Grandpa’s tea has a taste called home.
Lu Yu’s tea is said to be neither famous nor profitable.
Grandpa’s tea tastes good.
Lu Yu’s tea is like a splash-ink landscape painting.
The sandstorm of the Tang dynasty for thousands of years is still blowing.
— — Vincent fang and Jay Chou’s Tea Made by Grandpa (Excerpt)
When I was young, I listened to "Grandpa’s Tea" sung in the streets and lanes, so I liked to sip the jasmine tea that Grandpa had just brewed. In the sweet tea fragrance, I guessed the appearance of Lu Yu thousands of years ago and wondered whether the landscape-like Tang tea was as elegant and free as him. Until today, I saw a seemingly unremarkable model of white porcelain tea set in the "Ancient China" exhibition hall of China National Museum, and finally understood Lu Yu’s unique, lofty and carefree elegance.
White porcelain tea set and Lu Yu statue
Five Dynasties (907-— 960)
It was unearthed in Tangxian County, Hebei Province.
Collected by China National Museum.
At present, this set of tea sets is rich in categories, including an air-stove tea pot for boiling tea, a tea mortar for grinding tea powder, a slag bucket for holding tea residue and a tea bottle for ordering tea, and a white porcelain portrait with a long scroll in hand. If you look at it carefully and listen to it, you will find that every little thing seems to be telling the story of tea.
Since Lu Yu was born in the world, the world has learned from each other.
— — Song Mei Yaochen
This set of tea sets is mostly used for decocting tea in Tang Dynasty. What is interesting is this white porcelain portrait. Who is the portrait and why is it put with the tea set? Scholars began to speculate.
It is recorded in the Book of the New Tang Dynasty, Biography of Hermitage: "When you drink tea, you will be worshipped as a tea god when you are in the shape of Tao Yu." It turned out that because of the far-reaching influence of the Book of Tea written by Lu Yu, since the late Tang Dynasty, tea sellers have regarded Lu Yu as a sacrifice to the tea god and also offered a small statue to put in a tea stall. At that time, whenever tea ware was bought to a certain amount, the store would give away a statue of Lu Yu, which was similar to the means of sales promotion of today’s merchants. This figurine was unearthed together with this tea set model, so it is supposed to be Lu Yu, the tea god with the Tea Classic.
▲ Lu Yu porcelain statue.
Although the tea culture in China has a long history, according to the literature records, early tea may have been used as a food. As a special beverage, it should be no later than the Western Han Dynasty. By the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, tea had once become a luxury drink, which was a symbol of scholar-officials boasting of simplicity.
After the Sui and Tang Dynasties, tea became more popular, from the royal family down to the common people, all loved tea, and tasting and discussing tea became a fashion. However, it was not until Lu Yu wrote Tea Classic that tea culture was systematically combed and written. Lu Yu was fascinated by tea art, carefully studied the experience of predecessors in making tea, and constantly summed up the practice, creating a book "Tea Classics".
▲ Lu Yu’s "Tea Classic" book shadow.
The Book of Tea is divided into three volumes and ten sections, which systematically summarizes the knowledge of the origin, production, utensils and other aspects of tea at that time, setting a precedent for Chinese tea art. With the rapid popularization of the Book of Tea, Chinese people are paying more and more attention to the taste of tea itself, which is more elegant, more exquisite and more ceremonial. The appearance of Tea Classic promoted the prevalence of tea ceremony in Tang and Song Dynasties, and influenced every aspect of politics, economy, culture and life in Tang Dynasty and later generations, becoming one of the three largest tea books in the world.
Gong Le Tu is partially anonymous.
The painting reflects the elegant scene of tea and drinking by the court ladies in the Tang Dynasty, and the ladies hold it as porcelain tea set of Yueyao.
Yueyao green glazed lotus leaf with tea cup
Tang (618— 907)
Unearthed in Heyi Road, Ningbo City in 1975
Collection of Ningbo Museum
As soon as the fragrant spring is combined with milk, it is fried to make the beads boil.
— — Don Pi Rixiu
The way of drinking tea in Tang Dynasty was different from today. Instead of soaking, it was boiled. When drinking tea, first crush the tea cake into tea powder, boil the water from the pot and always pay attention to the boiling degree of the water. When it boils, it will be "seasoned with salt". When it boils, a bowl of water will be filled out, and the tea powder will be put into the pot for boiling. When it boils again, it will be poured back into the pot to "cultivate its beauty". When the tea soup is cooked, share it with everyone and drink it while it is hot. If you want to cook a good pot of tea, it is necessary to have an air furnace and a tea pot. The first words in The Four Instruments of Tea Classic show their importance.
▲ "Xiao Yi Earns Lanting Map" (partial) was passed on to Yan Liben in Tang Dynasty.
Tea drinking in the Tang Dynasty is elegant, and the temperature of boiling water is quite particular. "The Five Boils of Tea Classics" said: "It boils like a fish’s eye, with a slight sound as one boiling, and the edge of it is like a spring and beads as two boiling, and the waves are three boiling." There are also many descriptions of boiling water in Tang poems, such as "rabbit hair is light and fragrant, and shrimp eye soup is fine and full of waves" (Lv Yan’s Dayun Temple Tea Poetry); Another example is "a fragrant spring with milk, fried and boiled." When you look at the crab’s eyes splashing, you can see the scales rising at first sight "(Pi Rixiu’s" Tea in Tea "). "Shrimp’s Eye", "Crab’s Eye", "Fishes" and "Spring and Beads" describe the appearance of bubbles rising from small to large in the water before boiling, and the water is already boiling when the waves are surging. The vivid description is not as accurate as the thermometer-type numerical expression today, but it is full of vivid poetry and meaningful aftertaste.
Gold-plated lotus petal silver saucer
Tang (618— 907)
In 1957, Pingkangfang site in Tang Chang ‘an City, Xi ‘an, Shaanxi Province was unearthed.
Collected by China National Museum.
The words "Zuo ce makes the house tea storehouse" are engraved in the saucer foot.
When I woke up at noon, I only felt the silence of the earth, and the sound of a cup of tea when the new tea was smashed in the bamboo grove.
— — Tang Liu Zongyuan
The tea mortar in the tea set is shallow and has no glaze on the inner wall, so it should be used for grinding tea powder. In the Tang Dynasty, tea cakes must be crushed into tea powder before they can be decocted in water. Therefore, grinding tools such as mortar, grinding and grinding are essential. Liu Zongyuan, who loves tea, also wrote "Shan Tong knocks on the tea mortar across the bamboo" in My Occasional Works in Summer and Day.
▲ Tang Dynasty Yue Kiln Celadon Teapot.
In the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the tradition of making tea with tea powder in the Tang Dynasty was continued, and images such as tea mortar were common in poems and murals in the Song and Yuan Dynasties. After the tea-boiling method rose in Ming and Qing dynasties, tea no longer needed grinding and drinking, and the tea mortar slowly withdrew. However, today, many places still retain the tradition of tea smashing, and we can still see the figure of tea mortar in the tools of tea smashing.
▲ Gannan Hakka tea.
The more common tea grinding tool is the tea mill. "The Four Instruments of Tea Classics" says that "the grinding trough is best made of orange wood, followed by pear wood, Sang Mu, tung wood and zhe wood." Recently, many ceramic tea mills have been discovered in archaeology. It can be seen that in the Tang Dynasty, tea ceremony flourished, and tea mills made of ceramics, wood and stone were more convenient to use and spread.
In 1987, the discovery of the underground palace of the Tangta in Famen Temple made the royal treasure that had been treasured for more than 1000 years reappear in the world. A complete set of Tang Dynasty court tea set was unearthed in the underground palace, which is the earliest, highest grade and most complete court tea set known today. In the underground palace, the "Monument to the Clothing Account of the Gifted Props and Gifts for the Real Person" was also unearthed, which recorded in detail the names and other information of the offerings, including a set of exquisite grinding tools: the gold-plated flower silver enamel shaft and the gold-plated Hongyan tattooed silver tea trough. The shaft and the tea trough are used in a complete set, and the usage is similar to that of grinding herbs with traditional Chinese medicine today. The shaft is covered with gold-plated flowers and the silver-plated tea trough is covered with gold-plated Hongyan, which is magnificent and represents the highest level at that time.
Gold-plated silver ball shaft, gold-plated Hongyan tattoo silver tea trough
In 1987, the back room of the Tangta underground palace of Famen Temple in Fufeng County, Shaanxi Province was unearthed.
Famen Temple Museum
The fire in the soup bottle speaks for itself, and the wine lamp is the first to make spring.
— — Song Yang Wanli
Tea bottles, also known as soup bottles, are used for heating or holding hot water. Tea bottles are generally short-flowing, and may be mixed with holding pots for pouring warm wine at first, and then slowly separated from wine utensils. A porcelain vase unearthed in Xi ‘an, Shaanxi Province in the third year of Taihe in the Tang Dynasty (AD 829) was similar in shape to a pot-holding one, and the ink book at the bottom was "old"
The words "home tea club bottle" show that at the latest in the middle Tang Dynasty, this kind of holding pot has been used as the exclusive tea bottle for tea sets.
Tea bottles were generally not needed when frying tea in the Tang Dynasty, and there was no relevant record in Tea Classic, but it was an indispensable part of tea ordering in the late Tang Dynasty. When ordering tea, first boil water in a bottle, put the tea powder in a bowl, then hold the bottle and pour water into the bowl to make tea, and then blow it properly.
Lushan kiln snow ash glaze soup bottle
Tang (618— 907)
Collected by China National Museum.
The process of tea-ordering and water injection is somewhat similar to that of hand-brewing coffee today. When water is injected, it is necessary to control both the water flow speed and the water quantity, and the amount and weight of each water injection are particular. It turned out that the flow of holding the pot was short, and the water quantity and speed were difficult to control, so it was difficult to meet the demand. So the flow began to lengthen slowly, and the volume of the tea bottle gradually decreased, making it lighter and easier to order.
According to Mr. Sun Ji’s textual research, the white porcelain tea set and Lu Yu statue in the National Museum of China, the tea bottle and the tea pot came out together, "showing that it was in the period of alternating frying tea and ordering tea". A small tea set, not only let us appreciate the elegant demeanour of fried tea in Tang Dynasty, but also get a glimpse of the rise of tea and feel the continuous development and evolution of China tea culture.
Poetry is not tired of pounding fragrant teas, and it is appropriate to listen to elegant plays on the spur of the moment.
— — Japan’s Emperor Xie ‘e
1500 years ago, with the spread of Chinese culture, tea culture gradually went to the world. In the Tang Dynasty, Japanese monks Zuichi, Konghai and others sailed across the sea, came to China to study culture, and brought China’s tea drinking methods and tea seeds back to Japan.
Emperor Emei (Hong Ren, year 810-824) admired Chinese culture and loved tea. He not only ordered the planting of tea trees, but also left a poem "Never tire of pounding fragrant teas when reciting poems, but should listen to elegant plays on the spur of the moment". Under the vigorous promotion of Emperor Xie, Japanese aristocrats appeared the trend of imitating China people to taste tea, and later generations called it "Hong Ren Tea Style" because of its year number "Hong Ren". During the Silla period in North China, tea culture was imported in an all-round way, and tea was spread and developed from the upper class, monks and scribes to the people, and tea was planted and made. Tea culture has thus developed into a distinctive feature of East Asian culture.
"Liu Yu bubble tea, I heard that fame and fortune don’t take, he took a thin horse in the end of the world. The sandstorm of the Tang Dynasty for thousands of years is still blowing. " In fact, it’s not only the sandstorm that has traveled through the Millennium, but also the fragrant tea that China people are attached to. China people love tea, its elegant and mellow quality, the lingering aftertaste and the lingering smell of home. As Mr. Lin Yutang once wrote, "As long as there is a teapot, China people are happy everywhere."
About the author:
Yang Yue, Ph.D. in history, is an associate researcher at the National Museum of China. He is mainly engaged in exhibition planning and implementation, museum policy research, etc. He has presided over or participated in many key projects of the National Social Science Fund and cultural think tank projects, and has published articles such as Archaeological Observation of the Zodiac Pattern in the Epitaph of Liao Dynasty, Comparative Analysis of the Tombs of Xianbei and Han People in Luoyang Area, and Textual Research on Wuchuan Military and Political Affairs in the Northern Dynasties.
Producer | Xiao Jingfang Yang Xinhua
Overall planning | Weng Huainan Liang Li
Editor | Liang Li Yu Ling
Production | Hu Qi