422 EEPOET OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1888. 



The high position gained by the Jesuits was both won and maintained 

 chiefly by their high attainments in astronomy, in mathematics and in 

 geometry. It, however, enabled these able and enlightened representa- 

 tives of western learning to exercise a considerable degree of influence 

 upon other matters not directly connected with the studies for which they 

 were chiefly famous, but in which their scientific education gave them 

 the power and right to speak with authority. When, therefore, contem- 

 poraneously with the enjoyment by them of this position of influence, a 

 style of decoration was adopted for porcelain and enamels for both im- 

 perial and general use purely European in its character — not only in the 

 more intimate acquaintance, as compared with previous native drawing, 

 of the laws of perspective displayed, but even to the reproduction of 

 European dress and figures and eminently European scenes and pas- 

 times — it seemed that this could scarcely be mere coincidence. It was 

 more natural to suppose that under the direction of one of these able mis- 

 sionaries a school had been established in connection with the govern- 

 ment porcelain factories for instruction in European designs, in Euro- 

 pean ideas of grouping floral ornamentation and in the European style 

 of painting generally. Pere d'Entrecolles, it is true, makes no allu- 

 sion in bis famous letters to such a school. But, as they were written 

 for the purpose of enlightening the west regarding the composition of 

 the materials and the system of manufacture employed by the Chinese, 

 the use of European designs in the decoration of porcelain might well 

 have been passed over in silence, and the absence of such reference 

 would not necessarily prove that such a school had not existed. 



The supposition that some of the Jesuits were at this time more or less 

 intimately associated with the manufacture and decoration of porcelain 

 was supported by the belief, which is still current among Chinese ex- 

 perts, that the secret of the composition of the sang-de-hoeuf coloring 

 and of its peculiar glaze marked with pittings resembling those notice- 

 able on orange peel (specimens of which are now so highly prized by 

 collectors) was discovered by a missionary, and that its Chinese desig- 

 nation {Lang-yao or Lang ware) preserves to the present day the first 

 syllable of the inventor's surname.* Eesearches kindly undertaken at 

 my request by Abbe Alphonse Favier, the vicar-general of Chihli pro- 

 vince, into the ancient episcopal records and valuable library at Peking 

 have, however, failed to discover any mention of the establishment 

 under missionary direction of a school for the special purpose of por- 

 celain decoration. Had it existed, the fact would undoubtedly have been 



* How much, or if auy, eredence should be attached to this statement is doubtful. 

 This is the only explanation I have heard given of the Chinese name of this porcelain. 

 On the other hand, I can find among the list of missionaries of that time no sur- 

 name commencing with any syllable at all like Lang. In China omne ignotum pro 

 magnifieo is especially true; and, as in the case of the beautiful red coloring of the 

 Hsiiante period, so in the sang-de-hoeuf, the brilliant tint is commonly believed to re- 

 sult from the use of powdered rubies. 



