Pictorial of Tea Ware

Tea Ware Pictorial (茶具圖贊/茶具图赞) is a book by Shenan (Chinese: 審安老人/审安老人) compiled in 1269, and is the earliest picture book on tea ware used in preparation of Song dynasty tea cake for drinking.

Tea during the Song Dynasty was prepared by using the whisking tea method. The green tea was ground into a fine powder and hot water was added then whisked in a bowl with a brush to make tea and foam, this Chinese method of preparing tea spread to Japan and became the way Matcha tea is made in Japan today. While in China this method gave way to the brewing tea method, which is the infusion of loose tea.

Old Man Shenan’s 12 Tea Ware

This book described 12 tea wares (審安老人的12茶具):

Some of the tea terms of Shenan and Lu Yu have the same names and use, because some of the tea wares from tang dynasty were also used in the song dynasty, although Shenan does give them special names.

Song dynasty tea ware

• Brazier風爐 (hong lu韋鴻臚)
• Crushing Block砧椎 (mu dai zhi木待制)
• Crushing Roller碾 (jin fa cao金法曹)
• Stone Mill石磨 ( shi zhuan yun石轉運 )
• Gourd Scooper瓢 (hu yuan wai胡員外)
• Sieve Box羅合 (luo shu mi羅樞密)
• Brush札 (zong cong shi宗從事)
• Bowl Basket畚 (qi diao mi ge漆雕秘閣)
• Bowl碗 (tao bao wen陶寶文)
• Water Vessel水方 (tang ti dian湯提點)
• Tea Whisk茶筅 (zhu fu shi竺副師)
• Tea Cloth巾 (si zhi fang司職方)

The above tea wares were also mentioned by Lu Yu except for (stone mill石磨) and (tea whisk茶筅)in The Classic of Tea .

See also

• The Classic of Tea (Tang Dynasty)

References

• Tea Terms 2010 中英文茶術語

External links

• 抹茶法 - Whisking(Fine powder) Tea Method