During the embryonic period of purple clay pottery production, craftsmen borrowed techniques from general pottery making, using hand-molding methods to shape the exterior form of vessels. By the time of Gong Chun, the production techniques of purple clay pottery advanced with "carving wood as molds," and "hollowing out the center, smoothing inside and outside with fingers, with spiral patterns subtly rising and pressable."[1] During the era of Shi Dabin, the production methods of purple clay pottery reached maturity. "When he comprehended the method, he abandoned the molds, and what is called blade-like craftsmanship resulted in vessel types that have increased to the present day, numbering no less than several dozen."[2] From this point forward, a unique system of handcrafting techniques was formed, and a complete system of tools was developed. The tools used in Yixing purple clay pottery production are made from metal, wood, and bamboo as raw materials, with bamboo being a distinctive feature of purple clay tools, accounting for an extremely high proportion. Yixing produces abundant bamboo and is Jiangsu Province's largest bamboo product base, having been praised since ancient times as "an ocean of bamboo." Connecting the bamboo seas spanning hundreds of thousands of acres across Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui provinces, stretching across eight hundred li, a vast emerald ocean of bamboo has formed. Bamboo has a hard texture, with extremely strong bending strength, tensile strength, and load-bearing capacity. At the same time, it has high density, minimal expansion and contraction, relatively stable structure, and is not easily deformed, making it an ideal raw material for purple clay tools sourced locally. Purple clay tools can generally be divided into several categories: basic tools, forming tools, shaping tools, carving tools, polishing tools, and seal-stamping tools. --- [1] Zhou Gaoqi (Ming Dynasty), *Yangxian Ming Hu Xi*, in Han Qilou (ed.), *Modern Translation of Ancient Purple Clay Texts* (Beijing: Beijing Publishing House, January 2011), p. 4. [2] Zhou Rong (Ming Dynasty), *Yixing Pottery Records*, in Han Qilou (ed.), *Modern Translation of Ancient Purple Clay Texts* (Beijing: Beijing Publishing House, January 2011), p. 31.