Master Yang Junbao’s Xishi Zisha Teapot: Award-Winning Porcelain & Landscape Art

2025-09-18 Zisha Teapot Guide Categroy：under 200cc Views：66

Award-winning Xishi teapot: 180cc Ben Shan Lüni clay, enamel landscape art, Gu Jingzhou lineage craftsmanship. Collector's treasure.

Golden Award Yixing Teapot: Xishi Design, Handcrafted Zisha Art 1

This teapot is named "Xi Shi". It originates from Jingdezhen, China's renowned ceramic capital. The most distinctive feature lies in its decoration designed by national arts master Ren Ruihua, whose award-winning spring motif elevates its artistic value.

Golden Award Yixing Teapot: Xishi Design, Handcrafted Zisha Art 2

Crafted from rare Benshan green clay resembling tender spring buds, this 180cc teapot presents extraordinary challenges. The clay's poor plasticity demands immense patience - like sculpting on rice grains, a technique called "dragon tendons". Artisan Yang Junbao, direct disciple of modern zisha pioneer Gu Jingzhou, deliberately chose this demanding material as both tribute to tradition and personal mastery test, requiring triple the usual crafting time.

Golden Award Yixing Teapot: Xishi Design, Handcrafted Zisha Art 3

The landscape decoration combines enamel and modern pigments, creating subtle light effects when tea flows through. The classic "Xi Shi" shape mimics ancient beauty curves - its deceptively simple form requiring egg-perfect proportions. Yang's three-decade training shows in silk-smooth transitions.

Golden Award Yixing Teapot: Xishi Design, Handcrafted Zisha Art 4

Firing this teapot proves perilous as Benshan clay reacts violently to 5℃ fluctuations. Where ordinary kilns yield 70% success, this material preserves maybe 30%. Adding painted decoration compounds risks, making successful firing lottery-rare.

Golden Award Yixing Teapot: Xishi Design, Handcrafted Zisha Art 5

This 72-step creation begins with gold-panner meticulous clay purification. Each step - from air-removing pounding to spout-body-balance calibration - demands precision. The final firing requires perfect conditions, where any mistake nullifies months of work.

Golden Award Yixing Teapot: Xishi Design, Handcrafted Zisha Art 6

As functional art, it magically absorbs tea aromas over time while maintaining freshness through natural clay breathability. The precisely angled spout creates perfect streams without dripping. Its evolving patina - transitioning from greenish to warm amber - chronicles years of companionship.

Such masterpieces grow increasingly rare as veteran artisans like Yang retire without equivalent successors. With Benshan clay deposits depleting and mining restricted, each surviving teapot becomes an irreplaceable cultural legacy - equal parts utilitarian object and spiritual prop connecting users to centuries of Chinese craftsmanship.