Page 464 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

288 Chinese Pottery and Porcelain

The Immortals are commonly represented in a group paying
court to Shou Lao, or crossing the sea on the backs of various strange
creatures or other supernatural conveyances on their way to the
Islands of Paradise. Grouped in pairs they lend themselves to the

decoration of quadrangular objects.
Other frequenters of the Shou Shan are the twin genii ^ of Union

and Harmony {ho ho erh hsien), an inseparable pair, depicted as ragged
mendicants with staff and broom, or as smiling boyish figures, the one
with a lotus and the other holding a Pandora box of blessings, from
which a cloud is seen to rise ; Tung-fang So, who stole the peaches

of Hsi Wang Mu and acquired thereby a longevity of nine thousand

years, is represented as a smiling bearded old man, not unlike
Shou Lao himself, carrying an enormous peach, or as a boy with
a peach to recall his youthful exploit. Liu Han, with his familiar
three-legged toad, a wild-looking person, who waves a string of

cash in the air, and very closely resembles the Japanese Gama
Sennin (the Hou Hsien Sheng of China) ; Wang Tzii-ch'iao, who rides
on a crane playing a flute, and Huang An, the hermit, whose

steed is a tortoise. The god of Alchemy is figured, according to
the identification of a statuette in the Musee Guimet, as a tall,
draped person with beard and moustaches flowing down in five
long wisps, a leaf-shaped fan in his left hand, and beside him a
small figure of a devotee who holds up a book with questioning

gesture.

The Queen of the Genii is Hsi Wang Mu (Queen Mother of the

West). Her home is in the K'un-lun mountains, and the peach

tree of Longevity grows in her gardens. In the tenth century b.c,

the Emperor Mu Wang is reputed to have visited her palace, and

the reception forms a pleasing subject for the artist, as does also

Wuher return visit paid to the Emperor Ti of the Han dynasty.

She also figures frequently on porcelain with her fair attendants

crossing the sea on a raft, flying on the back of a phoenix or standing

with a female attendant who carries a dish of peaches. Her mes-

sengers are blue-winged birds like the doves of Venus, who carry the

fruit of longevity to favoured beings. With her attendant phoenix

she presents a strong analogy with Juno and her peacock ; and her

Western habitat has favoured the theories which would connect

her with Graeco-Roman mythology, though her consort Hsi Wang

Fu (King Father of the West and a personage obviously invented

* The Kanzan and Jitoku of Japanese lore.