Page 118 - Chinese Porcelain Vol II, Galland

3 i6 KANG-HE.

attendants were drowned. The king regretted her mightily,
but he more her and As seen
yet praised fidelity constancy."
in the dish, the messengers are just starting off in all haste to
ford the river which runs at the side, while the princess watches
them from her window, the book of rites she so followed
strictly
being on the table in front of her. Before they got back with
the seal the ford was and the island itself under
impassable
water.
The lady on the buffalo in No. 543 is Si Wang Mu (see
"
with her four who are said to have
p. 21), fairy handmaids,
attended the goddess on her visits to her Imperial votary,
Hau Wu Ti. out the wines with which the feast-
They poured
were and discoursed strains of divine
ing couple regaled,
"
melody during the banquet, aided by two fairy youths
(Mayers, p. 210). Under the name Yii Nii, at p. 284, the same
writer says : "The fairy attendants who act as handmaidens to
Si Wang Mu : there is one for each point of the compass, and
their with the colours attributed to
designations correspond
the five The reader must remember that
respective points."
the Chinese
compass has a centre as well as north, south, east
and west ; the first being used to denote China ; the other four
the rest of the world Si Mu seems to
lying round it. Wang
1
have had five and it be these that are referred
daughters, may
to as the of the As descend the hill
points compass. they
the roof of her is seen the clouds below, to the
palace among
reader's left hand.
Nos. 544, 545. Two blue and white dishes. Diameter, 10 i
inches; height, 1% inch. Mark, "Ching-hwa," in two blue
rings. These are much the same as the last two, only the differ-
ence in the two shades of blue is not so marked ; the washes in
this instance being more equal in consistency, and the blue
therefore more uniform in shade. Preference for one or other
would be a matter of individual taste. At back there are two
clumps of rocks on each dish.
"
No. 544. During the Sung dynasty there was a generalis-
simo named Ti Cheng, who was ordered by the Princess Pih
Hwa ('hundred flowers') to become the king's son-in-law.
The scene an interview between them."
depicts
"Chinese 725: "Ti
Biographical Dictionary," p. Ch'ing.
Died 1057. A native of Hsi-ho in Shansi, who entered upon