57. SEATED FIGURE OF KUAN YÜ, THE WAR-GOD OF CHINA, A DEIFIED WARRIOR (_Colour_) 204 Reddish buff pottery with blue, yellow and turquoise glazes, and a colourless glaze on the white parts. Sixteenth century. _Eumorfopoulos Collection._ 58. MISCELLANEOUS POTTERY 206 Fig. 1.--Jar with lotus design in green, yellow and turquoise glazes in an aubergine ground. About 1600. _Hippisley Collection._ Fig. 2.--Vase of double fish form, buff ware with turquoise, yellow and aubergine glazes. (?) Seventeenth century. _British Museum._ Fig. 3.--Roof-tile with figure of Bodhidharma, deep green and creamy white glazes. Sixteenth century. _Benson Collection._ Fig. 4.--Bottle with archaic dragon (_ch´ih lung_) on neck, variegated glaze of lavender, blue and green clouded with purple and brown. (?) Eighteenth century. Yi-hsing ware. _Peters Collection._ INTRODUCTION When we consider the great extent of the Chinese Empire and its teeming population--both of them larger than those of Europe--and the fact that a race with a natural gift for the potter's craft and a deep appreciation of its productions has lived and laboured there for twenty centuries (to look no farther back than the Han dynasty), it seems almost presumptuous to attempt a history of so vast and varied an industry within the compass of two volumes. Anything approaching finality in such a subject is out of the question, and, indeed, imagination staggers at the thought of a complete record of every pottery started in China in the past and present. As far as pottery is concerned, we must be content with the identification of a few prominent types and with very broad classifications, whether they be chronological or topographical. Indeed, the potteries named in the Chinese records are only a few of those which must have existed; and though we may occasionally rejoice to find in our collections a series like the red stonewares of Yi-hsing, which can be definitely located, a very large proportion of our pottery must be labelled uncertain or unknown. How many experts here or on the Continent could identify the pottery made in South Germany or Hungary a hundred years ago? What chance, then, is there of recognising any but the most celebrated wares of China? In dealing with porcelain as distinct from pottery, we have a simpler proposition. The bulk of what we see in Europe is not older than the Ming dynasty and was made at one of two large centres, viz. Ching-tê Chên in Kiangsi, and Tê-hua in Fukien. Topographical arrangement, then, is an easy matter, and there is a considerable amount of information available to guide us in chronological considerations.