bestowed upon thee a reward of five thousand silver _liang_. But thrice
that sum shall be awarded thee so soon as thou shalt have fulfilled our
behest. Hearken, therefore, O matchless artificer! it is now our will
that thou make for us a vase having the tint and the aspect of living
flesh, but--mark well our desire!--_of flesh made to creep by the
utterance of such words as poets utter,--flesh moved by an Idea, flesh
horripilated by a Thought!_ Obey, and answer not! We have spoken."

* * * * *

Now Pu was the most cunning of all the _P'ei-se-kong_,--the men who
marry colors together; of all the _Hoa-yang-kong_, who draw the shapes
of vase-decoration; of all the _Hoei-sse-kong_, who paint in enamel; of
all the _T'ien-thsai-kong_, who brighten color; of all the
_Chao-lou-kong_, who watch the furnace-fires and the porcelain-ovens.
But he went away sorrowing from the Palace of the Son of Heaven,
notwithstanding the gift of five thousand silver _liang_ which had been
given to him. For he thought to himself: "Surely the mystery of the
comeliness of flesh, and the mystery of that by which it is moved, are
the secrets of the Supreme Tao. How shall man lend the aspect of
sentient life to dead clay? Who save the Infinite can give soul?"

Now Pu had discovered those witchcrafts of color, those surprises of
grace, that make the art of the ceramist. He had found the secret of the
_feng-hong_, the wizard flush of the Rose; of the _hoa-hong_, the
delicious incarnadine; of the mountain-green called _chan-lou_; of the
pale soft yellow termed _hiao-hoang-yeou_; and of the _hoang-kin_, which
is the blazing beauty of gold. He had found those eel-tints, those
serpent-greens, those pansy-violets, those furnace-crimsons, those
carminates and lilacs, subtle as spirit-flame, which our enamellists of