Page 84 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

40 Chinese Pottery and Porcelain

Birds flying in clouds.
Fish and water weeds.
Four fishes.^

Human Motives.

Children {wa wa) playing.
Three divine beings (hsien) compounding the elixir of Immor-

tality.

Two or four Immortals.

The Eight Immortals {pa hsien) crossing the sea ; or paying
court to the god of Longevity {p'eng shou), or congratulating him

{cJiing shou).

A group of divine beings {hsien) paying court to the god of

Longevity.

Two designs of doubtful meaning may be added here :

(1) " Jars decorated with chiang hsia pa chiin," ^ a phrase which
means " the eight elegant (scholars) of Chiang-hsia (i.e. below the
river)," but has been translated by Bushell, using a variant reading,^

as " the eight horses of Mu Wang." The latter rendering ignores

the presence of chiang hsia, and the former, though a correct reading
of the original, is not explained in any work of reference to which
I have had access.

(2) " Bowls with man ii cKiao,'" lit. " graceful (designs) filling
the ground." The meaning of ch'iao is the difficulty, and Bushell

in one translation* has rendered it "graceful sprays of flowers,"
which sorts well with rest of the phrase, but in another ^ he has
assumed that it means " graceful beauties " in reference to the
well-known design of tall, slender girls, which the Dutch collectors

named lange lijsen (see Plate 92, Fig. 2). The latter rendering,
however, goes badly with man ii, " filling the ground," which is
certainly more applicable to some close design, such as floral scroll
work. This is, however, a good example of the difficulty of
translating the Chinese texts, where so much is left to the im-
agination, and consequently there is so much room for differences

of opinion.

* Named by Bushell mackerel, carp., marbled perch, and another.

^3 chun, a fleet horse.

* Translation of the Tao shuo (p. 145).

' O. C. A., p. 227.