PORCELAIN SHAPES IN THE CH’ING DYNASTY A considerable number of the forms which Chinese porcelain assumes have been described in the chapters dealing with the Ming wares; but these may be usefully supplemented by a rapid survey of those employed by the potters of the Ch’ing dynasty. The latter will, of course, include many of the former because the Chinese delight in reproducing the older types. The brief summary of the eighteenth-century porcelain forms given in the opening pages of the _T’ao shuo_[484] begins in the correct style with the reproductions of the ancient ritual vessels _tsun_, _lei_, _yi_, _ting_, _yu_ and _chüo_. These are all bronze forms, _tsun_ being applied to wine vessels, _lei_ to vases ornamented with the meander pattern known as “cloud and thunder” scrolls,[485] _yi_ to bowl-shaped vessels without feet, _ting_ to cauldrons with three or four legs and two handles, _yu_ to wine jars with covers, and large loop handles for suspension, and _chüo_ to libation cups of helmet and other shapes. The bronze forms are commonly decorated with bronze patterns such as the key-fret, archaic dragon and phœnix scrolls, cicada pattern, ogre heads and bands of stiff (banana) leaves, either painted, moulded, engraved, or carved in relief; and the complicated bronze shapes are usually fashioned in moulds, and in many cases furnished with ring handles attached to monster heads. Another ritual type manufactured in porcelain as well as bronze is the altar set of five pieces (_wu kung_), which consists of a _ting_ or tripod incense vase, two flower vases, and two pricket candlesticks. A humbler altar set was composed of a single censer or a tazza-shaped cup (Plate 93, Fig. 1) for flowers, and a pair of lions on stands fitted with tubes for holding sticks of incense. The bronze forms have always been used by the Chinese potters, but they were specially affected in the archaising period of Ch’ien Lung. In the Western judgment, however, which is unbiased by the associations of these antique forms, the true pottery shapes, made on the wheel, will appear far more attractive; for nothing can surpass the simple rounded forms which sprang to life beneath the deft fingers of the Chinese thrower. Their simplicity, grace, and perfect suitability for their intended uses have commended them as models to the Western potter far more congenial than the cold perfection of the Greek vases. Naturally they vary in quality with the skill and taste of the individual, but a high level of manual skill ruled among the Chinese potters, and their wheel-work rarely fails to please.