China's tea culture is deeply influenced by the three schools of thought of "Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism". This influence is reflected in all aspects, turning tea drinking, a common daily thing, into an elegant thing for self-cultivation. The fusion of ideas of the three families is embodied in the shape of tea utensils. Excellent tea utensils are not only tools for daily tea activities, but also have great artistic attainments and aesthetic value.
During the thousands of years of tea culture development, tea utensils have also developed rapidly. Currently, there are two most recognized tea vessels in the world, namely porcelain from Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province and purple clay teapot from Yixing, Jiangsu Province. With the continuous development of industrial society, the degree of industrialization in all walks of life has continued to deepen, but Yixing's purple clay teapots have gone against the path of industrialization and adopted the most primitive techniques, purely handmade. Purely handmade purple clay pots often require longer time for the pot maker, and the purely handmade production techniques also lead to extremely low yields. However, at the same time, their shapes are ever-changing, ranging from simple and elegant to exquisite and eye-catching, majestic, or Small and delicate...
purple sand The changes in the shape of the pot completely depend on the "one pair of hands" of the pot maker. To borrow a philosophical saying: "There are no two completely similar handmade purple clay pots in the world." Every time the pot maker taps the pot body, the strength is slightly different. A ten thousandth change will result in the final shape of the purple clay teapot being different. Therefore, innovation in the shape of purple clay pots has become a lifelong pursuit of excellent purple clay craftsmen.
A good creation not only has form, but also needs "spirit". The maker needs extremely high artistic accomplishment to project invisible emotions and thoughts into the tangible purple clay pot, so that a pot can have both spirituality and humanity. It can be said that each purple clay teapot can fully reflect the pot maker's understanding of the teapot, which also makes the purple clay teapot break away from practical use and become a highly sought-after work of art.
The "Four Square Linghua" pot I made was made of the most "stable" Huanglongshan raw ore old purple clay . The overall shape is round, square, or ribbed. is so long that it cannot be described by a single shape—— At first glance, it may be described as a ribbed vessel; at second glance, it may be described as a square vessel; at a second glance, it can be transformed into a round vessel... While the shape is complex, its lines are extremely simple, thus Try your best to present a unique harmony in one complex and one simple to achieve the meaning of "everything goes as you wish".
"Sifang Linghua" Pot
Compared with ribbed ware, square and round ware are simpler to make, but they are easy to learn and difficult to master. Especially the superior square and round ware only rely on points, lines and surfaces. Three minimalist elements create balance, symmetry and unity, which requires the purple sand craftsman to be steady, accurate and ruthless.
Among them, the superior square utensils are often strong, regular and grand, with the spirit of a man standing at thirty. The four sides of the "Sifang Linghua" pot are based on aspects, which requires that the lines on each side must be neatly processed. A square pot without a neat feeling will cause the overall shape of the pot to "collapse." I try to have a sense of proportion in the handling of the lines and arrange them appropriately to show the majesty of the square vessel.
Most of the best round utensils are perfect and smooth. Their circles are not lifeless circles like those drawn by compasses, but graceful and rounded, smooth and steady at the same time, and the most important thing is "stability". The characteristics of a purple clay teapot require that any purple clay teapot should give people a sense of security and balance. The "Sifang Linghua" teapot adopts a round shape on the lid, hiding the circle in the square, and having the straightness of the square. and round suppleness. At the same time, the four corners of the pot are also rounded, which undoubtedly places high demands on the pot-making artist - if the rounded corners of the square pot are to achieve a stable and thick effect, the pot-maker needs to be careful when making the corners. There can be no hesitation, it must be formed once, and then only the details can be modified. Once the overall shape is modified, its potential will be lost. This neat production technique requires thousands of practices and repeated tests.
"Sifang Linghua" Pot
Let's talk about the ribbed ware making technique used in the treatment of the surface and corners of the "Sifang Linghua" pot. Dabin , the master of purple clay pot making in the Ming Dynasty, improved the early ribbed ware and made the "Magnolia Petal Pot".Subsequently, after hundreds of years of innovation, the ribbed ware developed a variety of deformed pot shapes. However, no matter what kind of deformation, the ribbed ware is characterized by clear and full ribs. The ribs on the body of the pot are densely packed and full of rhythm. and rhythmic beauty. In addition to the beauty of the overall shape, touching the ribbed device with your hands and the undulating surface structure can give people a sense of comfort. Compared with ordinary purple clay pots, ribbed ware is more time-consuming and has a lower yield. The layout and angle of the ribs also require the author's extremely high aesthetic attainments. There is a saying widely circulated in the circle as "Ten years "Grind a rib pattern" means that it is impossible for a pot maker without ten years of pot-making experience to make a rib-grained vessel. This sentence also illustrates the superb craftsmanship required to make ribbed wares. I tried to capture the essence of ribbed ware on the body and corners of the pot, making the whole pot fuller in shape.
In 2006, the hand-forming method of purple clay teapots was selected as a national intangible cultural heritage. This is not only the pride of Yixing purple clay , but also puts forward new requirements for Yixing purple clay teapots: purple clay teapots cannot give up their traditional production techniques in order to increase production. . The "Sifang Linghua" pot is my attempt at modeling innovation, striving to achieve overall harmony, exquisite details, and a level of visual exquisiteness and tactile comfort. At the same time, through the shape of this "Sifang Linghua" pot, I also want to express a world view: first of all, tolerance, on top of tolerance, we should do our best to make incompatible things harmonious and orderly, and finally, in When all things are in harmony, everything goes well.
Author: Chu Tingyuan (National Senior Arts and Crafts Artist)
Editor: Shao Ling
Responsible Editor: Shao Ling
* Wenhui exclusive manuscript, please indicate the source when reprinting.
