What does the pottery bowl mean?

The pottery bowl is dull in color, rough in surface and uneven in shape. People like to drink water and eat in pottery bowls. The wine bowl is wider than the palm of your hand, and you can cover half your face when you lift your neck when you dry wine. The rice bowl is bigger, and the corn, potatoes and rice are full, all of which are more than half a catty. Villagers usually eat "three bowls but not hills". As for rural people, it is those three bowls of rice that have made great efforts. The earth bowl is very cheap. Ten years ago, they were only a few cents each. A few cents can buy a table and a bowl. Because of poverty, a pottery bowl with a few cents is also cherished. Every family has a bamboo bowl basket, which is hung high on the wall for fear that the baby will fall and break the bowl. But the bowl is always broken, and adults have to fight for it. One of my little friends was disabled because he broke a clay bowl. If the pottery bowl is broken, I can't bear to throw it away. I can make a cat bowl, a dog bowl or repair it with mud to make the lid of the pickle jar. If you really don't need it, break it into pieces and plant it on the courtyard wall or at the edge of the vegetable garden in the bamboo forest to prevent thieves.

Pottery bowls are made by firing. There is a pottery factory in Jianzhuxi, not far from our home, which specializes in burning jars and bowls. When making a bowl, first dig out a layer of sticky loess and pile it up into a hill, where four or five men wearing shorts and bare backs step on it. Step on it for about two hours in a row, then the master came to drive the man away, grabbed the mud as sticky as glutinous rice balls and stuck it on the mold, and then patted the mud evenly while watering the mold with an iron guy named mud palm. There is a shaft under the mold, which can move. When the master pats the mud, the mold rotates quickly with the rhythm and makes a creaking sound. The voice was broken, like Uncle Zhu pushing a cart across the hall. Remove the mold and the shape of the jar and bowl will come out. Leave it in the sun for a few days, and then put it in the kiln after it has become a fixed shape. Cover and burn with firewood or coal. It takes more than a month to burn a kiln of pottery.