Chinese Ghost Stories (12 page)

     … Crowds brought the earth in baskets; they threw it with shouts into the frames; they beat it with responsive blows; they pared the walls repeatedly [until] they sounded strong—
Sacred Books of the East;
Vol. III.,
The She-King
,
p. 384.

Pauthier translates the verses somewhat differently; preserving the onomatopoeia in three of the lines.
Huang-huang
are the sounds heard in the timber-yards where the wood is being measured; from the workshops of the builders respond the sounds of
dong-dong;
and the solid walls, when fully finished off, give out the sound of
bing-bing.

Xiu fan di
—Literally, “the Sweeping of the Tombs”—the day of the general worship of ancestors; the Chinese “All-Souls’.” It falls in the early part of April, the period called
qingming.

Yao
—“Porcelain.” The reader who desires detailed information respecting the technology, history, or legends of Chinese porcelain-manufacture should consult Stanislas Julien’s admirable
Histoire de la Porcelaine Chinoise
(Paris, 1856). With some trifling exceptions, the names of the various porcelains cited in my “Tale of the Porcelain-God” were selected from Julien’s work. Though oddly musical and otherwise attractive in Chinese, these names lose interest by translation. The majority of them merely refer to centers of manufacture or famous potteries:
Zhouyao,
“porcelains of Zhou”;
Hongzhouyao,
“porcelains of Hongzhou”;
Ruyao,
“porcelains of Ruzhou”;
Dingyao,
“porcelains of Dingzhou”;
Geyao,
“porcelains of the Elder Brother [Cang]”;
Kangxi niancangyao,
“porcelains of Cang made in the reign of Kangxi.” Some porcelains were distinguished by the names of dynasties, or the titles of civic office holders; such as the celebrated
Chaiyao,
“the porcelains of Chai” (which was the name of the family of the Emperor Shizong); and the
Guanyao,
or “Porcelains of Magistrates.” Much more rarely the names refer directly to the material or artistic peculiarity of porcelains—as
Wuniyao,
the “black-paste porcelains,” or
Biseyao,
the “porcelains of hidden color.” The word
qi,
sometimes substituted for
yao
in these compound names, means “vases”; as
Ruqi,
“vases of Ruzhou”;
Guanqi,
“vases for Magistrates.”