Vicony Tea Directory

Home>>Tea Directory>>Tea Encyclopedia
 
 
  Zhu Yuanzhang,the founding Emperor of Ming dynasty who abolished cake tea and replaced it with loose tea in China

Tea Drinking in Chinese Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)

In the early Ming dynasty, there was no great change in the way of tea drinking,except that it abolished cake tea and promoted loose tea. However, in the late Ming dynasty, there were more great changes and innovations in the tea development than the Song dynasty and the Yuan dynasty, such as the new tea varieties, the prevalence of loose tea, the attention to the tea utensils and the artistry of the ways of tea drinking, etc.

1) New Development of Tea Varieties

The founding emperor of the Ming dynasty-Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang was born in a lower class family, and he knew the harmful politics of the Yuan dynasty and the sufferings of the people deeply. He thought that cake tea imposed extra toil on the tea planters, so he issued an edict to abolish cake tea and replaced it with bud tea instead, which promoted the creation of many new production and processing skills of tea in the Ming dynasty. In terms of tea processing skills, the roasting skills kept developing and gradually exceeded the way of steaming; in the aspects such as tea garden management, tea collection and mastering the botanical characteristics of tea plants, there all were more improvement and development than in the Song dynasty and the Yuan dynasty.

Speciality Tea Wholesale

Because of the improvement of tea processing skills, famous tea in the Ming dynasty also developed very rapidly, and the loose tea developed into an unprecedented prosperity. There were only a few famous loose teas in the Song dynasty that were mentioned in the historical literatures; however, in the Ming dynasty, the book Shiwu-ganzhu written by Huang Yizheng recorded as many as 97 kinds of famous tea then, and most of them were loose tea. What's more, according to the investigations of the existing literatures, we could generally be sure that today's green tea and black tea must have first appeared in the Ming dynasty.

  A Teapot Made in Yaozhou Kiln in Ming Dynasty
  A Teapot Made in Yaozhou Kiln in Ming Dynasty

2) Loose Tea Promoted the Simplification of Tea Drinking

Because of the advocacy of Emperor Taizu of the Ming dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, drinking loose tea became the predominant way of tea drinking in the Ming society. The Zhangwu-zhi(Treatise on Superfluous Things) written by Wen Zhenheng then held the opinion that drinking loose tea was very simple and convenient, which could enable people to experience the true sense of tea drinking. Besides, according to many other historical records,the Ming people created the method of "lun-cha"(sinking tea) in the course of loose tea brewing, and from which there was derived the method of "xi-cha"(washing tea),i.e.before the tea was brewed, people would wash the tea with hot water to get rid of the dirt and the cold that the dried tea carried, and then brew the tea. The tea brewed in this way was more delicious and it is still used by the modern people.

The advocacy of loose tea made the method of pouring water on loose tea directly the most important way of tea drinking, thus the tea utensils of the Tang and Song styles were no longer suitable and mostly fell into disuse. In this way, the procedures of brewing and drinking tea and the tea utensils were simplified to a large extent. According to the research, the procedures of tea drinking in the Tang and Song dynasties were over-elaborate, especially the cake tea prevalent in the Song dynasty, whose brewing required many procedures and tea utensils. However since the abolishment of cake tea in the early Ming dynasty, the Ming people began to turn the extravagant
tea drinking trend of the Tang and Song dynasties to the original simple and thrifty way of tea drinking.

chinahint.com

  A Yixing Purple Sand Teapot Made in Ming Dynasty
  A Yixing Purple Sand Teapot Made in Ming Dynasty

3) Pursuing the Beauty of Tea Utensils

The men of letters in the Ming dynasty began to pursue artistry consciously in the way of tea drinking and the natural and environmental beauty in the process of tea drinking. Especially in the late Ming dynasty, tea had become the plaything of men of letters and scholar-officials. Most of them pursued the beauty of tea utensils and the gracefulness of the environment to get spiritual satisfaction in the course of tea drinking.

In the Ming dynasty, the rising of the method of "lunch" made teapot more widely used, and the teacups also turned from black-glazed porcelain to white porcelain and blue-and-white porcelain, so as to better present the color of tea. The reason that Mixing purple stoneware tea utensils rose in the Ming dynasty was not only the prevalence of the method of "lunch", but also that their forms and materials were well catered to the spiritual needs of simplicity, civility, rusticity, naturalness and elegance then. With the appearance of many famous teapot makers and the promotion of the men of letters, the craftsmanship of purple stoneware tea utensils were improved greatly, and there even appeared the situation that the price of mud could even compete with that of gold.

The Ming people pursued earthen and small teapots; besides the standard of so-called "not distract the fragrance of tea and has no ripe taste", the teapots must satisfy the tea drinkers' pursuit of "fun". People not only advocated naturalness and simplicity in tea art but also emphasized aesthetic value. While tea purple stoneware teapots just cater for this kind of esthetic mentality and thus prevailed. From the developing process of tea, we could find that since the Tang and Song dynasties the choice of tea utensils all depend on tea; it was not until the Ming dynasty that tea and tea utensils broke away from the outer material relation and turned to spiritual interrelation, thus small teapots were able to be accepted and prevail.

See Also:

Green Tea Black Tea White Tea Yellow Tea Oolong Tea Dark Tea Pu Erh Scented Flowering Herbal Tea Powder

 

Navigation
Home (ViconyTeas)
Tea Directory (VTD)
Tea Importers
Tea Exporters
Tea Wholesalers
Informative Tea Web
Tea Association
Tea Encyclopedia
Online Tea Shop
Tea Dictionary Online
   
  Keemun Black Tea
  Keemun Hao Ya A
  Keemun Hao Ya B
  Keemun Congou Tea
  Keemun Mao Feng Tea
  Chinese Tea Powder
  Matcha Green Tea Powder
  Pure Matcha Green Tea
  Black Tea Powder
  Chinese White Tea Powder
  Chinese Oolong Tea Powder
  Chun Mee Tea Suppliers
  Chunmee 41022 Tea
  Organic Chunmee 9371 Tea
  Chinese Speciality Tea
  Huangshan Maofeng Tea
  Organic Longjing Tea
  Wholesale Blooming Tea
  White Chrysanthemum Tea
  Chrysanthemum Bud Tea
  Loose leaf Tea wholesale
  Chinese Organic Tea Wholesale
  Green Peony Flowers Tea
  Green Tea Flowers Venus
  Green Tea Blossom
  Green Tea Flower Ruby
  Blossoming Tea Shell Pearl
  Blooming Tea Orient Pearl
  Amaranth Blooming Flower Tea
  Artisan Tea Spring Scenery
  Chrysanthemum Flowering Tea
  Wintersweet Blooming Flower tea
  Display Tea Jasmine Basket
  Art Tea Auspicious Flower
  Artistic Tea Jasmine Fairy
  Flowering Tea Double Happiness
  Powdered Puer Tea
  Powdered Genmaicha Tea
  Silver Needle White Tea
  Jasmine Pearl Tea
  Chinese Yellow Tea
  Yellow Bud Tea
  Melon Seed Tea
  Lu An Gua Pian Tea
  Taiping Houkui
  Taiping Hou Kui Tea
  Ginseng Oolong Tea
   
Last Update: 2016.9
Copyright©2016 | Tea Drinking in Ming Dynasty