According to the description given in the _T´ao shuo_, the evolution of the potter's art in China took the usual course. The first articles made were cooking vessels; then, "coming to the time of Yü (i.e. Yü Ti Shun), the different kinds of wine vessels are distinguished by name, and the sacrificial vessels are gradually becoming complete."[7] I should add that the author of the _T´ao shuo_, after accepting the earlier references to the art, inconsistently concludes: "I humbly suggest that the origin of pottery should strictly be placed in the reign of Yü Ti Shun, and its completion in the Chou dynasty" (1122-256 B.C.). Unfortunately, none of the writers can throw any light on the first use of the potter's wheel in China. It is true that, like several other nations, the Chinese claim for themselves the invention of that essential implement, but there is no real evidence to illuminate the question, and even if the wheel was independently discovered in China, the priority of invention undoubtedly rests with the Near Eastern nations. Palpable evidence of its use can be seen on Minoan pottery found in Crete and dating about 3000 B.C., and on Egyptian pottery of the twelfth dynasty (about 2200 B.C.); while it is practically certain that it was used in the making of the Egyptian pottery of the fourth dynasty (about 3200 B.C.). So far, the Chinese have nothing tangible to oppose to these facts earlier than the Chou writings, in which workers with the wheel (_t´ao jên_) are distinguished from workers with moulds (_fang jên_), the former making cauldrons, basins, colanders, boilers, and vessels (_yü_), and the latter moulding the sacrificial vessels named _kuei_ and _tou_. We learn that at this time the Chinese potters also used the compasses and the polishing wheel or lathe. With this outfit they were able, according to the _T´ao shuo_, to effect the "completion" of pottery. Whatever the truth of this pious statement may be, reflecting as it does the true Chinese veneration of antiquity, it is certain, at any rate, that the potter was not without honour at this time: for we read in the _Tso Chuan_[8] that "O-fu of Yü was the best potter at the beginning of the Chou dynasty. Wu Wang relied on his skill for the vessels which he used. He wedded him to a descendant of his imperial ancestors, and appointed him feudal prince of Ch´ên." Examples of these early potteries have been unearthed from ancient burials from time to time, and the _T´ao shuo_ describes numerous types from literary sources. But neither the originals, as far as we know them, nor the verbal descriptions of them, have anything but an antiquarian interest.