Bottom Codes of the Jun Porcelains

In the Song Dynasty (960-1279) the Jun Kiln is one of the five famous kilns. It produced imperial utilities. The most treasured Jun Porcelains were those having numbers on the bottoms. About the numbers there is a story:

During the ear of the Emperor Rezong there was an official named Yang. He was the governor of the Jun Kiln in Yuzhou City. One day he prepared thirty-six sets of fine porcelains and packed them as the imperial tribute for this year.

All the porcelain containers had to be inspected by Prince Wang Qiang before going into the imperial palace. Prince Wang was a very bad official. He asked Yang: "Is that all you brought for me?" Yang was very honest and upright and he didn't realize that Prince Wang was asking for bribery, then he answered "Yes, Sir, that's all." Prince Wang was so angry that he didn't get any benefit from the attributions. After Yang left, he was thinking framing Yang in front of the emperor. First he planned to break some of the porcelains so that Yang could be sued for malfeasance, but everybody knew that all the porcelains came into his residence intact. Then he made his decision to do something else: He changed the pair of the porcelains, made small pots sitting on big plates, big pots sitting on small plates, some of the cups and lids were also mismatched.

Next day when the emperor were checking the porcelains, he got very angry that the porcelain containers didn't match at all. He was right about to add some harsh punishment to Yang. At that time the famous Prime Minister Kou Zhun told the emperor that the porcelained might be just misplaced. If Yang place them again everything should be fine. Then the emperor called Yang to his palace and re-place all the porcelains. Yang put the porcelain on correct pairs and the emperor became happy again. He award Yang some silver and sent him back to the kiln.

Yang was very worried after he was back. He was almost dead if the Prime Minister didn't help. Next year if Prince Wang put the porcelains on mismatch again he would get great trouble. At that time there was a old beggar outside the door. He was dirty, nasty and begging for some food. Yang told his fellowmen to give some food to the beggar. The beggar was so grateful and he told Yang: I have some words for you, this will save your life next year. "One over one, two over two, upside down, numbers on." Then the old beggar disappeared.

Yang knew this was some angel trying to save him. He though it over about this riddle, at last he realize. He turned the porcelains bottom up and carved numbers on each porcelain. Next year he sent the porcelains to the emperor and matched all the pairs according to the numbers. Therefore Prince Wang could never frame him again.

Today, some antique Jun Kiln porcelains still have numbers on the bottom.