Page 93 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

Chia Ching (1522-1566) 41

Emblematic Motives.

Heaven and Earth, and the six cardinal points {chHen k\m
liu ho^), or "emblems of the six cardinal points of the Uni-

verse."

Ch'ien and k'un are the male and female principles which are
represented by Heaven and Earth, and together make up the
Universe. The identification of these emblems is obscure. They
might simply be the Eight Trigrams {pa kua), which are explained
next, for two of these are known as chHen and k'un, and together
with the remaining six they are arranged so as to make up eight

points of the compass. But in that case, why not simply say pa

kua as elsewhere ?

On the other hand, we know that certain emblems were used in

the Chou dynasty ^ in the worship of the six points of the Universe,
viz. a round tablet with pierced centre (pi) of bluish jade for Heaven ;
a yellow jade tube with square exterior (ts'ung) for Earth ; a green
tablet [kiiei), oblong with pointed top, for the East ; a red tablet
(chang), oblong and knife-shaped, for the South ; a white tablet,
in the shape of a tiger (hu), for the West ; and a black jade piece
of flat semicircular form (huang) for the North. All these objects

are illustrated in Laufer's Jade, but as they have not, to my know-

ledge, appeared together in porcelain decoration, the question must
for the present be left open.

The pa-kua Aih, or Eight Trigrams, supported by dragons or
by Avaves and flames.

These are eight combinations of triple lines. In the first the
lines are unbroken, and in the last they are all divided at the centre,

the intermediate figures consisting of different permutations of

broken and unbroken lines (see p. 290). These eight diagrams, by
which certain Chinese philosophers explained all the phenomena of
Nature, are supposed to have been constructed by the legendary
Emperor Fu Hsi (b.c. 2852) from a plan revealed to him on the
back of the " dragon horse " {lung ma) which rose from the Yellow
River. ^ Among other things, they are used to designate the points
of the compass, one arrangement making the first figure represent

^the South (also designated chHen or Heaven), and the last figure

the North (also designated k'un i$ or Earth), the remaining figures.

' It-f :^'&'- -See Laufer, Jade, p. 120.

* See Mayers, part ii., p. 335.

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