As for the style of writing, the ordinary script is the k’ai shu, which dates from the Chin dynasty (265–419 A.D.), but there are besides many inscriptions in which the archaic seal characters chuan tzŭ are employed, or at least hybrid modern forms of them; and there is the cursive script, known as ts’ao shu or grass characters, which is said to have been invented in the first century B.C. The seal and the grass characters are often extremely difficult to translate, and require a special study, which even highly educated Chinese do not profess to have mastered.
Single characters and phrases of auspicious meaning in both seal form and in the ordinary script occur in the decoration and also in the place of the mark. Many instances have already been noted in the chapters dealing with Ming porcelains, such as fu kuei k’ang ning (riches, honours, peace and serenity), ch’ang ming fu kuei (long life, riches and honours), etc., see vol. i., p. [225]. The most frequent of these characters is shou (longevity), which is written in a great variety of fanciful forms, mostly of the seal type. The “hundred forms of shou” sometimes constitute the sole decoration of a vase; and as already observed[526] the swastika (wan) is sometimes combined with the circular form of the seal character shou to make the wan shou symbol of ten thousand longevities. Fu (happiness) and lu (preferment) also occur, though less frequently.
Buddhistic inscriptions are usually in Sanskrit characters, but we find occasional phrases such as Tien chu en po
(propitious waves from India) and Fo ming ch’ang jih
(the ever bright Buddha) in ordinary script or seal, one character in each of four medallions; and the sacred name of O mi t’o fo
, Amida Buddha, similarly applied, would serve as a charm against evil.
In addition to the central designs, there is a number of secondary ornaments which round off the decoration of a piece of porcelain. Chief of these are the border patterns, of which a few favourites may be exemplified. At the head of the list comes the Greek key-fret or meander (see Plate 12, Fig. 1), which, like the swastika, is of world-wide use. On the ancient bronze this pattern was freely used both in borders and as a diaper background, and it is described by Chinese archæologists as the “cloud and thunder pattern.” It is sometimes varied by the inclusion of the swastika, in which case it is known as the swastika fret. Another bronze pattern freely borrowed by the porcelain decoration is the border of stiff plantain leaves which appears appropriately on the neck or stem of an upright vase (see Plate [89], Fig. 1).