According to archaeological discoveries, the unearthed cord-marked hard pottery, primitive celadon, as well as Han dynasty pottery cauldrons, pottery stoves, pottery bottles, and pottery jars prove that Yixing was not only a base for "cord-marked hard pottery" but also another birthplace of primitive celadon. From the Tang dynasty through the Southern Song dynasty, kiln sites were scattered throughout many villages in the mountainous areas of the southwestern part of the county. This all demonstrates that Yixing's pottery industry genuinely has deep historical roots. The following sections will explore several issues in the history of Yixing ceramics development one by one. ## 1. Regional Changes in Yixing's Pottery Industry Based on field investigations and verification of relevant historical materials, the changes in the regional scope of Yixing's pottery industry since the Southern Song dynasty are as follows: After the Song court moved south, influenced by the social, political, and military circumstances of the time, the pottery industry in the western mountainous areas also threw itself into production serving military needs, mass-producing various sizes of water containers. In the investigations, the ceramic waste heaps at every ancient kiln site discovered consisted almost entirely of large quantities of discarded so-called "Han bottles." Among these were also many relatively intact products, but these production sites seem to show no signs of continued production after the Southern Song dynasty. From the Southern Song through the Yuan dynasty, spanning nearly more than a century, Yixing's pottery industry, though continuing production, showed no obvious development trend. It was not until the Ming dynasty that it gradually revived. During the Ming dynasty, the pottery industry gradually shifted from the western mountainous areas of Yixing toward the southeast. Because the southeastern region was situated by mountains and water, with abundant mineral clay resources, convenient water and land transportation, and relatively stable social and political conditions, Yixing's pottery industry experienced substantial development. According to investigations, in the early Ming dynasty, Yixing kiln sites were mostly distributed along the mountainous belt, stretching from Yudong and Nichang in the south to Chuanbu and Chalin Daling in the north, spanning more than twenty *li*[1] in length, with kiln sites from several hundred years ago still existing today. By the mid to late Ming period, the northern and southern pottery industries gradually converged, forming a new pottery capital of approximately fifteen square kilometers centered around Dingshu Town, renowned both domestically and internationally. Yixing's pottery industry has an excellent historical tradition, always maintaining daily-use pottery as its mainstream production. Over thousands of years, as society developed and times changed, it experienced several cycles of prosperity and decline, but production essentially never ceased. The reason it has such strong vitality is directly related to the aforementioned tradition. ## 2. Several Branches Within the General Category of Yixing Pottery Since the Ming and Qing dynasties, Yixing pottery can be broadly divided into six major types. According to the trade classifications of that time— --- [1] A traditional Chinese unit of distance, approximately 500 meters