Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Posted by Miss Neddy at 02:20 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Categories: Tea Related Teapots

Wang Zhaojun was indubitably an intelligent woman, and it was said that she was skilled in many arts, such as the playing of the pipa, chess and calligraphy. When the Han emperor Yuan was asked by the Xiongnu chanyu (chief) Hu Hanxie for a Han princess to marry, he either picked Zhaojun because she was portrayed by a corrupt Imperial artist as the plainest woman in his harem; or Zhaojun volunteered, knowing that her refusal to bribe her way to meet the emperor would mean she would spend her life alone in the harem. 
When the Han emperor first saw who he was sending to the barbarians, he was stunned by her beauty. The artist responsible for marring her potrait, Mao Yanshou, was executed (with sufficient cause - deceiving the emperor in any way is a crime punishable by death). Wang Zhaojun is often depicted departing for the regions beyond the Great Wall cloaked in fur-lined red silk and clutching her pipa.

The purple clay Wang Zhaojun teapot is long and slender, its shape reminiscent of the pipa so closely associated with her. The handle is slightly notched, to mimic the tailpiece where the strings are anchored near the bottom of the instrument.It is the only teapot whose lid is not crowned with a knob, but with a half-ring - the top of the pipa is usually a loop or a lingzhi shaped adornment, decorated further by carvings or a jade piece.  The teapot sits squarely and firmly, well-grounded in comparison to the small-bottomed Yang Guifei teapot, or the almost-floating Diaochan teapot.

The base of the teapot holds a surprise: Three parallel bars are engraved around the seal of the maker, creating the “strings” for this clay pipa. The top-down view does not do the teapot sufficient justice, as it looks slightly tear-dropped shaped only. In fact, there are two very faint indentations on either side of the teapot. I am not entirely sure why the indentations are there, but it could be to imitate the ripple-like frets that are at the top of the pipa. Like the other teapots, it is surprisingly light for its size, and its generous spout is very fitting with the overall design, as its lines are very strong throughout.

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