To understand the full import of this passage it is necessary to explain the nature of _liu-li_, and this is fortunately made quite clear by the author of the _T'ao shuo_ in a commentary so interesting that I give it in full: "I find that _liu-li_ comes from the countries of Huang-chih, Ssŭ-t'iao and Jih-nan.[301] That produced in Ta-ch'in (the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire) is in ten colours--pink, white, black, yellow, blue, green, deep purple, deep blue (or green), red, and brown. _Liu-li_ was originally a natural substance.[302] Yen Shih-ku,[303] commenting in the Annals of the Han Dynasty, says, 'At the present time they commonly use molten stones, adding a number of chemicals and then pouring the substance (into moulds) and forming it; but it is unsubstantial, brittle, and not a successful casting.' In the Northern Wei dynasty, in the reign of T'ai Wu (424-451 A.D.), a man of the Ta Yüeh-chih[304] who came to trade at the capital, said he could make _liu-li_ by melting stones. Eventually he collected the ore and made it (_liu-li_), and the finished article surpassed the original in its brilliance and colour. The method has been handed down to the present day, and it was probably only an accidental intermission which occurred in the Sui dynasty. But the Chinese castings are brittle in substance, and when hot wine is poured into them they fly to pieces in the hand. What a pity the Yüeh-chih method has been handed down instead of Ch'ou's!" The allusions to melting stones, casting, etc., in this passage leave no doubt that the _liu-li_, as made in China, was a kind of glass, imitating a natural stone.[305] It is, in fact, usually translated in the dictionaries as "opaque glass," and in connection with pottery it has the sense of glaze--e.g. _liu li wa_ "glazed pottery."