The finest porcelain was made of the stone (_shih_) from Chin-kêng, while stone and earth from other neighbouring sites were used for mixing in the inferior wares and for making seggars[346] and moulds. The glaze was made of "glaze earth" from Ling-pei mixed with the ashes of brushwood from the Yu-shan hills which had been burnt with lime and persimmon wood. I mention these technical details because their similarity with the description of the manufacture in the eighteenth century show that the method of porcelain making at both periods was essentially the same. The decoration was effected by stamping or pressing in moulds, by painting or by carving[347]; and the ware was fired either upright or inverted. Some idea of the forms and ornament of these wares may be gathered from another passage which would be far more illuminating if the fanciful names used were less difficult to understand. Bushell has boldly translated them according to his ideas, and I quote his renderings in inverted commas and in the pious hope that they may be correct, giving at the same time the original characters. There were bowls (_wan_), with high feet and with fish and water ornament; platters (_t´ieh_) with "glazes shaded in different tones,"[348] sea eyes, and snow flowers[349]; dishes (_p´an_) of the horse hoof and betel-nut kinds, the latter suggesting a brownish red colour; large bowls (_yü_) with lotus ornament (or shaped like a lotus flower), or of "square form with indented corners"[350]; bowls and platters (_wan t´ieh_) with painted decoration,[351] with silver designs,[352] with "fluted sides,"[353] and with "encircling strings."[354] Such wares as these had a profitable market in Chêkiang, Kiangnan, Kiangsi and Fukien. There were besides incense burners of many forms, most of which were modelled after bronzes, e.g. those shaped like the fabulous beast _i_, "which eats tigers and can go five hundred _li_ at a bound"[355]; those like the bronze incense burners on three or four feet (_ting_), like the cups used in the ancestral temple (_i_), like the large iron cauldrons (_li_). Others had elephant legs, and others were shaped like incense caskets or barrels. The vase forms include the goblet (_ku_),[356] the gall-bladder (_tan_), the wine pot (_hu_) with spout and handle, the Buddhist washing vessel (_ching_), the gardenia (_chih tzŭ_), the lotus leaf (_ho yeh_), the gourd (_hu lu_), musical pipes (_lü kuan_), vessels with ring-and-mask handles _shou huan_,[357] and glass (_liu li_) forms.