Let me excerpt a few passages to illustrate the founding techniques of zisha pottery: "It began during the Wanli period when the monk from Jinsha Temple (should be 'a monk from Jinsha Temple') transmitted [the art] to Gong Chun; Gong Chun was a young servant of the Wu family. By the time of Shi Dabin, [the technique] started and stopped with the temple monk: cutting bamboo like a blade, scraping mountain clay to make [vessels]. Gong Chun further ground wood to make molds, and in time comprehended the method, then abandoned the molds. As for the so-called 'cutting bamboo like a blade,' the types of vessels have increased to this day, numbering no less than several dozen..."[1] These words clearly show that the author Zhou Rong personally observed the entire teapot-making process on site, and also inquired with potters about the production methods of zisha craft at that time and in the past, before recording this. Comparing early zisha vessels (such as the damaged pieces excavated from Yangjiao Hill and the ti liang pot unearthed from the Ming Sima tomb), it is not difficult to discover that their forming methods were largely consistent with handmade utilitarian pottery such as clay cooking pots and small basins. Zhou's text mentions the hand-pinching technique of the Jinsha Temple monk who cut bamboo like a blade, and Gong Chun's forming technique of grinding wood to make molds. In reality, the technique of using molds to make teapots had been employed by people long before the Jinsha Temple monk and Gong Chun. However, we should indeed acknowledge the point that "in time [he] comprehended the method, then abandoned the molds..." Examining Shi Dabin's teapots and Ming dynasty folk heirlooms, one can see that Shi Dabin's later production methods indeed made tremendous leaps forward. The greatest improvement was the use of clay coil construction with paddling to form hollow vessels. When zisha art developed to this stage, it truly formed a unique technical system within Yixing's ceramic industry—this tremendous innovation in highly difficult techniques, although also achieved through the collective practice of Shi Dabin's predecessors (including the four masters Shi Peng, Dong Han, Zhao Liang, and Yuan Chang), Shi Dabin was the one who synthesized it all. Through his summarization and vigorous practice, he successfully created the specialized foundational techniques of the zisha tradition. *Mingtao Lu* (*Record of Famous Pottery*) states: "Heaven-born Shi Dabin possessed divine skill, a thousand wonders and myriad forms emerged from his hands." Such praise, only Shi Dabin was worthy of it. For several hundred years, practitioners throughout the entire zisha industry have grown through training in these foundational techniques. As an inheritor of the excellent traditions of zisha art, I deeply appreciate the greatness of our predecessors' creative and innovative spirit. ## 5. The Appreciation of Zisha Art Zisha, with its several hundred years of history, is also an organic component of our nation's long-standing culture. It encompasses both material culture and spiritual culture, yet these two aspects complement each other and cannot be rigidly separated. In the mid-Ming dynasty, during a transformative period in Chinese tea culture, methods of tea drinking became increasingly refined... --- [1] This passage appears to be from Zhou Rong's writings on zisha pottery production techniques.