Analysis on the Historical Role and Significance of Purple Clay Teapot and Its Inscription Decoration

摘要

Chinese tea culture is rich in content with a long history, and as an ancient Chinese philosophical thought, the tea-culture-based "teaism" spirit is also keeping pace with the times under development and innovation. Tea set is an important content of Chinese teaism, and as a traditional tea set, the purple clay teapot has its own unique and irreplaceable characteristics: (1) The iron-rich purple clay material will generate numerous pores in the firing process, which enables the tea set possessed of both heat and freshness retaining properties and ensures that the tea or foam in purple clay teapot would not go bad after days of storage. This is the advantage that metal container, porcelain and other ceramics do not have. (2) Upon natural weathering and artificial selection, the purple clay teapot has possessed strong plasticity, which ensures that all purple clay teapots, no matter plain geometrical ones or fancy ones, are able to excellently represent the authors' thoughts and unique aesthetic appreciation. Pottery makers in Yixing had made further development based on the shape of bronze and porcelain wares, while masterpieces of masters including Gong Chun, Shi Dabin, Chen Mingyuan, Chen Hongshou, Yang Pengnian, Shao Daheng, Gu Jingzhou and so on from generation to generation had made the purply clay teapot, a practical utensil, possessed of art taste and ornamental value. (3) The participation of literati in the style design and inscription decoration of purple clay teapot makes the teapot possess dense cultural flavor and bear more profound cultural content as well as connotation of Chinese traditional culture and ethnic art culture essence. However, the purple clay teapot with inscription decoration also possesses the unique characteristics of cultural carrier and ideological connotation.