Shi Dabin (1573-1648), a man from the Ming Dynasty to the Qing Shunzhi period, was the son of Shi Peng, one of the famous "Four Great Masters" of Zisha.
He has studied the clay preparation, molding techniques, modeling design and inscription of purple sand pottery, and established a difficult technical system of using clay sheets and inlays that are still inherited by the purple sand industry, born in the Ming Dynasty during the Wanli Dynasty and died in the early years of Shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty. Shi Dabin's pot making skills are comprehensive, and he has excellent achievements in mud preparation, forming techniques, instrument design and calligraphy.
Style of work
He selected purple sand mud to mix into various mud colors to form a simple and majestic style.
His early works mostly imitated the large pot for spring, and later modified the small pot according to the literati tea drinking habits, and the production date was dropped, which was revered as the authentic pot art. There are many works passed down from generation to generation, and there are collections in museums in Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Taiwan and other places.
He mixed sand into the mud and created a sand adjustment method pot, which the ancients called "sand coarse ancient texture uniform", which is very interesting. In terms of forming techniques, the system of "cutting wood as a mold" for spring has been improved, and the body barrel forming method has been combined with the body building method, thus determining the basic method of purple sand pot mud sheet inlay forming, which is a big leap forward in the purple sand pot making method; and the first square and round pot type has become a typical pot type of purple sand pot shape.
Shi Dabin followed the suggestions of Chen Jiru and other literati and changed it into a large pot into a small pot, making the purple sand pot more suitable for the literati's tea drinking habits, introducing the literati's taste into the pot art, combining the pot art with the tea ceremony, and pushing the pot art to a new height.
Shi Dabin's three pioneering works opened a new world of pot art in later generations
Shi Dabin is a generation of masters of purple sand art, the pot art is exquisite, and people are vying for it, there is a saying of "Gonggong Yan said Dabin kettle".
Most of the dabin pots passed down from generation to generation are collected by the Palace Museum, Shanghai Museum, Nanjing Museum, Hong Kong Tea Set Museum and other cultural institutions, but dozens of pieces are only a few pieces, and those that have been circulated in the folk and have a chronicle to examine are even rarer.
This ring button pot was the focus of the 2010 Autumn Auction of the Western Cold Printing Society, and was sold for a high price of 13,440,000 yuan. This pot was once written in "Jingxi Purple Sand Ware" and published on the cover, which shows the preciousness.
Shi Dabin established a new system of purple sand pot making, which is widely used by craftsmen today, and the three innovations he made at that time opened a new world of pot art in later generations.
First, a new molding technology
Shi Dabin's greatest contribution to the purple sand pot art is to create a new forming method, that is, the technique of "punching the body" and "setting the body".
The mud sheet molding method is used to make the body barrel, abandon the mold, and rely on manual beating to form a reasonable and perfect set of processes and technologies. This initiative of Dabin is the biggest change in the molding process of purple sand pots.
This unique molding technique laid the foundation for the development of Yixing purple sand, which is still used today, and is a milestone in the history of purple sand craftsmanship, making purple sand technology unique among many techniques and becoming an intangible cultural heritage.
Second, the sand mixing process
In the selection of clay materials, Dabin transplanted the "binary matching" method in the porcelain making process to the purple sand production and pioneered the sand adjustment method.
Adding coarse sand to the mud, on the one hand, changing the physical properties of the mud in the drying and firing process, making it less prone to rupture; On the other hand, it is made of coarse sand, and the sand is taken without soil.
Xu Youquan, a disciple of Shi Dabin, immersed himself in mixing mud materials, and in his later years, he suddenly realized that "my essence is not timely and coarse"!
Third, change the large pot to a small pot
The change of purple sand pot shape from large to small is also an important change for the history of purple sand pot.
Zhou Gaoqi wrote in the "Yang Envy Tea Pot System" that "after traveling to Loudong, I heard the theory that Chen Meigong and Langya and Taiyuan Princes tasted tea and gave tea, but it was a small pot, and there was a body in several cases, and the people who were idle and far away thoughts, before and after the famous families, could not reach." So in the Tao people to mark the relics of Daya, the eyes of the empty group. ”
Shi Dabin made large pots in the early days, and after Lou Dong and Chen Jiru and other famous literati traveled, he was influenced by the literati's way of drinking tea and aesthetic concepts to make small pots.
The incorporation of literati thought in pot making has decisively changed the direction and path of the development of purple sand pots, and promoted purple sand to become a work of art that combines craftsmanship and concept, not just a practical instrument.
Judging from the historical development trajectory of purple sand through the records and later records, the aesthetics of the literati have had a decisive influence on the development of purple sand pots from beginning to end.
Whether it is quietly watching or drinking good tea, will you feel the pulse of the historical development of purple sand and communicate with the master for souls?
This article is shared from the owner of the purple sand anchor: dust ask sand