Buddhism flourished in India during many centuries, especially in the third century B.C., when in the reign of king Açoka, it became missionary, but about 1100 A.D. it was banished from that country and spread through Eastern Asia, where it has at the present time more than four hundred millions of believers. In China there are eighteen principal sects of this religion, so that it is not surprising that the Chinese Buddhists should commemorate upon their porcelain gods, goddesses, and religious ceremonies of various types, especially as it adopted local superstitions and legends, and lent pomp and _éclat_ to the worship of the dead. Its pliancy and activity are still marvellous.
A SKETCH SHOWING PORCELAIN CLASSED ACCORDING TO THE ORDER OF THE DISCOVERY OF COLOURS AND GLAZES
Our first task will be to classify the porcelain according to the order of its discovery, and in this relation we shall be largely guided by form and colour, which in the oldest pieces is naturally less diversified than in the later. Perhaps the oldest pottery is that improperly called _boccaro_, owing to its resemblance to the pottery which, in Portugal, bore this name, and as we shall see presently the Portuguese were the first to visit the land of far Cathay. The colours on boccaro ware are very varied--and some imitate bronze. Many coloured enamels cover other pieces with a dense glaze which completely hides the shape or body. These pieces are usually moulded, but examples have been found where the decoration has been cut with a tool in the paste when wet. Other specimens have been carved in the paste after it had been dried in the sun.
The second class in order of age would be white porcelain made of kaolins from different districts, which gave different tints to the white, and unequal densities to the ware, some being heavy and some light. Possibly the light ware of this period gave rise to the idea of soft paste. The white itself varies in tint from a fine creamy glaze, which is very beautiful, called "_blanc de chine_." Then there is a bluish white called "_white of snow_," and a plain white called "_white of flour_." The creamy white is valued very highly by the Chinese themselves, and "Franks" mentions an instance where a Hong Kong merchant, after making many magnificent presents to an English gentleman, gave him as an object of great value a white cup of this kind enclosed in a case lined with silk. This "_blanc de chine_" was highly esteemed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, especially in France and Spain. It is interesting to notice that this kind of white ware was imitated by the early makers of European porcelain at St. Cloud and Chelsea, and many of these specimens of white hard paste have been ascribed to Plymouth, which, with Bristol, was the only factory to make hard paste in England. The Chelsea imitation of an Oriental teapot with raised flowers is the one which has the noted mark of the raised anchor on a tablet.