《景舟石瓢》顾景舟～吴湖帆～唐云 "Jing Zhou Shi Piao ~ famous iteration : Gu Jing Zhou historic collaboration with Wu Hu Fan, as a gift to Tang Yun", Da Shui Tan Lao Zi Ni, by our Craftsman Zhao Huai Xu ~!CONGRATS TO MR S.P.! 0549hrs 26th June 2026, QLD Australia🇦🇺!
173.9ml.
Jing Zhou Shi Piao here BEING SPECIALLY CRAFTED at ~175ml!!! to cater for our tea friends who want a small and beautiful JING ZHOU SHI PIAO pot for Gung Fu tea steepings, and suitable for one to three persons!
《景舟石瓢》Jing Zhou Shi Piao ~ classic and famous iteration: collaboration of Gu Jing Zhou with Wu Hu Fan and Tang Yun!
First, the history and background of this ultra-classic Jing Zhou Shi Piao:
This above in the auction information, is the most famous Jing Zhou Shi Piao which legendary maestro Gu Jing Zhou had crafted in collaboration with Wu Hu Fan 吴湖帆。
~ the version created by the late Gu Jing Zhou in collaboration with Wu Hu Fan: 吴湖帆 Wu Hu Fan did the bamboo painting and calligraphy on the Shi Piao that Gu Jing Zhou had crafted. Gu Jing Zhou 顾景舟 himself performed the engraving upon Wu Hu Fan's completed painting and calligraphy. After Gu Jing Zhou fires it successfully, they gave it as a gift to 唐云 Tang Yun, who is a famous painter and acclaimed ZiSha collector in the late Min Guo Republic era.
The actual historical piece was auctioned at ~USD4,000,000 at the 2015 Beijing Jindong auction house. Most of us can never have it in our lives, but ZiSha Art collection in our homes, is also about honouring traditions and the esteemed classics.
Yes, this quintessential Jing Zhou Shi Piao by Gu Jing Zhou and Wu Hu Fan.
We honor these two Maestros Gu Jing Zhou and Wu Hu Fan with this recreated piece by Craftsman Zhao Huai Xu!
There are more about this piece crafted by Zhao Huai Xu:
This Jing Zhou Shi Piao stands at only ~175ml in volume! Jing Zhou Shi Piao is an ultra classic of our ZiSha fraternity, born of the legendary Gu Jing Zhou's genius design mind, and Craftsman Zhao Huai Xu here in our team embarked upon creating and crafting the smallest Jing Zhou Shi Piao amenable for most tea people's practice in modern times. Keeping the same pretty side silhouette as the prettiest Jing Zhou Shi Piaos known (but often crafted beyond 220ml), our uncle Cao An Xiang advised for a mild lowering (-1mm) of the upper brim/water level line, so that the lid that caps out on top, will be afforded a bigger gap (+1mm) between the ventilation hole below and the top of thd lid kob. This is very important because it creates more space for the Tea Master to grip on the lid knob!
Under the stewardship and eyes of our aunt Cao Lan Fang, Craftsman Zhao Huai Xu crafted the Jing Zhou Shi Piao in this Da Shui Tan Lao Zi Ni, while Chen Yu crafted in Zhi Ma Duan.
Thank you for Craftsmen Zhao Huai Xu for painstakingly mastering this difficult shape, that is this Jing Zhou Shi Piao piece, making the required modification and thereby created this very lovable small volume Jing Zhou Shi Piao! A must-have classic, with engraving of Plum Blossoms and Poem, the hard work and creating this smallest Jing Zhou Shi Piao for all!
You will find it a joy, savouring this ~175ml small volume Jing Zhou Shi Piao!
Just for reference, and further understanding:
The famous Jing Zhou Shi Piao stands at ~600ml and the lid knob is amenable to being gripped and lifted off.
The original 600ml piece by the legend Gu Jing Zhou and Wu Hu Fan is (auctioned at 27,025,000RMB, Year 2015).
Beautiful form, mastered by Zhao Huai Xu:
ZiSha Art is the most amazing carrier medium, housing Five aspects of Chinese Cultural Arts!
1. Fully-Handmade ZiSha Art and Craft,
2. Painting,
3. Calligraphy,
4. Poetry,
5. Engraving Art and Craft.
Hold, Use and Keep relishing all five aspects of our Chinese Culture in your daily life, in solitude, in practice, during hospitality to family and friends alike!
Savour the journey, dearest Friends :-D
Engraving of the Plum Blossoms
Bring this home early for more brilliant tea tastings with your guests, or by yourself!
Assuming right-handed use,
The Verse is in Kai Shu 楷书 Calligraphy Style, and faces the Guests,
"无客尽日静，有风终夜凉。"
"整日没有访客来打扰，四下清净安宁；晚风徐徐吹拂，整夜都透着清凉。
No visitors came to disturb the peace all day, and the surroundings were quiet and peaceful; a gentle evening breeze blew, and the whole night was cool.
Dearest friends, enjoy your tea!
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Da Shui Tan Zi Ni, is the clay that is mined from the same Quarry site as the (mythical) Tian Qing Ni. The Quarry Pit is named Da Shui Tan Kuang Qu 大水潭矿区。OUR DA SHUI TAN ZI NI, NOT JUST BEING AUTHENTIC, IS SOLD TO TRUE CONNOISSEURS AT THIS LOW PRICE. DEAR FRIENDS, THIS IS not just DA SHUI TAN ZI NI, this is our family's specially brought-out:
TOP QUALITY DA SHUI TAN, DEEPER LAYER ~~~ LAO ZI NI ~~~ 大水潭老紫泥。Get one.
It has a deeper purplish hue than Da Shui Tan Zi Ni.
Da Shui Tan Zi Ni: Its colour is the same as the said Tian Qing Ni. In fact, there is a candid comment from Master Yu Chun Lei 俞春雷, Craftsman Zhang Huan 张欢 and Craftsman Chen Fa Chu 陈法初, as they craft their pots from the same Da Shui Tan Zi Ni supplied from our Cao Family:
"that patrons can possibly buy Craftsman Chen Fa Chu's Da Shui Tan Zi Ni pots at 1500rmb and sell it off at 10,000-20,000rmb as "Tian Qing Ni"!"
Craftsman Zhao, being handled the Da Shui Tan stock, enjoys working with this Da Shui Tan Lao Zi Ni. He also wishes to educate all friends to savour Da Shui Tan Zi Ni and Da Shui Tan Lao Zi Ni, for their beauty is beguiling, a mixture of purplish, red, brown and grayish Zi Ni components. 
REST ASSURED. No way our trusty Zhao Huai Xu, Gu Xiao Ming, Chen Fa Chu and Assoc Master Yu Chun Lei, are going to sell their Da Shui Tan Zi Ni and Lao Zi Ni works at any inflated, exorbitant and dishonest prices. Besides honesty, we abide by lowering our prices so much almost to threaten the very basic threshold of our own livelihood, because this is a mission, and not a business. Humility and Professionalism: We abide by the highest code of honesty in serving our patrons and Museums local and worldwide.
Other retailers are blatantly and seriously selling their Da Shui Tan pots, but labelling them as "Tian Qing Ni" pots and selling at $4,000, $7,000, $10,000! Regrettably so and take heed to avoid.
Get an authentic Da Shui Tan Zi Ni pot from our honest Craftsmen and Artists and be the Wise, Aware and the Learned one.
Because, we in our fraternity do know, that Da Shui Tan Zi Ni appear the same as the mythical Tian Qing Ni pot. Both embody the highly similar grayish-purplish hue.
Do not ever get fleeced by others selling "Tian Qing Ni" works. Most are even Jigger-machined pots not made from ZiSha at all, and those that are made of ZiSha are actually made from Da Shui Tan Zi Ni instead.
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The mythical "Tian Qing Ni".
One of the biggest rabbit holes for consumers into ZiSha Art and Craft.
Fact is: There is NO certification for Tian Qing Ni.
None of our Grand Masters is ever going to certify any pot work as Tian Qing Ni. Reputation that they cannot afford to lose.
They know that Tian Qing Ni exists solely as our imagination and postulation, and is a rabbit hole that they advise everybody not to fall for.
They will NEVER advise you nor agree with you to chase down a "Tian Qing Ni Ore and/or pot".
They with all the learning behind them, will tell you that, Tian Qing Ni, is a type of ZiSha ore,
1. described only in words by a literati in the Qing Dynasty,
The person is called Zhou Gao Qi 周高起, the book he wrote is Yang Xian Ming Hu Xi 阳羡茗壶系。
2. however there is ZERO Ore Specimen being handed down by him to anybody else,
3. there is also NOT one single pot handed down by him to anybody else,
4. Not even Huang Long Yuan 黄龙源 company dare to say they have this mythical Tian Qing Ni.
Therefore, it remains the mythical ore and finished pot, which depending on one's own interpretation of the words written by Zhou Gao Qi, can be "labelled as Tian Qing Ni."
See the danger here? "depending on one's own interpretation of the words of Zhou Gao Qi." There is no physical specimen ever handed down by him. No ore, no clay nor pot.
Tian Qing Ni is still described in a few publications and "reference books" written by certain authors (which many have heard of or bought such publications), but the truth remains that is Tian Qing Ni is as per points Number 1 to 4 above.
Dear Friends, do also have the right understanding that:
There is NO REFERENCE BOOK EVER WRITTEN BY YIXING ZISHA ASSOCIATION. The two top ones are by Li Hong Yuan, the docent of the YiXing ZiSha Clay Museum, and Mr Zhu Ze Wei. All ZiSha Ore and Clay publications and books found in the market, are written by authors or workers who have gathered their own specimens of ores through the years, and they wrote these books based on what their own sampling and perception is. YiXing ZiSha Association and their working Ceramic professors and Grand Masters do not reference themselves with these books, but they most highly respect Mr Li Hong Yuan, and placed him as the docent and chief curator of our YiXing ZiSha Clay Museum.
We at RealZiSha, we do know these authors personally, we do meet them personally regularly and have tea with them. We maintain our cordiality and courtesy with them.
We, our Artists, Grand Masters and Master Artists, Craftsmen, do maintain our stance and maintain our core principles. Many things are common sense, and should never be hyped.
We focus on Craftsmanship. All YiXing ZiSha (properly mined, picked against the impurities) are equally good in our eyes, hands, and the tea we steep them with.
Be a true ZiSha wise aficionado and learned person, focussing of simply two points: 1)Craftsmanship, and 2)as long as it is YiXing ZiSha, it is good ZiSha. Don't pay for hyped up clays with many advertised ore photos and fanciful names.
Enjoy affordable ZiSha works by our Craftsmen and Artists :-D !!!
Craftsmen and Artists, say: "a ZiSha pot will behave like a jelly, wobbly like a jelly, once inside the kiln. What comes out of it, we shall see, and we shall only pray."
We cherish every single successful one, regardless of the price. Each is the result of much hard work, experience and definitely a certain degree of good luck during firing
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Support PROPER Da Shui Tan Zi Ni. Although they are made affordable by us, do not ever think that Da Shui Tan Zi Ni is not precious. IT IS rare and precious! We price it with a honest conscience at affordable prices.
Yes, just because they are priced affordably here, please do not see them as lesser. It is just that Craftsman Chen and us just do the proper thing. Remember, you can/are going to bring this pot to meet us anytime in YiXing and have tea with our Master Artists and Grand Masters possibly, and tell them you acquired this from Craftsman Zhao Huai Xu, Gu Xiao Ming, Zhang Huan, Craftsman Chen Fa Chu or Assoc Master Yu Chun Lei (who had crafted Da Shui Tan Zi Ni works for you) at the price you paid. Your Da Shui Tan Zi Ni and Da Shui Tan Lao Zi Ni pot here is a source of pride and joy, albeit being affordable. This Da Shui Tan Lao Zi Ni is highly treasured.
Kindly do because:
BRING ONE HOME, USE IT and you will know all about Fully-Handmade ZiSha, the feel of real and quality YiXing ZiSha, the nurturing of Patina, how the true Patina feels and looks like, the Aura exuded from a Fully-Handmade Pot which others simply can't bring forth, and, Craftsman Zhao Huai Xu's skills, savour the pour. You will know everything then.
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Hold one, hold up one, swing his work around. Carefully examine his Fully-Handmade work. Look at it from afar, from near, and it will grow on you. The whole piece grow on you because 1) he takes reference from what the Senior Masters chose for him, 2) and he amazingly crafts them up EXACTLY as to what the Senior Masters want from him: extreme fine detailing with MUCH THOUGHT on each part, with MUCH TIME spent on every part, section. Because this is what Fully-Handmade ZiSha Art should be, and HOW FULLY-HANDMADE ZISHA ART is so different from and light years ahead of the ubiquitous jigger-machined pots and half-handmade pots masquerading under the sales tagline of "fully-handmade zisha" pots. These latter JM/HHM pots are made in what we call 流水线 a.k.a. 'Factory-Line operation' whereby the main pot body after being jigger-machined or coming off from the mould, is passed to the next worker who fits on the spout, and subsequently this second worker will pass the pot on to another worker who will in turn fit on the handle. Continuing so, the pressed lid is likewise passed to another worker who fit on the lid knob. EACH WORKER has NO IDEA what the other one is doing, and they are always working on fixed time lines stated by the boss. For example, the worker being "passed the baton" a pot with the spout just fixed onto the body by his colleague, will only focus on fixing on the handle, with nil to little regard to WHETHER THE HANDLE fixed on will be cohesive with the spout. Each worker has NO idea of HOW THE FINAL POT WILL LOOK LIKE. Beyond poor craftsmanship and clay, the result of such processes are ugly pots with poor cohesiveness which experienced Artists, Craftsmen and collectors will tell from a metre away. Experienced people in us, do not need to pick up a pot to check whether it is fully-handmade or made of zisha, we can tell from a metre away just by looking at the pot.
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The keywords are: Detailing and Cohesiveness.
Do own one. They make amazing tea, with very slight muting effect on any bitterness in the tea leaves during steeping, and heightening their "refreshed"-ness and slight sweetness!
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A GOOD Fully-Handmade ZiSha Work combines great detailing and cohesiveness.
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