316 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 



a word which, as already stated, is still in ordinary use to designate 

 porcelain. On this point Doctor Hirth thinks he has detected that 

 the word ts'a has had dittercnt significations at ditferent epochs, for 

 while in the Shuo-wen, a glossary published A. D. 100, tz^H is defined 

 as "earthenware," it is defined in the dictionaries of the Sung period — 

 nine centuries later — as "hard, tine-grained pottery; " and calling atten- 

 tion to the fact that there are now two forms of this character in use, the 

 original foi'ni with the radical denoting "brick or earthen material," 

 and a later form with the radical "stone," he thinks that "this substitu- 

 tion by later generations for the original sign of a character of the same 

 sound, but with a radical more appropriate to the category of the word 

 as it was at the time understood, may be regarded as indicating a 

 change from the original meaning."^ Even if this be true, no data are 

 thereby afforded to help fix even the approximate date of change in the 

 method of manufacture. For after the change in the system of manu- 

 facture had taken place, a considerable period would almost certainly 

 elapse before an author of sufficient literary importance to impose a 

 new style of writing on the nation would learn sufficient regarding the 

 altered ingredients employed to have the corresponding modification in 

 the descriptive word suggested to his mind, and a still longer period 

 would elapse before this newly coined word would pass into current use. 

 The authors translated by M. Julien, too, state distinctly that the 

 introduction of the later form — that with the radical "stone" — and the 

 continued use of it are due to ignorance and error. At Tz'ii-chou, a 

 district anciently within the department of Changte, in Honan prov- 

 ince, but now belonging to the department of Kuangp'ing, in Chihli 

 province, a kind of porcelain was made during the Sung djaiasty which 

 enjoyed a very high reputation, the plain white specimens bringing 

 even higher prices than the celebrated productions of Tingchow, which 

 it closely resembled. This ware was known as Ts'w ware, or porcelain 

 from Tz'u-chow, and thus this form of the character, which was origi- 

 nall}" a local designation, not an intentional modification of the older 

 form introduced to typify a modification in the system of manufacture, 

 passed into general use to designate not merely this special class, but 

 (erroneously) all porcelain.^ 



ORIGIN OF TERM "PORCELAIN." 



It is a curious coincidence that no less diversity of opinion has existed 

 regarding the date at which the western equivalent of this word fe't^, 

 the term "porcelain," was introduced and the article it has at different 



'F. Hirth, Ancient Chinese Porcelain, p. 2. 



-R. JuUen, L'Histoire et la Fabrication de la Porcelaine Chinoise, p. 29: This is, I 

 think, probably the true explanation of the change of form; for the only correct way of 

 ■writing tliis character recognized at the present time l)y the Imperial Academy is the 

 original form, with the radical "earthenware," not tliat with the radical "stone," 



