Huizong Song (reigned from 1101 to 1126 AD) was a good craftsman on weekdays. On one occasion, he received ten exquisitely-divided gallbladder-shaped glass bottles. He felt that he was not exquisite. In order to increase his ornamental value, he delivered them to an eunuch and urged him to urge the craftsmen to plate the inside of the bottle with gold powder.
When the craftsmen met, they were helpless and said to the eunuch: "If you want to plate the gold in the bottle, you must iron it with a red iron to get a good paste. But the bottle's mouth is small and its iron crotch is difficult to access. The glass bottles are thin and brittle, and even if the iron can reach into it, it is hard to work. If you insist on knocking, the bottle must be broken.†The eunuch had to temporarily put ten bottles in the box.
After a few days, he walked to the shops in the downtown and suddenly saw a tin worker holding a pottery in the store. The craft was very elaborate. The eunuch thought, "Why don't you try a bottle for him?" For a while, the eunuch returned to the palace. The bottle was given to Tin Gong: "Please paste this bottle with gold." The tin worker did not look, let him take it tomorrow. The next day, when the eunuch went to collect the goods, the bottle really became a sparkling one. The eunuch overjoyed and said: "It seems that your craft can be called a perfection, and the level is far beyond the artisans in the palace."
The eunuch cheerfully took the tin worker into the palace and made the incident clear to Emperor Huizong. Huizong saw that a gall bladder bottle had been plated with gold as required. He was admiringly playing with the pipa. Hearing that he was a brilliant tinsmith outside the palace, he came to Houyuan in person, and he also reported that all artisans in the palace had arrived. The court lined up to watch.
The tin worker saw the emperor himself and watched it. He dared not be sloppy, tapping on the small gold bullion with a special hammer, until it was thin, even and gold paper, wrap it tightly around the bottle. Those in-house craftsmen who were dissatisfied with their hearts immediately smirked: "While hammering like this, forging gold paper, who wouldn't?" The tinsmith did not answer, peeling the gold paper wrapped in the bottle gently. Next, carefully place it on the silver chopsticks, insert it into the bottle, put some mercury into it, cover the bottle mouth, and shake the bottle up and down. After half an hour, the tin worker gave the bottle to all the people. Hey, that gold paper stuck to the inner wall of the bottle perfectly, with absolutely no gaps. He pressed the gold paper on the inner wall of the bottleneck with a small fingernail and evenly pressed it, and that was done. At this time, the craftsmen opened their eyes in astonishment and watched.
Huizong asked with wonder: "How do you know how to gild this way?"
The tin worker respectfully replied: "The glassware is very fragile and brittle. How can we let the hard things hammer on it? Only the mercury can be soft and heavy, and it will not enter the bottle and it will not shake. Damage to the glass, although it will slightly corrode the surface of the gold paper, this damage is absolutely invisible to the naked eye."
Song Huizong ordered the tinsmith to instill the remaining eight gallbladder bottles in gold plating. Afterwards, the order gave the tin worker a reward
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