Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 1.djvu/75

 green of onion sprouts or kingfisher's plumage—were highly valued and must have been very beautiful, but public acquaintance with them is confined to their reproductions in the Yuan dynasty (1260 and 1367) and by potters of later centuries.

Among the manufactures of these early times the Chün-yao is distinguished by having marks on the bottom of the best specimens. These marks consist of deeply incised numerals, from one to ten. According to the Tao-lu, the numerals, "one" and "two," were used to distinguish choice pieces, but Chinese experts of the present day deny this limit, and assert that up to "ten" the numerals were employed indifferently.

In the "Illustrated Catalogue" of H'siang, four striking examples of the Chün-yao ware are depicted. Three of these are purple monochromes and one has a reddish brown glaze, the "mule's liver" or horse's-lung" glaze of fanciful collectors. "Mucus colour," "pig's-liver," and "mule's-lungs" were terms jestingly and perhaps disparagingly applied by Chinese connoisseurs to impure Chün-yao glazes.

Dr. Hirth, in his pamphlet on "Ancient Chinese Porcelain," translates the following from the Tao-shuo on the subject of Chün wares:—"The Liu-ch'ing-jih-cha says: 'The Chün-yao shows in gradual shades the brilliant effects of all colours, very prominently the t'su-ssu pattern and the ch'ing (green or blue) colour of a blazing flame.'"

With regard to this t'su-ssu-wên, Dr. Hirth says:—

Julien translates this term by 'veines imitant les soies (poils) du lièvre,' and others have adopted this much too literal translation; cf. Marryat, History of Pottery and Porcelain, p. 200: "The most esteemed had veins resembling the fur of the hare." A glance at the passages given under this