The Potter's Wheel 171 



The word po, as far as I know, occurs only in this text as a potter's 

 term. The commentator Ch'en Yung-chi ffl. #J ~JL explains it as "sliced 

 meat" ("5J $J), saying that the potter's products should be like the 

 latter, that is, as thin and smooth; and that the object of rendering a 

 vessel equally thick and smooth is attained by the application of the 

 instrument po, which accordingly may have been a lathe. Cheng Ngo 

 HE $! , another commentator of the Chou li, remarks that it was of wood 

 and placed on the side of the potter's wheel (kiin #£j), but his further 

 description is not very lucid. At all events, the instrument in question 

 was not, as conceived by Biot, a potter's wheel, which in fact is not 

 mentioned in the text of the Chou li. 



Almost all the round jars and vases of the Han period have been 

 shaped on the wheel; and these ancient potters exercised considerable 

 skill in its use. 1 The profession of the throwers is emphasized in the 

 ritual of the Chou dynasty {Chou li) , and distinguished from that of the 

 moulders. Moreover, we now have well-authenticated specimens of 

 pottery of that period, which likewise exhibit the marks of the wheel. 

 A truly neolithic, primitive, hand-made pottery, such as we have from 

 Japan and Korea, has now also been traced in Chinese soil, particularly 

 in southern Manchuria, Liao-tung, and Shen-si. I am inclined to 

 date the use of the wheel in China back to a very remote age. The 

 chief reason which prompts me to this conclusion is, that ancient Chinese 

 records contain no traditions to the effect that pottery was ever the 

 office of woman; on the contrary, they associate the industry exclu- 

 sively with the activity of man, and these potters were agriculturists. 

 The only ancient industry characterized as a female occupation is that 

 of the rearing of silkworms and weaving. The "invention" of pottery, 

 however, is ascribed to the mythical emperors Huang-ti, Shen-nung, 

 and Shun; and throughout Chinese history we hear only of male potters. 

 In fact, as we observe also at the present time, woman has no share 

 whatever in this business. The potter's wheel, therefore, cannot be 

 simply regarded as borrowed by the Chinese from the West in historical 

 times, but it belongs to those primary elements of culture which the 

 Chinese have in common with certain ancient forms of Western civiliza- 

 tion. In our present state of knowledge, it is futile to endeavor to 

 explain the how and why of this interrelation. There can be no doubt, 

 however, that the ancient Chinese wheel has sprung from the same 



1 This is also the opinion of so prominent an expert in pottery as J. Brinck- 

 mann, the late director of the Hamburg Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe, who has 

 written an excellent, though brief, article on Han pottery, especially with reference 

 to its technique (Jahrbuch der Hamburgischen Wissensch. Anstalten, Vol. XXVII, 

 1909, pp. 96-102). 



