Page 210 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

CHINA

the altar of every Chinese Buddhist temple, as well
as repeated ad infinitum in architectural decoration.

They are derived from India."

A9. bell (chung). This is often replaced by the lun

or chakra, the wheel of the law.

An10. univalve shell (lo\ the chank-shell of the

Buddhists. It is carried by masters of ships to insure a

prosperous voyage.

A11. State umbrella (sari), supposed to represent the

Wan-min-san, or " umbrella of ten thousand people," " which

is presented to a Mandarin on his leaving his district, as a

token of the purity of his administration."

A12. canopy (kae).

13. The lotus flower (hwa). This is the sacred blossom

of the Buddhists. It takes several forms, varying from the

original in proportion to the painter's want of skill.

A14. sacred urn (kwari).

Two15. fishes (yu) united by fillets. This is sup-

posed to "allude to domestic felicity, because a fresh-water

fish like a perch is said to go about in pairs, always faithful
Twoto each other."
fishes, not necessarily united by a

fillet, are the oldest of all ornaments found on porcelain.

They occur frequently in relief, or incised, upon plates and

bowls of Sung celadon.

1 6. The angular knot, the intestines (chang), used as

an emblem of longevity.

Some other common symbolical devices are :

A17. circularly arranged seal character for sho, longev-

ity. This ideograph has no less than a hundred different
forms, and not infrequently a vase or a cup has for sole dec-
oration different forms of the ideograph. It occurs in all
kinds of combinations, and shares with the ideograph fuh

(" felicity "), of which also there are many forms, the dis-

tinction of figuring most frequently in keramic decoration.

A1 8. bat (fuh). The word "fuh," a bat, has exactly

the same sound though of course its ideograph is different
as fuhy felicity. Hence a delineation of a bat has come

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