Zi Sha is a type of special pottery in China. It has the color of purple, usually purplish-red. The Zi Sha pottery is stronger and thinner than other potteries and used to make exquisite equipment. The fine Zi Sha potteries can be very valuable in the market.

It has long been believed that the earliest Zi Sha masters were a monk in the Jinsha Temple in the Yixing City and his succession Gong Chun in the mid Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). However, a few Zi Sha pottery pieces have been excavated from other archeological sites which can be traced back to as early as the stone age. In the Song Dynasty (960-1279) Zi Sha had been used for the equipment in the daily life. However, before the Ming Dynasty, Zi Sha had not became a popular material for the pottery industry, the Jinsha Monk and Gong Chun were the first two craftsmen who changed Zi Sha making as an artwork. Zi Sha had been widely accepted by the Chinese people after them.

Zi Sha is used mostly as the material for tea equipment. Most excavated Zi Sha potteries are tea pots or cups, probably because the Ming Dynasty was also a milestone of the Chinese tea history. Also the Zi Sha is only a thin layer of pottery without any glaze, it is a good thermal insulator. By using the Zi Sha containers, the hot tea is easier to keep warm in the winter and will not hurt the drinker's hand. It can keep the original flavor of the tea for several days without changing the tea's color and taste. Zi Sha and tea has became a perfect match since the Ming Dynasty. It is now a major material of tea equipment besides porcelain in China.

The Jinsha Monk and Gong Chun lived in the Hongzhi and Zhengde Era (1488-1521) of the Ming Dynasty. This was the most stable and prosperous time of the Ming Dynasty. The Jinsha Monk used to work with pottery makers. He tried to get rid of all the impurities from lots of clay, at last he collected some little fine and purplish sticky part, then he made a tea pot with this purified clay. Surprisingly the tea pot was as strong as metal and stone, when he knocked at the pot by his fingers he heard a ring bell-like sound. It was extremely good to reserve tea with this pot. Soon after his skill became famous at the time and he developed a whole set of procedure to purify the clay and make pottery pots. Since the pottery was a little hoarse like very find sands and had a purple color, people called this material Zi Sha (the purple sand) pottery. The Jinsha Monk and Gong Chun both lived in the city of Yixing, where the purple clay is fine and rich. Yixing is also called the capital of Zi .Sha

Later the Jinsha Monk taught his secret to another tea pot maker Gong Chun. Gong Chun was very good at designing tea pots. His tea pots were vivid, simple and elegant. Some of his products were well kept till today. After the Jinsha Monk and Gong Chun, the Zi Sha technique was mature and Zi Sha makers became well-known and respected.

 

Background Knowledge: History of China

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