> "Before the age of 20, due to the pressures of making a living, I was particularly meticulous in beating clay coils and slabs. I worked with both quality and speed, so my foundation was quite solid. I could effortlessly make thirty teapot bodies in a single morning." The characteristic of zisha clay is that "using the native mountain earth and sand, it can bring out the true color, aroma, and flavor of tea."[1] Gu Jingzhou particularly advocated for the practical utility of zisha tea ware. After burnishing the surface of the pot body, he would only use bamboo tools to "push the walls and scrape the bottom." The marks left by the scraping tool radiate outward, and the junction between the bottom and the walls must be pushed smooth and润, making the interior regular and beautiful while maintaining the pot walls loose on the inside and tight on the outside, thus bringing out the tea-enhancing properties of zisha ware as practical vessels. All of this is built upon a full understanding and mastery of the raw materials. Understanding and knowledge of clay materials helps one work with ease and confidence in the craft-making process, while comprehension and contemplation of clay materials will cause one to become deeply absorbed in them. Gu Jingzhou also reached an "extraordinary degree" in the making of zisha pots. Once, during a major cleaning of the studio, someone carelessly threw away some vermilion clay slip负干泗. When Gu Jingzhou learned of this, he sighed repeatedly. Like a hardworking farmer cherishing every grain, Gu Jingzhou achieved the境界 of "clay is as precious as gold" and "filtering." --- [1] Gu Jingzhou (lecturer), Pan Chiping (compiler and recorder): *Technical Course Lecture Notes*, Lecture Eight. [2] (Ming Dynasty) Compiled and annotated by Zhou Gaoqi: *Ancient Zisha Texts in Modern Translation*, Beijing: Beijing Publishing House, 2011, January edition, p. 9.