Tea (13 page)

Along with an enhanced taste, the loose-leaf process developed during the Ming dynasty allowed for the addition of many different items (usually spices or fruits, or teas from different regions) to create tea blends. The Ming dynasty's obsession with flowers manifested itself not only in poetry and art, but in tea as well—it was during this period that various flowers were used to flavor tea. Although tea masters used many different flowers, including rose, magnolia, osmanthus, and lichee, by far the most popular was (and still is) jasmine. These additives further enhanced the sweetness of the beverage and helped fuel an avid love of tea in Ming China. People of the Ming dynasty drank tea for solace, for celebration, and for any number of other reasons, as evidenced by the following entry from a Ming dynasty tea manual:

Times for drinking tea:
In idle moments
When bored with poetry
Thoughts confused
Beating time to songs
When music stops
Living in seclusion
Enjoying scholarly pastimes
Conversing late at night
Studying on a sunny day
In the bridal chamber
Detaining favoured guests
Playing host to scholars or pretty girls
Visiting friends returned from far away
In perfect weather
When skies are overcast
Watching boats glide past on the canal
Midst trees and bamboos
When flowers bud and birds chatter
On hot days by a lotus pond
Burning incense in the courtyard
After tipsy guests have left
When the youngsters have gone out
On visits to secluded temples
When viewing springs and scenic rocks.

—Hsu Tze-shu,
Ch'a Shu

NEW VESSELS FOR BREWING TEA

The new method of brewing tea required different utensils and, particularly, different vessels for holding the beverage. When tea was made by boiling leaves shaved from a hard tea brick, it was brewed in open pans over a fire. When it came in a powder form, a wide-mouthed bowl was needed for whisking. When loose tea leaves were steeped in hot water for several minutes, it was found that small, covered containers brought out the fullest flavors, and the idea of a teapot was born.

There is much controversy about who actually invented the first “tea pot.” The answer depends on how you define a teapot. When the Chinese made the switch to brewed tea, they probably used a vessel they were already familiar with, and which was available to them, a wine ewer. Wine ewers, small containers used to hold warm wine, had been used since the Song dynasty. These vessels were round or slightly oval and had a curved spout and a top handle. Since they were suitable for holding hot liquids, ewers made excellent vessels for brewed tea.

As these ewers were used more frequently for tea and less for wine, the design was altered to better accommodate the brewing of tea. Although a top handle made it easy to carry hot wine, it became cumbersome when the ewer was used for tea. The handle got in the way when it came time to clean out the residue, after the leaves had been steeped. The solution was to put the handle on the side of the pot, rather than the top. When Europeans first began importing tea and tea ware during the centuries to come, it was these ewers rather than actual teapots that were shipped from China westward. Queen Mary had a Chinese wine ewer in her collection in the mid-sixteenth century.

When large containers were used for brewing tea in great quantities, the tea often became bitter because it was not consumed immediately. Then as now, the longer tea brews, the worse it tastes, as more chemicals called tannins are released from the leaves. Tannins contribute to the taste and pungency of tea, but if too much is released into the brew, it turns bitter and astringent—as all who have over-brewed a cup of tea can attest. The Chinese of the Ming dynasty realized that it made sense to brew up smaller quantities and to fix a fresh pot when more was needed. So, along with altering the placement of the handle, they reduced the size of the vessel. They even made miniature pots and used them to brew the highest-quality (and correspondingly, the most expensive) teas, which were sipped and savored slowly.

MING PROCELAIN AND POTTERY

The revival of tea's popularity corresponded to an increased interest in porcelain and pottery. Porcelain had been produced in China since the time of the T'ang dynasty (
618
–
907
). It was made from kaolin (china clay) and feldspar (china stone) and was fired at a very high temperature to make a hard, translucent, white material. The Chinese ranked the quality of porcelain not only by how it looked or the color and beauty of the glaze, but also by the sound it made when struck. Thick pottery, when struck lightly, produced a dull thud. Fine porcelain, which is harder and more closely compacted, made a more musical, metallic sound.

Light-colored ceramics, which showed off the colors of the brewed tea, became fashionable during the Ming dynasty, particularly white or off-white tea ware, which became all the rage. The most popular was porcelain painted with an underglaze of cobalt blue. “Blue and white” ware was considered the finest available.

The Ming dynasty was characterized by a passionate love of nature, which translated into naturalistic motifs painted on the clay, particularly on that used for serving and drinking tea. Popular pottery decoration of the times included the lotus, tree branches, and animals. The best pots were named and signed by the artist, and the tea ware of the greatest artists was eagerly bought by Chinese royalty and intellectuals.

Yixing Pots

The three main centers for making tea ware in China during the Ming dynasty were Dehua, Jingdezhen, and Yixing. The most popular and still the most famous of all teapots were made from a clay that the Chinese call
zisha
, a purple clay that was found in the area around Yixing, located about
120
miles northwest of Shanghai.

Clay from the Yixing region had been used to make pots since the Song dynasty, but it was only in the Ming period, when the teapot came into favor, that these pots attained their greatest fame.

Though called “purple,” the clay occurred naturally in three different colors—light cream, red, and a purplish brown; the higher the concentration of iron, the deeper the color. Other colors and shades were created by mixing these three colors of clay or adding other pigments such as cobalt oxide or magnesium oxide.

Potters dug the clay, dried it, pounded it into a powder, and passed it through a bamboo sieve to remove pebbles and stones. The sifted powder was then placed in a
1
.
5
-meter (five feet) deep pool filled with fresh water. After three days, the mud was removed and dried in the sun, then cut into blocks. Artists then pounded the blocks with wooden mallets and added more water to make a moldable clay from which the pots were formed.

The pots made from this clay remained porous and absorbed the flavor and fragrance of the tea, so that the vessel itself actually contributed to the taste of a cup of tea. So much of the essence was absorbed by the pots that it became customary to use only one type of tea with a particular pot, so as not to mix and confuse the flavors. Tea connoisseurs of the Ming period claimed that if one used the same pot daily, and used it for only one type of tea, that after many years, the pot would have absorbed so much flavor that one wouldn't even need to add tea anymore— just hot water!

A popular myth tells about a nobleman who loved both tea and the vessels in which it was brewed. He spent much of his time and fortune collecting the finest tea ware and tea leaves available. One day a beggar arrived at his doorstep and said to the nobleman, “I have heard that you collect the finest teas and tea ware in the world. May I share a cup of tea with you?”

The nobleman was surprised, since the beggar did not look like someone who would be able to appreciate the intricacies and delicacies of fine tea, but not wanting to appear rude, he agreed and asked that one of his best teas be brewed in one of his finest teapots. The beggar took a few sips, then looked disappointed and said to the nobleman, “The tea is fine, but it may be that the teapot is simply too new to bring out the fullest flavor of the tea. A teapot of several decades must be used to be worthy of this tea.”

And then the beggar pulled out his only possession, a fine, well-used Yixing teapot. The story ends with a fine cup of tea, brewed in the Yixing pot, shared by the two men, who, from that point on, become friends and shared tea together every day for many years.

TEA
'
S INFLUENCE ON ASIAN ARTS

Tea played a significant part in the development of the East Asian arts. Beginning in the thirteenth century and lasting for hundreds of years, there was a large and enthusiastic market for fine utensils, particularly fine ceramics, to be used in the brewing and serving of tea in Japan, China, and Korea.

The tea ceremony in seventeenth-century Japan became a way for noblemen to display their wealth or power and to establish their social standing within the community. One of the greatest proponents of this was Hideyoshi, who had a great love of Korean pottery. In
1592
(only a year after he commanded his tea master, Rikyu, to commit ritual suicide), he sent warships to Korea and brought back fifty Korean potters to make the ceramics he wanted. This was the first of the Japanese invasions of Korea—others followed in
1597
and
1598
—that were eventually called the “pottery wars.”