The Willow Pattern

POSTSCRIPT

Judge Dee was a historical person who lived from 630 to 700 A.D. In the earlier half of his long official career he distinguished himself as an eminent detector of crimes, and after his appointment to high office in the Imperial capital he became, through his sagacity and courage, one of the outstanding statesmen of the Tang period. The adventures narrated in the present novel — entirely fictitious — are sup­posed to have happened in the second phase of Judge Dee's career, when he had served about one year as President of the Metropolitan Court.

The introduction of the Willow Pattern in this Judge Dee novel is a conscious anachronism; as is well known, this decorative motif of blue-and-white pottery and porcelain originated in England in the 18th century. I could as well have employed a purely Chinese motif current in Judge Dee's own time, but preferred the Willow Pattern because, although it is one of the most popular ceramic designs ever used in England, in this particular form it is little known in China. Thus I hoped to give western readers the satis­faction of recognizing a theme so frequently found on English crockery, and to arouse the Chinese reader's interest in a western development of a Chinese decorative motif.

The precise origin of the Willow Pattern is an unsolved mystery. It has not yet been ascertained what Chinese model, if any, the famous English artist Thomas Turner followed in designing this motif for the Caughley Factory in Staffordshire, when he was working there from 1772 to 1799. Landscapes of country villas on the waterside planted with willow trees are frequently found on Chinese porcelain (see, for instance, plates 252 and 253 in W. G. Gulland Chinese Porcelain, vol. I, London, 1902), but as far as I know the particular design where the villa is connected by a bridge with a water-pavilion, and a person with a raised stick is pursuing two others crossing that bridge, has not yet been found on purely Chinese porcelain. Since, however, a bridge being crossed by two friends followed by a page carrying a seven-stringed lute (the favourite musical instrument of the literati; cf. Dr R. H. van Gulik The Lore of the Chinese Lute, Monumenta Nipponica Monographs, Sophia Uni­versity, Tokyo, 1940) is a common Chinese motif, I suspect that an English designer mistook the lute for a stick or a sword, which gave rise to the 'legend' concerning the pattern. Bernard Watney aptly summarizes the situation in his English Blue and White Porcelain of the Eighteenth Century (London, 1963, p. 113): 'The Willow Pattern was not really an original Caughley chinoiserie, but merely the crystallization of a number of similar transfers used at the English porcelain factories from about 1760. This romantic vision of Cathay gained full popularity in its final form as a result of the mass production of cheap earthenware by Staffordshire potteries in the nineteenth century. The crea­tion of a suitable legend heightened the appeal and ensured its continuity.' I may add that the 'legend' about the man­darin's daughter who fell in love with her father's poor secretary (related by Tao Gan on page 39 of the present novel) bears the hallmark of the pseudo-oriental romanticism popular in England and Western Europe during the second half of the eighteenth century; a lengthy version, complete with amatory verse, may be found in C. A. S. Williams Outlines of Chinese Symbolism and Art Motives, Shanghai, 1932, s,v. willow. After the English-made Willow Pattern ware had been sent to China, Chinese potters imitated it for re-export to the west, laboriously copying with their brushes the English transfer-printed design. 'The best-known Chinese porcelain with Willow decoration is the blue-and-white Canton or "Nankin" ware, a utility ware of the early 19th cen­tury (or earlier) made for export. It is often thickly potted, sometimes even clumsy, and has been made continuously ever since its introduction. It was and still is made in three qualities; the highest quality having sharply distinct brush-work in dark blue, while the lowest quality has the familiar misty blue outline. This ware was very exactly copied in England by Josiah Spode II for export to Persia (1810-1815). Nankin Willow ware is quaint and often very charming, and is still sought by discriminating people.' (Quoted from F. St George Spendlove's article 'The Willow Pattern: English and Chinese.' in Far Eastern Ceramic Bulletin, vol. VIII, no. 1, Boston, 1956.)

With regard to the adventures of 'Sapphire' related in this novel, I may remark that the reader will find full details about the role of the courtesan in Tang society in my book Sexual Life in Ancient China, a preliminary survey of Chinese sex and society from ca. 1500 B.c. till 1644 A.D. (E. J. Brill, Leiden, 1961), p. 171 et seq.

The art of fighting with loaded sleeves has survived till recent years. I was told during my stay in Peking in 1935 that the formidable reputation this art enjoys among the Chinese lower classes saved the lives of six western Catholic nuns during the Boxer troubles of 1900. The sisters were set upon by an angry mob when they were on their way to the fortified cathedral. Expecting to be slaughtered, they resignedly raised their folded hands, commending their souls to God. Suddenly one of the ruffians who was about to attack them shouted, 'Look out! They've loaded sleeves!’ The mob drew back and made way for the sisters, who safely reached the cathedral. What happened was that, when the sisters raised their hands, the breviaries they were carrying in their sleeves swung to and fro; their attackers, who, through the vicious anti-foreign propaganda of the Boxers, believed all westerners capable of all conceivable mischief, concluded that the sisters had 'loaded sleeves'.

I may repeat here that in Judge Dee's time the Chinese did not wear pigtails; that custom was imposed on them after 1644 a.d. when the Manchus had conquered China. Before 1644 they let their hair grow long, and did it up in a top-knot. They wore caps both inside and outside the house. Tobacco and opium were introduced into China only many centuries later.

ROBERT VAN GULIK