CHINA
CHINA
alone as a device. Many other decorative devices are employed typifying, for the most part, longevity. “The greatest desire of a Chinaman is long life,” writes Mr. Franks, “ which prolongs his enjoyment of this world’s goods, and ensures his receiving the respect paid to old age in a country governed by the maxims of Confucius. Longevity is therefore the first and greatest of the Wu Fuh, or Five Blessings. The Taoists, or followers of Lao Tsze, carried this still farther, spending their time, like the medieval al- chemists, in the search after the elixir of immortality. Hence, as might be expected, the emblems of lon- gevity occur very frequently on porcelain, and take a great variety of forms, all symbolising good wishes to the possessors. It may be useful, therefore, to describe these emblems briefly.
“One of the commonest of the seal characters with which porcelain is decorated is the word sho, ‘longevity’ (already spoken of) of which the varieties are endless. A set of a hundred varieties is seen on a roll in the British Museum; another set is given in Hooper and Phillips Manual of Marks.’’ The same ideograph is also found as a mark.
The Taotist god of longevity — supposed to be Lao-tze himself — is often shown on porcelain. He appears in the form of an old man in the garb of a scholar of ancient times, of almost dwarfish stature, with an elongated bald head, holding a sceptre of longevity, sometimes riding on a stork or tortoise, and sometimes resting his hand on a deer. A Japa- nese work (E-hon Ka-dan), published in 1720, speaks of him as the Ancient of the South Pole Star, the luminary that presides over human life, and by its ap- pearance heralds tranquillity to the world. The story
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