Chinese Tea CultureAlthough Chinese tea culture today seems to be centered largely on Yixing teapots, antique teapots prove that porcelain also had a role in China's tea culture, at least in the more distant past. Chinese tea culture is fundamentally different from the latter. It is more casual, utilitarian, with the actual drinking or tasting of tea as center point. The ceremonial tea preparation shows that some may have observed online or elsewhere are just that - shows. Nothing of that goes on in real life. Chinese traditional tea drinking is wide-spread among the general population and comes without any ceremonial behavior and rituals. In Japan's Cha-no-Yu (or Cha-Do) the ceremony itself is central, largely influenced by Zen. The actual drinking or tasting of the tea is just a part of the whole ceremony. The ceremonial preparation, viewing and handling of the tea bowl, its wiping it, etc. are all an essential part of Japan's tea ceremony. However, it is fairly limited to those belonging to one of the tea ceremony schools.  In Chinese tea culture the preparation and serving, on theother hand, is more functional, unceremonial, widely spread in everyday life and the general population, and it speedily leads to the actual tea drinking. The emphasis is more on the taste or quality of the tea itself. Apart from enjoying the tea, tea drinking also serves as a social function - for sitting together and talking about just anything. Tea caddies, Qing dynasty Mostly the tea will be poured into the cups without much ado, but sometimes the host will give the guest(s) a tea sniffing cup before pouring the tea. See below.  This sniffing has a similar purpose as with the preliminary wine sniffing before it is served in the west. When opening a new bottle, the host (or waiter) first pours a little wine into a glass and lets the guest sniff the "bouquet" before actually pouring the wine into the glasses.With tea the host will first pour some tea into the sniffing cup and then empty it immediately. The empty cup is then handed to the guest who holds the cup in the palm enclosing it with all fingers to keep it warm, allowing him/her to sniff the fragrance remaing in the cup. After that the tea is poured. Often the tea sniffing is omitted. Tea sniffing cup in underglaze blue porcelain, Qing dynasty The Origins of TeaInitially it seems to have been used for medicinal purposes. Chinese folklore has it that emperor Shennong was the person who discovered the tea, accidentally, but information about the actual origin of tea, the beginnings of its cultivation and drinking are lost in the mist of time. Cha-Jing – the Script of Tea – written by Lu Yu (陸羽) in the Tang dynasty between 760 and 780, mentions that Chinese tea culture and tea drinking was already established at the time. Tea as a beverage had already made inroads into Chinese society. In the Tang dynasty tea drinking was fully developed, but the tea itself was coarse and the tea preparation required grinding it with a pestle against the inner wall of a bowl, before it was ready for infusing. Tea drinking the Chinese wayIn ancient times the tea would be drunk only after grinding it, but from the Ming dynasty onwards whole tea leaves would be infused, the same way as we drink Chinese tea today. A thousand years ago
Tea preparation and utensils were different in the Tang and Song dynastiesIn preparation for drinking the tea was ground with a pestle in wide bowls with an incised criss-cross pattern. A necessary preparation before drinking, as coarse tea was used at the time. Teapots were made of pewter until later in the Song dynasty, when clay pots started to appear and all but displaced pewter in the Chinese tea culture. The tea used also became more refined during the Song dynasty until no preparation with the pestle was required before the infusion of tea leaves.  Tenmoku bowl ( Song dynasty) In the Tang and Song dynasties wide-mouthed bowls were used, like the Tenmoku bowl shown above. Originally, celadon bowls were preferred, admired for their beauty, but as tea contests became widespread, black bowls gained poularity. The contestants would whip tea and the one whose froth remained the longest won. As black glazed bowls showed the froth better, black later replaced celadon bowls as the preferred color of tea bowls. Chinese Tea Drinking TodayPresently, for Gongfu tea drinking Yixing teapots enjoy immense popularity (see Yixing pottery).However, in past centuries porcelain teapots the one shown on the right were also widely used. With all teapots of this type the infusion of the tea leaves happens in the teapot. The tea is then poured into small cups immediately before drinking. There is another, usually larger type of porcelain teacup with a wide mouth and a lid. Such cups may contain tea leaves themselves. At the time of drinking the edge of the lid is used to move the leaves to the side. These cups are usually made of porcelain. Note: 'Gongfu tea' is one of the names used by the Chinese for Chinese tea that is prepared in a specific way for drinking. Sometimes it is also called 'Laoren tea' (=old men's tea), presumably because the steps of its preparation take some time and only old men would have the leisure for this. This type of tea drinking is currently done mostly with the use of Yixing pottery wares. Copyright 2009-2012 © Chinese-Antique-Porcelain.com |