Page 40 - Chinese Porcelain Vol I, Galland

12 CHINESE PORCELAIN.

and the outcome was those conventionalized flower and other
"
known as have been
designs Sino-Persian," and which may
the better received in that were not ortho-
they perhaps quite
dox. The Persians are not over strict, while many of the
Mohammedans of the East hold that it is and
only statuary,
not that the Koran forbids.
pictures,
Chkistianity
has left little mark on the ceramics of China for, although
;
the Jesuit or other European influence is very clearly indicated
in the later of decoration, but few biblical
styles pieces display
"
or Christian emblems, and such are known as Jesuit
subjects
"
China (see No. 417).

HISTORY.

Chinese history is more voluminous than interesting, being
"
little better than a barren chronicle of facts and dates. Instead
' "
of allowing (observes Mr. Gutzlaff) that common mortals
had any part in the affairs of the world, they speak only of
the emperors who then reigned." It is the legends of these
that we find so often on the short-
emperors depicted porcelain,
comings of the historian being amply made up for in the
and fiction of the which afford to the
drama, poetry, country,
Chinese artist a never-failing source from which to draw his
subjects.

DRAMA.

Of plays there are no end, contained in hundreds of volumes,
one set of forty books, containing one hundred theatrical
pieces (the "Hundred Plays of Yuen"), being perhaps that
in most esteem. One of these plays, the Orphan of Chaou,
was translated into French by the Jesuit Premare, and