CHINA
porcelains cannot be classed as representing the ancient elegance in style. When the white paste is so covered with green enamel that, at the places where it is not put on thick, white patches will shine through,—this is the porcelain burned by Chang Shêng of the Sung dynasty, and therefore called Chang-yao; when compared to the [ordinary] Lung-chuan it displays greater delicacy of workmanship.'
12.—The Ch'un-fêng-t'ang-sui-p'i says: 'The green porcelain made by the younger brother was pure and clear like fine jadestone and much valued by the world; it resembled the Kuan-yao in make. The porcelain made by the elder brother was of a fainter colour.'
Other extracts relating to these wares are also quoted in Dr. Hirth's brochure, but they convey no special information.
Doubts have been expressed about the date when Lung-chuan ware was first manufactured. The Sung dynasty covered a period of three centuries, and considerable progress was evidently made in the keramic art during that long interval. To attribute the origin of a factory to the Sung dynasty is, therefore, unsatisfactorily vague. There is only one authority to fix the era of the Chang brothers. A work quoted by Dr. Hirth says that they lived during the Southern Sung dynasty (1127-1280), and the earliest Lung-chuan céladons may therefore be referred to the first half of the twelfth century.
It is on record that there were two Lung-chuan factories. One was at Liu-tien, sixty miles distant from Lung-chuan. The choicest céladon was produced there. The second was at a village called Chin-tsun. Inferior specimens of Lung-chuan-yao were potted there. Liu-tien stood at the foot of a hill (called Liu-hua-shan), on the top of which there was supposed to be an unfathomable lake.
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