Page 212 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

CHINA

alone as a device. Many other decorative devices are

employed typifying, for the most part, longevity.

" The greatest desire of a Chinaman is long life,"

writes Mr. Franks, " which prolongs his enjoyment

of this world's goods, and ensures his receiving the

respect paid to old age in a country governed by the

maxims of Confucius. Longevity is therefore the first
Wuand greatest of the
Fuh or Five Blessings. The
t

Taoists, or followers of Lao Tsze, carried this still

farther, spending their time, like the mediaeval al-

chemists, in the search after the elixir of immortality.

Hence, as might be expected, the emblems of lon-
gevity occur very frequently on porcelain, and take a
great variety of forms, all symbolising good wishes
to the possessors. It may be useful, therefore, to
describe these emblems briefly.

" One of the commonest of the seal characters

with which porcelain is decorated is the word sho,

<' (already spoken of) of which the varieties

longevity
Aare endless.
set of a hundred varieties is seen on

a roll in the British Museum another set is given
;

in Hooper and Phillips Manual of Marks." The

same ideograph is also found as a mark.

The Taotist god of longevity supposed to be

Lao-tze himself is often shown on porcelain. He

appears in the form of an old man in the garb of a

scholar of ancient times, of almost dwarfish stature,

with an elongated bald head, holding a sceptre of

longevity, sometimes riding on a stork or tortoise,
Aand sometimes resting his hand on a deer.
Japa-

nese work (E-hon Koji-dan}, published in 1720, speaks

of him as the Ancient of the South Pole Star, the

luminary that presides over human life, and by its ap-

pearance heralds tranquillity to the world. The story

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