The Story of Tea

by Mary Lou Heiss

  Tea drinking became increasingly fashionable, and social tea drinking became an intellectual pursuit shared and enjoyed by the upper class. For the first time a highly elaborate system of teawares was developed to meet the need for sophisticated tea bowls, water pitchers, and containers for salt and spices, as well as tea grinding, boiling, and measuring devices.

  In the early part of the Tang period tea making consisted of grinding a piece of cake tea (made from compressed tea leaves) into a powder and then putting the powdered tea into a caldron of boiling water with spices and or bits of fruit. The mixture would be stirred until frothy, and then the clear tea was ladled into the tea bowls for drinking. In the later days of the Tang, tea drinkers began placing the powdered tea directly into the tea bowls in a method called diancha fa. Hot water was poured over the tea from tall, handled water ewers, and the tea was stirred in the bowl until it became frothy.

  In the progression from the stirred powdered tea of the Tang dynasty to the whipped powdered tea of the following Song dynasty (960–1279) and finally the steeped tea leaves of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), each successive emperor commissioned new styles of imperial teawares for use in the court. Imperial porcelains were sometimes called “celestial” porcelain, a reference to their exquisite colors and subtle hues that emulate the shades of precious jade. Only such a delicate material could be considered for a cup that would hold the heavenly liquid that would moisten the lips and quench the thirst of the emperor. During the reign of Emperor Taizong (r. 626–649) fine, light greenish-blue celadon porcelains were being made in the Yue kiln in Zhejiang Province. A little later, white-glazed porcelain wares from the Xing kiln in Hubei Province were lauded by Emperor Xuanzong (r. 712–756). Embossed metal teacups were also used by the upper class. Commoners used earthenware tea ceramics, yet in both cases teawares had suddenly become a category apart from other everyday food utensils. Tea cakes were stored in porcelain, wood, or bamboo jars, although precious silver and jade tea jars were preferred by wealthy citizens.

  In the early days of the Tang tea drinkers continued using the diancha fa method but favored low-sided, shallow tea bowls known as qians, which accentuated the appearance of the powdered tea in the bowl. Tea bowls still required bowl stands for elevating the cup and to give the bowl a stable base on which to rest. Early tea bowls were often made with a narrow foot and were sometimes unable to stand on their own without tipping over.

  THE SONG DYNASTY: ROMANTIC PERIOD OF CHINESE TEA DRINKING

  The arrival of the Song dynasty (960–1279), often referred to as the romantic period of Chinese tea drinking, brought a change to the manufacture of cake tea and a new level of sophistication to tea making. Cake tea was now compressed from steamed leaf that had been dried and powdered (rather than being compressed from steamed and dried whole-leaf tea). The molds were smaller, and the designs impressed on the cakes were more elaborate. For high officials tea was compressed in silver tea molds. These elegant teas were called white tea, but they bear no relation to today’s white teas. Modern methods of leaf manufacture—green, black, and oolong—had not yet been discovered. These white teas were the result of a very select plucking of tender tea buds that were steamed and then quickly dried and powdered.

  This new cake tea provided Song tea drinkers with a cake that was easier to scrape, and which, after grinding and sieving the tea, would produce much finer powder than previous cakes. Now tea powder could be placed directly into the cup, and after the addition of hot water, a bamboo whisk was used to create a “heavenly jade froth.” Tea that was properly powdered would float, while coarse, improperly prepared tea would sink to the bottom of the cup, a concern of much embarrassment for the person preparing the tea.

  This change of tea preparation necessitated ceramic teacups with a more accommodating shape for this new procedure. The result was a swing away from the wide tea bowl and the introduction of a narrower and taller tea bowl that allowed for the easy movement of the bamboo whisk inside of the cup. These bowls were called jianzhan and stunning, very black-brown sensuous glazes were introduced to complement the color of the tea liquor. Kilns in Fujian Province supplied the bowls, and several glaze styles were favored during this time: a streaky brown glaze called “hare’s fur” was popular, as was an underglaze of paper-cut stencils in designs of phoenix birds, fruit, flowers, and dragons. Intricate oil-spot, tortoiseshell, and partridge feather glazes also appeared in the Song dynasty. Collecting tea accoutrements was a testament to social status to the Song, and tea bowls became an object of admiration and envy.

  These bowls were also favored by the monks in Buddhist temples at Mount Tianmu on the border of Anhui and Zhejiang Province. During this time, many Japanese priests and monks came to visit these famous temples for study and exchange of ideas. Visiting monks returned home to Japan, bringing with them caches of tea bowls for fellow priests and monks to use in their budding tea practice. In Japan, these Chinese bowls were called tenmoku tea bowls, in reference to the mountain where they were made. Today, this style of tea bowl is still referred to as tenmoku in both China and Japan and fine examples are still being made in the kilns in Fujian, China.

  Reproduction tenmoku-style tea bowls made in Fujian, China, illustrate two popular ceramic styles from the southern Song period: paper-cut designs featuring flying phoenix birds (feifenhwen) and black-brown hare’s fur glazes.

  Some of these tea bowls were intended to rest in elevated tea stands called tenmoku-dai. Stands or daises were built as one piece and consisted of a saucerlike base with a raised ring in the center into which the tea bowl was set and securely held in place. This clever design elevated the bowl from the table and allowed the tea drinker to lift the stand and the bowl to his mouth to easily sip the tea without having to touch the hot bowl. For elite members of society, this was another way to enjoy the ritual and protocol of drinking the “celestial beverage of the gods.”

  Water with bubbles like crabs’ eyes

  Retains the youthful zest.

  Bowls with fur’s hair glaze

  Show the color at its best.

  —SHU ZHE (1039–1112)

  Sophistication, refined elegance and a degree of opulent showmanship defined Song tea drinking.

  Tea-brewing competitions became fashionable during this time, and one type of competition focused on the skills of whipping the powdered tea. For this practice dark glazes were favored for tea bowls, as their color would best show the tea marks on the sides of the cup. If the tea froth was skillfully prepared, the powdered tea would leave a marking on the side of the bowl that would confirm this. Or, on the occasion of a tea that failed to obtain the proper froth, the bowl would simply show a waterline, signifying that the froth failed.

  A stylish pair of Japanese lacquered tenmoku-dai, circa 1955, and two contemporary Japanese tenmoku (Chinese-style) tea bowls.

  THE ADVENT OF TEAPOTS

  It is recorded that close to 130 kilns were operating throughout eastern China during the Song dynasty. Kilns were responsible for producing different types of shapes, glazes, and decorating techniques, and six major schools of ceramics style evolved. Kilns produced both imperial wares (gong yu) and everyday wares (min yao), although there were restrictions on colors and designs that were reserved for imperial use only. Two of the most colorful Song glazes were Jun ware (which featured an abstract design pattern using light blue and purple glazes) and Ge ware (which featured some of the first dark-lined crackle glazes).

  The first teapots began to appear toward the end of the Song dynasty, at a time when tea drinkers began to experiment with tea brewed from tea leaf. These early teapots were made from unglazed zisha, or purple sand clay, and evolved from the shape of tall, handled wine pots and water ewers. Tea was consumed in small quantities during the Song dynasty, resulting in teapots that were small and wider at the base than at the top. Unlike water pitchers or ewers for pouring wine, teapots were given a lid, as the Chinese realized that the tea flavor of steeped leaf tea wa
s better when the steam was prevented from escaping from the pot. For balance in pouring and in consideration of the lids that needed to be put on and taken off, handles were often attached to the side of the vessel rather than placed across the top.

  Song literati scholars and artists praised the simplicity of these unglazed purple Yixing clay teapots for their spare form, simple design, and hand-carved shapes. The smooth finish of these teapots likened them to a “priceless pearl” and “purple jade.” These teapots fulfilled the mindful and natural tea-drinking experience that the literati sought, which allowed them to retreat from the overwrought tea practices of their day. Their careful approach to tea appreciation not only advanced tea culture in China but also later influenced tea culture and customs in Japan.

  JINGDEZHEN: CHINA’S PORCELAIN CAPITAL

  By the end of the Song dynasty and the beginning of Kublai Khan’s Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), ceramics production in China began its ascent to glory. Imperial teawares were no longer made in the kilns in the outlying provinces but were now commissioned in porcelain factories located in the city of Jingdezhen, in Jiangxi Province. Up to this point Jingdezhen had been known for its monochromatic bluish-white Qingbai porcelain wares. The creation of an imperial factory created within China a center for porcelain production that would become world famous for innovations in design and glazes that would forever place China in the vanguard of porcelain production.

  Limited-edition reproduction Ming dynasty teapots made in the famous Jingdenzhen kilns. The original of the tall over-handle teapot was made during the reign of the eighth Ming emperor Wanli (r. 1573–1620).

  For the pleasure of the Yuan rulers, Jingdezhen produced off-white teawares with carefully incised designs. Later, once the secret for obtaining pure white hard-paste clay-bodied porcelain was discovered, white porcelain objects decorated with elaborate cobalt blue underglaze decorations became a favorite of the Yuan emperors and the Ming emperors (1368–1644) who followed. Ming emperors also favored solid color glazes, including yellow, which was prohibited from use by anyone other than the imperial family.

  For everyday citizens simple utilitarian zisha teapots remained the fashion until the beginning of the second half of the Ming dynasty. Although all classes of citizens used zisha teapots, the imperial palace and upper-class citizens coveted zisha teapots fashioned by famous potters. One such no-table zisha potter, Gongchun, was the first to gain notoriety for designing bold new teapot shapes. He inspired a handful of zisha potters who followed after him, namely Dong Han, Shi Dabin, and Hui Mengchen. These potters began to fashion innovative teapots that featured organic shapes borrowed from nature or incorporated a poem or inscription into a pleasing shape.

  Ming-era tea drinkers also had the option of using porcelain teapots and drinking from teacups, rather than tea bowls, as was the fashion in the past. As loose-leaf tea steeping became the customary way to brew tea during the naturalistic Ming era, teapots became essential and increasingly popular. Following the lead of the individually sized zisha teapots, porcelain teapots were made similarly small in capacity. It became the Ming custom to add leaf tea to the pot, steep the leaves, pour the tea into a teacup, and quickly return the brewed tea to the pot for additional steeping. It was considered good form to do this twice before drinking the tea, bad form to do it three times.

  THE QING DYNASTY: SECRETS OF VIVID GLAZES

  With the overthrow of the Ming dynasty, porcelain production continued at Jingdezhen during the arrival of the Manchu rulers and their Qing dynasty. This transition of power was plagued by many rebellions, some of which disrupted porcelain production in Jingdezhen and damaged many of the kilns. Later, the Manchu restored the kilns at Jingdezhen and for the first time created separate kilns for porcelains that would be used to produce wares for the palace from those producing wares for ordinary citizens. This separate imperial porcelain factory created some of the most brilliant pieces of porcelain ever designed in China during the Qing dynasty.

  Experiments in bold, opaque monochrome colors ushered in the use of orange, yellow, lime-green, and red glaze colors, many of which are still in production today. Early Qing emperors had a voracious appetite for collecting teawares and embraced solid colors for use in the court. Social ranking dictated which color porcelain wares one could use at the table, and the emperor strictly controlled the use of these colors. For the Qing upper class added amusement came in the form of pewter teapots that imitated zisha teapots or were shaped in the likeness of squatting ducks. During these last two dynasties the porcelain works at Jingdezhen produced exquisitely detailed and innovative designs laden with auspicious symbols on porcelains of such fine delicacy that they immediately became objects of desire to the Western traders arriving in the seventeenth century.

  One of the last great contributions of the Qing dynasty to porcelain making was the invention of fencai, an elaborate style of raised overglaze enamel decorating that replicated the look of cloisonné design and allowed the use of bright colors and elaborately painted designs on porcelain objects, including teapots and cups. Several techniques were used: famille verte, which employed bright green translucent enamels, and famille rose, which featured a pallet of pink opaque enamels.

  CHINA’S TEAWARES OF TODAY

  Today every major museum in China has on display wonderful examples of valuable and historical porcelain teawares from these early periods. Amazingly, many of these items are very contemporary in feeling and would fit right in to the offerings of a fine ceramics shop; the pieces are fresh and lively and still imbued with a spirit that beckons the tea drinker to pick up the piece and take a sip of tea. In fact, we have seen throughout our travels in China that most of these types of teawares are still being used. China’s tea history is in some ways a living history: much from the past is still relevant. In today’s fast-changing world, everything old is still new in the world of tea leaves and teahouses.

  Contemporary Chinese potters and ceramic artists continue to follow tradition while forging new artistic designs in familiar teawares. In Hong Kong the Flagstaff House Museum of Tea Ware pays tribute once a year to the new generation of ceramic artists by hosting a teawares exhibition. This vital showcase presents the work of young Chinese artists who capture the attention of ceramics collectors around the world. Today, one is apt to see many aspects of China’s tea history being kept alive in teashops and teahouses. New interpretations of classic teawares, such as handle-less cups, zisha teapots, fencai teacups and teapots, gong fu tea sets, and gaiwans (thin-walled, lidded porcelain cups), are still popular. This is a tribute to the genius and functionality of these teawares; after all these years it is inconceivable that any better teacup or teapot design is still waiting to be discovered in China.

  CHINA’S FAVORITE TEACUP: THE GAIWAN

  China’s most popular tea tool is a thin-walled, lidded porcelain cup called the gaiwan. This simple but brilliantly conceived piece of engineering was developed in the Ming dynasty, and nothing better has yet come along to replace it. This palm-sized cup performs as a teapot and provides the tea drinker with all of the apparatus that he or she needs in one easy design—saucer, cup, and lid. Gaiwans are still used in every teahouse in China today as well as in all of the tea research centers and tea factories that we have visited.

  The gaiwan is comprised of three pieces—a saucer that holds the cup (a much smaller version of the tea bowl and bowl holder of the Song dynasty), a small cup with a flared lip, and a lid. When using a gaiwan, the leaves of black, oolong, or pu-erh teas (but not green or white teas) are washed with a quick rinse of water, a procedure started by tea drinkers in the Ming dynasty. This rinse water is quickly drained away, and the tea drinker takes a moment to appreciate the aroma of the moistened leaf by sniffing the underside of the lid.

  Hand-painted Chinese gaiwans.

  More water is slowly poured down the side of the gaiwan, which allows the tea leaves to float and then sink. The lid is replaced while the tea is steeping. The
saucer allows the drinker to pick up the hot cup without burning one’s fingers. Although gaiwans are simple in design, they require a bit of manual dexterity to properly maneuver them. Two hands are never used for the same task; rather, one hand is used to elevate the gaiwan to the lips, and the other works the lid to brush back the tea leaves that are floating in the cup before taking a sip. Because the infused leaf remains in the cup, tea drinkers are able to visually assess the quality of the leaf. The aroma of the tea collects in the slightly concave underside of the lid, and smelling the aroma is encouraged. Additional infusions are easily obtained by simply adding more water to the leaf in the gaiwan.

  A gaiwan and a zisha teapot are both called into service for an oolong tasting (Fujian Province, China).

  Perhaps spurred on by the advantageous ability to see the tea leaves in the bottom of the gaiwan, the superstitious art of tea-leaf reading flourished as a popular teahouse art in Ming-era China. Gaiwans are for sale everywhere in China, from a few dollars each to several thousand. Imagine our surprise when we asked about a lovely gaiwan decorated with delicate butterflies in a Hong Kong teahouse and were told that it was Ming dynasty and for sale for a mere two thousand dollars!

  In Anxi, tea expert Peter Wu appreciates the subtle aroma of a new spring Tieguanyin oolong tea that has gathered on the underside of a gaiwan lid (Fujian Province, China).