Under the heading of Hsi yao,[218] the _T´ao shuo_ alludes to four factories in the province of Shansi, which are interesting to-day in view of the various wares excavated in the railway cuttings now under construction in that province. A fuller description of these potteries is given in the _T´ao lu_, which mentions P´ing-yang Fu in the southern half of Shansi as a pottery centre in the T´ang and Sung dynasties, where the ware was white but disqualified by a glaze lacking in purity. At Ho Chou, in the same district, a superior ware was made as early as the T´ang dynasty, which was even considered worthy of mention in the _Ko ku yao lun_, probably because of the connection of P´êng Chün-pao (see p. 94) with this place in the Yüan dynasty. The _T´ao lu_ tells that the Ho ware was made of fine rich material, the body unctuous and thin, and the colour usually white, and that it was more beautiful than P´ing-yang ware--a qualified compliment! A coarse pottery made at Yu-tzü Hsien, in the T´ai-yüan prefecture in the north, and at P´ing-ting Chou in the west, complete the quartet. The former dated from T´ang times, and the latter, dating from the Sung, was made of a dark-coloured clay which gave a dusky tinge to the white glaze. A small melon-shaped vase, reputed to have come from a tomb in Shansi, is shown in Plate 11. It has a hard, buff grey body, with a dressing of white slip and white glaze, the effect of the combination being a pleasing surface of solid-looking ivory white. A factory which made white wares in the neighbouring province of Shansi is named in the twelfth century _Ch´ing po tsa chih_.[219] It was situated at Huang-p´u Chên, in Yao Chou, where, as we are told in the _T´ao shuo_, they had at an early date made flat-bottom bowls which were called "little seagulls." The place is near Hsi-an Fu.