have differed very greatly in other respects, seeing that the southern variety continued the traditions of the northern, and that the earliest authorities do not trouble to distinguish the two wares at all. Another critic,[117] discussing Kuan ware as a whole, makes its characteristics practically the same as those of the Ko ware, to which we shall come next, and states that "in regard to colour, in both cases the pale ch´ing (_fên ch´ing_) specimens are the best, the 'pale white' (_tan pai_[118]) are second, while those with ash-coloured (_hui sê_) glaze are very inferior." From the same writer we gather that artificial staining of the crackle was employed on both Kuan and Ko wares, for he speaks of "ice-crackle with lines red as eel's blood" and "plum-blossom[119] crackle with ink-coloured lines," besides an inferior type of crackle with fine lines which did not suggest any particular pattern. The Hang Chou Kuan ware, variously described as _Kuan yao_, _Hsiu nei ssŭ yao_, _Nei yao_, and _Shao yao_ from the locality of the factory and the name of its manager, is described in both the _Cho kêng lu_ and the _Ko ku yao lun_. In the former it was said to be a _ch´ing_ ware, "finely levigated clay[120] is the rule, and it is of very exquisite make; the coloured glaze is translucent[121]; it is the delight of the age."[122] The latter,[123] which makes no mention of an earlier Kuan ware, gives the following description of the _Nei yao_: "The material is fine and unctuous, the colour _ch´ing_ with a flush of pale red (_tai fên hung_) and of varying intensity. Specimens with crab's-claw crackle, brown mouth, and iron foot, and of good colour rank with Ju yao. There are, besides, specimens with a black body which are called _wu ni yao_. All the imitations which are made at Lung-ch´üan are without crackle." Further information is given in the _Po wu yao lan_, viz. that the clay used at the factory below the Phœnix Hill at Hang Chou for making Kuan yao was of reddish brown (_tzŭ_) colour, and that this explains the phenomenon of the "brown mouth and iron foot"[124]; for "the brown mouth is due to the fact that the vessel's mouth points upwards and the glaze flows downwards and is thinner at the mouth than on the rest of the body, so that the brown colour (of the clay) is disclosed at the mouth." The iron foot is, of course, the raw edge of the clay which appears at the foot rim. As this peculiarity is not noted in the _Cho kêng lu_, we are at liberty to infer that it was not a constant feature of the Kuan wares, and that some of them, as already hinted in the quotation from the _Liu ch´ing jih cha_, had a whitish body. Of the third Kuan yao made "below the suburban altar" at a slightly later date, we know nothing except that it followed the style of the older wares, but with inferior results.