Gu Jingzhou spent his entire life in dialogue with zisha pottery, and through the struggles over authenticity and disputes over profit that surrounded it, he established his footing and found his true value. ## True Form, Genuine Worth Hua Yindang recalled that before Liberation, he once purchased Gu Jingzhou's "Western Barrel Teapot" for the price of a "shi" of rice, while other artisans' works at that time were merely calculated by the "dou." In 1979, when Hong Kong's Luo Guixiang signed an order with the Zisha Craft Factory, Gu Jingzhou's set of "Tibi Tea Utensils" was priced at over 1,300 yuan, causing Mr. Luo to sigh: "At that price, I'll just keep it for myself." In the 1980s and 1990s, Gu Jingzhou's teapots exceeded ten thousand yuan, with masterpieces breaking through 100,000 yuan. Around 2000, as Taiwanese zisha began flowing back to the mainland market, Gu Jingzhou's teapots were priced between 200,000 to 300,000 yuan, with masterpieces exceeding 500,000 yuan. After zisha entered the auction market on a large scale, Gu Jingzhou's teapot prices climbed even higher. In the "Qian Song Guan" special session of China Guardian's 2010 spring auction, Gu Jingzhou's "Large Stone Belly Teapot" (from Dai Xiangming's collection) sold for 13.23 million yuan, creating the miracle of Gu Jingzhou's teapots reaching the ten-million-yuan mark.[1] From this we can see that his rigorous attitude toward teapot-making and his exceptional craftsmanship made Gu Jingzhou's zisha teapots "worth their weight in gold," becoming rare treasures "praised by all the world." At the same time, however, the high prices and rare opportunities also caused unscrupulous opportunists in the marketplace to harbor ill intentions, passing off fakes as genuine to obtain illicit profits. Among the large number of Gu Jingzhou forgeries, they can be broadly divided into two categories: one consists of low-to-mid-range crude goods, some even fabricated out of thin air; the other consists of high-quality counterfeits that are "true imitations of the true." For the first category of low-quality fakes, ordinary enthusiasts can still identify them as long as they grasp certain principles. These teapots are basically shoddily made, with bodies that are either thin and weak or stiff and swollen, excessively clumsy, and deviating from proper standards. Enthusiasts can consult works such as *Appreciation of Yixing Zisha Treasures*, *Zisha Legends*, and *Teapot Brocade* --- [1] Xu Xiutang, "The Origin of A-Price, B-Price, and C-Price," in Shi Jundang, ed., *Zisha Research (Volume 2)* (Shanghai: Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, December 2007), p. 187.