According to researches, the manufacture of teapot in China is from Ming Dynasty. After the first teapot was made, masters and professionals have stepped on the stage, with a variety of purple clay teapots produced by them in the world one by one, and anecdotes about teapot legend also spread from generation to generation, and people like to talk them all the time.
Father of purple clay Teapot
In the reign of Emperor Zhengde and Emperor Jiajing of Ming Dynasty, a man named Gong Chun is a nunnery for Wu Yishan in Yixing and accompanied Wu Yishan to the temple to study. At that time, there is a monk in Golden Sand Temple, and he is very fond of making teapot. Gong Chun often helped him at leisure time, and gradually became interested in making teapot. It was said that in the temple there was a tall ginkgo tree, deep-rooted with multi-tree galls. Gong Chun made a teapot according to the ginkgo gall. It is so lovely that even the monk in the Golden Sand Temple is amazed at it. After that, Gong Chun is living on making teapots, and his work is gracefully natural, varied, and especially loved by the literati. Because Gong Chun learns to make teapot from a monk, so the teapot manufacture should be earlier. According to the chapter Founding of Yangxian Teapot, the pioneer of the Ming Dynasty Teapot is a temple monk from Yixing Golden Sand Temple. But it's difficult to determine whether the monk is the master of Gong chun, or whether this monk has been embellished before the production. It can be concluded that Gong Chun is the first-known person to make teapot, so his tree gall pot is considered to be the world's first teapot, and he has been regarded as father of teapot.
After Gong Chun, there are great masters such as Shi Dabin, Hui Mengchen, Chen Mingyuan, Jiang Rong, Han Meilin, Wang Zhigang and many other famous people. They create a myth of teapot which is thick, ethereal and stable, and charming.
An interesting story
Once upon a time, there is a rich man fond of tea. He always meet friends with tea, no matter rich or poor. As long as someone comes to ask for tea to drink, he would treat them with hospitality.
One day, a ragged beggar came to the rich man's. He was not begging, just asking for tea. The servants rushed into the room and just gave a cup of tea to him. Looking at the tea, the beggar said: "The tea is not good." Then the servant served a bowl of good tea, and the beggar sniffed, said: "Tea is good tea, but water is not good." This servant returned to fetch spring water to make tea. The beggar tasted and said: "Tea is good tea, and water is good water, but the firewood is not good. Good tea is cooked by the wood on the north side of the mountain because wood from the north side is hard enough." As the beggar was so proficient in sado, the servant quickly got good wood to cook, and told the rich man. After the rich man met the beggar, they drank tea together, and the beggar said: "Tea is good, water is good, wood is good, and fire is good, but the pot is not good." The rich man said: "This is my best pot." The beggar smiled, shook his head, and carefully took a pot from the arms. So they remade the tea. Although the tea was the same, its taste was really unusual. Then the rich man immediately got up and said: "I would like to buy this pot, and please give a price." Beggars heard this, quickly packed up the teapot and wanted to go away. Rich man stopped him and said: "I'd like to give you a half possession for this pot."
Beggars did not say anything and insisted to go. The rich man became anxious, said: "I give you all the possessions. Would you like to exchange?" After the beggar heard, he just smiled and said: "If I could give up this pot, I would not beg to live any longer."
From this story, we could know the importance of the teapot and how the purple clay teapot is loved by people.
