Antique Chinese Bamboo Yixin Zisha tea pot, Qing Dynasty, China. Height: 8 cm; Length: 17 cm; Weight of the teapot with lid: 367.08 g; Purple-Sand clay teapots have a history of more than five hundred years. In Chinese, they are known as Zisha Hu (紫砂壺), with the characters Zisha (紫砂) literally meaning "purple sand." Throughout this history, there have been several main waves in popularity of collecting Zisha clay pots, including • the late Ming Dynasty, • the reign of the Qianlong Emperor during the Qing Dynasty, • the late Qing and • Early Republic, and the present day. The last thirty-odd years from the 1980's until now have seen a particular swell of interest in these pots, which is still going strong. The main reason for these waves, of course, was the circumstances during these periods of history; these were the "golden ages," when China was flourishing in terms of both culture and economy, resulting in the so-called "fine collections from times of peace and prosperity."