He Renqun
He Renqun (b. 1968) is one of the most accomplished figures in contemporary Yixing ceramics. In 2023 he was awarded the title of Jiangsu Provincial Ceramic Art Master (3rd batch) and he holds the rank of Senior Master of Arts and Crafts — the highest professional grade for master artisans in China. He is a member of the Jiangsu Artists Association, the China Folk Literature and Art Association and the Jiangsu Folk Literature and Art Association, and serves as Standing Director of the Jiangsu Ceramic Art Committee and Vice President of the Pottery Carving Branch of the Yixing Ceramic Industry Association.
Born into a working-class family in Yixing, He Renqun is the fourth generation of a family devoted to pottery. His grandfather, He Hongda, was hailed as the “Top Scholar of Pottery Making” and worked as a master craftsman at the Yixing Tangdu Pottery Cooperative after the founding of the People’s Republic of China. His father, He Peiyuan, began learning the craft at the age of twelve and faithfully carried forward the family tradition, becoming a celebrated potter in his own right. Surrounded by clay and craft from birth, He Renqun absorbed this deep family heritage. By the age of five or six he was already fond of drawing, often guided by painting-savvy neighbours, and by his early teens he was seriously studying traditional Chinese painting. He began his own ceramic art practice in the early 1980s.
In 1986 He Renqun entered the prestigious Yixing Zisha Craft Factory, where he became an apprentice to master engravers Shen Hansheng and Xian Zhongying, while also receiving invaluable instruction from celebrated masters such as Bao Zhiqiang, Tan Quanhai and Mao Guoqiang. He further enriched his artistic foundation in 1989 through studies at the Bohai Academy of Painting and Calligraphy. In 1993 he joined Jinda Pottery Art Company – a branch of the Yixing Zisha Factory – as a technical specialist and began teaching apprentices. During this period he kept close company with painters, constantly exchanging ideas and sharpening his own skills in both painting and calligraphy.
With more than three decades of dedicated practice, He Renqun has developed a profound understanding of the very essence of Zisha art. His work is built on a formidable foundation in painting and calligraphy, and he is best known for his masterly carved decoration. He is the creator of “Xieyi (freehand) pottery carving”, a signature style that merges the ink-wash gradations of traditional Chinese painting with ceramic engraving. By transforming the conventional “line-drawing” approach into expressive block surfaces, he has introduced a genuinely original language to the craft. His figurative carvings often depict elderly sages and classical beauties, giving his work a distinctive personal identity, and his knife work is saturated with the rhythmic grace of traditional brush painting. Proficient across pottery carving, painting and teapot making, he has affectionately taken the artistic name “Jiangnan Teapot Master” (Jiangnan Hugong).
He Renqun’s achievements have been widely recognised at the highest levels. In 1994 his works Stationery and Dongpo Transmitting Knowledge won first and second prizes at the 5th National Ceramic Art and Design Innovation Competition. In 1996 his carved teapot Childlike Fun set a Shanghai Great World Guinness record for the teapot with the most micro-carved figures. In 1998 Taste received first prize at the 6th National Ceramic Art Innovation and Design Competition, and his work Literary and Military Prowess was permanently collected by the National Museum of China (formerly the Museum of Chinese History) and featured in cross-strait ceramic exhibitions as well as the National Ceramic Art Tour. In 2013 he was honoured by the city of Yixing as one of the “Top Ten Young Ceramic Artists of Yixing.”
Today He Renqun continues to stand at the creative intersection of ceramic art, painting and calligraphy, bridging time-honoured traditions with bold, personal innovation and bringing renewed vitality to the culture of Yixing purple clay.
