What is the tribute tea in the Qing Dynasty? How to order tea in the Song Dynasty? What does the tea set unearthed in the underground palace of Famen Temple look like? The Palace Museum's "Tea • World - Tea Culture Special Exhibition" presents a three-dimensional legend of an oriental leaf that has traveled through thousands of years of history, connecting the world's east, west, north and south, and integrating various ethnic groups. Let's go, come with us, go to the Forbidden City, and see the special exhibition!
(Photo source: Palace Museum official website)
Tea out of China has a long history
This exhibition brings together 555 pieces (groups) of representative collections from 30 archaeological and cultural institutions at home and abroad, and is divided into four parts: "Tea Out of China", "Tea Ceremony Shanghe", "Tea Road Thousands of Miles" and "Tea Rhyme". The exhibition starts from the origin of tea. Legend has it that during the Shennong era, the Chinese had already recognized and used tea. So far, the earliest remains of artificially planted tea trees found in China were unearthed at the Tianluoshan site in Yuyao, Zhejiang. They are concentrated in three shallow pits of about 1 square meter each in the shape of tree roots and traces of artificial excavation. Each piece consists of about 20 roots, scattered randomly. The discovery of tea tree roots in the Tianluoshan site of the Hemudu culture has pushed the time of Chinese artificial cultivation of tea trees to about 6,000 years ago.
Artificially planted tea tree roots (Photo source: Palace Museum official website)
Since the Han Dynasty, the perception and preparation methods of tea have gradually diversified. By the Tang Dynasty at the latest, the main tea-producing areas on the mainland had been basically formed. In the Qing Dynasty, the tea produced in various places was diverse and high-quality. In the exhibition, there are archaeological unearthed tea objects of the Han Dynasty and Song Dynasty, as well as more than 40 pieces (groups) of Qing Dynasty tribute tea collected by the Palace Museum, such as Yangxian tea, Longjing tea, Qingcheng bud tea, water chestnut bay tea, spring tea, etc., which not only highlight the economic value of tea, but also reflect the connection between tea and political life.
Qing Dynasty tribute tea (Image source: Palace Museum official website)
Tea utensils of different ages reflect changes in tea preparation methods. Through the tea utensils on display, you can explore the style of tea drinking in ancient times. Generally speaking, there are five main ways to prepare tea: eating tea, sencha, ordering tea, boiling tea, and making tea. The sencha method of boiling "three boiling" water was popular in the Tang Dynasty, the tea method of boiling water without boiling tea was popular in the Song Dynasty, and the tea boiling method was popular from the Yuan Dynasty to the middle of the Ming Dynasty, that is, the steps of tea grinding and sieving were eliminated and the loose tea was directly cooked, which has been popular to this day.
(Photo source: Palace Museum official website)
Due to the different methods of preparing tea, the combination of utensils used and the complexity and simplicity of the steps also have their own characteristics. The white glaze pot of the Xing kiln of the Tang Dynasty in the exhibition has the characteristics of wide mouth, thick neck and short neck, while the green glaze carving and folding technique of the Song Dynasty has the characteristics of vertical stripes of flowers, and the flow of the pot has become slender and elongated, making it easier for people to grasp the flow and angle of water injection, which is suitable for ordering tea. In the Ming Dynasty, there were mostly purple sand pots that did not take away the fragrance of tea, such as the firewood sand Tiliang pot in the exhibition and the firewood sand pot in time.
(Photo source: Palace Museum official website)
The color of the tea cup also varies greatly from period to period. The Tang people loved the green glazed tea cup, and during the Song and Song dynasties, tea fighting was popular, and the black glazed cup was all the rage because it could highlight the white foam. The tea soup of the Ming and Qing dynasties is verdant and transparent, so white glazed bowls are mostly used.
Tea ceremony for thousands of years, with "harmony" as "Shang"
In the "Book of Tea" written by Lu Yu, a tea fairy, tea is not only a food to drink, but also has a cultural connotation, and tea drinking has risen from a daily life custom to an artistic and aesthetic level. In the "Tea Ceremony and Harmony" unit, the tea culture system of literati and scholars integrating tea with Chinese philosophy and spirit is displayed.
The word "tea" is taken apart, which means "people are among the grass and trees", which vividly analyzes the relationship between man and nature. In the long-term practical exchange with tea, people integrate their thoughts on nature, the universe and life.
The Chinese tea ceremony pursues the harmony of nature and man, humanity and nature. As a famous tea man, Emperor Qianlong attached great importance to the natural environment and water quality of tea drinking, and once imitated the Hanshan villa built by Zhao Xiao (Yinyi) Guang in Suzhou, and built a thousand-foot snow tea house in Rehe Palace, Xiyuan Yingtai and Panshan Palace, and the natural wood throne in the exhibition is one of the furniture of the Qiantai Thousand Feet Snow Tea House. In addition, the Qianlong Emperor believed that water was better for its "sweetness" and "light quality", and the exhibit "Snow Scene in the Hongli Imperial Garden" vividly depicts the process of cooking tea with snow water in the court during the Qianlong period.
"Snow Scene of Hongli Imperial Garden" (Photo source: Palace Museum official website)
The Song Dynasty's "Spring Banquet" presents the elegant life of the literati in the Song Dynasty drinking tea and feasting. This picture is based on the theme of the eighteen scholars of the Qin Mansion in the Tang Dynasty, depicting the elegant gathering of literati. In the middle section, a rectangular banquet table is painted, with literati sitting around, and trays and plates are placed on the table; A small table for tea is placed next to it, and there are stoves, soup bottles, tea cans, teaspoons, trays, and tea cups.
"Spring Banquet of the Song People" (Image source: official website of the Palace Museum)
Tea "and" the world, beauty and beauty
As the tea culture continues to ferment in China, this magical oriental leaf gradually goes to the wider world, flying to the grassland, the Qing Dynasty Lang Shining painted "Hongli Hunting Dinner Map" shows the scene of the royal hunting using milk tea barrels to pour milk tea, showing the collision of tea leaves with local milk and ghee, giving birth to a new form of tea drinking.
"Hongli Shooting Hunting Dinner Picture" (Image source: Palace Museum official website)
Tea traveled all the way west to the north, spreading to Eurasia, Europe, America, Africa and other places, and integrating into foreign regions. The Russian work "A Room with a Samovar", the British work "A Family of Three Drinking Tea", and the Japanese tea ceremony spirit of "harmony, respect, purity, and silence" formed in Japan after localization and transformation have confirmed the popularity of tea culture in the local area.
"A Room with a Samovar" (Photo source: Palace Museum official website)
The earliest surviving tea sample in the UK (Image source: Palace Museum official website)
Among the cultural relics in the Qing Palace's collection, there are a large number of tea artifacts from Russia and the West. The Darwin Centre of the Natural History Museum in London also has the earliest surviving tea sample in the UK, with a note "A Tea from China" in the specimen box. It can be seen that people from different regions, different nationalities, and different countries communicate with each other because of tea, and the world civilization has become more colorful.
The fragrance of tea is still the same, and its rhyme is long
From the archaeological unearthed tea tree roots, to the tea opera of the Song Dynasty, to the evolution of tea in modern life. In this exhibition, through the microscopic perspective of tea, people can have an overview of the development and evolution of Chinese civilization and world civilization, and further approach the Chinese tea civilization.
At present, the tea planting area and output of mainland China rank first in the world, and the development of China's tea industry has attracted worldwide attention. In November 2022, "Chinese Traditional Tea-making Techniques and Related Customs" was inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, and more and more people know, love and understand tea, and become disseminators of tea culture. Tea has also entered modern life in a more convenient form, enriching people's taste buds.
The exhibition will end on November 30.