152 Field Museum of Natural History — Anth., Vol. X. 



of an interesting group of pottery which has apparently derived its 

 peculiar shape from those jade objects. A specimen of this group, I 

 had already figured in "Chinese Pottery of the Han Dynasty" on 

 Plate XIII (p. 60) when I was under the impression that this cylindrical 

 vessel was related to the type of granary urn. Having now made a 

 new most comprehensive collection of Chou and Han pottery for the 

 Field Museum which contains a good many types heretofore unknown, 

 I can here introduce on Plate XVIII a gray unglazed quadrangular 

 jar with loose cover (28.2 cm high and 13.5 cm wide) which bears 

 two large characters painted white 1 in ancient script, reading ku ton 

 "grain vessel." I cannot discuss in this connection, as we do not 

 deal here with the subject of pottery, why this jar is classed among the 

 tou or tazza. But for two other reasons, this inscription is of great 

 significance to us, as it reveals that the object of this urn was to be 

 filled with grain to serve as food for the inmate of the grave. Grain 

 is the gift of the deity Earth, and the Spirit of Harvest (Hou tsi) was 

 the natural outgrowth of the Spirit of the Soil. And this may account 

 for the reason why an attempt is made to imitate in this piece of pottery 

 the jade image of Earth. We see here the same short straight neck in 

 the centre of the upper surface leaving room for four corners as in the 

 jade image. The four walls are sloping inward at their lower ends 

 so that the bottom is narrow. 



At the time of the Sung dynasty, we find a class of vessels displaying 

 a still more striking resemblance to the jade type. Four of these pieces 

 from our collection are selected here for illustration (Plates XIX and 

 XX). In the first two pieces, the coincidence is perfect, for here we 

 have the eight corner-pieces, rectangles moulded in relief and a "tooth" 

 in each of them. There is not only a straight neck over the opening, 

 but also one of identical shape set on the bottom, so that in outward 

 appearance these two pieces exactly agree with the jade ts'ung. They 

 are, of course, square in cut, though the corners inside have been 

 chamfered, probably with some intention to reach a closer similarity 

 with the originals. The one in Fig. 1, Plate XIX (28 cm X 13.5 cm), 

 is covered with a finely crackled buff -colored heavy glaze; the other in 

 Fig. 2 (24.5 X 10 cm) is glazed gray with a slight yellowish tinge; both 

 have presumably been made in the kilns of Ju-chou. 2 



The piece of Sung pottery in Fig. 1, Plate XX (28.5 cm X 11 cm), 

 is remarkable in that the yellowish tinge is more intense in the glaze, 

 and that thus its relation to Earth is more forcibly brought out. On 



1 There is a goodly number of unglazed Han pottery with ornaments and inscrip- 

 tions painted on in white, red and black paints. 



2 Bushell, Description of Chinese Pottery, p. 40 (London, 1910). 



