The Tale of the Porcelain-God


_It is written in the _FONG-HO-CHIN-TCH'OUEN_, that whenever the
artist Thsang-Kong was in doubt, he would look into the fire of the
great oven in which his vases were baking, and question the
Guardian-Spirit dwelling in the flame. And the Spirit of the
Oven-fires so aided him with his counsels, that the porcelains made
by Thsang-Kong were indeed finer and lovelier to look upon than all
other porcelains. And they were baked in the years of
Khang-hí,--sacredly called Jin Houang-tí._




THE TALE OF THE PORCELAIN-GOD


Who first of men discovered the secret of the _Kao-ling_, of the
_Pe-tun-tse_,--the bones and the flesh, the skeleton and the skin, of
the beauteous Vase? Who first discovered the virtue of the curd-white
clay? Who first prepared the ice-pure bricks of _tun_: the
gathered-hoariness of mountains that have died for age; blanched dust of
the rocky bones and the stony flesh of sun-seeking Giants that have
ceased to be? Unto whom was it first given to discover the divine art of
porcelain?