y to the touch of the enamellist.
For by his heaven-taught wisdom was the art of porcelain created; by his
inspiration were accomplished all the miracles of Thao-yu, maker of the
_Kia-yu-ki_, and all the marvels made by those who followed after him;--

All the azure porcelains called _You-kouo-thien-tsing_; brilliant as a
mirror, thin as paper of rice, sonorous as the melodious stone _Khing_,
and colored, in obedience to the mandate of the Emperor Chi-tsong, "blue
as the sky is after rain, when viewed through the rifts of the clouds."
These were, indeed, the first of all porcelains, likewise called
_Tchai-yao_, which no man, howsoever wicked, could find courage to
break, for they charmed the eye like jewels of price;--

And the _Jou-yao_, second in rank among all porcelains, sometimes
mocking the aspect and the sonority of bronze, sometimes blue as summer
waters, and deluding the sight with mucid appearance of thickly floating
spawn of fish;--

And the _Kouan-yao_, which are the Porcelains of Magistrates, and third
in rank of merit among all wondrous porcelains, colored with colors of
the morning,--skyey blueness, with the rose of a great dawn blushing and
bursting through it, and long-limbed marsh-birds flying against the
glow;

Also the _Ko-yao_,--fourth in rank among perfect porcelains,--of fair,
faint, changing colors, like the body of a living fish, or made in the
likeness of opal substance, milk mixed with fire; the work of Sing-I,
elder of the immortal brothers Tchang;

Also the _Ting-yao_,--fifth in rank among all perfect porcelains,--white
as the mourning garments of a spouse bereaved, and beautiful with a
trickling as of tears,--the porcelains sung of by the poet Son-tong-po;

Also the porcelains called _Pi-se-yao_, whose colors are called
"hidden," being alternately invisible and visible, like the tints of
ice beneath the sun,--the porcelains celebrated by the far-famed singer
Sin-in;

Also the wondrous _Chu-yao_,--the pallid porcelains that utter a
mournful cry when smitten,--the porcelains chanted of by the mighty
chanter, Thou-chao-ling;

Also the porcelains called _Thsin-yao_, white or blue, surface-wrinkled
as the face of water by the fluttering of many fins.... And ye can see
the fish!

Also the vases called _Tsi-hong-khi_, red as sunset after a rain; and
the _T'o-t'ai-khi_, fragile as the wings of the silkworm-moth, lighter
than the shell of an egg;

Also the _Kia-tsing_,--fair cups pearl-