Page 207 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

PORCELAIN DECORATED

frequently employed with successful decorative effect,

one of its happiest shapes being seen when it is dis-

posed circularly so as to form a medallion. But the

Chinese have not shown as much taste as the Japanese

in adapting the phoenix to decorative purposes. In

the hands of the latter it is often idealised into a cre-

ation full of grace and symmetry ; in those of the
former, it is seldom more than a strange-looking bird.

The decorator's fondness for it is due in some degree
to superstition, for it is regarded as an emblem of

national prosperity and the herald of a beneficent

reign.

The tortoise {kwei\9 though occurring with tolera-

ble frequency in the decoration of blue-and-white

porcelains can scarcely be called a favourite design as

compared with the dragon and phoenix. It is, how-
ever, the chief emblem of longevity, and as such oc-

cupies a place of importance in the painter's range

of subjects.

The K'i-lin, Ky-lin, or fabulous unicorn, is, like the

phoenix, a composite animal with the body of a stag
and the bushy tail of an ox. It is generally depicted
with flames playing round its shoulders and ' clouds
supporting it, for as the divinest of animals, the em-
blem of perfect good, it is supposed to tread so lightly
that the air is insensible of its foot-prints and no
living creature, however fragile, is crushed by its

hoofs.

The tiger (^), least commonly used of the four

fabulous animals for decorative purposes, is invariably

Whendepicted with very little realistic success.

most conventionalised it is almost tolerable, but as a

rule the Chinese keramic artist shows coofnsBpeiacsutosu"s
want of skill in delineating this "

King

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