[271] Bk. v., fol. 11.
lit. watered. This word has been rendered by some translators as “pale”; but probably it has merely the sense of “mixed with the (glaze) water,” i.e. a monochrome glaze. The recipe given in the T’ao lu (see Julien) is incomplete, only mentioning “crystals of saltpetre and ferruginous earth (fer ologiste terreux).” Another chiao which signifies “beautiful, delicate,” is applied to the Hung Chih yellow in Hsiang’s Album. See vol. ii., p. [28].
[273] Lit. “yellow distribute spots.” See, however, p. [190].
[274] See O. C. A., p. 317.
[275] The two letters were published in Lettres édifiantes et curieuses. They are reprinted as an appendix to Dr. Bushell’s translation of the T’ao shuo. They have been well translated by William Burton, in his Porcelain, Chap. ix.; Bushell gave a précis of them in his O. C. A., Chap, xi., and Stanislas Julien quoted them extensively in his Porcelaine Chinoise.
[276] Père d’Entrecolles (second letter, section xii.) points out that the glaze used for the blue and white was considerably softer than that of the ordinary ware, and was fired in the more temperate parts of the kiln. The softening ingredient (which consisted chiefly of the ashes of a certain wood and lime burnt together) was added to the glaze material (pai yu) in a proportion of 1 to 7 for the blue and white as against 1 to 13 for the ordinary ware.
[277] On some of the large saucer-shaped dishes of this period the foot rim is unusually broad and channelled with a deep groove.
[278] See Bushell, T’ao shuo, op. cit., p. 192. It is tolerably clear that d’Entrecolles in this passage is giving a verbatim rendering of a Chinese description. The “flowers” is, no doubt, hua, and might be rendered “decoration” in the general sense, and the “water and the mountains” is, no doubt, shan shui, the current phrase for “landscape.”