stand in the way of their desires....

"It is related that once upon a time a certain Emperor insisted
that some porcelains should be made for him according to a model
which he gave. It was answered that the thing was simply
impossible; but all such remonstrances only served to excite his
desire more and more.... The officers charged by the demigod to
supervise and hasten the work treated the workmen with great
harshness. The poor wretches spent all their money, took exceeding
pains, and received only blows in return. One of them, in a fit of
despair, leaped into the blazing furnace, and was instantly burnt
to ashes. But the porcelain that was being baked there at the time
came out, they say, perfectly beautiful and to the satisfaction of
the Emperor.... From that time, the unfortunate workman was
regarded as a hero; and his image was made the idol which presides
over the manufacture of porcelain."

It appears that D'Entrecolles mistook the statue of Pou't'ai, God of
Comfort, for that of the real porcelain-deity, as Jacquemart and others
observe. This error does not, however, destroy the beauty of the myth;
and there is no good reason to doubt that D'Entrecolles related it as it
had been told him by some of his Chinese friends at King-te-chin. The
researches of Stanislas Julien and others have only tended to confirm
the trustworthiness of the Catholic missionary's statements in other
respects; and both Julien and Salvétat, in their admirable French
rendering of the _King-te-chin-thao-lou_, "History of the Porcelains of
King-te-chin" (a work which has been of the greatest service to me in
the preparation of my little story), quote from his letters at
considerable length, and award him the highest praise as a conscientious
investigator. So far as I have been able to learn, D'Entrecolles remains