Fig. 31.
POTTER’S MARK ON PORCELAIN.
China. Tablet of honor, with Swastika.
Prime, “Pottery and Porcelain,”
p. 254.
Major-General Gordon, controller of the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich, England, writes to Dr. Schliemann:[111] “The Swastika is Chinese. On the breech chasing of a large gun lying outside my office, captured in the Taku fort, you will find this same sign.” But Dumoutier[112] says this sign is nothing else than the ancient Chinese character c h e, which, according to D’Alviella,[113] carries the idea of perfection or excellence, and signifies the renewal and perpetuity of life. And again,[111] “Dr. Lockyer, formerly medical missionary to China, says the sign
is thoroughly Chinese.”
The Swastika is found on Chinese musical instruments. The U. S. National Museum possesses a Hu-Ch’in, a violin with four strings, the body of which is a section of bamboo about 3½ inches in diameter. The septum of the joint has been cut away so as to leave a Swastika of normal form, the four arms of which are connected with the outer walls of the bamboo. Another, a Ti-Ch’in, a two-stringed violin, with a body of cocoanut, has a carving which is believed to have been a Swastika; but the central part has been broken out, so that the actual form is undetermined.
Prof. George Frederick Wright, in an article entitled “Swastika,”[114] quotes Rev. F. H. Chalfont, missionary at Chanting, China, as saying: “Same symbol in Chinese characters ‘ouan,’ or ‘wan,’ and is a favorite ornament with the Chinese.”
TIBET.