There is a saying in the "Zhou Yi ZhiXia": "The metaphysical one is the tao, and the metaphysical one is the instrument." The "Tao" is mysterious and profound, formless and phaseless, the instrument can be reached by the hand, the image can be felt, the two complement each other, the Tao guides the manufacture of the instrument, and the instrument is the carrier of the Tao, and the same is true of the tea ceremony and tea utensils that have been passed down for thousands of years.
Someone said: "Ceramics are not born with tea utensils, but tea utensils should be naturally ceramics." This may be a bit absolute, but from the history of the development of Chinese tea culture and ceramic art, the combination of ceramics and tea is indeed complementary and shining.
Ceramic tea ware, because it carries the life behavior, tea drinking method, aesthetic taste and spirit of the times of people in different eras, has a profound cultural heritage, has become a national culture with great regional characteristics, and is also an important part of the study of Chinese tea culture that cannot be ignored.
Ceramics are elegant utensils
Lu Yu wrote about the origin of tea in the "Tea Classic": "Tea is to drink, originate from the Shennong clan, smell from the Lu Zhou Gong", although this statement has the suspicion of self-respect of Togu, but at least in the pre-Qin period, the wonderful use of tea has been discovered, not only for medicinal purposes, but also for making tea.
The special tea utensils appeared later, and the earliest records appeared in the "Covenant" of the Western Han Dynasty. According to the different production materials, tea utensils have ceramics, metals, lacquerware, bamboo and glass and other categories, and about the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, ceramic technology developed rapidly, ceramics showed their distinctive superiority, and gradually became the mainstream.
The Tang Dynasty's national strength and social stability provided fertile soil for the progress of ceramic technology, such as jade ice celadon porcelain, silver-like snow-like white porcelain, quiet and mysterious black porcelain, bright and simple yellow glazed porcelain, dashing and warm Tang Sancai, etc., presenting a prosperous scene of competition and beauty.
Sometimes there is a "south of the blue and north white" said, Yuezhou celadon and Xingzhou white porcelain is hot, and the wind of tea drinking also happens to blow all over the north and south of the river, becoming a cultural drink of "the more people drink and the only high", tea and ceramics meet in the prosperous world, complement each other, ceramic tea ware came into being in this background.
Tang Dynasty sencha, is boiled drinking method, boiled with kettles, drunk with bowls, tea bowls are important utensils in the process of drinking tea, Lu Yu's "Tea Classics • Four Instruments" commented on the ceramic tea utensils produced by the kilns in the north and south at that time, he believes that "the more porcelain blue and the tea color is green" "Qing is beneficial to tea", so the tea bowl of Yuezhou is the best.
"Secret color porcelain" is as the best of the Yue kiln celadon, rarely circulated in the world, in 1987 Famen Temple Pagoda underground palace opened, unearthed the secret color porcelain bowl 7 mouths, glaze crystal moist, such as ice like jade, can be the essence of Yue kiln celadon, eye-opening.
An important reason why Lu Yu proposed "Xing is not as good as Yue" is that "Yue porcelain jade", and the virtue of a gentleman is like jade, in his view, tea drinkers need to have the spirit of "fine practice and frugality", and use "jade" to accompany tea to fully display the spiritual temperament of tea.
The size of the tea bowl in the Tang Dynasty is larger, the caliber is more than 20cm, this kind of tea bowl is large in size, the capacity is large, it is difficult for normal people to drink in a short period of time, and the tea drinking habit at that time was "taking the heat and drinking", so there was a custom of "walking tea".
Line tea, as the name suggests, is to let the tea flow, the poet monk Jiaoran once had a poem: "Tea loves to pass on flowers to drink, poetry to see the volume of vegetarian tailoring." At the Tang Dynasty tea party, everyone passed on the tea bowl and took turns to drink, while giving poems and sentences, not only expressed their feelings, but also deepened their friendship.
At the tea party, the number of tea bowls is always less than the number of guests, "the number of bowls is at least three, as much as five, if there are more than ten people, add two furnaces", and the tea bowl must not be filled, otherwise the tea will be half drunk, the color and aroma of the tea will be lost, and the people behind will drink tastelessly, so the "wine full of tea and half" rule has been formed.
Tang Dynasty exotic cultural exchanges frequently, influenced by the style of gold and silverware in West Asian countries, there was a multi-curved tea bowl with a flower mouth, the petal-like curve of the bowl mouth was staggered, the shape was mostly based on the mouth of the begonia, the mouth of the sunflower, the mouth of the lotus flower, etc., and the inner wall also extended the convex arc, which was stable and three-dimensional, and some of the outer walls were also engraved with lotus patterns, and the aesthetic taste jumped out.
In addition to the tea bowl, the ceramic tea set of the Tang Dynasty also has tea urn and tea saucer, tea ou or straight mouth shallow abdomen, or as a sunflower mouth style, to the late Tang Dynasty style more, the bottom has a circle foot, tea Ou is mostly used for personal use, small size, less capacity.
Tea saucer is shallower in the Middle Tang Dynasty, shorter than the edge of the mouth, and in the late Tang Dynasty, the inner bottom support ring is higher, parallel to the mouth edge, and the lotus leaf pattern and lotus pattern are carved along the surface and insole, which is concise and conveys the beauty of decoration. There are also two kinds of porcelain tea utensils, tea boxes and salt boxes, with different shapes and sizes, and various shapes.
The rise of ceramic tea utensils
Although the Song Dynasty was constantly worried about internal and external troubles, but in the cultural construction tree is far ahead of the predecessors, the market economy is developing at a high speed, overseas trade is gradually developed, porcelain has become the main commodity of foreign trade, and the market demand has actively expanded, which has stimulated the development of the porcelain industry in the Song Dynasty, and there are many famous kilns throughout the country.
At the same time, the way of drinking tea has undergone tremendous changes, the emergence of new customs such as tea ordering, tea fighting and tea sharing has also put forward new requirements for ceramic tea utensils, so the Song Dynasty tea ware shows a very different aesthetic taste and style shape from the previous generation.
In the porcelain of the Tang Dynasty, yueqing punishment and white were popular, and in the Song Dynasty, with the progress of ceramic technology, ordinary black glazed porcelain sprung up and ushered in a golden period of development, especially the construction of kiln black glaze tea cups flourished, Jizhou kiln black glaze tea cups are also very famous.
When fighting tea in the Song Dynasty, the tea color is noble and white, and the bite is long-lasting, and the water marks are late, so the tea cup should be easy to observe the tea color and water marks, and the black glaze porcelain color is dark, which is in stark contrast with the pure white milk flower.
Under the market demand, ceramic artists continue to improve firing technology so that the black glaze presents rabbit milli pattern, partridge stripe, oil drop glaze, tortoiseshell glaze, paper-cut leakage, leaf pattern and other special texture effects and ornaments, the blue-black glaze produced by the kiln is pan-azure in black, bright and moist, deep and thick, and is highly respected by tea people.
The shape of the black cup of the kiln is similar, basically it is a large mouth and a small foot, shaped like a funnel, only there are some differences in the local area, which can be roughly divided into four types: bundle mouth, mouth, skimmer and open mouth.
The ratio of the caliber and height of the cup is about equal to two to one, which is determined by the characteristics of the tea and the tea, the victory or defeat of the tea depends on the tea color and the bite of the cup, "the cup is less high, then the tea color is covered; the tea is more small, then the soup is not exhausted", after repeated practice, the craftsmen have determined that the proportion of tea and tea viewing can reach the best state.
Song Dynasty tea ordering is different from the previous dynasty, the tea powder is no longer put into the tea kettle to boil, but instead placed in the tea cup and boiled water in a tea bottle to brew the point. Therefore, in the Song Dynasty, a fresh tea vessel appeared- the tea bottle. The tea bottle is similar to the previous generation of wine injections, with a small flared mouth, a slender neck, an oval abdomen, and a very slender overall.
Song people lamented that "waiting for soup is the most difficult", "uncooked is foaming, overcooked is heavy tea", so in order to reduce the difficulty of waiting for soup, tea bottles are divided into two kinds of sizes, small tea bottles are light and flexible, and tea soup is also more accurate, but only suitable for two or three people's small tea parties, large tea parties, then use large tea bottles to boil water.
Tea saucers have been loved by people since the beginning of their appearance, not only the shape is varied, the materials are also different, there are lacquer saucers in the five generations, and the Song Dynasty is also widely popular.
However, because the scarlet lacquerware is not suitable for the mourning home and has not developed, the porcelain tea saucer still occupies the mainstream and forms a concave shape such as the concave type of the heart, the convex type of the cylinder, and the bowl-shaped bracket type.
The Yuan Dynasty as a regime controlled by ethnic minorities only existed for less than a hundred years, but the development of tea culture not only did not stagnate, but went deeper into the people, and at the same time, in order to meet the needs of the common people to simplify tea making, the tea utensils of the Song Dynasty also underwent restructuring.
Point tea declined, black glaze tea cup is no longer beautiful, celadon porcelain, blue and white porcelain and jun porcelain re-shine, a new egg white glaze porcelain tea bowl is very popular, bending waist shape, bucket shape, folded edge, chicken heart type and other tea bowl shapes have appeared, forming a new development trend.
The biggest contribution of Yuan Dynasty porcelain lies in the present life of blue and white porcelain, blue and white flat pots, blue and white cups and blue and white bowls and other tea utensils in the firing or decoration have reached a high level, but at that time was not valued by the domestic literati, more is sold abroad, Turkey and Iran currently have a large number of blue and white porcelain preserved.
The grandeur of ceramic tea utensils
The Ming and Qing dynasties set the predecessors of the greatest, into the history of the development of Chinese ceramics in the heyday of the Ming Dynasty, Jingdezhen became the capital of porcelain, blue and white, glaze red, enamel and color changes rich color glaze varieties are dazzling, colorful shapes, decorative methods are endless, and the emergence of purple sand tea ware has become a symbol of the new peak of porcelain.
After entering the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang issued a decree, "Waste Tuan Tea Xingye Tea", thus using tea leaves to brew directly brewing brewing method in society, due to the way of drinking tea and the development of tea leaves such as black tea, flower tea, green tea and black tea, tea utensils in glaze color, shape and decoration have undergone tremendous changes.
At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the revival of large tea bowls, especially during the Yongle and Dexuan periods, there were a large number of large tea bowls with a caliber greater than 20cm or 30cm wide, mostly straight mouths, abdominal micro-arcs, and large circle feet, and the popularity of this tea bowl was closely related to the ritual of "uniform tea".
"Uniform tea" is the meaning of the average point of tea, originated in the Song Dynasty, tea party, to first brew some tea powder in the large tea bowl, and then use a special spoon into the small tea cup, a spoon a lamp, as the saying goes, "do not suffer from widowhood but suffer from unevenness", this ceremony reflects the harmonious beauty of mutual respect and mutual respect between people.
The most popular tea utensils in the Ming and Qing dynasties were white porcelain and blue and white porcelain, leaf tea brewing not only to taste its taste, but also to observe the changes in the shape of tea leaves in the water, so clear white porcelain is the most popular, of which the kiln white porcelain tea cup is the most famous.
Ming and Qing tea utensils are complete in variety, diverse in shape, only in terms of tea bowls, there are more than ten styles such as bucket type, chicken heart type, Luohan style, Zhengde style, nest type, pier type, yangzhong type, etc., and have reached a very high level in technology and art.
Sweet white porcelain and blue and white porcelain became the best in the tea ware at that time, Yongle sweet white glaze porcelain elegant and sweet, Xuande white glaze light like jade, to inject tea, tea soup bright and clear, beautiful and practical; blue and white porcelain patterns, exquisite depiction, not only increasingly loved by all classes, but also became the most national characteristics of the porcelain varieties.
In addition, during the Ming Dynasty, the Doucai porcelain process was perfected to maturity, the picture was exquisite, the color was light and elegant, and the blue and white porcelain complemented each other; the multicolored porcelain that appeared in Wanli was rich in color and deep in color, and the shape and ornamentation were rich;
Kang Yongqian's three generations of mature enamel color, rich colors, superb techniques, is a combination of Chinese and Western cultures; the pastel porcelain that flourished in the Yongzheng period, with three-dimensional tones and fine depictions, has gained great vitality in the folk.
A variety of porcelain varieties have greatly promoted the aesthetic value of tea utensils, literati and scholars have joined the design of tea utensils, with tea ware as the painting paper, pine bamboo plum pattern, Coatsland stone, Spring River rafting and other works that express the interests of scholars have emerged, so that people can get more spiritual enjoyment in addition to tea tasting.
During the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, the cover tea bowl gradually began to become popular, the emergence of this tea utensil is to cope with the drawbacks of the brewing method, directly brew tea with tea urn, the taste is not exhausted, the cost is a pity, but the cover bowl is composed of three parts: the lid bowl is composed of a lid, a bowl, a tray can be anti-scalding, the tea bowl can be brewed, and the lid can be insulated and can remove the foam, killing three birds with one stone.
At the same time, under the influence of the bubble method, the purple sand pot has also entered the heyday stage, especially the literati's advocacy and participation in the purple sand pot, which has greatly enhanced the artistic level of the purple sand pot, and people have the saying that "the pot is not seeking officials, and the dry water is very dry", from which the precious value of the purple sand pot can be glimpsed.
Purple sand ware originated in the Northern Song Dynasty, flourished in the Southern Song Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty has achieved greater development, at first only pots, pots two categories, and only practical value, until the Ming Wuzong period, craftsmen in the pot body and spout of the adhesive place decorated with exquisite patterns, both to make up for the traces of the drill plug, but also to give the purple sand pot aesthetic value.
During the years of Zhengde and Jiajing, after the completion of The Spring School, he specialized in making purple sand pots, using the two-section molding method and the slapping molding method to separate the purple sand ware from the stoneware, and the purple sand pot officially stood out from the utensils and was regarded as an artistic treasure.
In the following hundreds of years, Shi Dabin, Chen Mingyuan and other purple sand craftsmen have come out on behalf of others, constantly improving the level of purple sand pot craftsmanship, the social influence of purple sand pot is also getting bigger and bigger, many literati and scholars, Jinshi calligraphy and painting masters flock to it, and to this day, the status of purple sand pot in the art world is still not to be underestimated.