《青岚荷韵》"Qing Lan He Yun", Di Cao Qing + Colour Clay Sculpting Art of the Famous《千里江山图》Qian Li Jiang Shan Tu and Dian Cai appliqué (at Jing De Zhen) of Lotus Flower, by Craftsman Gao Xiang~!CONGRATULATIONS TO!DR L.L.! 1239hrs 3rd Sept 2026, Ventura! CA!
《青岚荷韵》"Qing Lan He Yun", 156.6ml, Di Cao Qing 底槽青 + 彩色泥绘 Colour Clay Sculpting Art of the Famous《千里江山图》Qian Li Jiang Shan Tu and 点彩 Dian Cai (at 景德镇 Jing De Zhen) of 荷花 Lotus Flower, by Craftsman Gao Xiang 高翔~!CONGRATULATIONS TO!DR L.L.! 1239hrs 3rd September 2026, Ventura! CA!
Information of the 《千里江山图》Qian Li Jiang Shan Tu painting can be found here, amidst the plethora of information both written and on YouTube.
https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/684440418
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《青岚荷韵》
青岚取自千里江山青绿层叠山峦，荷韵点出荷花，山河辽阔，荷风清雅，虚实相映，简洁大气。
Qing Lan He Yun: 青岚 Qing Lan is taken from the verdant, layered mountains of the vast landscape of The《千里江山图》Qian Li Jiang Shan Tu painting, while 荷韵 He Yun highlights the lotus flowers.
The Landscape imagery is expansive, the Vivid Lotus is elegant, with the interplay of imagery and realism creating a simple yet grand effect within a single teapot, enjoyable on both sides!
The Number One Chinese Qing Lü Shan Shui 青绿山水画 Painting in our Chinese Culture, is,
(青 "Qing" and 绿 "Lü" both translate as Green in the English language, but to us Chinese they are different, 青 Qing can have varying shades from green to turquoise to blue, and most importantly it carries within one character: meaning of various types of aura and atmosphere.)
The《千里江山图》Qian Li Jiang Shan Tu painting:
《The Panorama(Figurative)/ Thousand Miles(Literal) of Rivers and Mountains》
The actual work is 11.9meters long, in the vault of The Forbidden City Palace Museum in Beijing.
Dearest Friends, with our dedication to bringing your the classics, and showcasing step by step, other aspects of Chinese Art, e.g. Painting and Engraving of Pine, Plum Blossoms and Bamboos which everybody should have for these are the three most revered Tree/Flower/Grass that survive through the Winter, Avian Friends, Horse, Qing Gong Tu engraving, Clay Sculpting of Shan Shui, Garden Sceneries, Poems and Verses from Famous Poets and Figures of ancient Past, various forms of Calligraphy Styles,
This time we move on to Number One 青绿山水画Qing Lü Shan Shui Painting, the sterling, famous painting called the:
《千里江山图》
This painting dates back to the Northern Song Dynasty.
All of us in the team, after consultation and working together with Aunt Senior Master Cao, our Uncle Cao An Xiang and Craftsman Gao Xiang, this Polygonal Work come to fruition! ~ one which provides the perfect canvas face (our Cao Family's Di Cao Qing Zi Ni clay as the understated background) for the 泥绘 Clay Sculpting for BOTH the《千里江山图》Qian Li Jiang Shan Tu and the 点彩 Dian Cai of the Lotus Flower 荷花. After training by our uncle Cao An Xiang in the art of Clay Sculpting, Gao Xiang had showcased his skills in his previous polygonal works, e.g. the Si Fang Bao Ding, the Jing Si Liu Fang, the Liu Fang Gao Gong Deng; here Gao Xiang utilises ZiSha clay to conduct the clay sculpting of one of the top famous paintings in our Chinese Art: the 《千里江山图》Qian Li Jiang Shan Tu.
Our team chose the first part of this famous painting (which actually spans 11.9meters) to be clay sculpted on the squarish face with extension back from the handle, and forwards towards the spout.
PRESENTING THIS EXTREMELY HANDY, ERGONOMIC, SUPREMELY PRACTICAL work yet combining the most expansive and Number One Shan Shui Painting of our Chinese Art, and the Lotus Flower observed up close and vividly.
Clay Sculpting with ZiSha clay of various colours, adorn the face of the work facing the Tea Master (assuming right-handed use).
Our uncle Mr Zhang Yun Long (here on the left besides his mother) after Craftsman Gao Xiang completed both the pot crafting and the Clay Sculpting, sent it for firing. And after this is completed, he drove and brought the piece to 景德镇 Jing De Zhen for 点彩 Dian Cai Glaze appliqué to be done by Artisan Chen Meng, which adorn the face of the work facing the Guests.
The Lotus Flower is chosen with Artisan Chen Meng, for its expansive identical use of the Blue~Turqoise~Green colour palette on the Lotus leaf, to rhyme with the Qian Li Jiang Shan Tu on the other face!
Information of the Qian Li Jiang Shan Tu painting can be found here, amidst the plethora of information both written and on YouTube.
https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/684440418
You can view it as it is on the browser or download its viewing app, or brush it aside and continue viewing and reading it as it is on Google, Safari or Hong Meng Harmony browser. Qian Li Jiang Shan Tu remains the Number 1 Qing Lü Shan Shui Painting in our Chinese culture.
This painting is stored in our 故宫博物院 Gu Gong Bo Wu Yuan, The Forbidden City Palace Museum in Beijing, and is never allowed out of its premises to any other Museum, even within China, for exhibition. Not only that, this painting is only exhibited once every ten years. Queues form overnight every time it is due for its display and exhibition to the public. A top echelon national treasure.
This painting, besides displaying the extreme artistic direction and painting skill of Wang Xi Meng, this painting is not painted using traditional ink.
This painting is painted with extremely precious gemstone 石青 Azurite and 石绿 Malachite, GROUND TO POWDER. Ancient knowledge, and Applied by top Artists so that the colours never fade even after a thousand years and beyond.
We together celebrate the Qian Li Jiang Shan Tu Clay Sculpting together with the Lotus Flower Dian Cai appliqué in this lovely Polygonal work by Craftsman Gao Xiang!
This Polygonal work, is very difficult to craft. Remember Han Wa? Its difficulty with its very wide top opening, presents the challenge upon lids would hopefully fire and end up with perfect flatness and fit! This is one of average two point five specimens that survived and came through flat and fitting! All of us are so thankful!yes! For just this ONE piece.
We also need to give Kudos to Craftsman Gao Xiang who, after his recent clay sculpting of Shan Shui on the Liu Fang Gao Gong Deng, the Amur Flycatcher and the Camellia flowers on the Jing Si Liu Fang , he mastered the mixing colours for the blue, green and yellow clay sculpting of the Qian LI Jiang Shan Tu. The Qian Li Jiang Shan Tu is a ELEVEN-metre painting, and it is one of the most famous painting within our Chinese fraternity, which EVERY painting collector, aficionado and enthusiast, will know right from his or her early journey, and along the way as it gets regularly mentioned, referenced and studied. It is a must know painting that Chinese are united around, and it is also showcased as a dance in the Bilibili 2021->2022 Chinese New Year countdown night and National New Year countdown on our National TV Spring Celebration 春晚 (《只此青绿》had done its rounds in several countries and we hope its live presentation comes to your locale soon too):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZlUvIV50Ww
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POjb-UEQyis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrOMMV90S8s&t=3169s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mwjsflqmFA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNPgzMykZW4&t=10s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8PEbA1AINU&t=152s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNPgzMykZW4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukmpVh9lqVw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iS5fSqvZTog&t=614s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQ_CJQhwci8
Above, is Bilibili 2021 of the dark stage presentation adapted from the stage play《只此青绿》。
On a side note, for friends who missed the Bilibili stage presentation of Black Myth Wukong:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6z62rgVBRbw
Gao Xiang is with you now, crafting beguiling and stunning handy-volumed Polygonal class works for all of you.
Him being a very honest friend whom Zhang Huan, Zhu Shu and Yang Ping Ting respect a lot in their clay sculpting trainings several years ago, all of us managed to convince him, to join us in September 2025! And yes here he is for all of you friends! We are all very happy and over the moon!!
Gao Xiang, at age of 31 now, has been particularly fond of small Polygonal class works since fifteen years ago when he picked up and trained hard in Fully-Handmaking works! He receives of course, the nod of quality by Senior Consummate Master Yuan Hui! All of the Craftsmen now in the group too are very happy that from now on, they can all complement one another! Small (100-160ml) Polygonal works are his area of focus and forte, this being is his love which he does best in! We really hope all of you friends and ZiSha aficionados will agree with our team here that his works are amazing in craftsmanship and artistic direction under the auspices of Senior Consummate Master Yuan Hui! All afforded at the most affordable price in the market, and of delicate savoir-faire and workmanship! Very happy that he will now be here permanently with all of you! A lot of hard work from all of us, and we will continue fighting very hard against all odds, for all of you. We love our Fully-Handmade ZiSha Art and are very grateful and over the moon whenever each piece goes to your homes.
We cheer for Craftsman Gao Xiang and thank him for his years of dedication to ZiSha and his love of delicate Polygonal works!
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Savour BOTH of Craftsman's Gao Xiang's Pot Craftsmanship AND COLOURED Clay Sculpting 彩色泥绘, and our Artisan Chen Meng in Jing De Zhen.
Clay Sculpting with the applied embellishments, is challenging and raises the likelihood of failure at firing: through cracks at the thin ZiSha clay appliqué, which would be irreparable. If the clay sculpting comes off, these are irreparable, and the whole pot has to be abandoned. Gao Xiang needs to craft again. Generally success rate is one in two.
Color Clay Sculpting is more difficult and requires higher experience, as the colors pre-firing is different from the colors manifested post-firing, hence the Craftsman must be able to envision the final post-fired effect and color, as he applies fresh ZiSha clay during this Clay Sculpting process!
Having the skill of knowing what ZiSha paste to sculpt with is one thing, having the petals and all, having the 3-Dimensional Effect, varying thickness to beautifully bring up the aesthetic appreciation of the Flycatcher Bird and the Camellia Flowers, is another forté which must be mastered together by Craftsman Gao Xiang.
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45-degree 1mm-chamferring,
Around the Lid:
Both Shoulder line and Top Opening Edge:
Lid opening, inner edge:
The detailing at the lid,
The detailing, chamferring at the handle edges,
The edges of the base,
Superb, Fast pour from the beautifully constructed and crafted Spout and Filter hole combination! Amazing great pour from a small-volume ~150ml work!
Shrinkage of Fully-Handmade ZiSha work:
ZiSha Art is the most amazing carrier medium, here housing Four aspects of Chinese Cultural Arts, and a beautiful look in to Chinese Painting and Dian Cai as well! All five aspects on your hands, plus serving the best teas ever for you on your tea table! Long lasting (lasts beyond a lifetime), easy maintenance, and becomes more beautiful with use and contact, not less!
1. Fully-Handmade ZiSha Art and Craft 紫砂美术与工艺,
2. Painting 绘画,
3. Clay Sculpting 泥绘。
4. Dian Cai 点彩。
Yes, all these engagement with Chinese Artforms, all while going about your daily and healthy mindful sessions at ease, drinking the best tasting Teas!
We wish all our dearest friends in you, to enjoy it, use it, savour it and feel the aura of our Chinese YiXing Art!
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Craftsman Gao Xiang is NOW proudly one of us and he will be featuring consistently, with Zhang Huan, Zhu Shu, Yang Pin Ting, Gu Xiao Ming, Chen Fa Chu, et al. Craftsman Gao Xiang's works are highly scrutinised and praised too!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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Cherish it as they do not come easy, with the firing kiln enabling only a 60-70% success rate for this detailed Polygonal + coloured Clay embellishment sculpting Art, i.e. fire 3, and two or less will be successful. This is SPECIALLY crafted for all of you friends at ~150ml to suit the gungfu solo steeping practice! Still good for steeping for two people at a sitting!
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We hope to bring all of you more and more classics, for you to hold a broad view and savour the delightful landscape of ZiSha works that our YiXing fraternity has!!!
A treasure chest and our team will continue to work very hard to prepare and bring forth every single piece to you. Thank you, dearest Friends for your understanding.
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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 and feel manifested by a Fully-Handmade Pot which others simply can't bring forth. Savour Craftsman Gao Xiang's skills. You will know everything then :-D
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Not resorting to moulds and half-handmaking. These dedicated Fully-Handmaking Craftsmen sacrifice their whole lives to commit to this Art and Craft. They will tell you, they will never negotiate. Fully-Handmaking ZiSha works is worth their sacrifice of their entire lifetime, they want to preserve our Chinese traditional art and craft. They want to preserve and enhance the unique character of Yixing ZiSha: the double-sized pores uniquely gifting ZiSha its character.
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Dearest Friends, we are savouring this top Ceramic material for tea, ZiSha, and these are all the Craftsmen’s and Artists’ hard worked, Fully-Handmade pieces, with lots of preparations, intense crafting, heart aches at the kiln, all fully respecting this totally natural, and high shrinkage unpredictable clay, sensitive to even a 0.5degree in ambient temperature, and even weather (temperature, moisture, the four seasons) outside of the kiln. The 铁熔点 ~ natural black iron melted spots that irregularly and spontaneously appear anywhere and everywhere ~ we call Tie Rong Dian :-D, the “跳砂” Tiao Sha denote the observed “popped-off-spots” effect when the cute surface granulate popped off from the surface during the high shrinkage of more pasty clay around it, the “爆子” “Bao Zi” also dot the surface as those that did not pop off, hover out just enough to cling onto the surface, and the simple surface irregularities, are all due to this ceramic clay, although having the highest shrinkage, are still mercilessly and necessarily fired at 1150degC to 1250degC. These are all part of the natural ZiSha artefacts and what many modern day or Western pottery lovers affectionately call “wabi-sabi”. Our Chinese Craftsmen and Artists do not aim for wabi-sabi for the sake of wabi-sabi. Do forgive them for these natural irregularities. These Tie Rong Dian, Tiao Sha and Bao Zi, are the natural phenomena that dot the surface of our beloved top tea ceramic! YiXing ZiSha, the best ZiSha source in the whole world, with the double-sized pores innately inherent and imbuing the best taste for any type of tea. Savour Fully-Handmade ZiSha teapot Craft and Art!
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We at RealZiSha, take 90-120 photos, fresh, of EACH, ONE, Fully-Handmade ZiSha work. Together with our sacrificial and hardworking Craftsmen and Artists committed to honest true Fully-Handmade ZiSha Art and Craft, we at RealZiSha go the eons' distance.
Here there are 180 photos.
Compare this to elsewhere: factory bosses of jigger-machined non-zisha pots contribute downstream to their retailers: 5-10 stock photos for each non-zisha pot model, used to sell a stock of 10, 20, 30 jigger-machined non-zisha pots per model. I.e. 5-10 photos to sell hundreds of one model.
We at RealZiSha, take 90-120 photos, fresh, of EACH, ONE, Fully-Handmade ZiSha work. Together with our sacrificial and hardworking Craftsmen and Artists committed to honest true Fully-Handmade ZiSha Art and Craft, we at RealZiSha go the aeons' distance.
Again, another tremendous labor of love by our trusted and committed collaborative Craftsman Gao Xiang. It is a team effort and we thank you dearest Friends for your grandest support to the honest and the dedicated Craftsmen here left to fend the Fully-Handmade ZiSha Art.
The lines and detailing speak of Craftsman Gao Xiang's EXTREME CARE AND TIME taken to craft each part, each pot. Hold one, hold up one, swing the work around. Carefully examine his Fully-Handmade work. Look at it from afar, from near, and it will grow on you, with 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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The amount of effort put behind each of our Fully-Handmade ZiSha work welcoming you, the authentic YiXing ZiSha clay, the many years of dedication and hardship committed to the craft, the proper three rounds of firing, the presentation with dedicated 80-150 photos of each work, the effort spent behind procuring 5rmb notes in running stacks from our local banks, is 100,000x, more than the what is peddled on countless websites: with cheap common ceramic clays behind the unauthentic pots, the fast, less than a minute of jigger-machining, or just the few months’ ability of newly recruited unskilled workers to churn out half-handmade pots, the simple one to two rounds of firing at convenient and lower temperatures at just only one round of firing, cheap ceramic clays that do not shrink much so as to maximise success and profits, the presentation with a set of ten photos taken per model and repeated for more than tens to thousands of stock.
And yet, Craftsmen Chen Fa Chu, Zhu Shu, Gao Xiang, Fan Xiao Zhi, Zhang Huan, Fang Shi, Yang Pin Ting, Gu Xiao Ming, Wang Xing, Wang Hui, etc, honest hardworking people are put in a really bad position, for they 1) have to compete on price with fake stuff from all around, but still 2) have to offer the honest real thing: Fully-Handmade ZiSha works. These honest Craftsmen have to lower their prices so much with their works, authentic works of extreme sacrifices, labour and experience.
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.
Depending on the difficulty of craft the design elements command, the difficulty of crafting with certain clay types, the rarity and hence cost of clay, the inclusion of engraving 刻绘 and/or clay sculpting e.g. Ni Hui 泥绘, Dui Hui 堆绘, Diao Su 雕塑 on the piece of work, our Craftsmen face immense cost increase, time spent, and the level of expertise and savoir-faire accumulated by sheer HARD WORK.
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 vital 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 Gao Xiang 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 Gao Xiang and his hard-worked and fine-worked Pieces for you. One by one!
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