ii4 Beginnings of Porcelain 



remains that this observation is only the result of later periods, and 

 that in times of antiquity the knowledge of it was much restricted, and 

 attached to but few places. The wondrous book of geographical fables, 

 the Shan hai king, mentions it in two passages. One is embodied in 

 the chapter on the "Mountains of the West" (Si shan king M \U f£), 

 saying that on the south side of the mountains of Ta-ts'e there is plenty 

 of clay. 1 The other contains the notice, in the chapter on the "Moun- 

 tains of the Centre" (Chung shan king *f* Ul 15), that "in the midst 

 of the mountains of Ts'ung-lung there are many great valleys in which 

 there is plenty of white clay; apart from the latter, there are also 

 black, dark blue, and yellow clays." 2 Kuo P'o adds that also varie- 

 gated clay is said to occur. Whether the two texts are of ancient 

 date, I do not venture to decide: they are quoted as early as the Sung 

 period by Su Sung (a distinguished scholar, and editor of the materia 

 medica T'u king pen ts x ao), in his discussion of kaolin, which he winds 

 up by remarking that solely the white clay is medicinally employed. 

 Personally I am under the impression that the Shan hai king, in the 

 version which is now before us, is not older than the Han period, and 

 doubtless contains also many post-Han interpolations. I would cer- 

 tainly not base on this work any chronological conclusions as to the 

 term pai ngo. 



The Chinese explanation of the term ngo is interesting, because it 

 has led to the formation of a new word. The character M is com- 

 posed of the classifier i ('earth') and the phonetic element 55. The 

 latter enters also into the formation of the character H, which like- 

 wise has the sound ngo or ngu ('evil'). Li Shi-chen 3 is therefore led 

 to the following speculation: "Since the normal color of earth is yellow, 

 white must be considered as an evil color in earth; hence it was called 

 ngo [that is, 'evil earth']. Subsequent generations tabooed this word, 

 and changed it into pai shan 6 # [that is, 'the white good one']." 

 The notion of "wicked earth" is elicited by punning, the two words 

 M and IS being homophonous. This jocular interpretation must 

 have existed as a popular tradition since ancient times, since the result 

 of it, the opposite term pai shan, is said to have occurred in the Pie lu. 

 K'ou Tsung-shi, whose Pen ts'ao yen i was published in 1116, styles 

 kaolin "white good earth." This was under the Sung, when the 

 porcelain industry received a powerful stimulus. The term pai shan 



1 JZ &£.&$£$$& £M (Ch. i, p. 27 b; of the edition printed in 1855 at 

 Shun-k'ing, Sze-ch'uan). The character H§, according to the commentary of Kuo P'o 

 (276-324), is to be read ngu (or ngo), explained as "earth of very white color." 



2 ^lf£aj£*i£*£££&l!J&#3tM (Ch. 2, p. 15 b). 



3 Pen ts'ao kang mu, Ch. 7, p. I. 



