Page 334 - Chinese Porcelain Vol I, Galland

CHINESE PORCELAIN.
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slight specks of pink being introduced along with the other
reds in the lotus flowers ; and it is, perhaps, in these pieces
that we find the first use of
pink.
No. 331. Porcelain bottle. Height, 15J inches. No mark.
This piece is decorated with the eight immortals, standing on
various animals in the midst of the waves. On the neck two
As seen in the illustration, we have Lau Tsae-ho
figures. (as
a man) standing on a tortoise, with the basket of flowers hung
on the staff of a Chinese hoe. Han next on
Seang-tsze appears
a crayfish. It will be noticed that the figure seen on the neck
of the bottle has a peach branch springing from one side of
his head and scroll of fungus from the other side. The figures
are dressed in green enamel, pink, and other colours.
No. 332. Porcelain beaker vase. Height, 17^ inches. No
mark. In this as in the last, the decoration is not marked
piece,
off by lines ; and, with the exception of the flowered triangle
band at the base of the neck, the motive runs at will
diaper
the tale of a
over the surface of the vase, evidently literary
man and two ladies, for as he sits at the table with book and
candle, behind him appears Kue Sing, one of the two gods of
a rice measure into
literature, represented, as usual, kicking
the air, in this case with his left foot.
210 " Ta the of litera-
Doolittle, p. : Ung Chiong Kung, god
ture, is universally worshipped by literary men. He is spoken
of as the of to write and of
giver ability prose poems high literary
merit, and as the arbiter of success at the literary examinations
for the different degrees. There are two stars which the Chinese
to have discovered to have the of the affairs
profess supervision
of this world to literature and the One of
relating pencil.
these, Kue Sing, is said to be the fifteenth star of the twenty-
eighth constellation, answering to parts of Andromeda and
Pisces. The other is commonly called the god of literature.
His image is made in the form of a handsome man in the sitting
posture. The other star is also represented as a man, but ex-
with a head two
tremely ugly -looking, having long-crooked
horn-like projections. He is made to stand on one foot on
the head of a large fish, with the other foot lifted up. In one
hand he holds an immense and in the other a
writing-pencil,
kind of such as is worn the chief of a class of
cap, by graduates.
His image is always placed directly before the image of the