In place of these date-marks we may often find an inscription stating that the piece was made at a certain _Tang_--for example, _Shun ti tang chi_--literally ‘Cultivation virtue hall made’ (PL. B. 17). We have here translated the character _tang_ by the somewhat vague word ‘hall,’ but it is doubtful whether the inscription should be rendered ‘made for the Shun-ti pavilion,’ _i.e._ for the imperial palace, or rather, ‘made at the Shun-ti hall,‘--that is to say, at the studio or factory of that name, presumably at King-te-chen. The best authorities, however, are in favour of the latter rendering (Bushell, p. 78 _seq._, and the Franks _Catalogue_, p. 213), and they regard these so-called hall-marks as more or less equivalent to the signature of the manufacturer. The character _tang_ is sometimes replaced by other words, as _tsuan_, a balcony; _ting_, a summer-house; or _chai_, a studio. This last word is the Japanese _sai_, which so often forms a part of the adopted names of Japanese artists, as for example Hoku-sai, which means the ‘northern studio.’ The Japanese potter often signs his work, and even in China we find in a few cases a name, that of the painter, inscribed in the field of the decoration,--we have already mentioned some instances of signatures found in this position (p. 108). Of another kind is the inscription found on certain egg-shell cups of the time of Wan-li (1572-1619). These cups, of which we have no specimens unfortunately in our collections, were made by a famous poet-potter who signs himself _Hu yin tao jen_, or ‘the Taoist hidden in a pot.’ The reference is to a Taoist recluse (what the Japanese know as a _Sennin_) who when disinclined for society was in the habit of retiring into his gourd-bottle. At the same time, as Dr. Hirth has pointed out, the words form an excellent motto for an artist--the true expression of whose genius we seek in his works. There is a third class of marks which celebrate the beauty of the vessel on which they are inscribed or, more rarely, refer to the subject of the decoration. A large number of these are illustrated in Franks’s _Catalogue of Oriental Porcelain_. We will merely quote as examples ‘A gem among precious jewels of rare jade’ (PL. B. 16), and, with reference to the decoration, which in this case includes some red fishes, ‘Enjoying themselves in the waters’ (PL. B. 44). Such rather tame sentences do not teach us much. More suggestive is the inscription we find on a cylindrical vase for holding writing materials: ‘Scholarship lofty as the hills and the Great Bear’ (PL. B. 15)--a fit motto for the desk of the student.