Basin in the shape of an alms bowl, inscribed with the Heart Sutra

Shaped like a monk's alms bowl and inscribed with the Buddhist text known as the Heart Sutra, this water basin is actually a secular object for a scholar's desk. Pottery made in Yixing was favored by scholars, whose appreciation for calligraphy influenced Yixing pottery so that writing played an increasingly prominent role in ceramic decoration. During the nineteenth century some potters trained as calligraphers and used writing as the sole decor on their pots. When a scholar rinsed off his brush in this basin, he may have been motivated by the calligraphy to improve his own writing. Likewise he may have been inspired by the text, which exhorts, "Form is no different from Emptiness, and Emptiness is no different than Form."