Page 471 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

1

Motives of the Decoration 295

with special trees and flowers; the pheasant is often seen perched

on a rock beside the peony and magnoHa partridges and quails
;

go with millet ; swallows with the willow ; sparrows on the prunus,

and so on. A comprehensive group represents the " hundred birds "

paying court to the phoenix.

The bat is a symbol of happiness from its name fu having the
same sound as fu (happiness). Among insects, the cicada (at one
time regarded as a symbol of life renewed after death) is a very

ancient motive ; and the praying mantis who catches the cicada
is an emblem of courage and perseverance.^ Fighting crickets are

the fighting cocks of China, and supply a sporting motive for the

decorator ; and butterflies frequently occur with floral designs or
in the decoration known as the Hundred Butterflies, which covers

the entire surface of the vessel with butterflies and insects.

Flower painting is another forte of the Chinese decorator, and some

of the most beautiful porcelain designs are floral. Conventional

flowers appear in scrolls, and running designs, especially the lotus
and peony scrolls and the scrolls of " fairy flowers," the pao hsiang

hua of the Ming blue and white. But the most attractive designs

are the more naturalistic pictures of flowering plants and shrubs,

or of floral bouquets in baskets or vases. The flowers on Chinese

porcelain are supple, free, and graceful ; and, though true enough

to nature to be easily identified, are never of the stiff copy-book

order which the European porcelain painter affected at one unhappy

Aperiod. long list of the Chinese porcelain flowers given by Bushell

includes the orchid (Ian), rose, jasmine, olea fragrans, pyrus

japonica, gardenia, syringa, several kinds of peony, magnolia {yii

lan)f iris, hydrangea, hibiscus, begonia, pink and water fairy flower

{narcissus tazetta). Many more no doubt can be identified, for the

Chinese are great cultivators as they are great lovers of flowers.

^In fact, the word hua flowery is synonymous with Chinese, and

chung hua pfi^ is China. Plate 126 is an example of the Hundred
Flower design, known by the French name 7nille fleurs, in which the

ground of the vase is a mass of naturalistic flowers so that the

porcelain looks like a bouquet.

—There are special flowers for the months ^ : (1) Peach (t'ao)

for February, (2) Tree Peony {mu tan) for March, (3) Double Cherry

{ying t'ao) for April, (4) Magnolia (yu Ian) for May, (5) Pomegranate

* See Laufer, Jade, p. 266.
^ See Bushell, Chinese Art, vol. i., p. 111.