Plate with Fungus Design in Contrasting Colors

Vessels with decoration in contrasting colors (doucai) are first fired at high temperature with outlines of the target patterns painted in cobalt blue pigment beneath the transparent glaze layer, then filled in with polychrome pigments over the glaze layer and re-fired at low temperature. Chinese people in the past believed that the lingzhi fungus was the plant of immortality, which accounts for the popularity of this motif.