July, 191 2. Chinese Pottery. 29 



a finished picture. The scholar had the basin mounted and enclosed 

 in a silk-lined case - ; and in the winter, he invited guests to enjoy the 

 sight. The logic of this story is intelligible: designs and scenery as 

 painted on pottery here appear on a plain, coarse basin by a magical 

 process which is suggested to imagination by the flowers formed in an 

 ice-crust. 



While these stories seem to have emanated from the literary circle 

 of society and savour of bookish estheticism, there are also others into 

 which more popular elements enter, and which characterize themselves 

 as originating from Taoism. There is a saying in regard to the mysteri- 

 ous ways of the Taoists capable of concentrating Heaven and Earth in 

 a vase. The legend goes that a certain Fei once noticed a stranger 

 jumping into a vase and completely disappearing in it. Fei, in utmost 

 surprise, hurried to the scene and respectfully greeted the old man who 

 invited him to enter also the marvelous vase. He gladly accepted 

 the offer and found a palace with a table covered with exquisite dishes 

 and wines which he heartily enjoyed. The old man possessed the fac- 

 ulty of placing the finest sights of nature in this jar and called himself 

 Vase-Heaven (Hu T'ien), subsequently changed into Hu kung, "Mr. 

 Vase." ' Based on this legend, a potter at the end of the Ming period 

 gave himself the sobriquet "the Taoist hidden in a Vase" (Hu yin tao 

 jen). 2 



Taoist priests are generally called in by the people to expel evil 

 spirits. They are able to capture the demons and sometimes put 

 them in an earthenware vessel closed with a cover containing some 

 magic character, and the devils are thus safely carried away by the 

 priests. These and other spirits are sometimes sold to the people as 

 imbued with the power of conferring prosperity on their owners, at 

 prices ranging from twenty to forty Mexican dollars. 3 



If the Chinese were lovers of fine porcelains and celebrated them 

 in verses, the Japanese may be called maniacs and worshippers of 

 pottery. In view of their relations with the Philippines and the inter- 

 change of pottery between the two, a subject discussed farther below, 

 it may not be amiss to allude briefly to the ceramic folklore of Japan, 

 which, after all, may have stimulated to a certain degree the imagina- 

 tion of the Philippine tribes. It is well known that tea was the chief 

 agency in the refinement of pottery, in Japan as in China, and also 

 in a refinement of life and social manners. The tea-plant was intro- 



1 Petillon, Allusions litt^raires, p. 70. 



2 Hirth, Ancient Chinese Porcelain, p. 200. 



3 Compare E. Box, Shanghai Folklore (Journal China Branch Royal Asiatic 

 Society, Vol. XXXIV, p. 125). 



