140 v Beginnings of Porcelain 



"the name liu-li or p'i-liu-li is derived from that of a mountain, and is 

 said to be the precious stone of a distant mountain, which is the Sumeru 

 of Buddhist cosmology. This jewel is of green (W) color. Altogether, 

 all jewels cannot be injured, nor can they be melted and cast by means 

 of blaze and smoke. Only the demons and spirits have sufficient 

 strength to break them to pieces. There is further a saying that liu-li 

 is the shell of the egg of the bird with golden wings. 1 The demons and 

 spirits obtain it and sell it to mankind." This Chinese text is the 

 reproduction of a theme of Indian lore; and the tradition hints at the 

 importation into India of a substance from abroad, which could be 

 wrought only by demons (that is, foreigners). 2 The allusion to melting 

 shows that it really could be melted; and the comparison with the shell 

 of a bird's egg, which hints at a coating, is the best possible poetical 

 metaphor for a ceramic glaze. It thus seems to me that the Sanskrit 

 term vaidurya and its congeners originally denoted some semi-precious 

 quartz-like stone, and were then transferred to the enamel glaze of the 

 anterior Orient. 3 



Chinese tradition refers the earliest employment of liu-li to the 

 reign of the Emperor Wu (140-86 b.c.) of the Former Han dynasty. 

 It is said in the Annals of the Han that this sovereign despatched 

 special agents over the sea for the purchase of the substance p'i-liu-li. 4 

 It was likewise known at that period that this article figured among the 

 products of the country Ki-pin (Kashmir), which opened intercourse 

 with China under the same emperor. 6 



It is notable that in the Han period objects were found under ground, 

 said to have been made of liu-li, and that we have accounts of objects 

 wrought from liu-li by Chinese craftsmen. Since glass was manu- 

 factured in China only several centuries later, it cannot come here into 

 question; and from the nature of these objects it follows that they 

 cannot either have been of rock-crystal or lapis lazuli. In the biog- 

 raphy of Hu Tsung ffl ^ 6 it is narrated that Hu, during the life 



1 The saliva of this bird was believed to produce the gem mu-nan (see this 

 volume, p. 70, note 3). It is the fabulous bird Garuda. 



* It is a well-known fact that foreign tribes were characterized by the Aryan 

 Indians as demons under such names as Nagas, Rakshasas, or Pigacas. 



3 It is possible also that the Indian words are derived from a West-Asiatic 

 language. 



4 In the geographical chapter of the Ts'ien Han shu (Ch. 28 B, p. 17 b). 



B Ts'ien Han shu, Ch. 96 A, p. 5. S. W. Bushell (Chinese Art, Vol. I, p. 61) 

 dates the appearance of glaze in China only from the Later Han dynasty 

 (a.d. 25-220). 



6 San kuo chi, Wu shu, Ch. 62. See also Yu yang tsa tsu, Ch. 11, p. 4 (ed. of 

 Pai hai). 



