Page 28 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

CHINA

moment be confounded with porcelain. It is unsafe
to attach much chronological importance to differ-
ences of terms and ideographs about which confusion

still exists.

There are two pieces of evidence which, whatever

may be their real value, seem opposed to the verdict

of Japanese antiquarians as to the earliest manufacture

of porcelain in China. The first is furnished by the

Cha Ching, a treatise on tea, written by Liu Yu, in

the middle of the eighth century of the Christian era.

In this book descriptions are given of various kinds
of tea-cups, the merits of which are judged rather by

the effect of their coloured glazes in contrast with the

colour of infused tea, than by their keramic qualities.

Of the best, which are said to have been made at a

place called Yueh-chou (now Shao-hsing-fu) in the
province of Chikiang, it is related that they were as
transparent as jade, and that, owing to the sweetness
of their timbre, they were used like musical glasses.

The second piece of evidence is the story told by an
Arab traveller, Solyman, who visited China in the

middle of the ninth century. He wrote : " There

is in this country a very fine clay with which they
make vases that have the transparence of glass. Water

can be seen through them." This account has been

held to indicate the existence of translucid ware that
;

is to say, the existence not only of porcelain proper,

but even of the finest and thinnest description of por-

celain. There seems little hope now of determining
exactly what was meant by the author Liu Yu or the

traveller Solyman. But their language does not neces-

sarily refer to porcelain proper. Translucidity alone

is not an absolute proof of r"eaplorcpeolrcaeilna"in.of Witness,
for example, the Persia, a
so-called

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