Yixing is a small Jiangnan town adjacent to the shores of Lake Taihu, abbreviated as Yi. Yixing boasts beautiful scenery, with mountains encircling its territory, caves standing throughout, tea gardens widely distributed, and bamboo seas stretching in all directions. Particularly renowned for its long history of handcrafted pottery production, it has gained fame far and wide and is praised by the world as "the ancient capital of pottery, the world of caves, the oasis of tea, and the ocean of bamboo." Yixing was anciently called "Jingyi" and "Yangxian," and belonged to Wu during the Spring and Autumn period. The Qin dynasty established Yangxian County, which belonged to Kuaiji Commandery. In the fourth year of Yongjia during the reign of Emperor Huai of Jin (310 CE), to commemorate Zhou Chu's achievement of "raising righteous troops three times and pacifying Jiangnan," Yixing Commandery was established, governing six counties including Yangxian. In the ninth year of Kaihuang during the reign of Emperor Wen of Sui (589 CE), Yixing Commandery was abolished, and the three counties of Yangxian, Guoshan, and Linjin were merged and renamed Yixing County, belonging to Changzhou. In the first year of Taiping Xingguo during the Song dynasty (976 CE), to avoid the taboo name of Emperor Taizong Zhao Guangyi, it was renamed Yixing County, taking the meaning "righteousness means appropriateness." In the early period after Liberation, Yixing belonged to the Wujin Administrative Region of the Southern Jiangsu Administrative Office and Changzhou Prefecture. In January 1953, it belonged to Suzhou Prefecture of Jiangsu Province. In February 1956, it belonged to Zhenjiang Prefecture (in August 1958, the Zhenjiang Prefecture office moved to Changzhou City and was renamed Changzhou Prefecture. In September 1959, the prefecture office moved back to Zhenjiang City and was still called Zhenjiang Prefecture. In March 1967, it was renamed Zhenjiang Region). From March 1983, it belonged to Wuxi City. In January 1988, Yixing County was abolished and Yixing City was established. Yixing is acclaimed as China's Pottery Capital, and purple clay (zisha) is Yixing's most renowned city trademark. During the Ming and Qing periods, Yixing's kiln industry flourished extraordinarily, with kiln sites widely distributed, "scattered across the southern and northern foothills of Qinglong Mountain in Dingshan, Chuanfen, Baoshan Temple, Shushan, Qianluo, Shangyuan, Tangdu, east of Junshan, Xiwa Kiln, Renshu Shihui Mountain, and other places."[1] There were as many as forty to fifty dragon kilns of various sizes, with kiln fires burning ceaselessly and the pottery industry passed down through generations. --- [1] Chinese Ceramic Society, ed., *History of Chinese Ceramics* (Beijing: Cultural Relics Publishing House, September 1982 edition), p. 438.