Han Wa 汉瓦, Zhi Ma Duan Ni 芝麻段泥, 139.2ml, by Craftsman Gu Xiao Ming 顾小明; Engraving (Bamboo and Poem) by Craftsman Ruo Xi 若兮 ~ Congratulations!to Mr J.S.! 1830hrs 22nd Nov 2025! Chicago! IL!
《汉瓦》 Han Wa.
"诗思禅心共竹闲 任他流水向人间"
这首诗的首句描写一位禅师因禅修，悟达自身与天地一体，同万物共圆融，房前青竹也与自己毫无隔阂，两处一般闲了。有这样的能染所染俱物的境界，自然是不在惧怕红尘俗世的污染，所以“任他流水向人间”。此中还有一义是“佛法在人间，不离世间觉，离世见菩提，犹如觅兔角”（六祖语），必须将出世入世融为一个方可。更何况大乘菩萨利益有情，是必须在回到人间的。此时禅师一手拿着象征玄谈妙论的如意，从窗口眺望，但见千山衬着斜阳将下，跌红了东流不息的江水。已犹如“夕阳西下几时回”、“夕阳无限好，只是近黄昏”之类的伤叹。斜阳就是斜阳，落下就是落下，不能妄生分别，亦不能被心生境转迷。惟有心入寂静，才能真正欣赏到“斜日沿江千万山”的美妙处。
～ The first line of this poem describes a Zen master who, through meditation, attains enlightenment, realising the unity of himself with heaven and earth, and the harmony of all things. Even the green bamboo in front of his house feels no barrier to him; both are equally at peace. Having reached this state of being, where both the subject and object of defilement are present, he naturally no longer fears the pollution of the mundane world, thus "letting the flowing water flow into the human realm." There is also a deeper meaning here: "The Buddha's teachings are in the human realm; enlightenment is not separate from the world. To see Bodhi apart from the world is like searching for a rabbit's horn" (as the Sixth Patriarch said). One must integrate the concepts of worldly involvement and detachment into one ～
The Han Wa 汉瓦.
AND THIS IS A VERY SPECIAL AND TREASURED HAN WA.
We refresh ourselves with the previous explanation on all our Han Wa 's :
In YiXing, there is a saying that,
"Do not brag how good your skills are in crafting Fully-Handmade ZiSha pots,
FIRST SHOW ME your Han Wa.
This saying has its strong foundations.
1.
Han Wa needs to have a gently curving side wall and if not done evenly, is very obvious to the eye.
2.
Han Wa has a largish lid spanning the large circumference. In relativity to the pot's width, the Han Wa obviously has the largest lid-width to body-width ratio! This largish lid also has its front edge VERY close to where the front spout takes shape. These present a very challenging task to the Craftsman, because:
IF not done well and tight, there will be leaking at the front lid edge when the user tilts the teapot to serve tea. The whole big circular lid has to be perfectly evenly made to secure a tight fit.
3.
Han Wa's lid, being wide and flat (not domed), still needs to account for a gently curving convex top surface, WHILE supporting the heavy lid knob that can cause the flat lid to "sink" down in the middle. A domed lid otherwise would naturally present a stronger vertical axial strength to support a heavy lid knob, but not the Han Wa.
Admire this Han Wa.
Simple, but a Top Classic.
Han Wa, is also VERY practical!
4.
It provides extreme ease of introducing tea leaves into the pot,
extreme ease of removing and flushing out tea leaves during cleaning,
extremely fast speed to drying within the pot.
5.
THIS IS THE LATEST IMPROVED HAN WA WITH 2+3+4+3+2 = 14 exit filter holes!despite its relatively small size. Han Wa also facilitates: during tilting and pouring tea out: allows and draws in more tea and presents a higher hydrostatic pressure that results in a strong jet of tea during serving!!! Coupled with the wide aperture spout>>> the jet is strong and fast!
On top of the previous 5 points,
This Han Wa is crazy:
6. The lid is EVEN WIDER AND BROADER! That means the lid is even much more prone to collapsing downwards during firing. But Gu Xiao Ming succeeded with this! He needs to grasp properly the clay processing, and the moisture needed, and the firing temperatures at all 3 firings perfectly. It took a lot of trial and errors. He succeeded eventually!
Fun Fact. Craftsman Gu succeeds usually with only one out of every five made.We salute his huge efforts to bring this to us.
Craftsman Gu Xiao Ming delights us this time, crafting the all time evergreen classic, the Jing Zhou Shi Piao, with the delectable Zhi Ma Duan Ni 芝麻段泥! Zhi Ma Duan "Sesame Seed Duan Ni" is a lovely type of Duan Ni, incorporating much iron as its constituent, amidst the highly porous nature that is Duan Ni!
Zhi Ma 芝麻 Duan Ni 段泥 is thus affectionately named, because of the speckling of iron constituents in generous quantities resemble Sesame Seeds 芝麻 :-D!
Bring this home early for more brilliant tea tastings with your guests, or by yourself
Poem in Kai Shu 楷书 Calligraphy Style faces the Guests (assuming Tea Master being right-handed)
"诗思禅心共竹闲 任他流水向人间"
Dearest friends, enjoy your tea :-)
Engraving of Bamboos faces the Tea Master,
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Crafted at ~130-150ml to cater for our tea friends who want a small pot for Gung Fu tea steepings, and suitable for one to two persons.
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As with all Art pieces from RealZiSha here presented to all of you dearest Friends, guardians of Fully-Handmade ZiSha Art, they are premium pieces availed at the most astounding lowest prices. We want you each of you friends to get the best. You deserve it.
Craftsman Gu also conscientiously sculpted a 手推内球孔 Hand-Pushed Spherical Filter to increase the number of filter holes (Craftsman Gu manages to execute skilfully without such small confines, the 2-3-4-3-2 configuration!!!, total being 14) as being for a solid and fast pour of tea out and with better catching of tea leaves at the bottom fast while allowing tea to flow out from the upper holes.
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Craftsman Gu Xiao Ming 顾小明 thanks you dearest friends for your grandest support to the honest and dedicated Craftsmen left to fend the Fully-Handmade ZiSha Art.
Here with us in our happy family of true ZiSha connoisseurs, you witness 90-120 photos taken of EACH Fully-Handmade ZiSha work here.
Compare this to elsewhere: factory bosses of jigger-machining 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 eons' distance.
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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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