Three divine beings (hsien) compounding the elixir of Immortality.
Two or four Immortals.
The Eight Immortals (pa hsien) crossing the sea; or paying court to the god of Longevity (p’êng shou), or congratulating him (ch’ing shou).
A group of divine beings (hsien) paying court to the god of Longevity.
Two designs of doubtful meaning may be added here:
(1) “Jars decorated with chiang hsia pa chün,”[125] a phrase which means “the eight elegant (scholars) of Chiang-hsia (i.e. below the river),” but has been translated by Bushell, using a variant reading,[126] as “the eight horses of Mu Wang.” The latter rendering ignores the presence of chiang hsia, and the former, though a correct reading of the original, is not explained in any work of reference to which I have had access.
(2) “Bowls with man ti ch’iao,” lit. “graceful (designs) filling the ground.” The meaning of ch’iao is the difficulty, and Bushell in one translation[127] has rendered it “graceful sprays of flowers,” which sorts well with rest of the phrase, but in another[128] he has assumed that it means “graceful beauties” in reference to the well-known design of tall, slender girls, which the Dutch collectors named lange lijsen (see Plate [92], Fig. 2). The latter rendering, however, goes badly with man ti, “filling the ground,” which is certainly more applicable to some close design, such as floral scroll work. This is, however, a good example of the difficulty of translating the Chinese texts, where so much is left to the imagination, and consequently there is so much room for differences of opinion.
Plate 68.—Blue and White Porcelain. Sixteenth Century.
Fig. 1.—Perfume Vase, lions and balls of brocade. Height 8¾ inches. V. & A. Museum.