Lumu Clay Cricket Basins

Lumu Clay Cricket Basins

　　“The Imperial Kiln of the Yuan Family, where artistry spans generations long, harmony is sought in all, warding off evil and inviting fortune.” This folk song from the Suzhou area refers to cricket basins.

1. Lengjia Cricket Lumu Basins. The making and use of cricket basins began in the Southern Song Dynasty, flourishing in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties. Emperor Xuande of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Zhanji, loved cricket fighting and ordered the Suzhou prefect to supply them. This sparked a cricket-catching craze in Suzhou, and naturally, cricket basins became indispensable. There are northern and southern schools of cricket basins—northern ones are represented by Tianjin, with Zhao Ziyu of the late Ming and early Qing period being the most renowned. In the south, those from Lumu in Suzhou are considered the finest. Longtime residents of Suzhou all know about “Lengjia Cricket Lumu Basins.” To this day, various cricket basins from Lumu since the Xuande era of the Ming Dynasty can still be seen in the Palace Museum.

2. A Wide Variety. Lumu cricket basins are exquisitely crafted and come in a multitude of types.

By style, there are bamboo-joint high basins, straight-barrel dented-mouth basins, polygonal basins, horseshoe basins, waist-drum basins, and more;

By pattern, there are dragons and phoenixes, birds and beasts, flowers and plants, landscapes, and figures;

By lid type, there are conical hats, flat lids, seated lids, sky-drop lids, and flying-edge lids;

3. External Features: The defining traits of southern basins are their complex shapes, intricate patterns, and refined craftsmanship. According to the book *Wumen Biao Yin*, during the Tang and Song Dynasties, due to the popularity of cricket fights, small kilns making cricket basins emerged in the Imperial Kiln Village of Lumu. The production involved carefully selecting mud from riverbeds and meticulously crafting the molds. The resulting cricket basins came in black, yellow, white, and blue hues.

4. Contemporary Master — Zhongping Chengni Workshop

After the reform and opening up, villagers around the Imperial Kiln Village gradually resumed making and selling cricket basins, with the number of producers peaking at seventy to eighty households. Yuan Zhongping, who had only completed junior high school, also fully devoted himself to this craft. Initially, the demand for cricket basins far outstripped supply, and Yuan Zhongping worked day and night producing them in large quantities. But later he realized that the only way forward was to focus on creating high-quality pieces—artworks that could be passed down through generations.

As an old poem says, “Only when you’ve blown away all the wild sand will you find gold.” Creating high-end cricket basins requires the arduous process of sifting through countless grains and the perseverance to turn an iron rod into a needle. Those familiar with cricket basin craftsmanship know that making these basins is tough work in itself—each piece involves thirty to forty steps requiring both strength and finesse: selecting clay, sun-drying clay, filtering clay, molding... It takes both physical power and delicate artistry like embroidery. During the clay refining process, no matter how freezing cold it was, Yuan Zhongping worked barefoot, repeatedly kneading the clay as if it were dough. For 15 kilograms of clay, he would tread it for a full hour. This kneading process ensured uniform texture and a glue-like viscosity. The resulting cricket basins possess a golden tone and jade-like quality. Feng Jicai, Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and then-Chairman of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, was so impressed that he inscribed the phrase “poetic substance, painterly realm” to describe them.

Over the course of ten-plus years, he innovated over 100 styles for his premium basins, including screw-top basins, bamboo-joint basins, horseshoe basins, and waist-drum basins. From 2001 to 2003, his award-winning works included *One Hundred Sons Picture*, *Victory Stratagem*, and *Qilin Summons the True Dragon*. Among them, *One Hundred Sons Cricket Basin* won the second China Folk Art Mountain Flower Award, and *Ancient Charm in the Breeze* claimed the gold medal at the first Suzhou Folk Art Festival. In March 2007, they were auctioned at the first Suzhou Modern Folk Art Auction, fetching prices of around 8,000 yuan each.