This white ware does not seem to have been made at Te-hua before the Ming period, but it soon established itself as the _pai-tsu_--the white ware _par excellence_ of China. It is distinguished by the creamy white of its paste and glaze--that is to say, the colour tends
[Illustration: _PLATE XV._ 1--CHINESE, PLAIN WHITE WARE 2--CHINESE, BLUE AND WHITE WARE]
towards a warm, yellowish tint rather than towards the cold, pure white or bluish tone of most of the King-te-chen and still more of the Japanese wares. The satiny glaze appears to melt into the subjacent ground in a way that reminds us of some of the European soft paste porcelains.
It is the moulded ware that is most characteristic of the ‘Kien yao‘--vases with dragons in full relief creeping round the neck, incense-burners in many complicated forms, figures of Kwan-yin (whom we should _not_ call the ‘Goddess of Mercy‘) in many incarnations; or again, Ta-mo (so well known in Japan as Daruma), the _Bodhi-dharma_ who brought the faith to China, with overhanging brows and abstracted, solemn gaze. Among animals, the favourite is the lion, the so-called ‘dog of Fo,’ sporting with an open-work ball.
Many of these figures are very ably executed; they stand firm and erect; and the draperies, though here the mannerisms of the ‘calligraphic’ school of painting may be recognised, fall in simple folds from the shoulders. The prevalence of Buddhist types (for the Taoist divinities are here less frequently represented) may be connected with the exceptional predominance of that religion in Fukien, a province somewhat remote from the rest of China, whose inhabitants speak a dialect very different from the standard Chinese.
Some very creditable work seems to be still turned out from the Te-kua district, to judge by the ware that finds its way to the shops of Fuchow. Some enamelled ware appears to have been at one time made in this district. In the British Museum are some small pieces decorated with five colours (among them a blue enamel _over_ the glaze), which on the ground of the nature of the glaze and the paste have been classed as Fukien ware; while from the style of the decoration they would appear to date from the early eighteenth century.