CERAMIC ART IN CHINA. 841 



during the third and fourth centuries, and was accustomed to distribute 

 in charity the vast sums he received in payment for his miraculous 

 cures. Ke disappeared each night from mortal view, his retreat 

 remaining a mystery till he was watched, when it was discovered that 

 the leech Avas accustomed to withdraw at sunset to the interior of a 

 hollow gourd which hung from a doorpost. Julien translated these 

 characters as le vieillard oh qui vlt dans la retralte; but. says Doctor 

 Ilirth. '"it seems to me that these four characters have rather an epi- 

 granunatic sense, and if translated into Latin would be among the 

 most delicious of Martial's Apophoreta; for the ' old man,' as the clever 

 maker styles himself, "is concealed in the pot.' like the fairy Hu-kung 

 was in his, and although invisil)le, he himself — that is, his inventive 

 genius — is contained in it. It impresses me as the most sympathetic 

 device a ceramic artist could select as a mark."^ 



TRESENT DYNASTY, 1644 TO DATE. 



The factories at Chingte-chen, which had been closed during the last 

 years of the ]\Iing dynast}^, were not reopened till the Manchu emper- 

 ors had tirnily seated themselves upon the throne — during the reign of 

 K'anghsi (A. D. 1662 to 1722). He and his two successors, Yungcheng 

 (1723 to 1735) and Chienlung (1736 to 1795), while maintaining the 

 qualities which had enabled their race to gain its high position, at once 

 adopted the civilization of the conquered nation. No less eminent as 

 scholars and statesmen than as able generals, loving the magnificent 

 but no less aiming at practical utility, they set vigorously to work to 

 reform those portions of the theoreticall}- admirable system of govern- 

 ment which had been allowed to fall into decay, to improve and beautify 

 the capital and its palaces, to diHuse education and to encourage the 

 fine arts. The factories at Chingte-chen were not slow to feel the effects 

 of this change of system. The kilns increased rapidly in number, till 

 at the date of P. d'Entrecolles' letters, they aggregated over three 

 hundred in full activitv, the fires of which at night so illuminated the 

 hills surrounding the plain in which the town stands, that it seemed as 

 some vast city abandoned to the flames, and over a million souls found 

 a means of livelihood in its busy streets. The production was not char- 

 acterized by activity alone, however. The ablest artists were employed 

 to paint and to design ornamentation, to enhance the l>eauty of which 

 they at times availed themselves of foreign ideas; odes from the emperor's 

 pen were reproduced upon vases in facsimile, or short extracts were 

 introduced as subjects for illustration; vases and cups were specially 

 ordered to confer upon distinguished personages, their achievements 

 being epitomized in the paintings which decorated these precious heir- 

 looms (No. 169); the workmen and decorative artists were educated to 



^F. Hirth, Ancient Chinese Porcelain, j). 72. S. .Tulien, L'Histoire et la Fal)rication 

 de la Porcelaine Chinoise, pp. 99, 103, 104, 206. 



