Note 144 — Chapter V

mi sê fên ch´ing. Mi sê is rendered in Giles's Dictionary, "Straw colour, the colour of yellow millet," and all Chinese authorities whom I have questioned agree that it is a yellow colour. Bushell in much of his published work rendered it "rice coloured," following Julien's couleur du riz, and others, including myself, have been misled by this rendering. Bushell, however, in a note in Monkhouse's Chinese Porcelain, p. 67, which is quoted at length in vol. ii., p. 220, pronounces in favour of the rendering yellow. The difficulty of finding a true yellow among the Sung wares to support the comparison with yellow millet has further complicated the question. The vase in the Victoria and Albert Museum, which is figured in Monkhouse (fig. 22) as a specimen of old mi sê, is probably a Yung Chêng reproduction of the Sung type. It has a stone–coloured crackle glaze, overlaid with a brownish yellow enamel, a technique which is foreign to the Sung wares. Possibly one type of Sung mi sê was illustrated by the "shallow bowl with spout, of grey stoneware with opaque glaze of pale sulphur yellow," which Mr. Alexander exhibited at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1910 (Cat. K. 18). Another kind is described by Bushell in the catalogue of the Morgan collection (p. 38) as follows: "Shallow bowl (wan). Greenish yellow crackled glaze of the Sung dynasty, leaving a bare ring at the bottom within. A specimen of ancient mi sê or millet–coloured crackle from the Kiang–hsi potteries. Formerly the possession of His Excellency Chang Yinhuan. D. 6 inches." Specimens of this type, with greenish and brownish yellow crackle glaze, have been found in Borneo, where they have been reputed to be of enormous age; there are several examples in the British Museum. The Hirth collection in the Gotha Museum includes four high–footed bowls of brownish yellow colour which seem to belong to this class.