[Footnote 318: I am indebted for this literal translation of the much-quoted passage to Mr. Edwards, of the Oriental MSS. Department of the British Museum. It has been more freely rendered by M. Reinaud, _Relation des voyages faits par les Arabes_, etc., Paris, 1845, p. 34.] [Footnote 319: See F. Sarre, "Kleinfunde von Samarra und ihre Ergebnisse," in _Islam_, July, 1914.] [Footnote 320: Fragments of white porcelain with carved designs were found in some of the sites excavated by Sir Aurel Stein in Turfan, and there are fragments similar to the Samarra finds obtained from ancient sites in the Persian Gulf and now in the British Museum. But the evidence of these pieces is not conclusive, for the sites were inhabited for many centuries. That of Samarra, on the other hand, is most important, for the city was only of a mushroom growth, which began and ended in the ninth century. See also p. 134.] [Footnote 321: See _Cat. B.F.A._, 1910, A 43.] [Footnote 322: See _Cat. B.F.A._, 1910, F 9 and 14.] [Footnote 323: See passage from Hsü Ch´ing's notes, p. 39.] CHAPTER XII CHING-TÊ CHÊN CHING-TÊ CHÊN, the metropolis of the ceramic world, whose venerable and glorious traditions outshine Meissen and Sèvres and all the little lights of Europe, and leave them eclipsed and obscure, is an unwalled town or mart (_chên_) on the left bank of the Ch´ang River, which flows into the Po-yang Lake, on the northern border of the province of Kiangsi. In ancient times it was known as Ch´ang-nan Chên, the mart on the south of the Ch´ang, but when the Sung Emperor Chên Tsung commanded that officially manufactured porcelain (_kuan chih tz´ŭ_) should be sent to the capital, and that the workmen should inscribe the pieces with the _nien hao_ or name of the period, which in this case was Ching Tê (1004-1007), the name of the place was changed to Ching-tê Chên. The district town is Fou-liang, seven miles higher up the river, a place of relatively small importance, but the residence of the district magistrate; and both Fou-liang and Ching-tê Chên are within the prefectural jurisdiction of Jao Chou Fu, which is situated near the mouth of the Ch´ang. The wares of Ching-tê Chên are distributed by various routes, some overland to Chi-mên or to Wu-yuan and thence to Hang Chou, Su Chou, Shanghai, etc.; the rest by boat down the Ch´ang, and thence either to Kiu-kiang on the Yangtze for further dispatch to Chin-kiang and northwards via the Grand Canal, or to the south-west corner of the lake and up the estuary of the Kan River to Nan-Ch´ang Fu. From this latter town they could be carried by water (with an interruption of thirty miles of road) all the way to Canton. They are known under various names in Chinese books--Chên yao, Ching-tê yao, Fou-liang yao, Jao Chou yao, Jao yao, Ch´ang-nan yao, and Nan-ch´ang yao--all of which are easily explicable from the foregoing paragraph.