## Tools and Craftsmanship Gu Jingzhou frequently taught his students: "If a craftsman wishes to do good work, he must first sharpen his tools. If you can accurately make handy pottery tools that feel right in your hands, your works will already be halfway to success." He Taotao once recalled: "Master Gu had strict specifications for his tool dimensions. For example, with the gauge and trimming tool, when making a teapot, you need a gauge for the base, one for the rim, and two for the neck section. The height difference between the gauge foot and the blade edge had different specifications for each: for the base gauge, the foot should be 1.5 millimeters longer than the blade; for the rim, 1 millimeter longer; and for the neck section, also nearly 1 millimeter." Gu Jingzhou's philosophy regarding tools, as part of the "Gu School" technical ideology, influenced every one of his disciples, instilling in them a rigorous and serious attitude toward the making and use of tools. Through the disciples' continuous inheritance, evolution, and accumulated refinement, Gu Jingzhou's standards and concepts for Zisha pottery production have been passed down, propelling the development of Yixing Zisha forward. --- [1] Xu Xiutang and Shan Gu, *Master of Zisha: Gu Jingzhou* (Shanghai: Shanghai Classics Publishing House, April 2013), p. 77.