The Yixing black elephant teapot
Before him, all teapots were plain shapes with no special designs crafted in the clay. Gong Chun was the servant of a monk who was a teapot expert but treated him meanly.
He secretly learned the monk’s techniques and one day, when the monk was out, he decided to make a Chinese tea set in the shape of tree knot on his own. Gong Chun was successful, and even he himself was surprised by the beautiful, irregular shape that was produced.
Now you can see that very teapot at the Chinese Museum of History in Beijing, because it was the pot that inspired artisans to look to natural objects for their designs.
