Page:Illustrations of China and Its People vol. IV.pdf/41



THE art of making vases of bronze, of gold, and of silver, was practised by the Chinese at a very early period, and is said to have been lost in modern times, as both the metal used, and the workmanship of the most ancient vases and tripods are esteemed superior to anything which the artificers of the present day can produce. There are, and indeed there always have been in China, native collectors of objects of antiquity, some of whom have left valuable works, copiously illustrated with careful drawings of ancient bronzes, and facsimiles of the primitive characters cut or cast upon their outer surfaces, which enable the modern antiquary at once to identify the specimens of different periods. Thus we have an ancient Chinese work entitled the Po-koo-too, which extends to sixteen large volumes, and contains several hundred plates of sacred vases, Sec. Sec, of the Shang Chow and Han dynasties, Chinese scholars are, I believe, divided in opinion regarding the genuineness of the ancient inscriptions on these vases. The accession of the first emperor of the Shang dynasty carries us back to 1760 n.c, and during his reign many of the finest sacrificial vases and tripods were produced.

The ambitious Hwang-ti, the builder of the Great Wall, in his attempt to establish a new era, and unwilling that the ancients should afford a model for his new government, ordered that all memorials of antiquity should be destroyed, and that all documents should be consigned to the fiamcs. Notwithstanding the characteristic determination with which he carried out his plans of destruction, the members of the literati frustrated his endeavours by concealing copies of the ancient classics, and burying the sacrificial vases and tripods, many of which exist in China to the present day.

The high vase standing in the centre of the upper row (No. 30) is of great antiquity, while the others grouped around are more or less modern, and are such as are used in Chinese Buddhist shrines. A comparison of the design and workmanship of the ancient and modern bronzes here presented to the reader will bear out what I have said above.

THE finest China porcelain is supplied from a district east of the Poyang Lake from "The celebrated manufactories of Kingteh-chin, named after an emperor of the Sung dynasty, in whose reign, A. D. 1004, they were established." This mart still supplies all the fine porcelain produced in the country, and upwards of a million workmen are said to be employed in its manufacture. Many of the articles made are also painted in the district, while others are left plain, and are subsequently painted and glazed in the districts to which they are exported. "The central vase presented in the upper row {No. 31)