Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 1.djvu/287

 more" (translated by Dr. Bushell). Already therefore an interval of less than half a century had sufficed to deprive the Ching-tÊ-chÊn potters of the skill exercised by their Wan-li predecessors.

Among the Wan-li experts was one Hao Shih-chiu, famed for his exquisitely delicate white porcelain. He could make wine-cups weighing less than the forty-eighth part of an ounce, and he was also able to imitate the white Ting-yao of the Sung dynasty so perfectly that the connoisseurs of his time failed to distinguish the reproduction from the original. Pieces of his surviving now might evidently pass for Sung ware among any virtuosi. The Tao-lu tells a curious story illustrative of his remarkable ability. One day he called at the residence of an important official called Tang, and begged permission to examine an ancient tripod of Ting-yao which the latter possessed. The tripod was produced. Hao took its measure accurately with his hand. Then he copied the form of the design on a paper which he concealed in his sleeve. Returning immediately to Ching-tê-chên, he passed six months there, and then repaired a second time to Tang's Yamên. Admitted to Tang's presence, Hao took from his sleeve a tripod and said —"Your Excellency is the possessor of a tripod censer of white Ting-yao. Here is a similar one of mine." Tang was astonished. He compared the new tripod with his own precious piece and could detect no difference. Even the stand and cover of his own tripod fitted that of Hao exactly. The potter made no secret of the fact that his was only a modern imitation, and ended by selling it for sixty pieces of silver to Tang, who placed it in his collection as a companion to the Sung tripod. A few years