, for the Ch'a ching, a " Treatise on 

 Tea " written in the eighth century, says cups of this ware gave 

 to the infusion a green tint — from the department of Yochou, in 

 (present) Hunan province. 

 The Wuyao and Ting-yao, of colors unspecified, from the department of 

 Wuchou, corresponding with the present department of Chinhua in 

 Chehkiang province ; and from the department of Tingchow, corre- 

 sponding with the present district of Chingyang in the Hsi-an 

 department, Shensira province, respectively. 



nura of seven years' duratioa ; and though T'ai-Tsung-Wen of the present dynasty 

 also employed two, he seldom or never comes to the notice of foreign writers. The 

 term " period" being in any case an inconvenient one, and the " year designation " 

 under the Ming and the present dynasty being synchronous with the reign, it seems 

 hypercritical to insist on uniformly translating nien-has by "period" in the case of 

 emperors of those dynasties, especially as consistency would require that names so 

 well known to every school-boy, as Kanghsi, Yungcheng, and Chienlung be replaced 

 by the proper titles, Sheng-Tsu-Jen Huangti, Shih-Tsung-Hsien Huangti, and Kas- 

 Tsung-Shun Huangti. In the following pages, therefore, the nien-has or "year 

 designation" has been rendered " period " prior to the accession of the Ming dynasty 

 in 1336, and subsequently to thtit date as "period" or "reign," according to circum- 

 stances. 



The dates upon porcelain are also usually recorded by. the use of the nien-has 

 as above described, though other marks are mentioned by Chinese writers, and if the 

 article has been manufactured for the special use of some emperor or prince, it will 

 possibly bear the name of the pavilion or portion of the palace for which it is spe- 

 cially intended. Chinese writers state that the practice of marking the date of man- 

 ufacture was instituted by the Emperor Chen Tsung of the Lung dynasty, when, on 

 the establishment of the government factory at Chingtd-chen, he ordered that eacli 

 article manufactured should be marked with the nien-has then used "Chingte, 1004 

 to 1007." Foreign writers on the marks upon porcelain specify other marks of the 

 same dynasty, but upon what authority is not clearly specified. So far as my own 

 knowledge goes, I am unaware of any such date-marks being inscribed under the 

 glaze prior to the Ming dynasty. Since that time, putting aside monochromes, 

 which, in probably the majority of instances, bear no mark, they have been em- 

 ployed uninterruptedly, except during a portion of K'anghsi's reign. In 1677 the 

 magistrate in charge at Chingte-chen forbade the practice alike of inscribing the 

 date and of portraying the actions of celebrated personages, on the ground that if 

 the article were broken, disrespect might be shown to them or to the emperor. Dur- 

 ing this period, which was of but short duration, however, a leaf, a censer, and other 

 marks replaced the nien-has. 



