the Pa-kwa, or eight diagrams of Fo or Buddha, a series of combinations of three lines by which nature’s changes were represented. Thus on each side of a square vase are the _yang_ and _yn_, with one of the diagrams above and one below. On another piece of porcelain the _yang_ and _yn_ occupy the centre, round which, in a circle, the diagrams are arranged. With such a foundation Chinese religion is divisible into three component parts--that based upon the teachings of Lao-tseu, that of Confucius, and Buddhism. Lao-tseu and the legend of his birth are especially interesting to the student of Chinese ceramics. The story goes that, after a pregnancy of eighty-one years his mother brought him into the world, while she was a wanderer in the country. When born, his hair was as white as that of an old man, and hence his name, Lao-tseu, the old man-child. When he grew up, he became a recluse, and spent years in the study of abstract religion, out of which studies grew the “Tao-te-king,” an exposition of his views of religion and morality. His followers deified him, and in course of time he was regarded as identical with Chang-ti. In this form the potters represent him, and also as the God of Longevity. He is called alternatively Lao-tseu and Cheou-lao. As the God of Longevity he is represented (Fig. 63) with long white beard and lofty, conical, bald head. His face wears a broad smile, and in his hand is the fruit of the fantao, a fabulous tree symbolical of long life, because it was said to bloom only once in three thousand years, and to bear fruit a thousand years afterward. As Chang-ti, the supreme god, he is riding or leaning upon a deer, is dressed in yellow, and around him are clusters of the immortalizing agaric, ling-tchy. Confucius, or Koung-tseu, who followed Lao-tseu, was a conservative philosopher, who led his countrymen back to old forms and ancestral hero-worship. He appears as the representative of Buddhism alternatively with Fo or Buddha, and as such holds a roll of manuscript or a sceptre in his hand. Kuan-in (Fig. 64) was first taken to be the Chinese Venus. She is represented in various attitudes--standing with downcast eyes, or sitting, and holding either a child or a rosary. [Illustration: Fig. 64.--Kuan-in. (S. P. Avery Coll.)]