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[[underline]] Chapter XIII. [[/underline]] 267. riverbank near P'ing Ch'êng^[[,]] [[strikethrough]] ([[underline]] cf. [[/underline]] page 265), [[/strikethrough]] their occurrence here too afforded further confirmation of our previous impression---that until true porcelain had become both plentiful and cheap, during the first few centuries of the Christian Era, the Chinese poor and especially the peasantry continued to use developed forms of the coarse gray unglazed earthenware of their Neolithic ancestors. [[superscript]] (238) [[/superscript]] --------------- [[superscript]] (238) [[/superscript]] The preëminence of the Chinese in the ceramic field, for which they have been so justly celebrated, has been achieved only within the past millenium or so. During earlier times they were far excelled in pottery-making by their contemporaries of the Mediterranean world, especially the Greeks. --------------- We also rode through the Yü Ho, now much falle^[[n]] from its height of the previous spring, to its right or western bank (that on which, some miles downstream, stands Ta T'ung), and climbed a fairly lofty eminence called the Ku Shan [[2 chinese characters]], or "Lone Hill". [[superscript]] (239) [[/superscript]] From its summit, in the --------------- [[superscript]] (239) [[/superscript]] The Ku Shan is situated a short distance back of the hamlet of P'u-tzǔ Wan ([[underline]] cf. [[/underline]] pp. 231 [[underline]] sq. [[/underline]]^[[)]]. Possibly our previous failure to learn anything there in regard to the North Wei imperial tombs which we knew must exist in the vicinity may have been due to dialectic misunderstandings; for the local patois differed markedly from the speech heard in Peking. It may however have been merely an instance of the dense ignorance so common among the Chinese peasantry in regard to anything outside their own immediate vicinity. ---------------------- clear, crisp autumnal air, we enjoyed a fine view of the region round-about. Among other places we could see, a few miles to the northward, the precipitous southern end of the Fang Shan plateau, surmounted by two or three great hemispherical grave-mounds. Of these, far the most ^[[/conspicuous]] for both nearness and size was the one known locally (though mistakenly, we learned later) as the Ch'i Huang Mu [[3 chinese characters]], or "Tomb of Ch'i Huang Hou". [[superscript]] (240) [[/superscript]] Along the main south road^[[,]] [[strikethrough]] ([[underline]] cf. [[/underline]] page 240), [[/strikethrough]] on which ---------------------- [[superscript]] (240) [[/superscript]] Ch'i Huang Hou [[3 chinese characters]] was the consort of Hsüan Ti [[2 chinese characters]], one of the pre-conquest rulers of the Toba Tartars. A variant form of the legend ascribed the grave-mound to Ch'i Wang [[2 chinese characters]], "Prince Ch'i", son of one of the Sung emperors.
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