But the greater part of the plain white Chinese porcelain in European collections was not made either at Ting-chou or at King-te-chen. It is rather to be traced to the only other important centre for the manufacture of porcelain that survives in China. This is the district of Te-hua (Tek-kwa in the local dialect), in the province of Fukien. This province had been famed in Sung times for its tea-bowls covered with a dark glaze, and we must remember that somewhere along its rocky, indented coast was situated the port of Zaitun, so famous in early days for its Arab trade. In later times the roadstead of Amoy came to rival Canton as a port of call for our ships; it is mentioned in this connection by the Père D’Entrecolles, and from it most of the _blanc de Chine_ which at that time reached Europe was probably exported. For it was this Fukien ware rather than the white Ting porcelain that was imported into Europe from the latter half of the seventeenth century, to be copied in the earlier days of Saint-Cloud and Bow. In Spain it was a great favourite from perhaps an earlier date, and when the Buen Retiro works were started this ware was taken as a model. This white ware does not seem to have been made at Te-hua before the Ming period, but it soon established itself as the _pai-tsu_--the white ware _par excellence_ of China. It is distinguished by the creamy white of its paste and glaze--that is to say, the colour tends [Illustration: _PLATE XV._ 1--CHINESE, PLAIN WHITE WARE 2--CHINESE, BLUE AND WHITE WARE] towards a warm, yellowish tint rather than towards the cold, pure white or bluish tone of most of the King-te-chen and still more of the Japanese wares. The satiny glaze appears to melt into the subjacent ground in a way that reminds us of some of the European soft paste porcelains. It is the moulded ware that is most characteristic of the ‘Kien yao‘--vases with dragons in full relief creeping round the neck, incense-burners in many complicated forms, figures of Kwan-yin (whom we should _not_ call the ‘Goddess of Mercy‘) in many incarnations; or again, Ta-mo (so well known in Japan as Daruma), the _Bodhi-dharma_ who brought the faith to China, with overhanging brows and abstracted, solemn gaze. Among animals, the favourite is the lion, the so-called ‘dog of Fo,’ sporting with an open-work ball. Many of these figures are very ably executed; they stand firm and erect; and the draperies, though here the mannerisms of the ‘calligraphic’ school of painting may be recognised, fall in simple folds from the shoulders. The prevalence of Buddhist types (for the Taoist divinities are here less frequently represented) may be connected with the exceptional predominance of that religion in Fukien, a province somewhat remote from the rest of China, whose inhabitants speak a dialect very different from the standard Chinese.