Chapter III: Part 3

And when the workmen came upon the tenth morning to take forth the porcelain marvel, even the bones of Pu had ceased to be; but lo! the Vase lived as they looked upon it: seeming to be flesh moved by the utterance of a Word, creeping to the titillation of a Thought. And whenever tapped by the finger it uttered a voice and a name,--the voice of its maker, the name of its creator: PU.

* * * * *

And the son of Heaven, hearing of these things, and viewing the miracle of the vase, said unto those about him: "Verily, the Impossible hath been wrought by the strength of faith, by the force of obedience! Yet never was it our desire that so cruel a sacrifice should have been; we sought only to know whether the skill of the matchless artificer came from the Divinities or from the Demons,--from heaven or from hell. Now, indeed, we discern that Pu hath taken his place among the gods." And the Emperor mourned exceedingly for his faithful servant. But he ordained that godlike honors should be paid unto the spirit of the marvellous artist, and that his memory should be revered forevermore, and that fair statues of him should be set up in all the cities of the Celestial Empire, and above all the toiling of the potteries, that the multitude of workers might unceasingly call upon his name and invoke his benediction upon their labors.

NOTES

"_The Soul of the Great Bell._"--The story of Ko-Ngai is one of the collection entitled _Pe-Hiao-Tou-Choue_, or "A Hundred Examples of Filial Piety." It is very simply told by the Chinese narrator. The scholarly French consul, P. Dabry de Thiersant, translated and published in 1877 a portion of the book, including the legend of the Bell. His translation is enriched with a number of Chinese drawings; and there is a quaint little picture of Ko-Ngai leaping into the molten metal.

"_The Story of Ming-Y._"--The singular phantom-tale upon which my work is based forms the thirty-fourth story of the famous collection _Kin-Kou-Ki-Koan_, and was first translated under the title, "La Bachelière du Pays de Chu," by the learned Gustave Schlegel, as an introduction to his publication (accompanied by a French version) of the curious and obscene _Mai-yu-lang-toú-tchen-hoa-koueï_ (Leyden, 1877), which itself forms the seventh recital of the same work. Schlegel, Julien, Gardner, Birch, D'Entrecolles, Rémusat, Pavie, Olyphant, Grisebach, Hervey-Saint-Denys, and others, have given the Occidental world translations of eighteen stories from the _Kin-Kou-Ki-Koan_; namely, Nos. 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 14, 19, 20, 26, 27, 29, 30, 31, 34, 35, and 39. The Chinese work itself dates back to the thirteenth century; but as it forms only a collection of the most popular tales of that epoch, many of the stories selected by the Chinese editor may have had a much more ancient origin. There are forty tales in the _Kin-Kou-Ki-Koan_.

"_The Legend of Tchi-Niu._"--My authority for this tale is the following legend from the thirty-fourth chapter of the _Kan-ing-p'ien_, or "Book of Rewards and Punishments,"--a work attributed to Lao-tseu, which contains some four hundred anecdotes and traditions of the most curious kind:--

Tong-yong, who lived under the Han dynasty, was reduced to a state
of extreme poverty. Having lost his father, he sold himself in
order to obtain ... the wherewithal to bury him and to build him a
tomb. The Master of Heaven took pity on him, and sent the Goddess
Tchi-Niu to him to become his wife. She wove a piece of silk for
him every day until she was able to buy his freedom, after which
she gave him a son, and went back to heaven.--_Julien's French
Translation_, p. 119.

Lest the reader should suppose, however, that I have drawn wholly upon my own imagination for the details of the apparition, the cure, the marriage ceremony, etc., I refer him to No. XCVI. of Giles's "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio," entitled, "A Supernatural Wife," in which he will find that my narrative is at least conformable to Chinese ideas. (This story first appeared in "Harper's Bazaar," and is republished here by permission.)

"_The Return of Yen-Tchin-King._"--There may be an involuntary anachronism in my version of this legend, which is very pithily narrated in the _Kan-ing-p'ien_. No emperor's name is cited by the homilist; and the date of the revolt seems to have been left wholly to conjecture.--Baber, in his "Memoirs," mentions one of his Mongol archers as able to bend a two-hundred-pound bow until the ears met.

"_The Tradition of the Tea-Plant._"--My authority for this bit of folklore is the brief statement published by Bretschneider in the "Chinese Recorder" for 1871:--

"A Japanese legend says that about A.D. 519, a Buddhist priest came
to China, and, in order to dedicate his soul entirely to God, he
made a vow to pass the day and night in an uninterrupted and
unbroken meditation. After many years of this continual watching,
he was at length so tired that he fell asleep. On awaking the
following morning, he was so sorry he had broken his vow that he
cut off both his eyelids and threw them upon the ground. Returning
to the same place the following day he observed that each eyelid
had become a shrub. This was the _tea-shrub_, unknown until that
time."

Bretschneider adds that the legend in question seems not to be known to the Chinese; yet in view of the fact that Buddhism itself, with all its marvellous legends, was received by the Japanese from China, it is certainly probable this legend had a Chinese origin,--subsequently disguised by Japanese chronology. My Buddhist texts were drawn from Fernand Hû's translation of the Dhammapada, and from Leon Feer's translation from the Thibetan of the "Sutra in Forty-two Articles." An Orientalist who should condescend in a rare leisure-moment to glance at my work might also discover that I had borrowed an idea or two from the Sanscrit poet, Bhâminî-Vilâsa.

"_The Tale of the Porcelain-God._"--The good Père D'Entrecolles, who first gave to Europe the secrets of Chinese porcelain-manufacture, wrote one hundred and sixty years ago:--

"The Emperors of China are, during their lifetime, the most
redoubted of divinities; and they believe that nothing should ever
stand in the way of their desires....

"It is related that once upon a time a certain Emperor insisted
that some porcelains should be made for him according to a model
which he gave. It was answered that the thing was simply
impossible; but all such remonstrances only served to excite his
desire more and more.... The officers charged by the demigod to
supervise and hasten the work treated the workmen with great
harshness. The poor wretches spent all their money, took exceeding
pains, and received only blows in return. One of them, in a fit of
despair, leaped into the blazing furnace, and was instantly burnt
to ashes. But the porcelain that was being baked there at the time
came out, they say, perfectly beautiful and to the satisfaction of
the Emperor.... From that time, the unfortunate workman was
regarded as a hero; and his image was made the idol which presides
over the manufacture of porcelain."

It appears that D'Entrecolles mistook the statue of Pou't'ai, God of Comfort, for that of the real porcelain-deity, as Jacquemart and others observe. This error does not, however, destroy the beauty of the myth; and there is no good reason to doubt that D'Entrecolles related it as it had been told him by some of his Chinese friends at King-te-chin. The researches of Stanislas Julien and others have only tended to confirm the trustworthiness of the Catholic missionary's statements in other respects; and both Julien and Salvétat, in their admirable French rendering of the _King-te-chin-thao-lou_, "History of the Porcelains of King-te-chin" (a work which has been of the greatest service to me in the preparation of my little story), quote from his letters at considerable length, and award him the highest praise as a conscientious investigator. So far as I have been able to learn, D'Entrecolles remains the sole authority for the myth; but his affirmations in regard to other matters have withstood the severe tests of time astonishingly well; and since the Tai-ping rebellion destroyed King-te-chin and paralyzed its noble industry, the value of the French missionary's documents and testimony has become widely recognized. In lieu of any other name for the hero of the legend, I have been obliged to retain that of Pou, or Pu,--only using it without the affix "t'ai,"--so as to distinguish it from the deity of comfort and repose.

Glossary

GLOSSARY

ABHIDHARMA.--The metaphysics of Buddhism. Buddhist literature is classed into three great divisions, or "baskets"; the highest of these is the Abhidharma.... According to a passage in Spence Hardy's "Manual of Buddhism," the full comprehension of the Abhidharma is possible only for a Buddha to acquire.

CHIH.--"House"; but especially the house of the dead,--a tomb.

CHU-SHA-KIH.--The mandarin-orange.

ÇRAMANA.--An ascetic; one who has subdued his senses. For an interesting history of this term, see Burnouf,--"Introduction à l'histoire du Buddhisme Indien."

DAMÂRI.--A peculiar chant, of somewhat licentious character, most commonly sung during the period of the Indian carnival. For an account, at once brief and entertaining, of Hindoo popular songs and hymns, see Garcin de Tassy,--"Chants populaires de l'Inde."

DOGS OF FO.--The _Dog of Fo_ is one of those fabulous monsters in the sculptural representation of which Chinese art has found its most grotesque expression. It is really an exaggerated lion; and the symbolical relation of the lion to Buddhism is well known. Statues of these mythical animals--sometimes of a grandiose and colossal execution--are placed in pairs before the entrances of temples, palaces, and tombs, as tokens of honor, and as emblems of divine protection.

FO.--Buddha is called _Fo_, _Fuh_, _Fuh-tu_, _Hwut_, _Fat_, in various Chinese dialects. The name is thought to be a corruption of the Hindoo _Bodh_, or "Truth," due to the imperfect articulation of the Chinese.... It is a curious fact that the Chinese Buddhist liturgy is Sanscrit transliterated into Chinese characters, and that the priests have lost all recollection of the antique tongue,--repeating the texts without the least comprehension of their meaning.

FUH-YIN.--An official holding in Chinese cities a position corresponding to that of mayor in the Occident.

FUNG-HOANG.--This allegorical bird, corresponding to the Arabian phoenix in some respects, is described as being five cubits high, having feathers of five different colors, and singing in five modulations.... The female is said to sing in imperfect tones; the male in perfect tones. The _fung-hoang_ figures largely in Chinese musical myths and legends.

GOPIA (or GOPIS).--Daughters and wives of the cowherds of Vrindavana, among whom Krishna was brought up after his incarnation as the eighth avatar of Vishnu. Krishna's amours with the shepherdesses, or Gopia, form the subject of various celebrated mystical writings, especially the _Prem-Ságar_, or "Ocean of Love" (translated by Eastwick and by others); and the sensuous _Gita-Govinda_ of the Bengalese lyric poet Jayadeva (translated into French prose by Hippolyte Fauche, and chastely rendered into English verse by Edwin Arnold in the "Indian Song of Songs"). See also Burnouf's partial translation of the _Bhagavata Parana_, and Théodore Pavie's "Krichna et sa doctrine." ... The same theme has inspired some of the strangest productions of Hindoo art: for examples, see plates 65 and 66 of Moor's "Hindoo Pantheon" (edition of 1861). For accounts of the erotic mysticism connected with the worship of Krishna and the Gopia, the reader may also be referred to authorities cited in Barth's "Religions of India"; De Tassy's "Chants populaires de l'Inde"; and Lamairesse's "Poésies populaires du Sud de l'Inde."

HAO-KHIEOU-TCHOUAN.--This celebrated Chinese novel was translated into French by M. Guillard d'Arcy in 1842, and appeared under the title, "Hao-Khieou-Tchouan; ou, La Femme Accomplie." The first translation of the romance into any European tongue was a Portuguese rendering; and the English version of Percy is based upon the Portuguese text. The work is rich in poetical quotations.

HEÏ-SONG-CHÉ-TCHOO.--"One day when the Emperor Hiuan-tsong of the Thang dynasty," says the _Tao-kia-ping-yu-che_, "was at work in his study, a tiny Taoist priest, no bigger than a fly, rose out of the inkstand lying upon his table, and said to him: 'I am the Genius of ink; my name is Heï-song-ché-tchoo [_Envoy of the Black Fir_]; and I have come to tell you that whenever a true sage shall sit down to write, the Twelve Divinities of Ink [_Long-pinn_] will appear upon the surface of the ink he uses.'" See "L'Encre de Chine," by Maurice Jametel. Paris. 1882.

HOA-TCHAO.--The "Birthday of a Hundred Flowers" falls upon the fifteenth of the second spring-moon.

JADE.--Jade, or nephrite, a variety of jasper,--called by the Chinese _yuh_,--has always been highly valued by them as artistic material.... In the "Book of Rewards and Punishments," there is a curious legend to the effect that Confucius, after the completion of his _Hiao-King_ ("Book of Filial Piety"), having addressed himself to Heaven, a crimson rainbow fell from the sky, and changed itself at his feet into a piece of yellow jade. See Stanislas Julien's translation, p. 495.

KABIT.--A poetical form much in favor with composers of Hindoo religious chants: the _kabit_ always consists of four verses.

KAO-LING.--Literally, "the High Ridge," and originally the name of a hilly range which furnished the best quality of clay to the porcelain-makers. Subsequently the term applied by long custom to designate the material itself became corrupted into the word now familiar in all countries,--kaolin. In the language of the Chinese potters, the _kaolin_, or clay, was poetically termed the "bones," and the _tun_, or quartz, the "flesh" of the porcelain; while the prepared bricks of the combined substances were known as _pe-tun-tse_. Both substances, the infusible and the fusible, are productions of the same geological formation,--decomposed feldspathic rock.

KASÍ (_or_ VARANASI).--Ancient name of Benares, the "Sacred City," believed to have been founded by the gods. It is also called "The Lotos of the World." Barth terms it "the Jerusalem of all the sects both of ancient and modern India." It still boasts two thousand shrines, and half a million images of divinities. See also Sherring's "Sacred City of the Hindoos."

KIANG-KOU-JIN.--Literally, the "tell-old-story-men." For a brief account of Chinese professional story-tellers, the reader may consult Schlegel's entertaining introduction to the _Mai-yu-lang-toú-tchen-hoa-koueï_.

KIN.--The most perfect of Chinese musical instruments, also called "the Scholar's Lute." The word _kin_ also means "to prohibit"; and this name is said to have been given to the instrument because music, according to Chinese belief, "_restrains evil passions, and corrects the human heart_." See Williams's "Middle Kingdom."

KOUEI.--Kouei, musician to the Emperor Yao, must have held his office between 2357 and 2277 B.C. The extract selected from one of his songs, which I have given at the beginning of the "Story of Ming-Y," is therefore more than four thousand years old. The same chant contains another remarkable fancy, evidencing Chinese faith in musical magic:--

"When I smite my [_musical_] stone,--
Be it gently, be it strongly,--
Then do the fiercest beasts of prey leap high for joy.
And the chiefs among the public officials do agree among themselves."

KWANG-CHAU-FU.--Literally, "The Broad City,"--the name of Canton. It is also called "The City of Genii."

LÍ.--A measure of distance. The length of the _li_ has varied considerably in ancient and in modern times. The present is given by Williams as ten _li_ to a league.

LI-SAO.--"The Dissipation of Grief," one of the most celebrated Chinese poems of the classic period. It is said to have been written about 314 B.C., by Kiu-ping-youen, minister to the King of Tsou. Finding himself the victim of a base court-intrigue, Kiu-ping wrote the _Li-Sao_ as a vindication of his character, and as a rebuke to the malice of his enemies, after which he committed suicide by drowning.... A fine French translation of the _Li-Sao_ has been made by the Marquis Hervey de Saint-Denys (Paris, 1870).

LI-SHU.--The second of the six styles of Chinese writing, for an account of which see Williams's "Middle Kingdom." ... According to various Taoist legends, the decrees of Heaven are recorded in the "Seal-character," the oldest of all; and marks upon the bodies of persons killed by lightning have been interpreted as judgments written in it. The following extraordinary tale from the _Kan-ing-p'ien_ affords a good example of the superstition in question:--

Tchang-tchun was Minister of State under the reign of Hoeï-tsong,
of the Song dynasty. He occupied himself wholly in weaving
perfidious plots. He died in exile at Mo-tcheou. Sometime after,
while the Emperor was hunting, there fell a heavy rain, which
obliged him to seek shelter in a poor man's hut. The thunder rolled
with violence; and the lightning killed a man, a woman, and a
little boy. On the backs of the man and woman were found red
characters, which could not be deciphered; but on the back of the
little boy the following six words could be read, written in
Tchouen (_antique_) characters:
TSÉ-TCH'IN-TCHANG-TCHUN-HEOU-CHIN,--which mean: "Child of the issue
of Tchang-tchun, who was a rebellious subject."--_Le Livre des
Récompenses et des Peines, traduit par Stanislas Julien_, p. 446.

PAGAL.--The ankle-ring commonly worn by Hindoo women; it is also called _nupur_. It is hollow, and contains loose bits of metal, which tinkle when the foot is moved.

SAN-HIEN.--A three-stringed Chinese guitar. Its belly is usually covered with snake-skin.

SIU-FAN-TI.--Literally, "the Sweeping of the Tombs,"--the day of the general worship of ancestors; the Chinese "All-Souls'." It falls in the early part of April, the period called _tsing-ming_.

TA-CHUNG SZ'.--Literally, "Temple of the Bell." The building at Pekin so named covers probably the largest suspended bell in the world, cast in the reign of Yong-lo, about 1406 A.D., and weighing upwards of 120,000 pounds.

TAO.--The infinite being, or Universal Life, whence all forms proceed: Literally, "the Way," in the sense of the First Cause. Lao-tseu uses the term in other ways; but that primal and most important philosophical sense which he gave to it is well explained in the celebrated Chapter XXV. of the _Tao-te-king_.... The difference between the great Chinese thinker's conception of the First Cause--the Unknowable,--and the theories of other famous metaphysicians, Oriental and Occidental, is set forth with some definiteness in Stanislas Julien's introduction to the _Tao-te-king_, pp. x-xv. ("Le Livre de la Voie et de la Vertu." Paris, 1842.)

THANG.--The Dynasty of Thang, which flourished between 620 and 907 A.D., encouraged literature and art, and gave to China its most brilliant period. The three poets of the Thang dynasty mentioned in the second story flourished between 779 and 852 A.D.

"THREE COUNCILLORS."--Six stars of the Great-Bear constellation ([Greek: ik--lm--nx]), as apparently arranged in pairs, are thus called by the Chinese astrologers and mythologists. The three couples are further distinguished as the Superior Councillor, Middle Councillor, and Inferior Councillor; and, together with the Genius of the Northern Heaven, form a celestial tribunal, presiding over the duration of human life, and deciding the course of mortal destiny. (Note by Stanislas Julien in "Le Livre des Récompenses et des Peines.")

TIEN-HIA.--Literally, "Under-Heaven," or "Beneath-the-Sky,"--one of the most ancient of those many names given by the Chinese to China. The name "China" itself is never applied by the Black-haired Race to their own country, and is supposed to have had its origin in the fame of the first _Tsin_ dynasty, whose founder, Tsin Chí-Houang-tí, built the Great, or "Myriad-Mile," Wall, twenty-two and a half degrees of latitude in length ... See Williams regarding occurrence of the name "China" in Sanscrit literature.

TSIEN.--The well-known Chinese copper coin, with a square hole in the middle for stringing, is thus named. According to quality of metal it takes from 900 to 1,800 _tsien_ to make one silver dollar.

TSING-JIN.--"Men of Tsing." From very ancient times the Chinese have been wont to call themselves by the names of their famous dynasties,--_Han-jin_, "the men of Han"; _Thang-jin_, "the men of Thang," etc. _Ta Tsing Kwoh_ ("Great Pure Kingdom") is the name given by the present dynasty to China,--according to which the people might call themselves _Tsing-jin_, or "men of Tsing." Williams, however, remarks that they will not yet accept the appellation.

VERSES (CHINESE).--The verses preceding "The Legend of Tchi-Niu" afford some remarkable examples of Chinese onomatopoeia. They occur in the sixth strophe of _Miên-miên_, which is the third chant of the first section of _Ta-ya_, the Third Book of the _Chi-King_.(See G. Pauthier's French version.) Dr. Legge translates the strophe thus:--

... Crowds brought the earth in baskets; they threw it with shouts
into the frames; they beat it with responsive blows; they pared the
walls repeatedly till they sounded strong.--_Sacred Books of the
East_; Vol. III., _The She-King_, p. 384.

Pauthier translates the verses somewhat differently; preserving the onomatopoeia in three of the lines. _Hoûng-hoûng_ are the sounds heard in the timber-yards where the wood is being measured; from the workshops of the builders respond the sounds of _tông-tông_; and the solid walls, when fully finished off, give out the sound of _pîng-pîng_.

YAO.--"Porcelain." The reader who desires detailed information respecting the technology, history, or legends of Chinese porcelain-manufacture should consult Stanislas Julien's admirable "Histoire de la Porcelaine Chinoise" (Paris, 1856). With some trifling exceptions, the names of the various porcelains cited in my "Tale of the Porcelain-God" were selected from Julien's work. Though oddly musical and otherwise attractive in Chinese, these names lose interest by translation. The majority of them merely refer to centres of manufacture or famous potteries: _Chou-yao_, "porcelains of Chou"; _Hong-tcheou-yao_, "porcelains of Hong-tcheou"; _Jou-yao_, "porcelains of Jou-tcheou"; _Ting-yao_, "porcelains of Ting-tcheou"; _Ko-yao_," porcelains of the Elder Brother [Thsang]"; _Khang-hi-nien-t'sang-yao_, "porcelains of Thsang made in the reign of Khang-hi." Some porcelains were distinguished by the names of dynasties, or the titles of civic office holders; such as the celebrated _Tch'aï-yao_, "the porcelains of Tch'aï" (which was the name of the family of the Emperor Chi-tsong); and the _Kouan-yao_, or "Porcelains of Magistrates." Much more rarely the names refer directly to the material or artistic peculiarity of porcelains,--as _Ou-ni-yao_, the "black-paste porcelains," or _Pi-se-yao_, the "porcelains of hidden color." The word _khi_, sometimes substituted for _yao_ in these compound names, means "vases"; as _Jou-khi_, "vases of Jou-tcheou"; _Kouan-khi_, "vases for Magistrates."