486 REPORT OP NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1888. 



380. Of wliite Chienlung (1736-1795) porcelain and flat ovate form. The cream-yellow 



paste is engraved to represent waves, on which a boat containing two of the 

 Eight Immortals (one male and one female, see No 172) is being rowed among 

 lotus flowers. Molded in high relief and painted in enamel colors. Fine 

 specimen. Mark Ta-ch'ing chien-limg-nien-chih. 



381. Of white porcelain and flat ovate shape. Decorated in colors with a rebus on 



either side — a saddled elephant bearing a jar-shaped houdah, reading in 

 Chinese Hsiang pei Vai p'ing, which also means "Peace rules in the north," 

 and a tub full of green growing wheat, reading i thing la dicing, " the 

 whole Empire (owns) the Great Pure dynasty." Mark, Cliien-an-ya-Chih : 

 "Made for Chien An-ya," an unidentified name. 



382. Of white Chienlung (1736 to 1795) porcelain and of flat circular shape, decorated 



with mythological personages jjainted in colors. Mark as on No. 380. 



383. Of white Chienlung yiorcelain and of small j9o<ic/(e shape, decorated with plum 



trees of the pink and white blossom varieties, perched on which and on 

 ground are one hundred magpies, symbolizing "a hundred, i. e. every kind of 

 happiness," the magpie, from its merry-sounding chatter, being termed " the 

 bird of happiness." Mark as on No. 380. 



The magpie is especially dear to the present occupants of the throne of 

 China from the part it played in the divine origin of their first ances- 

 tor. " The Chinese chronicle runs as follows : ' Immediately east of 

 the pumice peaks of the Ch'iing-hai-Shan (Long White Mountain) 

 is a high mountain called Bukuli, at the foot of which is the small 

 lake or pool Buhuli. After bathing one day in this pool, the maiden 

 Li Fokolun found on the skirt of her raiment, placed there by a 

 magpie, a fruit which she ate, and which caused her to give birth to 

 a boy of an appearance different from ordinary people, whence she 

 called him You heaven-born to restore order to the disturbed nations. 

 His surname she called Aisin-Gioro, his name Bukuii-yung-shuu. 

 She disappeared, and he, embarking in a small boat, floated with the 

 river stream. In the neighborhood of a place where peoples of three 

 surnames were at war, he disembarked, and was breaking oif willow 

 branches, when one of the warriors, coming to draw water, saw him. 

 Amazed at his strange appearance, the warrior hastily retired to in- 

 form the people of the remarkable man he had seen. The curious 

 people went to the bank and asked his name and surname, to whom 

 he replied: I am the son of the heavenly maiden Fokolun, ordained by 

 heaven to restore peace among you, and thereupon they nominated him 

 king, and he reigned there in Odoli City, in the desert of Omohi, 

 east of Ch'ang-hai-Shan." Another version of the legend states that 

 there were three heavenly maidens Angela, Changhela, and Foko- 

 lun. The first two returned to heaven, while Fokolun remained on 

 earth to nurse the miraculous babe till he grew up. Then she told 

 him to wait till a man came to fish. The fisherman came and 

 adopted the boy, and Fokolun ascended to heaven. P6re Amyot, 

 from whom this account is taken, identifies Fokolun with a sixteen- 

 armed goddess whom he calls Pussa, or the Chinese Cybele, but 

 described at the present day as a Boddhisatwa, a celestial candidate 

 for BiidJhahood. The story continues that Aisin-Gioro, in spite of 

 his heavenly birth, was put to death by his people, and only his 

 youngest son, Fancha, escaped by the aid of a magpie, which 

 alighted on his head as he ran and made his pursuers think him the 

 stump of a tree. Fancha fled from Odoli across the Ch'ang-hai-Slian 

 to Hotuala and there, some two centuries before the birth of Nur- 

 hachu, the first Manchu chieftain who took up arms against the 

 Chinese, he laid the foundations of the future dynasty of China." 

 (James, "The Long White Mountain," p. 31.) 



