Shau Yuting, a native of Yixing, was a renown potter who was active in the Republic era (Post 1911).
This teapot was made according to the shape of an ancient bell using fine zishz clay (as commented by Prof Pan CF).
I acquired this pot in the 80s in an antique shop in Singapore. When Prof Pan was in Singapore in 1992, I let him evaluate this pot for me. He confirmed that the pot was made around the republic time using fine zisha clay. He also commented the workmanship is superb, a very good Yixing zisha pot indeed.
Could you believe it, England is out of the world cup competition at such an early stage.
I do not expect them to bow out so early in the competition. I have high hope for the team initially, but reality is reality. The players can only play well in their local leagues and on their own soil. With this kind of result, I don't think they will ever win the world cup again.
Anyway, they were once world champions almost 50 years ago when they won the cup at Wembley in 1966, on their very own turf. This means the stamps that were issued in 1966 to commemorate this event are even more precious as there can never be another such set of stamps.
The 1966 FIFA World Cup, the eighth staging of the World Cup, was held in England from 11 to 30 July. England beat West Germany 4–2 in the final during which Geoff Hurst famously scored a hat-trick and won the World Cup. With this victory, England won their first FIFA World Cup title and became the third World Cup host to win the tournament after Uruguay in 1930 and Italy in 1934.
For the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, England participated as reigning cup holders. They reached the quarter-finals but were knocked out by West Germany.
England failed to qualified for the 1974 World Cup, leading to Alf Ramsey's dismissal. Under Ron Greenwood they managed to qualify for the 1982 World Cup in Spain but were eliminated from a second qualifying round.
They achieved their second best result in the 1990 World Cup by finishing fourth – losing again to West Germany in a semi-final finishing 1–1 after extra time, then 3–4 in England's first penalty shoot-out. Despite finishing fourth the members of the England team were given bronze medals and the England team of 1990 were welcomed home as heroes.
For the 1998 World Cup, England were eliminated in the second round again by Argentina and again on penalties (after a 2–2 draw).
Sven-Göran Eriksson guided England to the quarter-finals of the 2002 World Cup and 2006 World Cup.
At the 2010 World Cup itself England progressed to the next round, where they were beaten 4–1 by Germany, their heaviest defeat in a World Cup.
In the 2014 FIFA World Cup, England lost two group matches in a row, against Italy and Uruguay, by 2-1 on each occasion. They were eliminated at the group stage for the first time since the 1958 World Cup.
From around a thousand years ago, the Ancient Tea Route was a trade link from Yunnan, one of the first tea-producing regions: to Bengal and India via Burma; to Tibet; and to central China via Sichuan Province. In addition to tea, the mule caravans carried salt. Both people and horses carried heavy loads, the tea porters sometimes carrying over 60–90 kg, which was often more than their own body weight in tea.
It is believed that it was through this trading network that tea (typically tea bricks) first spread across China and Asia from its origins in Puerh county, near Simao Prefecture in Yunnan.
The route earned the name Tea-Horse Road because of the common trade of Tibetan ponies for Chinese tea, a practice dating back at least to the Song dynasty, when the sturdy horses were important for China to fight warring nomads in the north. Source: Wiki.
Below is a 3-part video on this ancient trade route that brought puerh tea to the rest of the world.
http://youtu.be/S8CzefeMFFI 天伦歌
A song which was dedicated to all the war orphans during the war with the Japanese, encouraging them to move on and instead of suffering their losses to actively contribute to humanity. A very moving song.
If you want to find out how a Yixing pot is made, here is a 2-part video to show you the whole process of making a teapot by a senior craftsmaster. Hope you enjoy watching the video.
The ancient history of China tells us that jade had been a symbol of power, authority and ceremonial tool for praying to heaven. The leader of a tribe wore jade bangle to distinguished himself from the rest of the tribe. He used a c-shape jade carving when he prayed to heaven for rains and protection.
Few thousand year old C-shaped jade dragon unearthed
He thought that jade was the medium by which he (an earthly being) could communicate with gods of the heaven. The ancient people even had broken lade pieces joined together with thread through holes drilled in the broken jade pieces. As jade was scarce, they had to make use of even some small pieces of jade discovered. Excavations had uncovered all these jade items which were buried thousand of years ago. Imagine jade is a hard material and ancient people were able to carve out the jade items using primitive tools. They were even able to drill holes on them to join broken pieces together. Although the tools they used were very primitive, but the jade artifacts they made were by no means sub-standard and inferior in design. This showed that ancient people were talented and artistic. Of course today jade carving is made easier with the use of advanced diamond tools and electrical equipment.
In the early years the Chinese were mainly dealing with the white jade which was mined in Xinjiang. They were fascinated by its intense white colour and fell in love with this precious material. The green jadeite (from Burma) was only introduced to China during the 19th century. It became popular only when Empress Dowager of the Qing dynasty loved this green jade so much that she amassed a lot of items made from this material. The most famous of her collection of jadeite carving was the water melon which showed the greenish skin and the red stuff inside. This water melon jade carving was reported lost after the empire collapsed.
Jade carvers often go to the jade market to look for raw jade boulders. Some jade boulders may look very ordinary to others, but the jade carvers can turn these stones into masterpieces which often fetched high prices in auction houses. Jade carving is a big industry in China with tens of thousands of workers dealing in the trading and carving business.
A Jade boulder
Here is a 2-part video on how jade carving master turn ordinary jade into a masterpiece.
