The history of tea in China is long and complex. The Chinese have enjoyed tea for millennia. Scholars hailed the brew as a cure for a variety of ailments; the nobility considered the consumption of good tea as a mark of their status, and the common people simply enjoyed its flavor.
Tea was first discovered by the Chinese Emperor Shennong in 2737 BC. It is said that the emperor liked his drinking water boiled before he drank it so it would be clean, so that is what his servants did. One day, on a trip to a distant region, he and his army stopped to rest. A servant began boiling water for him to drink, and a dead leaf from the wild tea bush fell into the water. It turned a brownish color, but it was unnoticed and presented to the emperor anyway. The emperor drank it and found it very refreshing, and cha (tea) was born.
While historically the origin of tea as a medicinal herb useful for staying awake is unclear, China is considered to have the earliest records of tea drinking, with recorded tea use in its history dating back to the first millennium BC. The Han Dynasty used tea as medicine. The use of tea as a beverage drunk for pleasure on social occasions dates from the Tang Dynasty or earlier.
The Tang Dynasty writer Lu Yu's 陸羽 (729-804) Cha Jing 茶經 is an early work on the subject. (See also Tea Classics) According to Cha Jing writing, around AD 760, tea drinking was widespread. The book describes how tea plants were grown, the leaves processed, and tea prepared as a beverage. It also describes how tea was evaluated. The book also discusses where the best tea leaves were produced.
At this time in tea's history, the nature of the beverage and style of tea preparation were quite different from the way we experience tea today. Tea leaves were processed into compressed cakes form. The dried teacake, generally called brick tea was ground in a stone mortar. Hot water was added to the powdered teacake, or the powdered teacake was boiled in earthenware kettles then consumed as a hot beverage.
A form of compressed tea referred to as white tea was being produced as far back as the Tang Dynasty (618-907 A.D.). This special white tea of Tang was picked in early spring, when the tea bushes had abundant growths which resembled silver needles. These "first flushes" were used as the raw material to make the compressed tea.
Friday, May 9, 2008
The History of tea in China.
The Teapot - Amazing Chinese Vessels for Drinking Tea That Later Came to Europe.
If people were to go by accounts of Chou Kao-ch'i who was the author of the Yang Hsien ming hu hsi, an historical account that dealt with Ishing teapots, it was teapots such as these that were the creations of the potters at Ishing that were later made very popular to Europeans and were known to them by the Portuguese term, bocarro, which essentially means largemouth.
These pots were smaller in size and came to Europe accompanied with tea to later become the models after which the European teapots were initially fashioned. Nevertheless, this point of view has been disputed and these pots in Europe might have been ascribed to either the Chinese wine vessels or to the Islamic coffee pots that were originally imported as items of curiosity.
Spanning the Globe
In any event, there's no denying the reality that tea was originally Chinese, even though teapots as we have known them nowadays are European. To start with, European teapots were heavy cast and were short, straight and had spouts that were replaceable that were unlike Chinese teapots. This was later followed by importations on a large scale of teapots through the East India Company, which realizing the demand was increasing, imported them. They also added extra ballast for ships on which they were being transported.
With the advent of industrialization, the increasing middle class and had excess cash and may wish to duplicate the lifestyles of the upper classes and that's also included the afternoon tea ritual, which was very common among the more financially fortunate parts of society. The market for these teapots thus, grew through well-known artist merchants such as Joshua Spode and Joshua Wedgwood started to cater to the increased demand.
Fascinating Designs
The teapots design cater to every style and taste and it included every major trend in Victorian craft styles which includes the Renaissance, Chinese, Gothic, Japanese, Moorish, and Art Nouveau.
The design of contemporary style teapots made a return to a more basic form and throughout the 1960s became increasingly functional, to portray the modernism that was permeating throughout society and during the next 10 years, novelty teapots made a a surprising reappearance.
With the passage of time there have consistently been changes to the design of teapots. At times they will tend to be elegant and refined and many of these teapots are a reflection of the classic patterns of the 18th and 19th centuries.
There are quite a few common types of styles of teapots and peace include the classic Brown Betty, Japanese Tetsubin, Porcelain and Silver Teapots as well as Clear Glass Teapots and Chinese Yixing Teapots. Each of these has their own unique style and are very well-liked among numerous sections of society.
The Teapot - Amazing Chinese Vessels for Drinking Tea That Later Came to Europe
by: Korbin Newlyn
