Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 1.djvu/51

 art during that long interval. But in 1127 the Sung emperors changed their capital from Peking to Nankin, and that event, generally spoken of in Chinese history as "the passage of the Sung to the south," resulted in the division of the empire into two Kingdoms, the invading Tartars holding sway in the north, and the Sung sovereigns reigning in the south. Tradition says that the change of capital seriously influenced the potter's trade. The factory at Ting-chou in Pechili was transferred to Nan-chang in Kiang-si, and the manufacture of Ting-yao, ceasing at the former place, was re-commenced at the latter. This Nan-chang was in the immediate neighbourhood of Ching-tê-chên, the great centre of Chinese keramic industry. But in the early part of the twelfth century the resources of the place do not appear to have been developed, for the Ting-yao produced there did not enjoy as high a reputation as its northern predecessor. Connoisseurs distinguished the two wares, that of the northern factory of Ting-chou and that of the southern factory of Nan-chang, as Pai-ting, or white Ting, and Nan-ting, or southern Ting. The latter was also called Fan-ting, or "rice-flour" Ting. The manufacture of the former lasted from 960 to 1126; that of the latter from 1127 to 1279. These dates refer, of course, to Sung Ting-yao only. The reader will readily understand that as Nan-chang, or Chingtê-chên, continued in after years to be the very metropolis of Chinese pottery, its experts did not lose but rather developed, their ability to produce Ting-yao. Under the Sung emperors, however, it is asserted that the material employed for the biscuit of the Ting-yao made at Nan-chang was not so fine or close-grained as that used by the Ting-chou potters. The