Page 267 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

Mlrabilia 139

of nature) like a vapour of cloud." Being puzzled, he tried pluck-
ing the stalks of the flowers, and " found that they contained no
moisture, and yet the ]:)lants did not wither. Moreover, the buds
kept strong, as if they had rooted in the clay of the vase. So he
began to be astonished at the vase, regarding it as a kind of yao

pien. One day, during a great storm of wind and rain, suddenly
there was a flash and a peal of thunder, and the vase was shaken
to pieces. I was very much alarmed and distressed."

The Yang hsien ming hu hsi speaks of instances in which the

Yi-hsing teapots were affected in a peculiar way, the ware chang-

ing from drab to rosy red when filled with tea ; and we have already
seen that Hsiang Ylian-p'ien illustrates in his Album examples of

this, which he solemnly assures us he would not have believed
had he not seen it happen before his eyes. In all these cases
the ware was supposed to have been completely changed in the
kiln and to have acquired supernatural properties. " The magic
of the god had entered into the ware in the firing and had not

left it."