The young Gu Jingzhou, through hands-on practice and intuitive understanding, quickly grasped the essentials upon his initial foray into Yixing pottery, mastering its intricacies with remarkable speed. The teapot bodies he crafted were well-proportioned and executed with precision and artistry, earning the admiration of local scholars and gentry. Among his works, the "Chuanlu Teapot" (with the inscription "Gong Cun Zhi Yue" carved on the body), made in 1934, already demonstrated considerable skill—he was only 19 years old that year. 1936 was "the best year for Yixing kilns, with a total of 4,740 kiln firings throughout the year and an annual output value exceeding 4.4 million yuan."[1] That year, Gu Jingzhou created works such as the "Hanjun Teapot" (commissioned by Chong Hui) and the "Mugua Teapot." The "Hanjun Teapot," with its full lines and meticulous embellishment, was a commissioned piece for a collector's birthday celebration, demonstrating that Gu Jingzhou was then in his prime with exceptional skills. The studious Gu Jingzhou, with his extraordinary perceptiveness and intelligence, developed a solid foundation and quickly distinguished himself in the Yixing purple clay community, which was filled with masters. His debut immediately brought him fame throughout the region, placing him among the ranks of renowned pottery artists. In Gu Jingzhou's own words: "When I was in my twenties, I had already joined the ranks of my peers and masters, becoming famous."[2] Gu Jingzhou's exceptional teapot-making skills not only brought him local renown but also led to another extraordinary chapter in his life. In the 1920s and 1930s, a few antique dealers in Shanghai, with ulterior motives, invited top masters from Yixing to specifically reproduce works by famous Ming and Qing dynasty artists, with the primary purpose of passing off fakes as genuine. In essence, the reproduction of these imitations was actually forgery. Many skilled artisans from Yixing participated in this practice: Jiang Yanting was employed by Tang Linze, Pei Shimin by Mo Siqi, and Jiang Yanting and Pei Shimin later transferred to Lang Yushu's service, while Wang Yinchun successively served She Huaixi, Zhang Fulin, and Tang Mingchun. In 1936, the 21-year-old Gu Jingzhou accepted an invitation from "Ji Shi Yi Yuan" to go to Shanghai to make antique reproductions. By personally participating in the wave of Yixing purple clay reproductions in early Republican Shanghai, Gu Jingzhou was able to observe and study to the fullest extent the excellent surviving ancient purple clay vessels and artifacts of other materials, further expanding his understanding of purple clay craftsmanship techniques. While satisfying the speculative profit-seeking of antique dealers, this experience also laid a solid foundation for his own works to develop distinctive stylistic characteristics. The antique dealers engaged in reproduction and forgery provided artisans with historical texts or precious ancient purple clay vessels as models, which were then reproduced accordingly. These pieces were then carefully aged and accompanied by elaborate and convoluted "provenance" narratives, creating coincidental temporal and spatial circumstances to maximize illicit profits. For the purple clay artisans... --- [1] Chen Jianming, ed., *Dingshu Town Gazetteer* (Beijing: China Books Publishing House, September 1992), p. 191. [2] Xu Xiudang and Shangu, *Purple Clay Master Gu Jingzhou* (Shanghai: Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, April 2013), p. 16.