CHAPTER VIII
TZ´Ŭ CHOU [Chinese] WARE
A LARGE and important class of wares, closely related to the Ting group, was made at Tz´ŭ Chou, formerly in the Chang-tê Fu in Honan, and now included in the Kuang-p´ing Fu in Chihli. The name of the place, previously Fu-yang, was changed to Tz´ŭ Chou in the Sui dynasty (589-617 A.D.), and as it was derived, as Chinese writers are careful to explain, from the _tz´ŭ_ stone from which the ware was made, we may infer that this material, and no doubt the local potteries, assumed importance at this early date. There were, in fact, a few fragments of pottery of the Tz´ŭ Chou type, decorated with brown spots, among the Chinese wares found on the ninth-century site of Samarra, in Persia, by Professor Sarre (see p. 148); and a finely painted fragment of a Tz´ŭ Chou vase in the Anthropological Museum at Petrograd was brought from a site in Turfan, which was in all probability as early as the tenth century. Moreover, it is constantly asserted by traders in China that this or that piece of painted Tz´ŭ Chou ware was found in a T´ang tomb, and in many cases, such as that of the brown-painted vase with lotus design mentioned on p. 33, the form of the specimen and the style of the decoration are quite consistent with a T´ang attribution. There is, however, no information on the subject earlier than the Sung dynasty, when the Tz´ŭ Chou factories enjoyed a high reputation.[230] The _Ko ku yao lun_ gives the following brief notice of them under the heading "Old Tz´ŭ wares":--
"Old Tz´ŭ wares (_tz´ŭ ch´i_) were made at Tz´ŭ Chou, in the Chang-tê Fu in Honan. Good specimens closely resemble Ting ware, but have not the tear-stains. There are, besides, specimens with engraved and painted[231] ornament. The plain white pieces command a higher price than Ting ware. The recent (i.e. late fourteenth century) productions of the factory are not worthy of consideration."
If, as this account seems to imply, the Tz´ŭ Chou factories were in low water at the end of the Yüan dynasty, like many other potteries at this time, they managed to retrieve their fortunes, for they still carry on an unbroken tradition to this day.[232] The ware is in general use among the common folk of Peking and Northern China,[233] and is still decorated (though coarsely) in the antique style with free and sketchy painted designs in dark brown and maroon slip, the body being greyish white, with creamy crackled glaze. This is, of course, only one kind out of many, but the traditions have been so closely preserved that from this type alone it is easy to identify many Tz´ŭ Chou specimens among the early wares which have lately come from excavations in China.
The quantity of pottery produced at Tz´ŭ Chou in the last nine or ten hundred years must have been enormous, but as the post-Sung wares do not seem to have appealed to Chinese connoisseurs, little has been heard of it until recent times, and the stray specimens which did find their way to Europe were either unclassified or grouped with Corean specimens in deference to a mistaken Japanese opinion.[234] Now, however, considerable interest has been taken in the ware by Western collectors, and a plentiful supply is forthcoming, so that it is possible to make a comparative study of the different types, and to appreciate the varied and clever decorative methods of the Tz´ŭ Chou potters. But the conservative nature of the wares will always make it extremely difficult for us to fix the exact period during the many centuries when any individual piece was made, and the early dates assigned indiscriminately, though perhaps excusable on account of the archaic character of the painted decoration, should be accepted with caution.
The plain white Tz´ŭ Chou wares of the Sung period, which favourably compared with the Ting porcelain, have been identified in a few instances only by peculiarities of shape. Indeed, it is unlikely that we shall have any other means of discriminating them from the latter ware. But by far the largest group of the Tz´ŭ Chou family consists of the painted wares. Like the rest of the Tz´ŭ Chou pottery which has so far been identified, these have a greyish buff body of porcellanous stoneware usually coated with a white clay slip and covered with a transparent glaze almost colourless, but with a creamy tinge. On this glaze, and sometimes under it, the painters executed rapid, bold, and rather impressionist designs in shades of brown, varying from black to a soft sepia colour. The earliest specimens seem to have been of this kind, and it is certain that this method of decoration was practised in the Sung period, if not earlier.[235] In a few cases the glaze seems to have been omitted, the brown painting appearing on a lustreless white slip; and where the brown or black colour was laid on in broad washes, details were often etched out with a pointed instrument. The black, moreover, when in considerable areas, sometimes developed passages of lustrous coffee brown[236] (due to the presence of iron), such as is seen in the "partridge cups" of Chien yao. It is probable that the Sung Tz´ŭ Chou ware, with its solid ivory white surface, often crackled, and its sketchy floral designs, may have served as a model to the Japanese for the Kenzan style of decoration and the ivory white Satsuma faience.
Another style of ornament, which may date from Sung times, and is certainly common on later wares, consists of a broad band of floral scrolls, with large lily or aster flowers, enclosed by smaller zones of floral pattern or formal designs. Next come the large panels of figure subjects, usually of Taoist sages, or birds and animals in foliage, enclosed by bands of formal ornament or floral scrolls. In some cases a beautiful pale blue glaze of turquoise tint covers this class of ornament (Plate 32, Fig. 1), strangely recalling the Persian and Syrian pottery with still black paintings under a turquoise glaze. Indeed, it was a common error a few years back to class the stray specimens of this type as Persian; but a comparison with the brown-painted Tz´ŭ Chou specimens shows their true origin, and the discovery of a small dish of this kind in a Sung tomb[237] proves the antiquity of this method of decoration in China.
The brown and black was supplemented, in the Ming period if not earlier, first by a maroon slip and later by iron red and green enamel.[238] A specimen with panelled decoration in these colours was described by Brinkley[239] as having been preserved in Japan since 1598, showing that this class of decoration was at any rate contemporary with the "red and green family" of porcelain. A specimen in the Benson Collection shows, further, that aubergine and green were sometimes used in combination with turquoise glaze, as in the Ming "three-colour porcelain." Under-glaze blue is also found on Tz´ŭ Chou wares, but we have no clue to the date when it was introduced.
The ordinary ware, made in quite modern times at Tz´ŭ Chou, is illustrated by a small flask and a figure obtained by Dr. Bushell, and now in the British Museum. Though decorated in the characteristic style with slight sketchy design in brown and maroon, they show a decided falling off when compared with the older specimens. The body is a hard, greyish white stoneware; there is no slip covering, and the glaze is yellowish, soft-looking, and freely crackled, without the solid qualities of the older ivory glaze on a white slip coating. I am inclined to think that this degenerate type of ware dates back no farther than the nineteenth century, and that the Tz´ŭ Chou pottery preserved its character up to and perhaps throughout the eighteenth century. There are several examples of pottery pillows, with body and glaze of good quality and finely painted in black and brown, with panelled designs sometimes containing floral motives, sometimes figure subjects. One of these, exhibited at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1910,[240] was tentatively ascribed to the late Ming period. Since then the British Museum has acquired another, and I have heard of two more in private hands. The three last bear the mark of a potter named Chang,[241] and on some of them we find additional inscriptions containing the words _ku hsiang_ (of old Hsiang) and _hsiang ti_ (of the region of Hsiang). Hsiang, I find, is the old name of Chang-tê Fu, the prefecture in which Tz´ŭ Chou is situated, and this fact definitely connects the ware with the factories under discussion. At the same time the relatively large number of these pieces in our collections and the style of Chang's mark seem to indicate that they are of fairly recent date, probably not older than the seventeenth century.
[Illustration: Plate 29.--Vase of Porcellanous Stoneware.
With creamy white glaze and designs painted in black. Tz´ŭ Chou ware, Sung dynasty (960-1279 A.D.). Height 17 inches. _In the Louvre._]
[Illustration:
Fig. 1 Fig. 2
Fig. 3 Fig. 4
Plate 30.--Four Jars of painted Tz´ŭ Chou Ware.
Fig. 1.--Dated 11th year of Chêng T´ing (1446 A.D.). Height 9½ inches. _Eumorfopoulos Collection._
Fig. 2.--Painted in red and green enamels. (?) Sung dynasty. Height 4½ inches. _Alexander Collection._
Fig. 3.--Lower half black, the upper painted on white ground. Sung dynasty. Height 15½ inches. _Benson Collection._
Fig. 4.--With phœnix design, etched details. Sung dynasty. Height 9¾ inches. _Rothenstein Collection._]
[Illustration:
Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Plate 31.--Tz´ŭ Chou Ware. _Eumorfopoulos Collection._
Fig. 1.--Tripod Incense Vase in Persian style with lotus design in pale aubergine, in a turquoise ground. Sixteenth century. Height 6½ inches.
Fig. 2.--Pillow with creamy white glaze and design of a tethered bear in black. Sung dynasty. Length 12½ inches.]
[Illustration:
Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Plate 32.--Tz´ŭ Chou Ware. _Eumorfopoulos Collection._
Fig. 1.--Figure of a Lohan with a Deer, creamy white glaze coloured with black slip and painted with green and red enamels. Said to be Sung dynasty. Height 12½ inches.
Fig. 2.--Vase with _graffiato_ peony scrolls under a green glaze. Sung dynasty. Height 16 inches.]
[Illustration:
Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Plate 33.--Tz´ŭ Chou Ware.
Fig. 1.--Vase with panel of figures representing music, painted in black under a blue glaze. Yüan dynasty. Height 11½ inches. _Eumorfopoulos Collection._
Fig. 2.--Vase with incised designs in a dark brown glaze, a sage looking at a skeleton. Yüan dynasty. Height 12⅞ inches. _Peters Collection._
Fig. 3.--Vase with painting in black and band of marbled slips. Sung dynasty. Height 16 inches. _Eumorfopoulos Collection._]
[Illustration:
Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Plate 34.--Tz´ŭ Chou Ware. _Eumorfopoulos Collection._
Fig. 1.--Bottle of white porcellanous ware with black glaze and floral design in lustrous brown. Sung dynasty or earlier. (?) Tz´ŭ Chou ware. Height 13½ inches.
Fig. 2.--Bottle with bands of key pattern and lily scrolls cut away from a black glaze. Sung dynasty. Height 9¼ inches.
Fig. 3.--Bottle with _graffiato_ design in white slip on a mouse-coloured ground, yellowish glaze. Sung dynasty. Height 13 inches.]
On the other hand, a greater age has been credited to these pillows in the belief that they are "corpse pillows" recovered from ancient tombs, a theory for which a quotation from a Ming writer in the _T´ao shuo_ is responsible.[242] It is stated that "the pillows of ancient porcelain that are two feet and a half long and six inches broad may be used. Those only one foot long are known as 'corpse pillows,' and are among the things found in ancient tombs; and even when these are of white Ting Chou porcelain of the Sung dynasty, they ought not to be used." Now the pillows made by Chang and others are rarely more than a foot long, and according to this passage should be regarded as corpse pillows. But I cannot help thinking that either the measurements given are incorrect, or that the figures are inaccurately quoted; for apart from the difficulty of making porcelain pillows thirty inches long, such a size would be wholly unnecessary, and is, in fact, more than twice the length of the ordinary Chinese pillow, as we know from existing examples in various materials. At the present day there is no such distinction in size between the two sorts of pillow, and de Groot[243] assures us that the head of the corpse is rested on a small pillow "not differing from those in use among the living."
From the same passage in the _T´ao shuo_ we learn that a curious belief existed in China that porcelain pillows were "efficacious in keeping the eyes clear and preserving the sight, so that even in old age fine writing can be read," and that this belief obtained as early as the Sung dynasty, much use of such pillows having been made in the court of Ning Tsung.
Among the many types of Tz´ŭ Chou ware, old and new, figures and statuettes, usually of deities, played an important part. There are examples of coarse modern figures in the British Museum, but there are others,[244] strong and forcefully modelled, which rank with the best ceramic statuary. These, no doubt, belong to the older and better periods. A good example is shown in Plate 32.
The other large group of Tz´ŭ Chou wares, that with engraved designs (_hua, hua_), is perhaps the most interesting of the three. One class, the white ware with carved ornament, if it existed, has been merged, like the plain white, in the Ting wares. The vase (Plate 33, Fig. 2) with brown glaze and panelled design exactly corresponding to those of the typical painted wares, but engraved with a pointed instrument through the brown glaze, forms a link between the two main groups.[245] But the more characteristic Tz´ŭ Chou engraved ornament is executed by what is usually known as the _graffiato_ process, the lines of the design being cut through a layer of slip which contrasts in colour with the underlying material. This is illustrated by those vases on which the ornament is etched through a covering of white slip disclosing the greyish body beneath, or, better still, by specimens like Plate 34, Fig. 3, in which the ground of the pattern is freely cut away, exposing considerable areas of the body.[246] The greyish body colour combines with the transparent but creamy glaze to produce a delicate mouse-coloured surface, from which the pattern stands out in ivory white. In other cases a thick lustrous brown black glaze has been boldly carved, leaving the design to contrast with an unglazed grey biscuit (Plate 34, Fig. 3). By varying and combining these different methods, and by changing and counter-changing the slips, a great diversity of effects was readily obtained. It has been frequently remarked that some of the engraved specimens with bands of large foliage scrolls have an astonishing resemblance to Italian _graffiato_ ware of the sixteenth century; and this resemblance is particularly striking when, as sometimes happens, a green glaze is used instead of the ordinary creamy covering. No doubt these carved wares, like their fellows with painted ornament, were made for many centuries, but there is good reason to think that they date back to early times, for fragments both of the _graffiato_ with white slip and mouse-coloured ground, and of the dark brown glaze cut away, were found in Sir Aurel Stein's excavations in Turfan on sites which can hardly have been open after the twelfth century.[247] An important example recently acquired by the British Museum actually bears a Sung date. It is a pillow with carved panels on the sides containing each a large flower and formal foliage; and on the top is a panel with the four characters _Chia kuo yung an_ ("everlasting peace in the family and state") etched in a ground powdered with small circles. This panel is flanked by two incised inscriptions stating that the pillow was made by the Chao family in the fourth year of Hsi Ning (i.e. 1071 A.D.). I have seen one other dated specimen of _graffiato_ Tz´ŭ Chou ware with beautifully carved floral designs and an inscription of the year 1063. Another Tz´ŭ Chou type is seen in a pillow in the Eumorfopoulos Collection which has passages of marbling in black and brown, and small black rosette ornaments inlaid in Corean fashion. The variety of decorations used on this group of wares seems to be inexhaustible.
It has already been hinted that other factories were at work on the same lines as Tz´ŭ Chou, and as we have no means of identifying their peculiarities, it would perhaps be safer to use some such formula as "Tz´ŭ Chou type" in the ascription of doubtful pieces. Po-Shan Hsien, in Shantung, was mentioned in a note on p. 103, and the _T´ao lu_[248] gives a short account of another factory at Hsü Chou,[249] in Honan, where the _tz´ŭ_ stone (see p. 101) was also used in wares which were both plain white and decorated. This factory was active in the Ming dynasty, and it is stated that its wares were superior to the "recent productions"[250] of Tz´ŭ Chou.
A reference to porcelain figures in Honan in the Sung dynasty may be quoted in this connection. It occurs in the _Liang ch´i man chih_, an early thirteenth-century work by Fei Kuan, and runs as follows: "In Kung Hsien (in the Honan Fu) there are porcelain (_tz´ŭ_) images called by the name of Lu Hung-chien. If you buy ten tea vessels you can take one image. Hung-chien was a trader who dealt in tea--unprofitably, for he could not refrain from brewing his stock. Hung-chien formerly was very fond of tea, and it brought him to ruin." Possibly the images of Hung-chien, which were given away with ten tea vessels, were made at Tz´ŭ Chou or Hsü Chou. Figures are still part of the stock-in-trade of the former factory.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 230: See _T´ao lu_, bk. vii., fol. 13 verso.]
[Footnote 231: _Hsiu hua_, lit. "embroidered ornament," but see p. 91.]
[Footnote 232: For incidental reference to Tz´ŭ Chou vases and wine jars in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, see p. 128.]
[Footnote 233: See Bushell, _O.C.A._, p. 164.]
[Footnote 234: See Brinkley, _Catalogue of the Exhibition at the Boston Museum of Arts_, 1884; also _Burlington Magazine_, August, 1911, p. 264.]
[Footnote 235: The pottery found in Sung tombs near Wei Hsien, in Shantung, in 1903, includes a few examples of this type of ware with sketchy brown designs. Laufer (_Chinese Pottery of the Han Dynasty_, Appendix ii.) has illustrated this important find, though he is inclined to think that it may have been made at the neighbouring potteries of Po Shan Hsien. If this is so, we must reckon with the fact, in itself not at all surprising, that other factories besides Tz´ŭ Chou were working on the same lines. See p. 107.]
[Footnote 236: It would appear that the Tz´ŭ Chou potters were capable of producing these lustrous brown passages in the black glaze intentionally, for the floral design on Fig. 1 of Plate 34 is expressed in this manner.]
[Footnote 237: At Wei Hsien. See note on p. 103.]
[Footnote 238: There are specimens--mostly small bowls--of a very archaic appearance, with the red and green painting which are persistently claimed as of Sung period. But see p. 46 and Plate 30.]
[Footnote 239: _Catalogue of the Boston Exhibition_, op. cit., 1884.]
[Footnote 240: _Cat. B.F.A._, 1910, E 63. This example has the mark of Wang Ch´ih-ming. See p. 221.]
[Footnote 241: See p. 221.]
[Footnote 242: See Bushell, op. cit., p. 122.]
[Footnote 243: Op. cit., vol. i., p. 91.]
[Footnote 244: See _Burlington Magazine_, August, 1911, and _Cat. B.F.A._, D 19 and 41.]
[Footnote 245: The link is strengthened by the presence of the black painted bands which border the main designs. See also _Burlington Magazine_, loc. cit., August, 1911, "On Some Old Chinese Pottery."]
[Footnote 246: On a few specimens, the date of which is by no means certain, a design of leaves is executed by a peculiar process, in which an actual leaf seems to have been used as a stencil, being stuck on to the ware while the slip was applied, and afterwards removed, leaving a leaf-shaped pattern in reserve. A somewhat similar use of leaf stencilling is described on p. 133.]
[Footnote 247: See p. 134.]
[Footnote 248: Bk. vii., fol. 14. Some authorities seem to have considered that the Hsü Chou factories go back to Sung times.]
[Footnote 249: [Chinese].]
[Footnote 250: The _T´ao lu_ was written at the end of the eighteenth century.]