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Ancient China is the birthplace of tea, and the Chinese boast an ideal material for making teaware – Yixing purple clay. For hundreds of years, from emperors to celebrities, a number of people have one common ground — they adore tea and purple clay teapots. Here, you can learn about two of these great men. From their stories, you may realize how much purple clay teapots have some to mean in China.

Eminent writer Su Dongpo (1037 – 1101) and his teapot

In the Song Dynasty (960 – 1279), the title of the most outstanding poet belongs to Su Dongpo (Also: Su Shi). If you wonder how many literary works he had created, listen up. Apart from the lost works, he still passed more than four thousand ancient poems and three thousand ancient separate works of prose on to contemporary Chinese. The artistic appeal of his work lies in its great imagination and enthusiasm. And what is more, he was a brilliant artist and calligrapher too.

The funny thing is that Su enjoyed tea and purple clay teapots very much, and he created a well-known pot of his own style called a Dongpo Cross Beam Pot.

Su once lived in Yixing, the only area where purple clay is found, for some time. He used to enjoy tea when doing with his creative work. But what got on his nerves was that the teapots at that time were usually rather small, so he had to keep brewing tea at short intervals. This kept him from concentrating on his work.

So he set out to invent a bigger pot, with a large handle to help him carry it. He took some of the local clay, but time after time failed in making a pot that could match his dream.

One night, a boy attendant carrying a lantern came and asked Su to have a snack. All of a sudden, a good idea came to Su’s mind: Why not make a pot in the shape of this lantern?

He bought some clay and this time, a lantern-shaped teapot was finished, but the creation turned out to be so sleek that he could not hold it. So he made a clay rope and fixed its two ends on the both sides of the pot. After firing, the clay rope that served as a lifting handle and looked like a cross beam.

After that, Su was constantly using his special big teapot while intently creating his poems. Some say he had even spent more time with the pot than with his own son. At present, there are still a number of master potters trying to emulate Su’s original design. They give their imitations a name Dongpo Cross Beam Pot, according to Su’s name and the characteristics of his famous pot.

Would you like to see what a Dongpo Cross Beam Pot looks like? Well, here’s a picture shot at the former dwelling of Su Shi named San Su Temple, in southern China’s Sichuan province.

Emperor Qianlong and purple clay teapots

The Qianlong emperor of the Qing dynasty was one of the oldest emperors in history and ruled for one of the longest periods of time.

He was a huge fan of tea, and some say this addiction was what helped him live such a long life. He would go from place to place, sampling the tea across his vast kingdom.

Emperor Qianlong was very particular not only with tea, but also with tea sets. He was very proud of his Chinese tea ceremonies. He knew that Yixing purple clay teapots can help tea exert their full potential, so he appointed the teapots made in Yixing ‘The No.1 Tea Set in the World.’ In fact, the tea Emperor Qianlong enjoyed was brewed almost exclusively by Yixing purple clay teapots.

Emperor Qianlong appointed specialists to select the best purple clay teapots from Yixing, or to design the most appealing styles. Favored by emperors like Qianlong, Yixing purple clay teapots earned a great reputation soon. Nowadays, people are proud of owning good purple clay teapots. Although we have no chance to being an emperor for even one day, we can pick a purple clay teapot and experience the pleasure that emperors used to have.

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