Longshan is rich in earthenware resources, most of which are distributed in Taiping Mountain, Shigao Mountain, Huatang, Sanyuan, Xiluo, Baiyang, etc., covering an area of more than 500,000 mu (about 33,333.33 hectares) and accounting for 1.12 percent of the total area of the county.
After the establishment of the state-owned ceramic factory in Longshan County in 1958, efforts were continuously made at update and transformation, which doubled the production efficiency. In 1980, the violet sand earthenware (zisha earthenware) was successfully developed, and the factory became the third producer of violet sand earthenware in the country. The products entered the international market, which were mainly coarse pottery, coarse porcelain, and refractory materials. The violet sand earthenware was exported to 14 countries and regions such as the United States, Malaysia, Singapore, Canada and Thailand.
In 1992, on the basis of maintaining the original nature of earthenware, Li Yunbin adopted painting, carving and other techniques to create three Violet Sand Earthenware works with the characteristics of national culture, and won the first prize of the Excellent Four New Products of Hunan Light Industry.
At present, individual handicraft workshops on different scales have been established in such places as Taiping Mountain to engage in traditional earthenware production.
Baojing County is located in the central part of Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, the eastern end of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau and the middle section of Wuling Mountains. It is known as the “hometown of ceramics and magnesium”. The rich local ceramic resources, such as violet sand, magnesia porcelain clay (black clay), kaolin clay, pyrophyllite, silica and feldspar, provide unique conditions for the development of ceramic technology in Baojing County.
And the ceramic industry has developed into one of the pillar industries of the economy of Baojing County. It is mainly distributed in places like Qianling Town, Wanmipo Town, Fuxing Town, Datuo Town, Qingshuping Town, Maogou Town, Hulu Town, Longshan County and Guzhang County, which belong to the eastern end of Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau and the surrounding counties and cities in the middle section of Wuling Mountains with the same landform.
When you open the cupboards of the Tujia people, you will often find a kind of twin pot or triplet pot, with a semicircle in the middle connecting two or three small pots. It can be seen from the skill of this kind of pot, which is both convenient and beautiful, that the earthenware technology of the Tujia people is unique. The earthenware products that people often use and fire include vats, pots, bowls, lampstands, censers, tall wine jars, steamers, boiling pots, vases, pots, water pots, wine bottles, flower pots, etc.
The production process of earthenware adopts the most primitive and oldest traditional manual production methods, including material selection, corrosion storage, grouting, glazing, polishing, firing and finished products warehousing. Therefore, the inheritance and development of earthenware technology can embody important historical, economic, practical and health values.