The Origin of Teapot and the Spring Pot

Zi Sha Hu is a unique traditional tea set in China. It is mainly produced in Yixing City, Jiangsu Province. It is often referred to as the Yixing teapot. Regarding its origin, there are two general views: one is the traditional Ming Dynasty origin theory, and the other is the emerging Song Dynasty origin theory.

The literature cited by the Ming Dynasty originator was mainly the traditional record of Zishahu, such as the Yangshuo Husong System at the end of the Ming and Zhou Dynasties and the Wushu Yangshuo and Taolu Records at the mid-Qing Dynasty. These books all record a story: During the Ming Dynasty, during the Ming Dynasty, Wu Shi of Yixing City lived in Jinsha Temple to prepare for the examination of Jinshi. The success of his children Tong Chun for learning the pot with the monks of Jinsha Temple succeeded, and later became the originator of Yixing teapot. . Wu Shi was a scholar in the nineteenth year of Ming Zhengde (1514). Therefore, the time for making spring pots should also be roughly in this period. In addition, people who hold the view of the Ming Dynasty origin often quoted archaeological data from the ancient tombs and ancient clay relics unearthed in ancient sites, as well as research materials on the authenticity of ancient teapots handed down. None of these teapots exceeded the median age of the Ming Dynasty.

The origin of the Zishahu Song Dynasty is a new concept that has only emerged in the last two or three decades. The representative figure is Gu Jingzhou, a famous contemporary teapot master in Yixing, and a group of colleagues and comrades. There are also some comrades in Yixing who are engaged in news and cultural work. Due to their strong propaganda, there are also many endorsers both at home and abroad. The literature they cited was found in the poems of the Song Dynasty as tea sets known as "purple clay" and "purple lotus". They thought this should be a purple sander. In addition, the archeological material they cited is the material of the ancient kiln site of Yangjiao Mountain in Yixing. According to Gu Jingzhou’s account, it was discovered in the basement of Yishan in 1976 when the Hongqi Ceramics Factory built a tunnel kiln: “Yangjiaoshan kiln site is a small dragon kiln, which is more than ten meters long and one meter wide. When people discover When it was valued with archaeological value, its piers were already excavated for the most part, and a small part was buried under the foundation. The waste pile next to the kiln site was a modern cylinder borehole remnant; the middle layer was the Yuan Dynasty to the early Qing Dynasty. The bottom of the rubbish is the waste of the early purple sand.” The ancient kiln site of Yangjiao Mountain has not been formally excavated by archaeologists. It is only a destroyed ancient clay pot site found by Gu Lao and others in infrastructure. He wrote an investigation brief with his own understanding. Gu Lao They are contemporary masters of pots, but they are not archeologists and do not possess the expertise of archaeological ceramic kiln sites. Therefore, the materials described are not scientific archaeological excavations. In particular, the so-called "stratigraphic" materials for waste dumps are only designated by themselves and are extremely unreliable. They cannot be cited as archaeological evidence.

Before judging whether the Yixing teapot originated in the Ming Dynasty or originated in the Song Dynasty, we should first clarify the basic concept of the teapot, namely: What is the teapot? I think there should be at least two points: 1. The Yixing teapot is made from the purple clay of Yixing specialties; 2. It must be a tea drinking appliance that is specially used to brew tea. According to these two criteria, we will analyze the two origins more specifically to see who is more reasonable.

First analyze the Ming Dynasty origin of the teapot. The literature cited here is historically recognized as an ancient book that specifically describes the teapot. Among the many celebrity makers that have been recorded, there are works that have been unearthed or handed down. The earliest discovered teapot is a purple sand beaming pot unearthed at Majiashan outside Zhonghua Gate, Nanjing (Figure 1). It was unearthed at the Tomb of the Sayali, the eunuch of the Siri ceremony, buried in the 12th year of Jiajing Dynasty (1533). in. After the Mingwan calendar, there were more and more clay pots unearthed. As the famous Ming Dynasty famous teapot master Shi Bin, there are many Ming Dynasty tombs unearthed his works. One of them was unearthed in Zhangpu County, Fujian Province. It was from the tomb of Lu Weixuan, the assistant minister of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce in the Ming Dynasty, and the epitaph was recorded in the Wanli forty years (1612) (Figure 2). The pot was full of tea leaves when it was unearthed. It should be pointed out here that in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, people used tea made of tea in the form of cakes. After drinking, it is crushed and poured into boiling water to drink in a bowl. After entering the Ming Dynasty, the tang-like, flake-like or granular tea leaves appeared, which was also called loose tea. Cake tea can not be brewed in small teapots, but only when loose tea appears, tea can be directly brewed in the teapot. In summary, the origin of the teapot is reasonable and possible in the Ming Dynasty.

Let's take a look at the origin of the Zishahu Song Dynasty. The literature cited by those who hold this view is mostly the poems in the Song Dynasty poems that contain the names of "purple" and "purple" and they are considered to be the proof of the teapot that has emerged in the Song Dynasty. In fact, these verses are songs of Song Dynasty tea style. As mentioned earlier, Song people ate tea by crushing the tea cake into powder and then brew it into a bowl. At that time, the activity of “bowl tea” was widely popular in the society. It was the white tea foam that appeared in the bowl after the bucket was poured into the boiling water, and the water mark on the bowl. For this reason, the tea bowls of bucket tea are generally made of black glaze. The most famous of them is the rabbits produced by Jianyang in the north of Anhui Province, also known as Jianye. Due to the high content of iron in the tire glaze, Jianye was reduced to a brown or purple color after the reduction flame was burned. Therefore, it was described by the poet as "purple mud" and "purpura". The leader, a bowl, is not a pot. The shape of a built-in soup is like a mouthful. The thicker the wall, the slower the heat dissipation of the tea soup, the better the white tea foam does not spread over a long period of time, and the glaze is often the rabbit's grain, which is the most popular in the Song Dynasty. People welcome tea set. The famous calligrapher and poet of the Song dynasty, Cai Yan, was a Fujianese. He recommended this type of tea set in his hometown to the imperial court, and made Jianye a “for royal” property. In short, the teapots in the poems of the Song Dynasty, such as "Zi Ni" and "Purple", are black glaze porcelain bowls represented by Jianye, and have nothing to do with the teapot. At the same time, thousands of Song Dynasty tombs have been excavated by archaeologists across the country, and there has never been unearthed a teapot made of Yixing purple sand mud. Instead, a large number of Jianye black glaze bowls have been unearthed. As for Gu Jingzhou and the renown ancient kiln sites in Yangjiao Mountain, there are "archaeological" materials for the relics of the Zishahu in the Song Dynasty, which have already been mentioned above. It is completely unable to withstand scientific scrutiny. In fact, I have seen these specimen materials, which are typical late Ming relics. The upper limit of ancient terra cotta pottery in Yangjiao Mountain was only in the late Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, the origin of the Zishahu Song Dynasty cannot be established.

The Yixing teapot originated in the Ming Dynasty and its originator is documented as spring. Regarding Chunqi people, different documents have different records and arguments. Some call it Gong Gong, but also record their surname Gong and Gong Gongchun. Even its gender is also recorded differently. It is generally believed that it is the home of Wu Shi and there are also some known as Wu Shi's “Tsing Yi”—the prostitute. But during the nine-year examination of Wu Shi’s Yu Zhengde’s jinshi, for the spring, he accompanied him to study at the Jinsha Temple. During the rest of his time serving the owner, he learned from the old man of Jinsha Temple that he had succeeded in using a purple clay pot. Consistent. I think that in the Ming dynasty, when a man and a woman gave deprivations, it was impossible for a prostitute to come into contact with deaf people to learn pot art alone. The identity of Chun-chun could only be a male child, and a young man who was curious about the world and was smart and eager to learn. . His success on the one hand is his own hard work. On the other hand, he should also be related to the improvement of his master's political status. What is it like to make pots for spring? This is something that people who have long enjoyed Yixing teapot are very interested. To date, no spring pots have been found in ancient tombs and ancient sites. Among the handed down items, there are two famous names for the spring pot: The first is the tree pots in the National Museum of China, and the other is the six-ringed pots in the Tea House in Hong Kong. These two pots are basically the treasures of the museum's town hall, and their collections are very high. However, after we carefully study them, we will feel some problems. Collected in the National Bo for the spring tree pot (Figure 3), is the beginning of the founding of the country from Jiangsu Province, selected the tone up. The pot was originally purchased by Yin Chuan Nan Qiang of Yixing Township in Suzhou in 1928. At that time, the pot body was made of pine-tree tumors, and the pots were made into branch-like branches. There is a second paragraph of "Shuchun" under the cover letter. The lid of the pot is made into a squash-shaped squash with a cover letter "Yulin" printed. Mr. Chu was a culturally educated person. After purchasing this pot, he repeatedly researched and visited the pot. He learned that he had been collected by Wu Dazhao, a large collector in the late Qing Dynasty. He believes that this pot is for the authenticity of the spring pot. The cap was made by Huang Yulin, a master of pot making at the end of the Qing Dynasty. He listened to the proposal of the great painter Huang Binhong to find the pot master at the time to recap. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Mr. Chu donated the pot to the country, and afterwards he was raised step by step and finally entered the National Museum. Observing the pot, we feel that it has many doubts about the authenticity of the spring pot. The first is that the pot is unique in shape. The pot maker should have high sculptural artistic ability and plastic art training. This is a home for children and the start of the teapot is not possible for spring. In fact, all the Ming Dynasty teapots we saw were relatively simple and simple, and they could not reach this level. The second reason was that the mud and clay in the pot was too delicate, which was also not achieved by the mud crushing technology of the Ming Dynasty; The knowledge of the pot is the shape of the book, which was not seen in the entire tea pot of the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty Zisha pot was only engraved with seals, and the appearance of the seal was a thing after the Qing Dynasty; Fourthly, the clay used in the pot should be yellow-brown mud. This mud was not used in the Ming Dynasty Zisha pot. It was the Qing Dynasty. The mud that appeared later. Fifthly, the printed version of the original pot is the "Yulin" script, indicating that the author of the pot is Huang Yulin, the owner of the pot in the late Qing Dynasty. Huang had been specially hired by Wu Dazhao to make pots in the Wu family, and made a lot of such tree pots, and it has been collected in places like Shanghai and Yixing. The pot purchased by Mr. Chu was investigated by himself and he had been housed in Wu Dazhao's house. Therefore, in the light of the above points, I believe that this spring for the spring pots owned by Guo Bo is supposed to be a piece of water that was made by Huang Yulin, a pot maker of the late Qing Dynasty, and who gave a name for the spring. In the late Qing dynasty, there was an upsurge of antique collections, and the antique style of the ancient terracotta pots flourished. Mr. Chu and Huang Binhong are scholars and painters. It is not surprising that they are literate but not cultural relics. About 20 years ago, Yu Weichao, who was the curator of the Chinese History Museum (now Guobo Predecessor) at the time of my reception, told him of these ideas. Mr. Yu thinks that it is reasonable and should be like this. Let's look at the six-cylinder round-bottomed pot for the spring section that was collected at the Hong Kong Teahouse. It also feels that there are many problems. It should also be a "false tiger hill." First of all, in this kettle pot engraved with "Ming Ming Zhengde eight years for the spring" by the Secretary. The word Zhou Zhenglao is very knowledgeable. The counterfeiters are familiar with the story of the Spring Festival. Wu Shi is a jinshi in the nine years of Zhengde's examination. He will serve the spring accomplices Wu Shi to live in the Jin Sha Temple to learn how to make tea pots one year in advance. Even if history is really like this, then for the spring is also just a youngster to the old school of Jinsha Temple. He does not have any culture. The jug has just started. How can such old and smooth librarians be carved at the bottom of the pot? Similarly, the shape of the pot is familiar, and the mud is delicate. The technical level in all aspects has far surpassed that of the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, it is absolutely impossible to have a teenager who just learned to make a teapot from the beginning of the birth of the teapot. According to my personal observation and analysis, this pot should be made later than Guo Bo’s tree shrub. The shrub pot is made by Huang Yulin, a master potter at the end of the Qing dynasty, and this six-cylinder pot is probably produced during the mortal period. At this time the antique market is hot, Yixing teapot antique master Jiang Yanting organized people in Shanghai to counterfeit a large number of ancient celebrity pots, we often have the imitation of time Peng (Father of the time Dabin), Shi Dabin, Li Zhongfang, Xu Youquan, Hui Meng Chen Chen, Chen Mingyuan, Wang Nanlin and others. So it's no surprise that it's counterfeit for spring. In the early years after the founding of the People's Republic of China, such antique pots flowed into Hong Kong. At that time, Luo Guixiang was not an expert in teapots. According to him, he said that he would buy them when he had seen the money and had a good appearance. So this six-pocketed circular pot was collected and spread to this day.

As of this writing, some people may ask: Is there any spring for the spring and for the spring pot? My answer is yes. Because many historical Zishaju classics and even Ming literati notes are recorded, these records are serious and intrinsic. We just need to change the idea for the spring pot, that is, we cannot use the “for spring” pot that specializes in crafting the United States and has a high level of technology for the spring pot. It will fall into the trap of the counterfeiter. On the contrary, the biggest contribution of the spring to the teapot is the creator. Its work should be very primitive, and it may be hand-kneaded and then trimmed with simple tools. The fetal soil is rough, and it burns with the cylinder bowl and the kettle body. There may also be tears of glaze and it is very likely that there will be no telling. Therefore, even if it is true that the spring pot has escaped the catastrophe of history and it has spread so far, it is very difficult for us to distinguish it. To solve this problem, we hope more of archaeologists. They are expected to pay attention to the tombs in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, especially the materials of the tombs in Zhengde and Jiajing. If one day can truly unearth the spring pot, it will push our teapot research and appraisal work to a new level.