## Sheng Ji In late October 1995, Gu Jingzhou accepted an interview for the documentary *Chinese Folk Crafts (Anecdotes of Yixing Pottery)* produced by Shanghai Science and Education Film Studio. The development and accumulation of Yixing pottery over several centuries formed the foundation of Gu Jingzhou's artistic practice. From legendary figures like the monk of Jinsha Temple and Gong Chun, to transcendent masters like Shi Dabin and Chen Mingyuan, and on to predecessors closer in time like Huang Yulin, Yu Guoliang, Wang Yinchun, and Chen Guangming—throughout this history, skilled artisans emerged in great numbers, each with distinct schools and styles. Gu Jingzhou conducted specialized analytical studies of these historical predecessors and their stylistic characteristics. From the beginning of his pottery-making career, Gu Jingzhou never deliberately sought novelty or difference. Rather, on the foundation of digesting and absorbing the strengths of his many predecessors, he used his unique life experiences and distinctive aesthetic sensibility to express the great beauty within tradition through direct and unpretentious language. The basic characteristics of the "Gu School" are: adherence to tradition, expressing artistic orientations in works that align with popular aesthetic consensus—which is to say, the shared conceptual understanding of human social experience accumulated over hundreds of years of Yixing pottery craftsmanship. In craftsmanship, he pursued the maximization of manual skill, with particular emphasis on the processing and use of hand tools. In stylistic terms, he pursued balance in form and effectiveness in technique. At the same time, on a traditional foundation, he integrated innovation throughout his artistic life. On the basis of absorbing hundreds of years of traditional craft nourishment, Gu Jingzhou expanded new vitality in Yixing pottery works with his distinctive artistic methods. Meanwhile, Gu Jingzhou did not require his students to... --- Chen Hanchun, Chairman of Taiwan's Zhiyuan Research and Development Foundation, presenting Gu Jingzhou with the "Virtue and Prestige" award.