Page 219 - Chinese Art, Vol II By Stephen W. Bushell

CHAPTER IX.
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Glass.

The Chinese themselves do not claim the invention of glass,
and there is no reason to attribute any great antiquity to its manu-
facture in their country. There are two Chinese names for glass :
— p'o-li, applied to coloiirlcss, or nearly colourless, transparent
varieties ; and liu-li, applied to opaque varieties of all shades of
colour, including coloured glazes used in the fabrication of tiles
and architectural ornaments, as well as enamels for cloisonne and
painted work on copper, and for the decoration of porcelain fired
in the muffle stove. Both of these names are to be traced back
to Sanskrit originals, occurring frequently in early Buddhist books,
and confirming, so far, the derivation of the art from foreign sources.
P'o-li, also written occasionally p'o-ti, comes from the Sanskrit
sphatika, which seems originally to have meant "rock crystal";
liu-li is a contraction of pi-liu-li, otherwise fei-liii-li, which is a
transliteration of vaidiirya, the Sanskrit name of lapis-lazuli. The
names are applied in the older Chinese books to obsidian or natural
glass, to amethysts and other varieties of rock crystal, and to various
semi-precious stones besides lapis-lazuli, but the secondary sense
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of glass is universally understood in the present day, and is the
only one that concerns us here.
The Chinese records of the Han dynasty (B.C. 2o5-a.d. 220) give
the earliest account of the Roman empire under the name of Ta
Ch'in, by which it was then known to the Chinese, and refer to the
importation of glass among the other productions brought to the

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