There are, besides, quantities of common glazed pottery made at Yi-hsing in the present day, and probably for a considerable time back, which has no mission to imitate the antique. Many of the modern ginger pots are said to come from this locality, and their glazes--some with clear colours (yellow, green, or purple), others opaque and clouded, often covering moulded ornament in low relief--may help us to identify kindred types of glaze on pieces which are more ornamental and perhaps much older. But pottery, as distinct from porcelain and the finer stonewares, has never commanded much interest in China, and it has never been systematically collected and studied. The result is that it is extremely difficult to place the various types which appear from time to time except in large and ill-defined groups. A series of typical pieces of modern Yi-hsing pottery, for instance, would no doubt be of the greatest value in identifying the rather older wares made in the same place under similar traditions, but no one in Europe[408] has thought it worth their while to form one. I have noticed that a certain type of glazed pottery is distinguished by a concave base which serves instead of the usual hollowed-out foot and foot rim, and by a glaze which stops a little short of the base in an even, regular line which is quite distinct from the wavy glaze line of the Yuan and earlier wares. A jar of this type in the British Museum has a typical Yi-hsing glaze, and though this is not perhaps sufficient ground for generalising, I would suggest that this peculiar finish is an indication of Yi-hsing manufacture. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 396: [Chinese].] [Footnote 397: By Chou Kao-ch´i. See Bushell, _O.C.A._, p. 635.] [Footnote 398: F. Brinkley, _Japan and China_, vol. ix., pp. 355-63.] [Footnote 399: Op. cit., figs. 45 and 46.] [Footnote 400: A tael is about one Mexican dollar and a third, i.e. approximately thirty pence.] [Footnote 401: Four of the most celebrated names, however, are incidentally mentioned in the _T´ao lu_ (bk. vii., fol. 11 verso), viz. (1) _Shih Ta-pin_ [Chinese]; (2) _Li Chung-fang_ [Chinese]; (3) _Hsü Yu-ch´üan_ [Chinese]; (4) _Ch´ên Chung-mei_ [Chinese]; and (5) _Ch´ên Chün-ch´ing_ [Chinese].] [Footnote 402: The _Yang-hsien ming hu hsi_ (quoted in the _T´ao lu_, bk. viii., fol. 8 verso) states that Ch´ên Chung-mei began by making porcelain at Ching-tê Chên. "It was exceedingly clever, and of an ornamental kind, made with supernatural ingenuity. But the results of his trade were far from sufficient to establish a name, so he gave it up and came to Yang-hsien (i.e. Yi-hsing). He took a delight in blending the teapot clays, putting his heart and soul into the work, and his ware was considered superhuman."] [Footnote 403: I have seen specimens of Yi-hsing red ware coated with a dappled bird's egg glaze of blue green ground flecked with crimson, a type which was thought to represent the "Chün glaze of the muffle kiln." See vol. ii., p. 217.]