Inspirational Ceramics: Cizhou Wares From The Linyushanren Collection

Rosemary Scott, Senior International Academic Consultant

The term Cizhou ware 磁州窯 refers to the products of a number of kilns in north China. The name derives from the area of Cizhou in modern day Cixian 磁縣 in southern Hebei province, in which some of the major kiln sites manufacturing these wares were located. These Cizhou wares have body material that is usually fred to stoneware temperature, and is not white, but a variant of greyish-buff in colour. They also share the use of slip, which was used to cover the body material – masking its colour - and could also be used in a range of innovative decorative techniques. The majority of Cizhou wares are covered with a thin, colourless glaze, which enhances the decoration, although a small percentage have a copper-green glaze or a copper-turquoise glaze. There are also two polychrome groups – one of which derived its inspiration from Tang sancai 三彩 wares, while the other appears to provide China’s first use of overglaze enamels. Generally, Cizhou wares are distinguished by bold, simple shapes and inventive decoration, which to modern eyes often gives them a remarkably contemporary appearance. They enjoyed great popularity in China and Japan, and provided inspiration for potters not only in East Asia, but at much greater distance both geographically and temporally. 

An interesting discovery was made in 1951 by the Chinese scholar Chen Wanli 陳萬里 and published in his 1955 volume Songdai beifang minjian ciqi 宋代北方民間瓷器, which concentrated on Cizhou wares and related black-glazed wares from kiln sites in Cixian and Dingxian. Chen Wanli discovered a stele at Dangyangyu 當陽峪 in Xiuwuxian 修武縣, Henan province. The stele had come from a temple built in honour of a kiln god 德應侯 Deyinghou, whose given name was Bolin 柏林. The inscription gave the date of the founding of the temple as AD 1100, and the date of the erection of the stele as AD 1105. The inscription had been copied from that on another stele, dated to AD 1084, at Yaojun 耀郡 (modern Yaozhou 耀州), in Shaanxi province, in an area in which white wares and black wares were made as early as the Tang dynasty. The Yaojun stele inscription identifed Bolin, whose family name is unknown, as a someone from the south who established the frst pottery kilns in the area. Over time Bolin was adopted as the local kiln guardian god and many years later, in the 熙寧 Xining reign (AD 1068-77), was offcially granted the title Deyinghou. Bolin is also mentioned, and a similar story
is attributed to him, on a stele at Chenjiacun 陳家村, near Hebiji 鶴壁集 in Tangyinxian 湯陰縣. Although this stele dates to the Qianlong reign it replaced a much older inscribed stele. A further inscribed stele erected to mark the rebuilding of a temple to Boling 百靈, dated to AD 1490 was found at Mengjiajing, Taiyuan 孟家井, 太原 in Shanxi province. The prefectural gazetteer Henan Yuxianzhi 河南禹縣志 of AD 1747 notes that a shrine to Bolinggong 百靈公 was rebuilt in AD 1322. It has been suggested that the difference in the characters for Bolin/Boling’s name may be attributable to mistakes in transcription, and that there was a spiritual connection between the Cizhou kilns as well as technological and artistic links (see Y. Mino and K. Tsiang, Freedom of Clay and Brush through Seven Centuries in Northern China: Tz’u-chou Type Wares, 960-1600 A.D., Indianapolis, 1981, p. 12).

It is likely that Cizhou wares initially developed from Tang dynasty northern white wares, with which they share a signifcant number of
shapes, as well as aspects of their technology. Cizhou wares appear to have been produced from the mid-10th century and continued to be manufactured throughout the Song, Jin and Yuan dynasties. While this may be considered the apex of Cizhou production, wares from this tradition continued to be manufactured into the Ming and Qing dynasties, and are still made up to the present day. However, it is the period 10th-14th century which saw the development of the wide variety of decorative techniques for which Cizhou wares are famed, as well as being the period of most extensive production. It is signifcant that, despite being a popular, rather than an offcial ware in the Song, Jin and Yuan dynasties, Cizhou ware is mentioned in the frst edition of the Gegu yaolun 格古要論 (Essential Criteria of Antiquities) by Cao Zhao 曹昭, published in Nanjing in AD 1388, where the author notes that fne pieces are similar to Ding wares, but lack ‘tear-drops’, and also notes that some pieces have incised or impressed designs. In the additions to the original text made by Wang Zuo 王佐 in the revised and annotated edition of the Gegu yaolun, called Xinceng gegu yaolun 新增格古要論, completed in 1459 and published in AD 1462, the place of manufacture for Cizhou wares is noted to be Zhangdefu 彰德府, Henan province (see Sir Percival David, Chinese Connoisseurship – The Ko Ku Yao Lun – The Essential Criteria of Antiquities, London, 1971, p. 142, Section X). It was also suggested that the price for some Cizhou wares was higher than that of Ding wares.

However, this may have been due to the misreading of a badly printed character in the 1388 edition. It was not until the Ming dynasty that Cizhou wares appear to have been part of offcial transactions. The 1700 edition of the Cizhou zhi 磁州志 notes that in the twelfth year of Hongzhi (1498) some 11,936 wine jars were supplied in payment of tax to the government, and there were offcial storehouses in the Cizhou area, where the wine jars were kept until they were transported by water to the capital. According to the 1587 edition of the Da Ming huidian 大明會典, large court orders for wine jars were sent annually to the Cizhou kilns in the Xuande reign (1426-35), and in the thirty-second year of Jiajing (1553) another large order for wine jars was sent to Cizhou.

A resurgence of academic and commercial interest in Cizhou wares was accelerated in the frst quarter of the 20th century with the discovery of the habitation site of Juluxian 鹿縣, Hebei province. Excavation and investigation began under the auspices of the Tianjin Museum 天津博物 院 in 1920 and the results published in 1923 in Julu Songqi conglu 巨鹿宋 器叢錄. A signifcant quantity of ceramics with white slip and colourless glaze was found at Juluxian and these ceramics were in turn linked to the descriptions of undecorated Cizhou wares in Chinese texts. The Juluxian site was of particular interest since it was destroyed by fooding of the Zhang River in AD 1108, thus providing a terminus ante quem for the ceramics discovered there. The white wares found at Juluxian had characteristic rust-coloured staining from the iron in the soil in which they had been preserved. The white vase in the Linyushanren Collection with trumpet mouth and everted rim (lot 512) not only has this type of staining, but was made in one of the shapes associated with the Juluxian fnds. A date of Northern Song dynasty, late 11th-early 12th century is therefore probable for this vase.

In the second half of the 20th century more than twenty kiln sites producing Cizhou wares were investigated predominantly in Henan, Hebei and Shanxi provinces. From the Song to the Yuan dynasty the area around Cizhou itself contained some of the most important kiln sites – one group along the banks of the 漳河 Zhang River, and a second group along the upper reaches of the 滏 源溝 Fu River. The largest (at about 500,000 square meters) and best preserved of these is the Guantai 觀台 site on the Zhang River in Cixian, which was frst investigated in 1951 by the eminent Chinese scholar Chen Wanli, who published his findings in ‘Diaocha pingyuan Hebei ersheng gudai yaozhi baogao’, Wenwu cankao ziliao 調查平原 河北二省古代窯址報告, 文物參考資料, 1952, no.1. Further investigations were carried out by the Hebei Province Cultural Relics Bureau in 1958 and 1960-61, while in 1963 the Guantai site and others in the area were excavated by the Beijing Palace Museum scholar Li Huibing 李輝炳, who published his fndings in ‘Cizhouyao yizhi diaocha’, Wenwu, 磁州窯遺址調查, 文物 1964, no. 8, pp. 37-56. In 1987 a team comprised of members of the Department of Archaeology at Beijing University, the Hebei Provincial Cultural Relics Institute, and the H ndan Regional Cultural Relics Protection Agency undertook a further excavation of the Guantai kiln site, and published an extensive report of their fndings under the title The Cizhou Kiln site at Guantai 觀台磁州窯 址, Beijing, 1997. This publication provided not only a chronological study of the ceramics themselves, but also evidence of manufacturing techniques, including workshops and kiln furniture. It also made it clear that the majority of decorative techniques applied to Cizhou ceramics were in use at the Guantai kiln site, which also included monochrome black and brown wares, as well as white wares similar to those found at Juluxian. As is often the case with major kiln sites in north China, the Guantai site was located near to coal mines, and the archaeological investigations confrmed that coal was indeed used to fre the Guantai kilns.

One of the most characteristic decorative techniques seen on Cizhou wares, and used extensively at the Guantai kilns was sgraffato, in which areas of slip were removed in order to create a design of contrasting colour to the ground on which it appeared. This technique could either reveal the colour of the clay body beneath the slip or could reveal a slip of a different colour beneath the slip layer that was being partly removed. Both techniques required considerable skill on the part of the ceramic decorator, and both could produce decoration that was both bold and aesthetically pleasing.

One of the examples of this sgraffato technique in which the contrast achieved is between the white of the slip and the greyish-buff of the body material is a deep bowl in the Linyushanren collection (lot 511). This is a technique that was used at the Guantai kiln, as can be seen from sherds excavated from sector T11 (7) at the site and illustrated in black and white fgure XV, 2-5, and fgure XXI-2 of The Cizhou Kiln site at Guantai 觀 台磁州窯址, Beijing, 1997, as well as those illustrated in colour plate XXI-1 of the same volume. Interestingly, however, the distinctive and elegant rendering of the peony blossom on the Linyushanren bowl relates closely to similar decoration, created in similar decorative technique, found on remains from the Quhe 曲河 kiln site at Dengfengxian 登封縣, Henan, dated to the late 10th-early 11th century and published by Feng Xianming 馮先銘 in ‘Henan Mixian, Dengfengxian Tang Song guyaozhi diaocha’, Wenwu 河南密縣, 登封縣 唐宋古窯址調查, 1964, no. 3, p. 53, fg. 12-4. Another interesting aspect of this bowl is the way it has been fred. On the interior base of the bowl are three small spur marks, which suggests that it was one of several bowls fred in a single saggar and kept separated by spurred setters. This type of fring at Cizhou kilns has been confrmed by fnds at the Guantai kiln. Black and white fgure CXI-1 in The Cizhou Kiln site at Guantai, op. cit., clearly shows a saggar from sector T5 (10) in which bowls have been stacked, and spur marks can be seen on the interior base of the lower bowl. Three-spurred setters have also been found at the Guantai site in a number of sectors (see The Cizhou Kiln site at Guantai, black and white fgure CXVIII- 1-4).

The most challenging of the sgraffato techniques employed by the ceramic decorators at the Cizhou kilns was that in which the body of the vessel was covered in white slip, and then covered in black or dark brown slip. The outline of the decoration was incised through the black slip, and then the black slip was cut away from the ground, leaving the white slip beneath intact. The result was a bold black/dark brown design against a white ground. Finally, the vessel was usually covered with a thin, colourless glaze, although a smaller number of vessels were given a green, low-fring glaze – as in the case of a trumpet-mouthed vase in the Linyushanren Collection (lot 517) which was previously registered in Japan as An Important Art Object. This vase shares a similar shape with the white Cizhou vase from the Linyushanren Collection (lot 512) discussed above, but it is worth noting that while the colourless glaze on the white vase could be fred to stoneware temperature, the lead-fuxed green glaze could not. If the potter wanted to produce a stoneware vessel, therefore, the vase had to be fred to stoneware temperature without the green glaze and then re-fred to a lower temperature after the glaze was applied. Some Cizhou green glazed vases with black on white decoration have a colourless glaze under the green glaze to prevent running of the black slip during fring (see Freedom of Clay and Brush through Seven Centuries in Northern China: Tz’u-chou Type Wares, 960-1600 A.D., op. cit., p. 214). Vases of this form with similar decoration produced using the same decorative technique but with only colourless glazes were made at Guantai, as can be seen from colour plate IX-2 from sector T5(5) and
black and white fgure XXIII-2 from sector T10(5) in The Cizhou Kiln site at Guantai, op. cit. Copper-green lead-fuxed glazes were used at the Guantai kiln site with a range of decorative techniques, as evidenced by the sherds illustrated in colour plates XXIX-5, XXX and XXXI in The Cizhou Kiln site at Guantai, op. cit., but this volume only appears to illustrate two sherds on which the green glaze is combined with the upper black slip cut from the lower white slip sgraffato technique (see black and white fgure LXVIII-5 in The Cizhou Kiln site at Guantai, op. cit.). It is worth noting that the majority of green-glazed Cizhou vases of this form have decoration that is painted in black onto the lower white slip, with only details incised through the black slip.

The technique of creating decoration by applying a black slip over a white slip and then cutting areas of black slip away is one that could only be attempted by a very skilful ceramic decorator, who understood his materials and had a steady hand. It is also a technique which seems to be unique to Cizhou wares, and appears to have been prevalent at the Cizhou kilns – particularly Guantai - in the late 11th and 12th centuries. Amongst the most magnifcent of the vases with this type of decoration are meiping vases decorated with bold peony scrolls between upper and lower borders of long, slender, S-form overlapping petals – an example of which from the Linyushanren Collection is included in the current catalogue (lot 516). Decorative links with the fne white wares from the Ding kilns can be seen when these Cizhou vases are compared with Ding ware meiping vases such as the famous example from the collection of Sir
Percival David (illustrated by R. Scott in Imperial Taste - Chinese Ceramics from the Percival David Foundation, Los Angeles/San Francisco, 1989, p. 25, no. 5). The Ding vase is also decorated with a bold peony scroll below a band of long, slender, S-form overlapping petals, while the lower border has a band of wider, upright, overlapping petals or leaves. It seems very likely that the Linyushanren meiping was made at the Guantai kiln site, since a number of details of the design accord well with a sherd found at Guantai and published by Li Huibing in ‘Cizhouyao yizhi diaocha’, Wenwu, op. cit, pl. 6:1. Not only do the shapes of the leaves conform,
but the peony petals have the same scalloped edge and there is the same distinctive comma-shaped detail rising from the outer edge of the inner petals. Further Guantai sherds displaying both the scrolling leaf shape and the long, slender, overlapping petals around the lower part of the vessel are illustrated in The Cizhou Kiln site at Guantai, op. cit., colour plate XXI-2. A similar decorative scheme to that on the Linyushanren meiping seems to appear on a misfred sgraffato meiping from Guantai illustrated in the same volume in black and white fgure XXIV-4. It is noted that this kiln waster meiping was unearthed from sector T5(6).

A sgraffato jar from the Linyushanren collection in the current catalogue (lot 515) also seems likely to have been made at the Guantai kilns. Like the meiping vase, the peony fowers and leaves on this jar also accord with the form of those shown on the sherd illustrated by Li Huibing, while the slender petals around the foot of the jar accord with those illustrated in The Cizhou Kiln site at Guantai, op. cit., colour plate XXI-2. The distinctive shape of this jar also accords well with those found at the Guantai kiln site. The wide shoulders, wide mouth and narrow foot of the Linyushanren jar can be seen on several jars excavated at Guantai. These include two with painted and incised peony decoration unearthed from sectors T10(5) and T10(4), illustrated in The Cizhou Kiln site at Guantai, op. cit., colour plate XI-1, and another jar with bird, fower and butterfy decoration unearthed in sector Y4(1), illustrated in the same volume, colour plate XV-3.

The third black and white sgraffato vessel in the current catalogue is a deep bowl with augmented ‘cash’ design (lot 508). The shape of this bowl with its high sides and relatively small foot is characteristic of vessels from both the Cizhou kilns and those producing Jun wares in Henan province. The shape offered a good canvas to the Cizhou ceramic decorators if they wished to use a bold design. The so-called ‘cash’ pattern – loosely resembling Chinese copper coins laid side by side in a row – was a popular and long-enduring one in the Chinese decorative arts. The ‘cash’ pattern and related ‘half cash’ pattern occurs in various forms on Cizhou wares. Another variant combined with so-called ‘pearl’ ground can be seen on several meiping vases, on which there are often multiple rows of the design. Two are illustrated by Mino and Tsiang in Freedom of Clay and Brush through Seven Centuries in Northern China: Tz’u-chou Type Wares, 960-1600 A.D., op. cit., pp. 78-9, fg. 61 and plate 27. In the case of the vase in fg. 61, the ‘cash’ pattern is depicted against a ‘pearl’ ground, while on the vase in plate 27 the ‘cash’ pattern is depicted flled with ‘pearl’ motif, against a plain white ground. The depiction on the Linyushanren bowl is particularly interesting, on the one hand because a double circle has been incised between each ‘cash’ – almost suggesting the centre of a fower, and the sides of the ‘cash’ have a white section in each segment – suggesting a fower petal. This version of the design somewhat resembles the way in which the ‘cash’ is used on pierced lattices in traditional Chinese gardens.

Two quite different techniques using dark and white contrasts to create non-representational designs can be seen on Cizhou jars from the Linyushanren Collection in this catalogue. The frst is a jar with a dark interior, a white mouth rim and an exterior with white striations on a dark brown ground (lot 510). This type of Cizhou decoration used to be called ‘rouletted’ decoration. It was thought that a white slip was applied to the body, then a dark slip was applied over the top, and while the latter was still wet a notched cylinder, known as a roulette, was rolled around the body cutting through the dark slip to reveal the white. More recently Nigel Wood has demonstrated that instead of a roulette the ceramic decorators held a fexible blade against the vessel which was turned on a potter’s wheel. The turning movement caused the blade to fex and make intermittent contact with the surface of the vessel, cutting the striations through the damp dark slip. While requiring skill to manipulate the blade, this would be a relatively quick way of creating very effective decoration.

The second jar, which is of globular form with a small handle on either side of the shoulders, is decorated with a raised rib design (lot 518). This is a style of decoration which is most successful on shapes which have a full body, like the globular jars, which are the form most often found with this ribbed decoration. Either a dark clay was used, or the body was covered with a dark slip. Vertical lines of viscous white slip were either trailed or piped down the sides. The lines are parallel and are equidistant or grouped in two, three, four or fve together. A transparent brown glaze was applied over all of the sides, but stopping well short of the foot – so as to avoid the glaze running down and adhering to whatever the jar was standing on in the kiln. The effect was a dark glossy brown jar with pale café-au-lait coloured vertical ribs. Vessels of the same shape as the Linyushanren Collection example were made at the Guantai kilns as can be seen from the jar with paired ribs from sector T5(5), illustrated in The Cizhou Kiln site at Guantai, op. cit., colour plate XXV-1, and the jar sherd with equidistant ribs, also from T5(5), illustrated in the same volume, black and white fgure XLIII-5. Another jar sherd, from sector T3H2, with the ribs groups in fves is illustrated in black and white fgure LIV-1 right-hand image.

The last two vessels to be discussed in this introduction are decorated using a technique which allowed the ceramic artist the greatest freedom of expression and produced some of the most painterly designs on Cizhou wares. In this technique the vessel was given a white slip coating, then black or dark brown designs were painted onto the white surface, and the body covered with a thin colourless glaze. Any additional details could be incised through the dark painted areas, before glazing, to reveal the lighter surface beneath. One of the highlights of the Linyushanren Collection is a truncated meiping decorated in this technique, which was formerly in the renowned Ataka collection (lot 513). The truncated meiping form is one that is particularly associated with Cizhou and related wares, but was sometimes adopted for porcelain vessels made at Jingdezhen in later dynasties. The painterly style of decoration applied to this Cizhou example provides a perfect complement to the form. The main decoration on the Linyushanren truncated meiping depicts a very well-rendered carp swimming amongst aquatic plants. The ceramic artist has managed to achieve a most effective impression of movement through the undulation of the water weed which frames the fsh above and below. Around the shoulder of the vase, where it meets the neck of the vessel, there is a band of slender overlapping petals, similar to those seen on the sgraffato meiping and jar, discussed above. However, this band has been painted as a simple circle and the petals have been incised, so that the edge of the design is smooth. The same approach to this motif can be seen on a jar excavated from sector Y4(1) at Guantai and illustrated in The Cizhou Kiln site at Guantai, op. cit., colour plate XV-3. This jar also displays a similar disposition of elements, albethey land-based, rather than aquatic, to those seen on the truncated meiping. The combination of form and decoration on the latter has produced a vessel of distinctive elegance.

The last of the Cizhou wares from the Linyushanren Collection in this catalogue is a deep bowl with slightly constricted mouth and a small foot (lot 514). This bowl form is characteristic of Cizhou wares and a number of bowls of this shape, bearing various types of decoration, have been excavated from the Guantai kiln site - as can be seen from those illustrated in The Cizhou Kiln site at Guantai, op. cit., colour plate VI-1-3. The famous Linyushanren bowl is decorated with butterfies encircling the body. Butterfies have been found on a number of sherds recovered from the Guantai site, including those on two jar fragments from sector T5(5), illustrated ibid. black and white plate XXVIII-4. The six butterfies on the bowl have their wings outstretched and one wing-tip of each insect almost reaches the mouth rim of the bowl in a masterstroke of design. The form of the bodies and the texture of the wings are suggested by incised and combed details. This restrained, but exceedingly effective decoration has produced a vessel of great beauty, which is in perfect harmony with 21st century taste, despite having been produced some 800 years ago.

Lot 508. A rare Cizhou sgraffiato deep bowl, Northern Song-Jin dynasty (960-1234); 6 in. (15.2 cm.) high. Estimate USD 10,000 - USD 15,000. Price realised USD 200,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2018

The deep, rounded sides are carved through the brown slip to the white slip ground with a band of 'cash' pattern, the brown slip extending over the mouth rim and falling in tears on the white slip-covered interior, all under a clear glaze that stops above the foot ring to reveal the buff stoneware body, Japanese double wood box and lacquered cover.

Provenance: Mayuyama, Tokyo. 

Literature: The Japan Ceramic Society, Soji Meihinten (Exhibition of Famous Song Ceramics), Tokyo, 1955, no. 108.
Chugoku no Toji (Chinese Ceramics), Tokyo, 1955, no. 200.
Koyama Fujio, ed., Sekai Toji Zenshu (Collection of World’s Ceramics), vol. 10: China Sung and Liao Dynasties, Tokyo, 1955, no. 101. 
Hasebe Gakuji,Toki Zenshu (Ceramics Anthology), vol. 13: So no Jishuyo, Tokyo, 1958, no. 29. 
Koyama Fujio, ed., Toki Koza (Lecture of Ceramics), vol. 6: Chugoku II So (China II Song), Tokyo, 1971, no. 75.
Hasebe Gakuji, ed., Toji Taikei 39: Jishu Yo (Compendium of Ceramics 39: Cizhou Wares), Tokyo, 1974, no. 41. 
Mayuyama Junkichi, Ryusen Shuho (Mayuyama, Seventy Years), vol. 1, Tokyo, 1976, no. 550. 
Yutaka Mino, Freedom of Clay and Brush through Seven Centuries in Northern China: Tz'u-chou Type Wares, 960-1600 A.D., Indianapolis Museum of Art, 1980, p. 110, fig. 112.
Special Exhibition, Charm of Black & White Ware; Transition of Cizhou Type Wares, The Osaka Municipal Art Museum, Osaka, 2002, no. 47.
Christie's, The Classic Age of Chinese Ceramics: An Exhibition of Song Treasures from the Linyushanren Collection, Hong Kong, 2012, p. 133, no. 54.

Exhibited: The Japan Ceramic Society, Soji Meihinten (Exhibition of Famous Song Ceramics), Tokyo, April to May 1955. 
The Osaka Municipal Art Museum, Special Exhibition, Charm of Black & White Ware; Transition of Cizhou Type Wares, Osaka, 1 October to 8 December 2002.
Christie's, The Classic Age of Chinese Ceramics: An Exhibition of Song Treasures from the Linyushanren Collection, Hong Kong, 22 to 27 November 2012; New York, 15 to 20 March 2013; London, 10 to 14 May 2013.

Lot 509. A Cizhou polychrome-glazed dish, Song dynasty (960-1279); 5 ¾ in. (14.7 cm.) diam. Estimate USD 3,000 - USD 5,000. Price realised USD 30,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2018

The shallow dish is carved in the center with a yellow flower borne on a leafy green stem, surrounded by a border of yellow glaze and a further border of green glaze which extends over the rim and partially covers the exterior. Three characters, hou zhong liang, are written in ink on the base, Japanese wood box.

Provenance: Sen Shu Tey, Tokyo.

Lot 510. A Cizhou cut-slip jar, Northern Song dynasty (960-1127); 3 ½ in. (9 cm.) high. Estimate USD 6,000 - USD 8,000. Price realised USD 37,500. © Christie's Images Ltd 2018

The rounded body is decorated with rows of oblique striations cut through a dark brown slip to reveal the white slip beneath, while the low neck, foot ring and the base are covered with a creamy white slip, all under a clear glaze, and the interior is covered with a thin brown glaze, Japanese wood box.

Provenance: Sen Shu Tey, Tokyo.

Literature: Sen Shu Tey, The Collection of Chinese Art - Special Exhibition ‘Run Through 10 Years’, Tokyo, 2006, p. 68, no. 89.

Exhibited: Sen Shu Tey, The Collection of Chinese Art - Special Exhibition ‘Run Through 10 Years’, Tokyo, 2006.

Lot 511. A Cizhou sgraffiato deep bowl, Northern Song dynasty (960-1127); 6 5/8 in. (16.8 cm.) diam. Estimate USD 8,000 - USD 12,000. Price realised USD 112,500. © Christie's Images Ltd 2018

The bowl is potted with deep, rounded sides rising to a very slightly inverted, lobed rim. The exterior is carved through an ivory-toned slip to the pale grey ground with a leafy scroll bearing two large stylized blossoms, all under a clear glaze, and the interior is similarly covered with a creamy white slip, Japanese wood box.

Provenance: Kunryudo, Tokyo.

Lot 512. A large Cizhou white-glazed baluster vase, Northern Song dynasty (960-1127); 12 in. (30.5 cm.) high. Estimate USD 50,000 - USD 70,000. Price realised USD 100,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2018

The vase has a tapering, ovoid body raised on a spreading foot and is surmounted by a trumpet neck beneath an outward-curved mouth rim. The exterior is covered with a white slip under a milky transparent crackled glaze suffused with patches of pale russet, which stops above the foot to reveal the pale brownish-grey body, Japanese wood box.

Provenance: The Toguri Museum of Art, Tokyo.
Sotheby's London, 9 June 2004, lot 56.

Literature: The Osaka Municipal Art Museum, Chukogu bijutsu ten, Series 4: So Gen bijutsu, (Art of the Song and Yuan Dynasties), Osaka, 1978, no. 1-137.
The Osaka Municipal Art Museum, So Gen no bijutsu (Arts of the Song and Yuan Periods), Osaka, 1980, pl. 142.
The Toguri Museum of Art, Kaikai kinen meihin ten (Commemorative Exhibition for the Opening), Tokyo, 1987, no. 13.
The Toguri Museum of Art, Chinese Ceramics in the Toguri Collection, Tokyo, 1988, no. 54. 
The Toguri Museum of Art, Zaidan Hojin Toguri Bijutsukan zohin zenshu: Seireki 2000 nen kinen zouruku (Selected Works from the Toguri Museum of Art Foundation: Commemorative Catalogue of the Year 2000 AD), Tokyo, 2000, pl. 17.
The Osaka Municipal Art Museum, Special Exhibition, Charm of Black & White Ware; Transition of Cizhou Type Wares, Osaka, 2002, no. 3.
Christie's, The Classic Age of Chinese Ceramics: An Exhibition of Song Treasures from the Linyushanren Collection, Hong Kong, 2012, pp. 122-123, no. 48. 
Rosemary Scott, ‘Chinese Classic Wares from a Japanese Collection: Song Ceramics from the Linyushanren Collection’, Arts of Asia, March-April 2014, pp. 97-108, fig. 23.

Exhibited: The Osaka Municipal Art Museum, Chukogu bijutsu ten, Series 4: So Gen bijutsu, (Art of the Song and Yuan Dynasties) Osaka, 15 October to 12 November 1978. 
The Toguri Museum of Art, Kaikai kinen meihin ten (Commemorative Exhibition for the Opening), Tokyo, 1987. 
The Osaka Municipal Art Museum, Special Exhibition, Charm of Black & White Ware; Transition of Cizhou Type Wares, Osaka, 1 October to 8 December 2002.
Christie's, The Classic Age of Chinese Ceramics: An Exhibition of Song Treasures from the Linyushanren Collection, Hong Kong, 22 to 27 November 2012; New York, 15 to 20 March 2013; London, 10 to 14 May 2013.

Lot 513. A very rare and important painted Cizhou 'Fish' truncated meiping, Northern Song-Jin dynasty (960-1234); 9 7/8 in. (25.1 cm.) high. Estimate USD 500,000 - USD 700,000. Price realised USD 1,752,500. © Christie's Images Ltd 2018

 The vase has a rounded, ovoid body below a slightly waisted neck that rises to a lipped rim, and is painted in brownish-black slip with fish amidst water weeds on a creamy slip ground below a band of overlapping petals on the shoulder, all under a clear glaze. The foot ring is unglazed exposing the grey body, Japanese double wood box.

Provenance: The Takeji Yamada Collection, Ashiya. 
Mayuyama, Tokyo.
The Ataka Collection.

Literature: Koyama Fujio, Soji, Tokyo, 1943, no. 37.
Koyama Fujio, ed., Sekai Toji Zenshu (Collection of World’s Ceramics), vol. 10: China Sung and Liao Dynasties, Tokyo, 1955, p. 231, fig. 102. 
Nihon Keizai Shinbunsha, Bi no bi ten (The Beauty of Beauty Exhibition), no. 6, Tokyo, 1967.
Koyama Fujio, ed., Toki Koza (Lecture of Ceramics), vol. 6: Chugoku II So (China II Song), Tokyo, 1971, no. 50. 
Nihon Keizai Shinbusha, Ataka korekushon: chugoku toji meihin ten (Masterpieces of Old Chinese Ceramics from the Ataka Collection), Tokyo, 1972, no. 23.
Hasebe Gakuji, ed., Toji Taikei (Compendium of Ceramics), vol. 39: Jishu Yo, Tokyo, 1974, no. 60.
Nihon Keizai Shinbusha, Ataka korekushohugoku toji meihin ten (Masterpieces of Old Chinese Ceramics from the Ataka Collection), Tokyo, 1975, no. 35. 
Mayuyama Junkichi, Ryusen Shuho (Mayuyama, Seventy Years), Tokyo, 1976, vol. 1, no. 520.
Mikami Tsugio, Sekai Toji Zenshu (Ceramic Art of the World), vol. 13: Liao, Chin and Yüan Dynasties, Tokyo, 1981, no. 246.
Christie's, The Classic Age of Chinese Ceramics: An Exhibition of Song Treasures from the Linyushanren Collection, Hong Kong, 2012, pp. 136-137, no. 56. 
Rosemary Scott, ‘Chinese Classic Wares from a Japanese Collection: Song Ceramics from the Linyushanren Collection’, Arts of Asia, March-April 2014, pp. 97-108, fig. 1.

Exhibited: Nihon Keizai Shinbunsha, Bi no bi ten (The Beauty of Beauty Exhibition), no. 6, Tokyo Nihonbashi Mitsukoshi Department Store, 29 August to 3 September 1967.
Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Osaka Mitsukoshi Department Store, Ataka korekushon: chugoku toji meihin ten (Masterpieces of Old Chinese Ceramics from the Ataka Collection), Osaka, November 1972.
Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Tokyo Nihonbashi Mitsukoshi Department Store, Ataka korekushon: chugoku toji meihin ten (Masterpieces of Old Chinese Ceramics from the Ataka Collection), Tokyo, 15 September to 28 September 1975.
Christie's, The Classic Age of Chinese Ceramics: An Exhibition of Song Treasures from the Linyushanren Collection, Hong Kong, 22 to 27 November 2012; New York, 15 to 20 March 2013; London, 10 to 14 May 2013.

Note: On the present meiping the Cizhou potters’ free and skillful painting style brilliantly conveys the convincing impression of the flow of the water. The lively painted decoration of fish amidst aquatic plants was likely inspired by contemporaneous paintings, such as the Northern Song handscroll, Luohua youyu tu, by Liu Ke, now in the Saint Louis Art Museum; a Southern Song album leaf attributed to Zhao Kexiong, now in The Metropolitan Museum of Art; and a 13th century handscroll, Yule tu (The Pleasures of Fishes) by Zhou Dongqing. (Fig. 1) This subject recalls a famous passage from the Daoist classic Zhuangzi, in which Zhuangzi, strolling beside a river, observed, “See how the small fish come out and dart around where they please! That’s what fish really enjoy!” His companion Huizi remarked, “You’re not a fish - how do you know what fish enjoy?” to which Zhuangzi replied, “You are not I, so how do you know I don’t know what fish enjoy?” 

Fig. 1 The Pleasures of Fishes, Zhou Dongqing, Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), From the Collection of A. W. Bahr, Purchase, Fletcher Fund, 1947, photo source: metmuseum.org.