Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 1.djvu/40

 and dews of nine autumns to the thousand verdure-clad hills." In short, it may be confidently asserted that from the days of Ho Chou and Tao Yü, who imitated green opaque glass and green jade respectively, down to the potters of the Chai-yao, who sought to reproduce the greenish cerulean of the sky between clouds after rain, the beau-ideal of these early keramists was a céladon monochrome, the more excellent in proportion as its colour partook less of green and more of blue, without, however, losing a nuance of the former. Another fact established by these records is that the keramic industry was practised over a very wide area. Throughout the belt of provinces extending from Chien-si in the north-west to Chêkiang and Kiang-si in the east of the empire, potteries were more or less frequent.

In view of the references made above to Japanese antiquarian literature, the reader will naturally be disposed to enquire whether specimens of early Chinese ware do not survive in Japan. The collections of the latter country have always enjoyed comparative immunity from the dangers of war or political iconoclasm. Fire has been their great enemy. Many a storehouse of objects of art has been destroyed in conflagrations which, from time to time, sweep away whole acres of Japan's wooden cities. But of her temples some have survived, and among the ruins of others modern research has discovered specimens of great interest. The late Mr. Ninagawa Noritane, one of Japan's most painstaking antiquarians, personally conducted investigations at the site of Bonshaku-ji, a temple in the province of Omi, which was built in the year 786. and destroyed within a decade by fire. Among the ruins were found shards of hard