Continued from: Introduction to Chinese Porcelain
According to Pere d’Entrecolles, porcelain was made of kaolin and pe-tun-tse, the former being decomposed feldspar of granite, which took its name, “lofty ridge,” from the hill where it was found; while the other was white, hard, fusible quartz that had to be pounded in mortars worked by water-power. Both substances had to be washed and reduced by suspension and settlement in water to a paste, which was moulded into cakes or bricks for conveyance to the potteries. The kaolin is said to have been worked by four different families, whose names were stamped on their respective cakes. On arrival at the manufactory, these cakes had again to be ground up with water, so that the kaolin and pe-tun-tse might be mixed in proportions according to the paste required. Soapstone and other substitutes are said to have been used at times, probably with a view to reducing cost more than anything else. The glaze, we are told, was obtained by mixing the ashes of a fern that grew in the neighbourhood with pounded pe-tun-tse, thus forming a silicate of flint and alkali.
The Emperor Keen-lung sent an artist from Peking to make drawings of the whole process of the manufacture of porcelain as conducted at King-te-chin. These, twenty in number, commenced with the procuring of kaolin and pe-tun-tse, as also the preparing of the fern-ash and other ingredients for making the glaze. Forming the ware by lathe or mould was shown, as also the examination of the paste before firing, all inequalities being removed by hand, and the pieces so taken off being pounded and worked into a milky consistence, to be mixed by the painters with their enamel colours. Then came the painting of the pieces in all its details. The earthen cases for baking the ware in, as also the furnaces, open and closed, were illustrated, and finally, binding the ware with straw and packing it in tubs ready for sale, the series ending with the ceremony of the feast of the god of the furnaces, whose legend is as follows : Several models were sent from Peking to be copied at King-te-chin, but the shapes and sizes were such that they defied all the efforts of the workmen to reproduce them. The more the failures the greater was the desire of the then emperor to possess the pieces ordered, so rewards were promised and punishments freely administered, but all to no purpose. Reduced to despair, one of the workmen threw himself into the furnace and was consumed therein, but the ware then in course of baking came out perfect as required by the palace, so the unfortunate workman became the god of the furnaces. He is said to be depicted as a stout man, but does not seem to be portrayed upon the ceramics of his country as might be expected.
In addition to King-te-chin, there were many more manufactories of porcelain, the history of that name, already referred to, giving the names of fifty-six others, of which thirteen were in the province of Ho-nan, eight in Che-keang, and eight in Keang-see, King-te-chin itself being in the last-named province, and its shipping port, Nanking, which has thus given its name to the blue and white shipped therefrom, while the various other manufactories in the south exported their wares through Canton, which in like manner gave its name thereto. It may be well here to give some account of King-te-chin, which for hundreds of years was the chief centre of the porcelain trade, and the following is an epitome of the description given of it by Pere d’Entrecolles in 1717 : King-te-chin was situated one league from Feou-liang and eighteen from Iao-tchcou, in a large plain surrounded by high mountains, at the junction of two rivers, which formed a port or harbour, about a league in length, filled with boats. Like all place ending in te-clriu, it was not a walled city, but in other respects might well rank among the largest and most populous in China, being said at that time to contain above a million inhabitants. It stretched along the above-named harbour, the houses being crowded into narrow streets, which, however, were laid out with some regularity, and the place had a very busy appearance. Although expensive to live in, as most articles had to be brought from a distance, still the poor flocked to it in search of employment ; children, the feeble, and even the blind found employment by grinding colours and in other ways, three thousand furnaces being at that time at work, which at night gave the town the appearance of being on fire. Fires were frequent, but the
And bird-like poise on balanced wing
Above the town of King-te-tching,
A burning town or seeming so, -
Three thousand furnaces that glow
Incessantly, and fill the air
With smoke uprising, gyre on gyre,
And painted by the lurid glare
Of jets and flashes of red fire.”– Longfellow, ” Ke’ramos.”
demand for houses and shops was so great that they were speedily rebuilt. The city seems to have been governed by one mandarin. Each street, or, if long, section thereof, had a chief with ten assistants, one for every ten houses, who were responsible to the head mandarin, their business being to maintain order and report all breaches thereof to the mandarin, who, for any neglect on their part, had the bastinado administered freely. Each of the streets or districts were barricaded at night, and no one allowed to pass without a given signal. The mandarin in charge of the city frequently went round, as also others from Feou-liang, to see that order was kept. Strangers were rarely allowed to pass the night in the city, and then had to stay with friends, who became answerable for their good conduct. As a rule, all strangers had to sleep in their boats. This strict police supervision is said to have been on account of the wealth contained in the houses. King-te-chin was destroyed by the Tai-pings, but its prosperity seems to have been on the decline before that.
Lord Macartney (1792-1794) passed near King-te-chin, and says there were three thousand porcelain furnaces there, but of course he may merely have been quoting from the above-named author. However, it seems, at all events, even at that time to have been a very large manufactory.
Writing in 1837, GutzlafT tells us:
“Five hundred ovens are constantly burning, and emit during the night a flame which gives the region surrounding the appearance of a lake of fire. No place in China is thought to manufacture porcelain of equal excellence with that of King-te-chin, though several cities in Fokeen and Kuan -tung have endeavoured to rival it in this production. . . . The wood has to be brought from a distance of three hundred miles. Provisions are extremely dear, and labour in equal proportion, so that several other places, situated more advantageously, have become successful rivals in the manufacture of the article by supplying it at a cheaper rate.”
