160 Beginnings of Porcelain 



the empire, is said to have practised husbandry, fishing, and making 

 pottery jars: he fashioned clay vessels on the bank of the River, and 

 all these were without flaw. 1 The philosopher Mong-tse explained this 

 act by saying that Shun continually tried to learn from others and to 

 take example from his fellowmen in the practice of virtue. 2 Another 

 tradition crops out in the Ki chung Chou shu: z here the incipient work 

 in clay is attributed to the culture : hero Shen-nung, who, as implied 

 by his name ("Divine Husbandman"), was regarded as the father of 

 agriculture and discoverer of the healing-properties of plants. In 

 this ancient lore we meet a close association of agriculture with pottery, 

 and an illustration of the fact that husbandman and potter were one 

 and the same person during the primeval period. 



Likewise in ancient India the potter's trade was localized in special 

 villages, either suburban or ancillary to large cities, or themselves 

 forming centres of traffic with surrounding villages. 4 Thus it is the 

 case at the present day. When the writer, in 1908, passed through 

 Calcutta and desired to see a Hindu potter at work, he was obliged 

 to drive several miles out of the city into a neighboring village. In 

 fact, the potter is a peasant, and attends to his field during the rainy 

 season, when he is unable to pursue his craft; he must have dry weather 

 to harden his pots before they are fired. 6 According to Sir A. Baines, 6 

 the potter is one of the recognized village staff, and, in return for his 

 customary share in the harvest, is bound to furnish the earthenware 

 vessels required for domestic use. His caste is associated with the 

 donkey, the saddle-animal of the Goddess of Small-Pox; and his donkey, 

 when the kiln is not in operation, is employed in carrying grain and 

 other produce. In most parts of the country the potters sometimes 

 hold land, and in others take service in large households. 



Likewise in ancient China the potter lived in close contact with the 

 farmer, and received from him cereals in exchange for his products. 7 



1 Chavannes, M£moires historiques de Se-ma Ts'ien, Vol. I, pp. 72, 74; compare 

 Biot, Tcheou-li, Vol. II, p. 462. See also Shi ki, Ch. 128, p. 5, where the com- 

 mentary cites the Shi pen to the effect that Kun-wu (this volume, p. 39) made 

 pottery. 



2 Legge, Chinese Classics, Vol. II, p. 206. 

 8 Chavannes, I. c, Vol. V, p. 457. 



4 R. Fick, Die sociale Gliederung im nord6stlichen Indien, pp. 179, 181. Mrs. 

 Rhys Davids, Notes on Early Economic Conditions in Northern India (Journ. 

 Roy. As. Soc, 1901, p. 864). 



8 W. Crooke, Natives of Northern India, p. 135. 



•Ethnography (Castes and Tribes), p. 65 (Strassburg, 1912; Encyclopaedia of 

 Indo-Aryan Research). 



7 According to Mong-tse, in, 1, § 4 (Legge, Chinese Classics, Vol. II, p. 248). 



