28 Field Museum of Natural History — Anth., Vol. XII. 



the lookout for such stories, as they abound in the domain of their own 

 folklore, so that an optimist might feel inclined to think of them as 

 honest rogues who themselves believed what they told their customers 

 in a mere good-natured attempt to be entertaining. 



In the T'ao shuo "Discourse on Pottery" written by Chu Yen in 

 1774 and translated by Dr. Bushell, l we find the following tradition 

 on record: 



"Chou Yi-kung (a celebrated military commander during the Sung 

 dynasty) sent a teacup as a present to a poor friend, who after his 

 return home prepared tea and poured it into the cup, whereupon there 

 immediately appeared a pair of cranes, which flew out of the cup and 

 circled round it, and only disappeared when the tea was drunk." 



"Such wonderful stories," continues the Chinese author of the 

 treatise, "may not be impossible like the transformations which happen 

 spontaneously in the furnace. Porcelain is created out of the element 

 'earth,' and combines in itself also the essential powers of the elements 

 'water' and 'fire.' It is related in the Wu ch'uan lu, that when the 

 military store-house at Mei-chtin, in the province of Sze-ch'uan, was 

 being repaired, a large water- jar was found inside full of small stones. 

 After the religious worship on the first day of each moon, another lot 

 of water and stone used to be added, and this was done for an unknown 

 number of years, and yet even then it was not quite full. We read 

 again in the Yu ya chih, that while Ts'ao Chu was a small official at 

 Ch'ien-k'ang, Lu was officiating as Prefect, and there stood in front of 

 his Yamen a large jar of the capacity of five hundred piculs, from the 

 interior of which used to come out both wind and clouds. These are 

 similar stories, and are quoted here on that account." 



In the same work (p. 47) a story referred to the year 1 100 is told to 

 the effect that at a wine banquet of friends the sounds of a pipe and flute 

 were suddenly heard, faintly echoing as if from above the clouds, rising 

 and falling so that the musical notes could almost be distinguished, and 

 how upon investigation it was discovered that they came out of a pair 

 of vases, and how they stopped when the meal was over. Here we meet 

 an interesting analogy with the Philippine talking jars discussed by 

 Mr. Cole. Another magic legend is related regarding a scholar who 

 bought an earthenware basin to wash his hands in. The water remain- 

 ing on the bottom froze on a cold winter day, and he saw there a spray 

 of peach blossom. Next morning there appeared a branch of peony 

 crowned with two flowers. On the following day a winter landscape 

 was formed^ filling the basin, with water and villages of bamboo houses, 

 wild geese flying, and herons standing upon one leg, all as complete as 



1 Description of Chinese Pottery and Porcelain, p. 127 (Oxford, 1910). 



