Page 170 - Chinese Porcelain Vol II, Galland

KANG-HE.
338
Liang Wu Ti, and distinguished by the patronage he extended
to talent." As he seems to have lived to the age of
rising
eighty-one, this is probably the figure of the old gentleman
being assisted to walk by one of the attendants. P. 240 :
"Wang Jung, third century A.D. He held office as a minister
of Tsin Hwei Ti, but is in as abandoned
reported history having
the of his duties to while he himself
discharge underlings, gave
up to a life of pleasure and extravagance. He was distin-
guished by a commanding appearance and a piercing gaze.
It is related, in illustration of the covetousness which
grasping
characterized him, that he of the income derived
kept daily tally
from the enormous estates he all over the
possessed empire ;
and that having a rare and valuable growth of plums in his
orchards, he caused the stones of all the fruit to be removed
before being sent to market, lest the growth should be pro-
"
pagated by others." P. 290 : Yuan Hien, third century
A.D. A nephew of Yuan Tsi ; famous as a lover of music and
wine, and as a philosopher studying content and moderation
"
in preference to the ways of ambition." P. 291 : Yuan Tsi,
A.D. 210-263. A celebrated scholar and
functionary, princi-
renowned his habits of and his love of
pally by eccentricity
music and He adherence to the
wine-bibbing. professed
doctrines of Lao-tsze and the
Chwang-tsze, preferring quietism
to the more toilsome duties of life."
they preached public
No. 580. Diameter, 14 inches ; height, 2^ inches. Mark,
lotus flower in two blue The decoration
rings ; everted edge.
is marked off by black rings, and the special feature about this
dish is the work band, ornamented with white
green speckled
prunus blossom springing from boldly drawn aubergine trunks,
relieved with red flowers and In the central
green foliage.
decoration the colouring is chiefly in green and aubergine,
with red, blue, and but introduced.
yellow, sparingly
" was the
During the Han dynasty, Chang Ch'ang Mayor
of Peking, and used to paint his wife's eyebrows. He is
depicted here as performing the interesting task with a
Chinese pencil, and is suddenly called to an audience with
his master. One attendant holds the with the
Imperial tray
pigments, and another awaits without with lanterns, etc."
The " Chinese Biographical Dictionary," at p. 9, tells us
that Chang Ch'ang died B.C. 48, a distinguished scholar and