Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 1.djvu/79

 known to the collector of this ware who will give hundreds of taels for a thick saucer, with a number engraved beneath as a mark, if it be of rich 'aubergine' colour. Censer and box always stand together on a Chinese table, the one to hold the incense or chips of sandal-wood burnt in the other." Julien renders the same passage thus:—"Parmi les porcelaines de cette manufacture on regarde comme excessivement beaux les plats sous le pied desquels on a peint un glaïeul." Hence arose a legend repeated by all writers on Chinese keramics from Jacquemart to du Sartel, that a bunch of sword-grass was painted on the bottom of choice specimens of Chün-yao. Messrs. Hirth and Bushell have disposed of this phantasy. The only marks on Chün-yao ware are deeply incised numerals.

The least known among the productions of the Sung is the Chien-yao, manufactured at Chien-yang, in the province of Fuhkien. The ware owed its character to the demand of tea-drinkers. Under the Tang dynasty (618-907), tea became an article of common consumption in China, and its popularity thenceforth increased so rapidly that a subsequent exponent of its reputation under the Sung rulers (960-1279) ascribed to it seven incomparable properties; namely, assuaging thirst, promoting digestion, clearing the throat, dispelling drowsiness, stimulating the kidneys, raising the spirits, and relieving fatigue. Chinese society lived a life too colourless and unpoetical to suggest anything like the graceful, idealistic philosophy of the Japanese cha no yu. But Chinese tea-drinkers soon formed a clear conception of the qualities a tea-bowl should possess in order to render the beverage as grateful as possible both to eye and