Page 84 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

CHINA

head in the P'ing-tzu-lei-p'ien (ch. 214, p. 8) shows that t'u-

ssu is the name of a vegetable parasite, and as such is asso-

ciated with that of a similar growth called nii-lo by the

Chinese it is the plant known to botanists as Cuscuta, or
;

as the dodder in common English. Cf. Porter Smith, Chi-
nese Mat. Med., p. 87. I am inclined to think that the

metaphor implied in this name refers to a peculiar crackled

muster, which is neither the crab's claw muster, nor the fish

spawn muster of the Kuan-yao and Ko-yao porcelains, and

which may be seen on some old specimens of Chiin-yao.

The passage, as here translated, is indeed perplex-

ing. But it is pretty plain that the Chinese author
refers not to the colour of the dodder or to any ap-

pearance capable of being associated with crackle, but

to the variegation of the leaf. The dodder called

by the Japanese ne-nashi-kazura, or the rootless para-

site is often spoken of in this sense. What the

passage in the Liu-cti ing-jih-cha conveys is that the

colours of the Chiin-yao presented a variegated appear-
ance, like the green and white on the leaf of the

dodder, and that the deeper azure at the heart of the

clair-de-lune glaze gleamed out in places like the steely

blue in the centre of a flame. The fitness of this

latter simile is easily recognised.

" The Po-wu-yao-lan says : ' The highest quality

consists of pieces having a colour as red as cinnabar,
and as green as onion-leaves and kingfisher's plumage,

which is commonly called the green of the parrot
and the purple brown colour of the skin of an egg-

plant fruit, or of pieces red like rouge, green like
onion-leaves and kingfisher's plumage, and purple
like ink black, these three colours being pure and not
in the slightest degree changed during the firing.
Pieces which have one or two numbers on the bot-

tom as a trade mark, and are of a colour resembling

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