Ban Yue《半月》~ "The Half Moon", 128.6ml, *Ta Xi Ye Shan Hong Zong Zi Ni 台西野山红棕紫泥, by our Craftsman Zhang Huan 张欢, Engraving of Verse and Bamboo by Craftsman Mu Shan 牧山!~ Congratulations!to Mr F.R.! 0031hrs 22nd May 2026, Elsbethen! Austria!
《半月》Ban Yue ~ The Half Moon
THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT SHAPE, and one of the very top archetypal early versions of fhe Ban Yue, is this:
DISCOVERED IN THE 17th CENTURY: Late Ming ~ Early Qing.
Although a very old classic, it is ultra-stylish. A very beautiful forward-looking Oriental shape, and EXTREMELY WELL-MASTERED by Zhang Huan! Seemingly simple, but all the curves are perfected by Zhang. Own one here!specially crafted in our Cao Family's collection of Tai Xi Ye Shan quarry: Hong Zong Zi Ni! He had previously crafted this in our Cao Family's grayish Qing Hui Duan! and now in this VERY highly tactile and SPECIAL REDDISH-BROWN Tai Xi Ye Shan Quarry's Hong Zong Zi Ni!
Being a special type of Zi Ni, it thrives in all types of teas once well seasoned in any tea! Try it and be very happy the rest of your tea journey!
SAVOUR THE BAN YUE by hardworking and skilful Craftsman, Zhang Huan!!
Dearest Friends, here we grandly welcome you to another of our Cao Family's clay: * The Tai Xi Ye Shan Hong Zong Zi Ni 台西野山红棕紫泥 *
Huang Long Shan has several quarries, notable amongst them e.g. 4th Quarry, Tai Xi quarry, Da Shui Tan, Bao Shan.
Next to the Tai Xi quarry, there is another second quarry just adjacent, which we affectionately call Tai Xi Ye Shan "Wild Mountain" kuang 台西野山矿!!!
In Li Hong Yuan and Zhu Ze Wei's books on ZiSha, this documented ore/clay type is recorded down very clearly and succinctly too:
"矿: 含有一定量的白色云母碎片.
烧成后呈紫棕红色调, 胎质颗粒质感较好, 但外观色泽纯度略差。"
MEANING:
The Ore: significant presence of WHITE MICA pieces! After firing, it presents in purplish~brown~red colour tones, the sandiness/graininess is very good, and the appearance highly heterogeneous.
Superb form, mastered by Zhang Huan, and manifested pampering all of you friends!
Senior Master Lu Xue Feng and Cao Lan Fang CHOSE for the ENGRAVING to be done by Craftsman Mu Shan with a great repertoire of engraving savoir-faire and calligraphy skills! We are very happy that Mu Shan is now serving all of you friends!
Again, this time we partnered him with the senior Engraving Craftsman Mu Shan to pamper us with his delightful Engraving, this time with Bamboos covering and spanning delightfully from left to right continuously. Yi-Lei and ian chose the verses for Engraving Craftsman Mu Shan, while he exercises his own artistic direction for the delicate pictorial engraving.
Engraving of the verse,
"未出土时先有节，便凌云去也无心。"
From Xu Tingyun's "Ode to Bamboo" (Song Dynasty): Even before sprouting from the soil, it already possesses integrity; and even as it grows and stretches high, it has no desire to boast.
"凌云" (Lingyun) means reaching straight to the clouds; the bamboo grows tall and stretches towards the sky.
This sentence praises the bamboo's indomitable character and noble sentiments; even as it grows and climbs higher, it always maintains a humble and modest attitude.
Engraving of the Bamboos on the other face by Mu Shan, reflecting the verse,
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Craftsman Zhang Huan 张欢, since young, has embarked on his journey of crafting Austere ZiSha works of HIGH QUALITY. He had been noticed and hand-picked by Senior Cao Lan Fang and Senior Master Lu Xue Feng over observation of the past decade, and they have taken him in as their very hardworking disciple and CORE COLLEAGUE.
After three years of perfecting further his already polished skills, his works have consistently been given more than a nod by our Artists, be it Senior Master Lu Xue Feng, Senior Master Cao Lan Fang, Assoc Master Yang Quan Sheng, Assoc Master Li Yan Ru, Assoc Master Du Cheng Yao. Craftsman Zhang is NOW proudly one of us and he will be featuring consistently, and he also works closely with Yi Xiao Ran (featured in our home page video) and also Chen Fa Chu (together both being the longest serving Craftsmen with us). Craftsman Zhang Huan is naturally gifted, and extremely dedicated to perfecting his Art. His works have been noticed and appraised highly. The lines and detailing of his pots are unmatched for their prices. His lines and detailing speak of his EXTREME CARE AND TIME taken to craft each part, each pot. The lines and detailing speak of his fighting through his years from very challenging family conditions since young.
Only a very well-trained, experienced and skilful Craftsman will be able to understand the curves and proportions perfectly, and here beautifully captured and crafted by Craftsman Zhang Huan.
Craftsman Zhao's works are highly scrutinised by our Senior Masters, and deemed to be ready for you, delectable for your use and a long lasting permanent ZiSha work in your collection.
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Again, another tremendous labor of love by our trusted and committed collaborative Craftsman Zhang Huan. It is a team effort and we thank you dearest Friends for your grandest support to the honest and the dedicated Craftsladies and Craftsmen here left to fend the Fully-Handmade ZiSha Art.
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.
A GOOD Fully-Handmade ZiSha Work combines great detailing and cohesiveness.
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Explained, https://www.realzisha.com/blogs/news/actual-zisha-landscape-at-yixing , the Craftsman by selling his hard-worked ZiSha craft at $190-$240, $45-$65 goes to the cost of the craft, inclusive of the fees for the firing for the kiln operator (three times per pot), the packaging boxes, and between $32 to $52 for the clay (Zi Ni Di Cao Qing, Duan Ni and upwards) used per pot. Craftsman takes 3 days (fastest 2.5days) to craft a pot.
If he works 30 days a month without a single day of rest (no family time), he will craft 10-12 pots.
If he crafts for 25 days (five days of rest a month), his output will be 8-10 pots.
The success rate for Zi Ni (e.g. Di Cao Qing, Lao Zi Ni, Da Shui Tan etc) and Duan Ni (e.g. Jiang Po Ni, Qing Hui Duan, etc) is 70% on average. Some times the whole batch of 10 may fail. We have seen our Craftsmen suffer like this very often.
The success rate for Zhu Ni (e.g. Xiao Mei Yao Zhu Ni) pots is 60%, or 70% with most optimism and at the very, very best. Unfortunately.
All of us at RealZiSha of course, hope for one another, professional colleagues and all, that all the pots will survive firing at the kiln successfully.
[For ZiSha models/designs that are very challenging and more complicated to craft, the time taken to craft will be longer, and the failure rate will be higher as well. Zi Sha by its virtue, have the highest shrinkage rate of all ceramic clay. Zi Ni and Duan Ni thus have that 70% success rate, while Zhu Ni has even higher shrinkage rate and thus even lower success rate (the lowest of all ceramic clay.)]
Our Craftsmen are wholeheartedly committed to the cause of Fully-Handmade ZiSha Art and their strictness with their craft and dedication earn our respect. We give a big Thank You all of these Craftsmen, for they are saving what is our common precious tea culture: Tea + Fully-Handmade ZiSha Art and Craft. Your support is critical to their livelihood and the existence of this craft for all of the tea fraternity.
Thank you Friends!
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Our Senior Masters have given Craftsman Zhang Huan the full blessings with all of us. He is fully-fledged at RealZiSha. Most important, after all the hard work,
We are very happy that he is now with all of you.
Presenting Zhang Huan and his hard-worked and fine-worked Pieces for you. One by one.
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