CHAPTER XII

CHING-TÊ CHÊN

CHING-TÊ CHÊN, the metropolis of the ceramic world, whose venerable and glorious traditions outshine Meissen and Sèvres and all the little lights of Europe, and leave them eclipsed and obscure, is an unwalled town or mart (_chên_) on the left bank of the Ch´ang River, which flows into the Po-yang Lake, on the northern border of the province of Kiangsi. In ancient times it was known as Ch´ang-nan Chên, the mart on the south of the Ch´ang, but when the Sung Emperor Chên Tsung commanded that officially manufactured porcelain (_kuan chih tz´ŭ_) should be sent to the capital, and that the workmen should inscribe the pieces with the _nien hao_ or name of the period, which in this case was Ching Tê (1004-1007), the name of the place was changed to Ching-tê Chên.

The district town is Fou-liang, seven miles higher up the river, a place of relatively small importance, but the residence of the district magistrate; and both Fou-liang and Ching-tê Chên are within the prefectural jurisdiction of Jao Chou Fu, which is situated near the mouth of the Ch´ang.

The wares of Ching-tê Chên are distributed by various routes, some overland to Chi-mên or to Wu-yuan and thence to Hang Chou, Su Chou, Shanghai, etc.; the rest by boat down the Ch´ang, and thence either to Kiu-kiang on the Yangtze for further dispatch to Chin-kiang and northwards via the Grand Canal, or to the south-west corner of the lake and up the estuary of the Kan River to Nan-Ch´ang Fu. From this latter town they could be carried by water (with an interruption of thirty miles of road) all the way to Canton. They are known under various names in Chinese books--Chên yao, Ching-tê yao, Fou-liang yao, Jao Chou yao, Jao yao, Ch´ang-nan yao, and Nan-ch´ang yao--all of which are easily explicable from the foregoing paragraph.

The old name of Fou-liang was Hsin-p´ing, and according to the Annals of Fou-liang the manufacture of pottery[324] was traditionally held to have begun in the district of Hsin-p´ing in the Han dynasty. In the same passage the development of the local industry is traced by means of a few significant incidents. In the first year of Chih Tê in the Ch´ên dynasty (583 A.D.) the potters of the district were called upon to provide plinths for the Imperial buildings at Chien-k´ang (afterwards Nanking), but the plinths, when finished, though cleverly made, were not strong enough to carry the weight of the columns. In the fourth (or, according to another reading, the second) year of Wu Tê of the T´ang dynasty (621 A.D.), "porcelain jade"[325] was offered as tribute to the Emperor under the name of false jade vessels (_chia yü ch´i_), and from this time forward the duty (of supplying the Emperor) became an institution,[326] and a potter named Ho Chung-ch´u gained a great reputation. In the Ching Tê period of the Sung dynasty, as already stated, officially manufactured porcelain was sent to the capital, where it supplied the needs of the palaces and great establishments. In the T´ai Ting period of the Yüan dynasty (1324-1327) the porcelain factory came under the inspection of the Intendant of the Circuit, who supplied the required wares when orders had been received, and closed the factory if there were no orders (from the Court).

Continuing into the Ming dynasty, the same authority gives details of the various administrative changes which may perhaps be "taken as read," one or two important facts only calling for mention. Thus in the thirty-fifth year[327] of Hung Wu, we are told that the factories were opened, and that supplies of porcelain were sent to the Court. There seems to have been some difference of opinion about the building of the Imperial Ware Factory (_Yü ch´i ch´ang_).

Some authorities place this event in the Hung Wu period, but the _Chiang hsi t´ung chih_,[328] though quoting the other opinions in a note, mentions only the building of the Imperial Factory in the reign of Chêng Tê (1506-1521) in the main text, viz.: "In the beginning of the Chêng Tê period the Imperial Ware Factory was established for dealing specially with the Imperial wares." The Imperial establishment was burnt down in the Wan Li period, and again destroyed in the revolt of Wu San-kuei in 1675, but the most serious blow dealt to the prosperity of Ching-tê Chên fell in the T´ai p´ing rebellion in 1853, when the town was sacked and almost depopulated. The Imperial Factory was rebuilt in 1864, and the industry has in a great measure revived, though it is still but the shadow of its former greatness.

Though this great porcelain town has traded with the whole world for several centuries, "bringing great profit to the Empire and to itself great fame" (to quote from the _T´ao lu_), it seems to have been rarely visited by Europeans, and first-hand descriptions of it are few. We are fortunate, however, in possessing in the letters[329] of Père d'Entrecolles an intimate account of the place and its manufactures, written by a Jesuit missionary who was stationed in the town in the early years of the eighteenth century. These interesting letters are so well known that I shall not quote them extensively here. The picture they give of the enormous pottery town, with its population of a million souls and the three thousand furnaces which, directly or indirectly, provided a living for this host, and of the arresting spectacle of the town by night like a burning city spouting flames at a thousand points, a description which inspired the oft-quoted lines in Longfellow's "Keramos," shows us the place in the heyday of its prosperity.

A more modern but scarcely less interesting account of Ching-tê Chên and the surrounding country appears in a Consular report, made in 1905, of a _Journey in the Interior of Kiangsi_,[330] from which I have taken the following paragraphs:

"During the last forty-five years Ching-tê Chên has had time to recover, in a very large measure, from this last calamity, but it is said to be not so busy or so populous as before the T´ai p´ing rebellion.

"Everything in Ching-tê Chên either belongs to, or is altogether subordinate to, the porcelain and earthenware industry. The very houses are for the most part built of fragments of fireclay (called '_lo-p´ing-t´u_') that were once part either of old kilns or of the fireclay covers in which porcelain is stacked during firing. The river bank is covered for miles[331] with a deep stratum of broken chinaware and chips of fireclay, and, as far as one could judge, the greater part of the town and several square miles of the surrounding country are built over, or composed of, a similar deposit. A great industry, employing hundreds of thousands of hands, does not remain localised in a single spot for 900 years without giving to that spot a character of its own.

"This is perhaps what struck me most forcibly in Ching-tê Chên--that it is unlike anything else in China. The forms, the colour, the materials used in the buildings, the atmosphere, are somewhat reminiscent of the poorer parts of Manchester, but resemble no other large town that I have ever visited.

"At present there are 104 pottery kilns in the town, of which some thirty or so were actually in work at the time of my visit. The greater part of the kilns only work for a comparatively short season every-summer. During this busy season, when every kiln is perhaps employing an average of 100 to 200 men, the population of Ching-tê Chên rises to about 400,000, but of this nearly, if not quite, half are labourers drawn from a wide area of country, chiefly from the Tuch´ang district, who only come for the season, live in rows of barrack-like sheds, and do not bring their families with them."

It is interesting to compare this modern account with the Memoirs of Chiang,[332] written in the Yüan dynasty, from which we see that the work was carried on in the same intermittent fashion, the potters receiving land to cultivate instead of payment, living round the master of the pottery, and being liable to be summoned to the kilns when required. The opening of the kilns in those days was in some measure dependent on the success of the harvest, and in any case the work depended on the season, as the paste would freeze in winter, and could not be worked.

The hills which surround Ching-tê Chên are rich in the materials required by the potters, china clay and china stone of various qualities, fireclay for the seggars (cases to protect the porcelain in the kiln), or for mixing in the coarser wares, and numerous other minerals. There was water-power which could be used in the mills for crushing and refining the minerals, and abundant wood for firing. Although coal is worked nowadays not many miles away, the potters still adhere to the wood, which has served their kilns from time immemorial. It should be added that at the present day--and no doubt for some time past--the local clays have been supplemented from various districts, supplies coming overland from Chi-mên and by water from greater distances.

A good Chinese map of Ching-tê Chên is given in the _T´ao lu_ (bk. i., fol. 1), and a large map of the district is attached to Mr. W. Clennell's report, which is easily obtainable.

This description of Ching-tê Chên has led us far from the period with which we are at present concerned. In the Sung dynasty the place had already arrived at considerable importance, and the record of its 300 kilns implies a very large population. The excellence of its porcelain had already won for it the onerous privilege of supplying Imperial needs, and, as we have seen, it was consecrated under the new and Imperial name of Ching-tê Chên in the opening years of the eleventh century. The earliest existing record of its productions, the Memoirs of Chiang, written at the beginning of the fourteenth century, tells us that the Sung porcelains made at Ching-tê Chên were pure white[333] and without a flaw, and were carried for sale to all parts under the proud name of "Jao Chou jade." It rivalled the "red porcelain" of Chên-ting Fu and the green of Lung-ch´üan in beauty.

The _Ko ku yao lun_ describes the Imperial ware of this time as "thin in body and lustrous," and mentions "plain white pieces with contracted waist," adding that the specimens "with unglazed rim,"[334] though thin in body, white in colour, lustrous, and surpassingly beautiful, are lower in price than the Ting wares.

It is not too much to assume that some of this "Jao Chou jade" has survived to the present day, and we may look for it among the early translucent white porcelains, of which a considerable number have reached Europe during the last few years. Many of these have Sung forms and the Sung style, though, of course, plain white wares are always difficult to date. In the specimens to which I refer the glaze is usually of a warm ivory tone, tending to cream colour; it is hard and usually discontinued in the region of the base, both underneath and on the side, and the exposed body is rather rough to the touch. (See Plate 24, Fig. 1.)

It is not clear whether we are to infer from the comparison with Lung-ch´üan ware quoted above that the Ching-tê Chên potters produced a celadon in the Sung dynasty, but it is probable enough that they did so, and that the green or greenish white (_ch´ing pai_)[335] made in the Yüan period was a continuation of this. If we can believe the statement in the _T´ao lu_, they began early to copy the wares of other factories, imitating the Chün Chou ware at the end of the Sung period and the crackled Chi Chou ware in the Yüan.

It seems to me possible that the reference to the imitation of Chün ware may be explained by an interesting passage from a late twelfth-century[336] writer quoted in the _T´ao lu_, who says that in the Ta Kuan period (1107-1110) there were among the Ching-tê Chên wares "furnace transmutations" (_yao pien_) in colour red like cinnabar.[337] He is inclined to attribute this phenomenon to the fact that "when the planet Mars in the Zodiac approaches its greatest brightness, then things happen magically and contrary to the usual order." The potters were evidently disturbed by the appearance of the wares, and broke them. He tells us, further, that he stayed at Jao Chou and obtained a number of specimens (of the local ware), and after examining them he could say that, "compared with the red porcelain (_hung tz´ŭ_) of Ting Chou,[338] they were more fresh and brilliant in appearance." It will be remembered that an echo of this last sentence occurred in the Memoirs of Chiang.

A passage in the _Po wu yao lan_[339] might be taken to mean that blue-painted porcelain, "blue and white," was made at Ching-tê Chên prior to the Yüan period, but as the remainder of the sentence seems to be based on the _Ko ku yao lun_, and no evidence is given for the words in question, too much importance need not be attached to a phrase which may be a confusion arising from the _ch´ing pai_ of earlier writers.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 324: See p. 141.]

[Footnote 325: [Chinese] _t´ao yü._ There are variant readings to this passage as given in the _Chiang hsi t´ung chih_ (bk. xciii., fol. 5 verso), which make _t´ao yü_ the name of a man, the passage being read "T´ao-yü forwarded as tribute false jade vessels." As pointed out elsewhere, this expression "false jade" seems to imply a porcellanous ware. The comparison of porcelain and even fine pottery to jade is a commonplace in China, and it is not necessary to infer that any particular colour, green or otherwise, is indicated.]

[Footnote 326: The text is simply [Chinese] _chih wu_ = "established duty."]

[Footnote 327: In order to bring this date into Hung Wu´s lifetime, it is necessary to reckon from the year 1364, when he was proclaimed Prince of Wu. But other records (see _T´ao lu_, bk. v., fol. 4 recto) give the date as second year of Hung Wu--i.e. 1369, instead of 1398 as above. Hung Wu was proclaimed Emperor in 1368, and died in 1398.]

[Footnote 328: Bk. cxiii., fols. 7 and 8. The _T´ao shuo_ makes practically the same statement in connection with both periods, and Bushell (_O.C.A._, p. 287) gives us to understand that the first structure was burnt down and that erected in the Chêng Tê period was a rebuilding. The _T´ao lu_ states that a special Imperial factory was erected on the Jewel Hill in the Hung Wu period, and that there were other kilns scattered over the town working for the palace, and that the name _Yü ch´i ch´ang_ was given to all of them in the Chêng Tê period.]

[Footnote 329: Dated 1712 and 1722 from Ching-tê Chên, and preserved among the _Lettres édifiantes et curieuses_. They have been frequently published in part or in full, e.g. translated in W. Burton's _Porcelain_, and printed in French as an appendix to Bushell's _Translation of the T´ao shuo_.]

[Footnote 330: By Walter J. Clennell, H.M. Consul at Kiu-kiang, printed for H.M. Stationery Office.]

[Footnote 331: The long river front, "crowded for three miles by junks," was a feature of the place, which was sometimes known as the "thirteen _li_ mart." A _li_ is about 630 English yards.]

[Footnote 332: See p. 159.]

[Footnote 333: An incidental reference to white porcelain bowls at Hsin-p´ing (the old name for the district town of Ching-tê Chên) in 1101 A.D. occurs in the _Ch´ang nan chih_ (quoted in the _T´ao lu_, bk. viii., fol. 15). It is a verse on the subject of tea drinking: "The white porcelain is quickly passed from hand to hand all night; the fragrant vapour fills the peaceful pavilion."]

[Footnote 334: [Chinese] _mao k´ou chê_, lit. "hair mouth things." Bushell renders "with unglazed mouth." See _Ko ku yao lun_, bk. vii., fol. 24 verso, under the heading of "Old Jao wares."]

[Footnote 335: See p. 160.]

[Footnote 336: Chou Hui, author of the _Ching po tsa chih_, a miscellany published in 1193, quoted in _T´ao lu_, bk. viii., fol. 6 r. and v.]

[Footnote 337: Cf. descriptions of Chün Chou ware, chap. ix.]

[Footnote 338: See p. 92.]

[Footnote 339: Bk. ii., fol. 8 verso. "The body was thin and glossy (_jun_), the colour white, the ornament blue (or green) ([Chinese] _hua ch´ing_), and compared with Ting ware it was little inferior."]