416 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1888. 



again turned to the production of porcelain ornamented with designs 

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

 with a yellow gla/.e, introduced under the previous reign, over patterns 

 engraved in the paste, and a red monochrome termed chi-hung. This 

 term appears to have included two shades, one the pao-shihhunfj, or 

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

 (page 412), and the hsien-hmig, 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 inability to maintain a suitable condition of atmos- 

 phere in the kiln ; a difficulty explained by M. Salvetat thus: 



Si I'atmosphere du four est trop r^ductrice, le cuivre passe a l'<5tat de cuivre m^- 

 talliqne ; si I'atmosphere da four est trop oxydaute, la coloration rouge disparalt et 

 la couverte devient verdatre {Becueil des travaux scientifiques de M. Ebelmen, Tome I, li. 

 437) : le protoxyde de cuivre seul donue un silicate d'une couleur rouge.* 



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

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

 Changchou, Kiangsu province, by a celebrated potter named Kung 

 Oh'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- 

 ally 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 effected by baking, but was highly 

 prized by collectors — f)00 ounces of silver ($750) having been paid for 

 the two specimens described by our author.t 



Fkom 1522 T<> 1566. 



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

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

 entirely, and decoration in enamel colors to have been almost entirely, 

 abandoned, the old style 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 years 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 

 mentioned by Chinese writers is cups intended for use upon the palace 

 altars, and hence termed t'anchan, which are said to have resembled 

 white jade and to have been exceptionally beautiful. One maker, 

 named Ts'ui, who is stated to have lived during this and the following 

 reign, is however mentioned as a successful imitator of the porcelain of 

 the Hsiiante and Ch'enghua periods, his productions being known as 

 Ts'ni kung yaotzhi, " Mr. Ts'ui's porcelain-ware." | 



*Julieu: Op. cit. -p. 97. Bushel; Oj). cit., Nos. 52, 78. 

 t Bushell : Oj). cit., Nos. 44, 45, 

 \ Julien ; Op, cit., pp. 97, 100. 



