Yixing is known as "the ocean of bamboo". Zisha potters love bamboo in their hometown, and often go to the "Bamboo Sea" to find creative inspiration, enriching the expression form and theme spirit of pot art with bamboo. "The unearthed knots are existing and the height is moderate." This is the character and spirit of bamboo. It is honest and selfless, not pretentious, not demanding the environment, not showing off itself, but evergreen and graceful, so it has become the most common theme in the creation and design of teapot.
"Pine, bamboo and plum" are "three friends of old and cold", "plum, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum" are called "four gentlemen", and "bamboo" is among them, which shows the great influence of bamboo. In the world of purple sand art, such as Fan's Bamboo Tube Pot, Fan's Square Bamboo Ding and Feng Guilin's Five Bamboo Pots, etc., have emerged endlessly from ancient times to the present. . Wu Yungen's "Zhu Fang Tiaoliang Pot", Li Changhong's "Bamboo Slip Tea Set", Wang Yinxian's "Banzhu Tiaoliang Pot" and Gu Shaopei's "Gao Feng Liang Jiehu" are all classic works. We can interpret the quality, endowment and connotation of bamboo from the different plastic arts of teapot, and realize the unique "four interests" of bamboo, such as "the sunrise has a clear shadow, the moon has a clear shadow, the wind is clear and the sound is clear, and the rain is clear." At this time, the image of bamboo promoted the cultural connotation and artistic taste of teapot.
For example, Shao Daheng's "Bring a bunch of bamboo" teapot in Jiaqing period of Qing Dynasty was full of China traditional culture. The pot body is surrounded by 64 thin bamboo pieces and is cylindrical. There is a round bamboo tied tightly at the waist of the pot, and there are four feet at the bottom. Each foot has eight thin bamboos extending from top to bottom. The lid of the pot is plastic gossip, and the buckle is Tai Chi, which is divided into two parts, with Yang in the yin and Yin in the yang. There are four stripes between the button and the lid, representing four elephants. The 64 bamboo segments of the pot body are compared with the 64 hexagrams. The spout and handle are carved into faucets. This pot uses bamboo to interpret the contents of Taiji Bagua in Yijing, revealing the author's extraordinary artistic skill, and most of his works are copied by later generations.
As an immortal theme in the modeling of teapot, bamboo is still flourishing today. Some young and middle-aged purple sand artists have introduced many new pot art products, such as "Gentleman Series" by Wu Ming and "Dongli Chrysanthemum Tea Set" by Jian-Jun Fan. With unique design and novel expression techniques, the author calls for the beautiful charm of bamboo, showing the natural beauty of bamboo sipping dew, caressing snow frost and thriving in the wind.
Bamboo is not only the creative material of teapot, but also the making material of teapot forming tool. There are hundreds of tools used in the molding process of teapot, among which bamboo tools include rectangular cart, rectangular bottom, halter, grate, bamboo knife, linear handle, clay ruler, bamboo bat and so on. It is an indispensable part of the manual molding system of teapot. Taking bamboo knives as an example, Shi Dabin used bamboo knives to carve the names of pots in the Ming Dynasty. In the book "Yangxian Tea Pot System" written by Gao Qi in the Ming and Zhou Dynasties, it was recorded that "Shi Dabin was an early writer, writing ink, painting it with a bamboo knife, or printing it ..." Therefore, Gu Jingzhou, a master of purple sand, paid the most attention to the tools for making bamboo teapot before his death, which was a model in the industry.
Gratitude for nature and respect for tea people are the way to make a pot. Teapots with bamboo cultural elements express the author's praise and eulogy for natural images by praising beautiful bamboo, which is beautiful and lyrical, and shows the rich cultural heritage of pottery and bamboo in my hometown.