Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 1.djvu/76

 head in the P'ing-tzu-lei-p'ien (ch. 214, p. 8) shows that t'u-ssu is the name of a vegetable parasite, and as such is associated with that of a similar growth called nü-lo by the Chinese; it is the plant known to botanists as Cuscuta, or as the dodder in common English. Cf. Porter Smith, ''Chinese Mat. Med''., p. 87. I am inclined to think that the metaphor implied in this name refers to a peculiar crackled muster, which is neither the crab's claw muster, nor the fish spawn muster of the Kuan-yao and Ko-yao porcelains, and which may be seen on some old specimens of Chün-yao.

The passage, as here translated, is indeed perplexing. But it is pretty plain that the Chinese author refers not to the colour of the dodder or to any appearance capable of being associated with crackle, but to the variegation of the leaf. The dodder—called by the Japanese ne-nashi-kazura, or the rootless parasite—is often spoken of in this sense. What the passage in the Liu-ch'ing-jih-cha conveys is that the colours of the Chün-yao presented a variegated appearance, like the green and white on the leaf of the dodder, and that the deeper azure at the heart of the clair-de-lune glaze gleamed out in places like the steely blue in the centre of a flame. The fitness of this latter simile is easily recognised.

"The Po-wu-yao-lan says: 'The highest quality consists of pieces having a colour as red as cinnabar, and as green as onion-leaves and kingfisher's plumage, which is commonly called the green of the parrot and the purple brown colour of the skin of an eggplant fruit, or of pieces red like rouge, green like onion-leaves and kingfisher's plumage, and purple like ink black, these three colours being pure and not in the slightest degree changed during the firing. Pieces which have one or two numbers on the bottom as a trade mark, and are of a colour resembling