Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 1.djvu/49

 high official passed, were changed into jade, whereupon the workmen closed the kiln and fled in trepidation.

In addition to the choice varieties of Ting-yao described above, there was also produced at the same factory (in Pechili) during the Sung dynasty, a coarser species called Tu-Ting-yao, which term literally signifies "Ting pottery." The difference between this and the fine Ting-yao is that the pâte of the former has much greater thickness and solidity, and that the glaze is invariably crackled, sometimes in small meshes, sometimes in large. Occasionally the glaze is entirely without lustre, closely resembling the shell of an egg. The colour of this Tu-Ting-yao has a distinctly deeper tinge of yellow than that of the fine Ting-yao, and it belongs altogether to an inferior order of manufacture. Considerable quantities of it found their way to Japan, where they were erroneously regarded, and are still regarded, as Cochin-Chinese products. The origin of the misconception is obscure. Possibly the Tu-Ting-yao reached Japan in the first place via Siam or Canton, and was thus associated with southern potteries. At all events, specimens of this so-called Kôchi-yaki (Kôchi is the Japanese term for Cochin China) are frequently found in Japanese collections, where they constitute a source of persistent error. So far as is known, nothing resembling them in any respect was ever produced at the Annamese or Siamese factories. Dr. Hirth, in his interesting brochure, "Ancient Chinese Porcelain," adduces evidence from a Chinese work (the Chu-fan-chih, by Chao Ju-kua) published in the early part of the thirteenth century, to the effect that the nearest of the foreign places to which porcelain was shipped from the Middle Kingdom soon after