Page 183 - Chinese Porcelain Vol II, Galland

FAMILLE VERTE. 343

SUMMEK.
Lotus.
Boat with lotus.
Hydrangea, pinks, flags.
Pines, poplars, reeds.
AUTUMN.

Chrysanthemum, birds, butterflies.
Ladies olives
gathering (Olea fragrans).
Oaks, acorns and russet leaves, chrysanthemums.
Swollen river and autumn tints.
WINTER.
Plum.
Plum and early roses.
Snowstorm.
The prunus and the magpie seem not an unusual combina-
"
tion, for at p. 486 Mr. Hippisley speaks of a piece deoorated
with plum trees of the pink and white blossom varieties,
perched on which and on the ground are one hundred magpies,
symbolizing 'a hundred, i.e. every kind of happiness,' the
magpie, from its merry-sounding chatter, being termed 'the
"
bird of happiness.'
Why the present dynasty reverence the magpie is explained
" " As
by Gutzlaff in his History of China," vol. ii. p. 2 : they
(the Mantchoo Fathers) were not acquainted with the art of
the of the is involved
writing, origin present Imperial family
in to the Chinese records, the Mantchoo
obscurity. According
empire took its rise near the Long White Mountain, to the
north of Korea, where, in a genial climate, which has ever
proved productive of great spirits, between the sources of three
great rivers, and in the neighbourhood of a lake, near Mount
Balkori, there formerly lived three celestial maidens. One
while in the Lake Balkori, a sacred
day, bathing magpie
dropped on the robe of one of the three a red fruit, eating of
which, she became pregnant, and bore a son, who could speak
from his birth, and whose form displayed something marvellous.
Demanding of the eldest of her sisters what name she should
bestow upon the child, she answered : ' Heaven has sent him.
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