Most Common Yixing Teapots | Names, Shapes, and Styles

dposkin5
Feb 26, 2023
4 min read

Updated: Mar 13, 2023

With a little bit of research, we found over 500 different styles of Yixing Teapots, each with their own name, shape, and legacy. Which of these 500 have stood the test of time and are still in fashion today? We've already helped you out and picked ten of the most common we see around!

Not for All the Teapots in China

We all know China makes a lot of different types of tea: black tea, white tea, green tea, oolong tea, yellow tea, fermented tea, each with their own name, region, and style. So we decided to look into the different styles of teapot shapes famous in China from the past and into the present. Very quickly into our research, we realized that the depth and variety of teapot shapes alone (not to mention tea cups or brew cups) far surpasses the varieties of teas produced.

While we easily compiled a list of some 534 styles of Yixing teapots (complete with Chinese names, pinyin romanization, quick translation, and associated photos), and there is still so much we haven't discovered! This wealth of variety encouraged us to distill our blog post here to the top 10 most common Yixing teapot shapes you might come across on the modern market.

If you want to see the full list, or watch the fast-pasted video where we go through some 400+ teapots, then be sure to check out the YouTube video!

Now, let's get into it!

Top Ten Yixing Teapot Styles

1. The Water Margin

The Water Margin teapot is one of the most classic and elegant examples of a Chinese teapot that to many its shape and style is synonymous with the whole world of Yixing Teapots. Its minimal design is not only pleasing to the eye, but it is also perfectly engineered to float in water when empty, and rest completely level when the lid is removed and it is turned upside down.

2. The Classic Beauty

The Classic Beauty teapot is named after one of China's Four Beauties, Xishi. She was said to be so beautiful that fish forgot how to swim when she would look into a pond, simply sinking stunned to depths of the water. Similarly this round and gently-curved teapot certainly has stunning attributes. The very small spout is a ket characteristic and at times can become so small it is merely a suggestion of lips opposite the handle.

3. The Dragon Egg

The Dragon Egg teapot looks exactly as the name suggests, and while it is similar to the Xishi in its rotund body and short spout, it is almost always noticeably taller than the more squat Classic Beauty Pot. Its often inverted handle (thinner on top and thicker on bottom) makes it easy to hold in most grip styles, and the taller body means more finger room for the handle than the Xishi offers.

4. The Triad

The Triad pot is one of the more uniquely shaped Yixing Teapots we see around quite often today. Many times it has three button legs on the bottom of its body to lift it ever slightly off the ground. The body itself is often triangular making the classic 45 degree spout appear at a very extreme angle. One thing to be aware of with Stone Terrace teapots is the diameter of the lid, as some people can't accept this more cramped loading and unloading of the tea leaves.

5. The Oldie

The Old Style pot, as the name suggests, is a very classic design. Before the Water Margin pots rose to dominance in public preference, there were many pots with shapes similar to this Oldie. The characteristics are a slightly-flattened body, a spout that curves out and down, a wider-than-average lid, and a handle whose bottom end isn't perfectly meshed with the body. This pot performs just as well as the Water Margin and can be used for almost any tea.

6. The Pear

The Pear pot is a classic style that is prized and emulated by potters all over the world. With a modestly round body, an average height and proportionate lid, this teapot embodies a perfect compromise between aesthetic similarities to a pear and functionality as a teapot.

7. The Lotus

The Lotus pot is an example of a pot that differentiated itself from the Oldie teapots. We can see an exaggerated roundness in the body, a longer tail at the bottom of the handle jutting out from the body, and a smaller lid more similar to the Water Margin pot.

8. The Scholar

While similar in shape to the Oldie Teapot, the Sccolar Pot often features more flat edges along its body and spout. This flat surface lends itself to etching poems and characters into the clay, which suits the name of this teapot very well.

9. The Bell

While similar in style to the Pear Pot, the Bell is much taller with a long curved spout. Sometimes the lid can become exaggerated and can weigh as much as a third of the teapot body! The long and twisting spout often means that the pour time is slower, thus this pot lends itself to slower-brewing teas like cooked puer or red teas.

10. The Scroll

The Scroll pot is a blend in styles between the Scholar, the Oldie, and the Water Margin. Featuring a flat-sided body ideal for etching Chinese characters, it also boasts a flattened and wider lid than that of the Old Style, while its spout and general geometry reflects the virtues of the Water Margin teapot. Two other unique element are its flat, cylindrical bottom, and the handle which is clearly attached to the pot without much blending between handle and body.