Yu Guoliang
Look at the square pot’s tall handle, then follow its names from the lid to the base and body. Museum records connect Yu Guoliang with the making, while other writing points to a wider collaboration. The sources do not agree on every mark.
On this page
One pot, several participants#
On the Palace Museum’s square overhead-handled pot, 新00124690, softened corners connect the angular body, lid and high handle. The current record identifies 国良 inside the lid, a studio mark on the base, and 南林氏 with the body inscription. It interprets the pot as a collaboration between Yu Guoliang and Wu Dacheng. A name attached to the writing does not by itself identify the person who formed the clay. Museum object record.
The 2007 catalogue illustrates the same pot as no. 71, dated to the Guangxu period. It records height 13.5 cm, mouth 6.5 cm and base 10.9 cm; the current museum record gives mouth 6.55 cm and the same height and foot measurement. Keep the two mouth measurements attached to their sources. No. 71, p. 112 / PDF 115.
Where the sources disagree#
The printed catalogue calls the base mark 慈斋 and describes its lettering as incuse (阴文). The current museum record instead reads 愙斋 and describes raised lettering (阳文), associating the name with Wu Dacheng. This is a genuine disagreement between sources, not a resolved correction. The print reading also appears in the title and description of no. 66. Nos. 66 and 71, pp. 106 and 112 / PDF 109 and 115; current record.
Neither inspected source supplies an in-place photograph of this pot’s base mark. The museum’s lid-mark image is a detached impression annotated 蓋, not a photograph of the lid interior. It supports the reading 国良; its placement is supported by the museum’s caption and text. A clear base photograph and a revised institutional explanation would help resolve the remaining disagreement.
A round body beneath a branching handle#
Catalogue no. 85 presents a different pot: a low rounded body on three feet beneath a tall branching handle. The body bears 石瓢 and 东溪氏作; the description places 国良 inside the lid. The printed photograph shows the lid seated, so that placement comes from the text. These names should not be collapsed into one maker attribution. No. 85, p. 126 / PDF 129.
The catalogue dates this object to the late Qing and records height 14.5 cm, mouth 6.5 cm and foot spacing 5.5 cm. Foot spacing (足距) is not a foot diameter. No accession is printed on the page: 新00124690 belongs to the square pot, not this one. The word 石瓢 here should not force this overhead-handled vessel into the familiar low-handled Shipiao outline.
From an object to a biography#
No. 66 adds a flattened round pot with a verse signed 东溪 on its body and 国良 reported inside the lid. The catalogue dates it to Guangxu and gives height 9.4 cm, mouth 8.4 cm and foot diameter 7.1 cm. Its printed title and description use 慈斋. It is a third vessel, not another view of the square pot. No. 66, p. 106 / PDF 109.
These objects offer a firmer starting point than an unqualified life-date pair. The museum places Yu in the late Qing and early Republic; this page does not assign precise birth and death years. Compare the vessel, the writing and the source’s attribution separately: a pot can preserve several people’s contributions without telling us exactly who executed every part.
Sources#
- 王健华主编《你应该知道的200件宜兴紫砂》，紫禁城出版社，2007
- 故宫博物院：宜兴窑愙斋款紫砂提梁壶
Status and editorial notes sources cited
Sources are listed below. Their presence does not certify every claim; source-specific interpretations and unresolved questions are identified in the text. This page has not received independent expert approval.