STYLES
THROUGH HISTORY
The tea we have been talking about so far was green
tea sold in cakes made of the leaves steamed, crushed,
fired, pounded and compressed. In LuYu's time, a bitw^as
broken off, roasted until, in his words, it was "soft
as a baby's arm" and boiled in a pot of water.
The main tea styles in Chinese history, all green
tea, can be roughly summarized as follows: early days,
fresh leaves boiled in water; third century on, leaves
dried and powdered, then boiled; Tang, brick tea,
made from leaves steamed, powdered, formed into cakes,
and boiled before drinking; Song, dry tea leaves ground
to a powder and whipped in hot water with a fine bamboo
whisk (this practice was taken to Japan in the eighth
or ninth century and is still followed in the tea
ceremony there); Ming, loose tea much like ours today
and prepared by infusion in hot water. Early in the
Song dynasty the drink was enlivened by the addition
of onions, pickle juice, ginger, and orange peel.
Later it was drunk clear. Trade with the peoples on
the fringes of the empire had grown increasingly important
by Song times. Brick tea had been bartered for horses
from the steppes, but now it was used to control the
nomads— by withholding their annual quota if they
became too warlike. To ensure enough tea stock to
barter for horses the army needed, the Song gov-ernment
prohibited all officials below the rank of seventh
grade from purchasing it. Tea remained one of the
main commodities exchanged for horses and wool up
to 1949 and the establishment of the People's Republic.
Song ceramics, widely used as tea accessories, rank
among China's most beautiful arts. Tea had formerly
been drunk out of small bowls. Now wide, shallow vessels
rather like saucers (chen) were used. Song connoisseurs
preferred tea that whipped up to a whitish, milky
mixture. Black ceramics were favored for the contrast
they provided. Spoons of gold, silver, iron, or bamboo
were used to drop the leaves into the water. In general,
however, the tea masters disapproved of metal.
The conquest of China by the Mongols from the north
went on from the late thirteenth century up until
the demise of their rule in 1368. It is strange thatMarco
Polo's Travels, which gave detailed descriptions of
life in China in 1271-1294 during the rule ofKublai
Khan, mentioned tea only in passing, although subsequent
Western visitors remarked on it. Polo did say that
in 12 8 5" a finance minister had been reprimanded
for enforcing the tea tax too ruthlessly.
Chinese sources provide information on numerous teahouses
in the city of Hangzhou during the exact time Polo
visited it, and surely the Mongols, like most border
peoples, must have used tea before coming to the capital.
One explanation for Polo's silence may be that he
considered tea a custom of the people Kublai had conquered,
and therefore not worthy of mention. Mongol rule w'-as
overthrown by the Ming dynasty in 13 68. The Ming
monarchs, who were from China's majority Han people,
sought to revive past glories and customs, including
tea drinking. The Horse and Te'a Bureau played a vital
role in the Ming economy. The demand for the product
by the border peoples had become so great that tea
ranked as a major commodity7 significant to the empire
both militarily and financially. The bureau, responsible
for bartering tea for horses, w^as headed by a very
high official. As an incentive to grow tea in sufficient
quantities, the tax was returned to the moderate amount
levied at its beginning in the Tang dynasty.
As an art, tea drinking in Ming followed Song traditions,
with connois-seurs sipping it delicately in accordance
with the maxim "Tea should be drunk often but
in small quantities." Meanwhile, great progress
was made in the manufacture of ceramic tea sets, and
the teapot became the ideal vessel for brewing tea.
Shallow drinking bowls remained the custom. Only much
later were these transformed into cups.
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