of gradual evolution. Some
Chinese writers in their zeal for ancient things have ascribed to remote
periods the production of wares of this class. Where authentic specimens
are not to be found it is necessary to proceed with caution, and
literary evidence alone cannot be deemed sufficient to settle such a
difficult point. The balance of opinion at the present time is that
something worthy of the name of porcelain was made during the Tang
dynasty (A.D. 618-907), but we have no pieces earlier than the Sung
dynasty (A.D. 960-1259), and the majority of these are perhaps more
fitly described as stoneware than as porcelain.

Under the Sung dynasty China enjoyed great material prosperity, and all
the arts were cultivated assiduously. Pottery of distinguished merit was
made in many districts, and much of it has been classified as porcelain
because the body is whitish and vitrified, though it is much inferior in
finish and in translucence to the perfect white porcelain of later
times. It is necessary to realize, too, that we have no record of any
pottery with painted decoration until perhaps the very end of the 13th
century; such ornament as was used consists entirely of designs incised
or modelled in the clay. But the principal decoration is to be found in
the varied coloured glazes with which the wares, whether stoneware or
porcelain, were covered. The glaze is never clear and white as at later
times; it is generally uneven, imperfectly fused and presents all the
marks of an imperfect technique. The nearest approach to white is found
in an opalescent grey which shades off to greenish and bluish tints. The
glazes of this period which are most highly valued are the _celadons_, a
family of cool bluish or yellowish greens of indescribable depth and
softness. Besides the _celadons_ which are the most uniform in tints of
the Sung glazes, we get many shades of palish lavender, brownish yellow
and brownish black, but these are all subtly or boldly mottled,
splashed, clouded or veined with strange tones of red, blue, purple,
opalescent grey and black. The most famous of these now very rare Sung
wares were the stonewares of Chunchow, remarkable for their rich and
varied glazes, the black variegated glazed wares of Fu-kien province,
"hare's fur cups" and "partridge cups" of collectors, and the four
principal wares that may be called porcelain, viz.--the _Ju-Yao_, made
at Ju-chow in Honan; the _Kuan-Yao_ (Kuan = "official" or "imperial"),