Tea set, in its narrow sense, refers to tea drinking utensils such as teacups, teapots, tea bowls, tea cups, saucers and tea trays. China's tea sets, with a wide variety and beautiful shapes, are not only of practical value, but also of high artistic value, so they are well-known at home and abroad and are favored by tea lovers in past dynasties. Due to the different materials and producing areas, it can be divided into clay tea sets, porcelain tea sets, lacquer tea sets, glass tea sets, metal tea sets and bamboo tea sets.
Selection of tea set
1. Pottery tea set
Pottery tea set refers to the purple sand pottery tea set made in Yixing. The clay in Yixing is strong in adhesion and resistant to burning. Using purple sand tea set to make tea can not only make the tea really fragrant, but also have no smell of cooked soup, and can keep the color, fragrance and taste of tea for a long time.
Yixing teapot began in the Northern Song Dynasty and flourished in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Its simple shape, elegant color, bright and flawless, exquisite works are as expensive as Ding Yi, and there is a saying that "soil and gold compete for price". The small teapot made by Shi Dabin, a master of teapot in Ming Dynasty, is elegant and exquisite. As a work of art adorning several cases, it adds elegance to tea tasting. The big pot made by him for adjusting sand and lifting beams is purple-black, mixed with sand and soil, with stars and white spots, as graceful as stars in the night sky, with a small body and a stable center of gravity. It is a kind of simple and vigorous boutique. Zisha pot is a favorite in the ceramic family, and it is not glazed inside and outside. It is said that Su Dongpo designed a tree-carrying pot, which took natural ancient green branches as the handle of the pot, matched with an ochre melon-shaped pot body, carved with quaint tiles and exquisite calligraphy. It was elegant and quaint, and the color contrast also brought out the best in each other. It was regarded as a treasure with practical value by scholars of all ages.
the shapes of teapot are: Antique, plain goods (no flowers and no words), flower goods (natural images of pine, bamboo and plum), rib bags (geometric patterns). Artists use knives as pens, and the books, paintings and seals they create are integrated into one, forming an ancient and elegant style.
After the founding of New China, the artists of Zisha Pot have a place to play. Today, both the shape and texture of the teapot have reached a very high level, and it has been praised by international friends as "the first tea set in the world". Master Gu Jingzhou's "Tibi Pot" and "Hanyun Pot" are listed as gifts for international communication. In addition, China has specially designed an artistic tea set for Japanese consumers-the horizontal handle pot, and carved exquisite calligraphy with Buddhist scriptures on the surface of the pot according to Japanese hobbies, which has become a good tea tasting tool for Japanese consumers. At present, the variety of purple sand tea sets has increased from 41 to 51 to more than 611. For example, the purple sand double-layer thermos cup is a new product welcomed by the masses. Because purple clay is delicate and flexible in texture, strong in plasticity and good in permeability, the tea set made from it is rich in color and fragrance, and it is not easy to spoil in summer, and it is not easy to burst when boiled on the stove in winter.
There are many styles of tea sets. How to evaluate a set of tea sets? Generally speaking, its practical value should be considered first, and then its appreciation value, that is, the beauty of appearance. Taking the pot as an example, we should pay attention to the following specific requirements: proper volume and weight ratio, convenient lifting of the pot handle, joint around the pot cover, smooth outflow of water from the spout, refined and harmonious modeling, color and pattern, and harmonious combination of practicality and artistic beauty, so as to be a perfect tea set. Yixing's purple sand tea set has these characteristics.
2. Porcelain tea sets
China's porcelain tea sets are produced after pottery, and are divided into white porcelain tea sets, porcelain tea set tea sets and black porcelain tea sets according to products.
(1) White porcelain tea set
White porcelain tea set is named after its white color as jade. Its producing areas are many, including Jingdezhen in Jiangxi, Liling in Hunan, Dayi in Sichuan, Tangshan in Hebei and Qimen in Anhui. Among them, Jingdezhen products in Jiangxi are the most famous. White porcelain was known as "fake jade" as early as the Tang Dynasty. In the Northern Song Dynasty, the porcelain produced by Jingdezhen Kiln was thin and smooth, with blue in white, elegant and pleasing to the eye, and decorated with carved flowers, prints and brown dots. By the Yuan Dynasty, a blue and white porcelain tea set was developed, which was beautiful and elegant, not only cherished by people at home, but also exported to overseas. Jingdezhen white porcelain blue-and-white tea set, which is popular in the market today, has developed and created many new varieties on the basis of inheriting traditional techniques, whether it is teapot, teacup or tea tray, from modeling to graphic decoration, all of which reflect strong national style and modern oriental style. Jing porcelain is one of the most popular tea sets today.
(2) porcelain tea set
porcelain tea set is mainly produced in Zhejiang, Sichuan and other places. Zhejiang Longquan celadon is famous in the world for its simple and healthy shape and green glaze. It is a wonderful flower in the porcelain garden and is known as the "flower of porcelain". Longquan celadon is produced in Longquan County, southwest Zhejiang Province, which is one of the important producing areas of porcelain in Chinese history. In the Southern Song Dynasty, Longquan had become the largest kiln industry center in China. Its excellent products were not only widely circulated among the people, but also the main items of foreign trade exchange of the imperial dynasty at that time. In particular, the "Ge Kiln" and "Di Kiln" products of artists Shengyi Zhang and Zhang Sheng have reached a very high level of attainments in terms of glaze color and modeling. Therefore, Ge Kiln is listed as one of the "five famous kilns" and Di Kiln is known as "the giant of famous kilns".
Geyao porcelain is famous for its "thin and firm tire, full glaze and quiet color", including pink, emerald, gray and crab shell, among which pink is the most precious. There are various patterns on the glaze, such as Wen-wu pattern with different sizes, roe pattern with fine eyes, Arctic Fragmentation with ice cracks, crab claw pattern, eel blood pattern and cow hair pattern. These unique patterns are caused by the different shrinkage coefficients of glaze raw materials, giving people the aesthetic feeling of "broken lines".
Diyao porcelain is famous for its "beautiful shape, thick fetal bone, green glaze, smooth and pure", including plum green, pink green, bean green and crab shell green, among which pink green and plum green are the best. Moisturizing pink is like beautiful jade, and crystal plum is like jade. The beauty of its glaze color is unparalleled in the world.
(3) Black porcelain tea sets
Black porcelain tea sets are produced in Zhejiang, Sichuan, Fujian and other places. In the Song Dynasty, the wind of fighting tea prevailed. According to experience, tea-fighting people thought that black porcelain tea cups were the most suitable for fighting tea, so they were famous. According to Cai Xiang's Tea Record in the Northern Song Dynasty, "The tea color is white (the color of tea soup), and it should be black. The makers of Jian 'an (now Fujian) are black, and the grain is like rabbit hair. Its blank is slightly thick, and it is difficult to be cold after a long time, so it is most important to use it. Those who go out of other places, whether thin or purple, are not as good as them. It's blue and white, and you don't have to fight for it. " The shape, porcelain quality, glaze color and rabbit hair pattern of black porcelain tea cups fired in Guangyuan kiln in Sichuan are comparable to those of Jian porcelain. Yuyao and Deqing, Zhejiang Province have also produced dark, bright, beautiful and practical black glazed porcelain tea sets, among which the most popular one is a chicken-headed pot, that is, the mouth of the teapot is chicken-headed, and the National Museum of Tokyo, Japan still treasures a "Tianji pot" as a treasure. In ancient times, black porcelain rabbit hair tea lamp was often cherished by tea fighting experts because of its simplicity and elegance, unique style, heavy magnetism and good thermal insulation.
3. Lacquer tea sets
Lacquer tea sets are famous in Beijing, Fuzhou bodiless tea sets, bodiless lacquerware produced in Boyang and Yichun, Jiangxi, etc., all of which have unique artistic charm. Among them, Fuzhou lacquerware tea set is the best, with colorful shapes, such as "Gemstone Flash", "Golden Agate", "Glazed Gold", "Antique Porcelain", "Carved Fill", "High Carving" and "Embedding Silver", etc., especially after the creation of new technologies such as ruby-red "Red Gold Sand" and "Dark Flower", it is even more dazzling.
4. Glass tea set
Glass tea set is favored by people because of its transparent texture, dazzling luster, great plasticity and various shapes, and it can be used for both tea and drinking. Making tea in a glass teacup (or a glass teapot), especially when brewing all kinds of famous teas, the tea soup is bright in color, the leaves are floating up and down in the brewing process, and the leaves are gradually stretched and graceful, which is clear at a glance. It can be said that it is a dynamic artistic appreciation, and it is not funny. Glass tea sets are cheap and good, and are most popular with consumers. Its disadvantage is that glass is fragile and hotter than ceramics. However, there is also a specially processed product called tempered glass, which has good firmness and is usually used in trains and restaurants.
5. Metal tea sets
Metal tea sets are tea sets made of gold, silver, copper and tin, which have existed since ancient times. Especially the tea ware, which is made of tin for storing tea, has great advantages. Tea ware in tin cans is mostly made into a small mouth and a long neck, and the lid is cylindrical and relatively sealed, so it has good moisture-proof, oxidation-proof, light-proof and odor-proof properties. As for metal as a tea drinking utensil, the general evaluation is not high. It was used in the court of Tang Dynasty. In May, 1987, a large number of palace cultural relics of the Tang Dynasty were excavated in the underground palace of Famen Temple, a royal Buddhist temple in Fufeng County, Shaanxi Province, China, including a set of silver-plated brew tea utensils used by Emperor Li Yi of Tang Xizong when he was a teenager, including 11 kinds and 12 pieces. This is the most advanced kind of ancient tea set that has been seen so far, and it can be called a national treasure. It reflects that the royal tea drinking utensils in the Tang Dynasty are very luxurious. In modern times, with the progress of science and technology, metal tea sets have basically disappeared.
6. Bamboo tea sets
Historically, many people in rural areas, including tea areas, used bamboo or wooden bowls to make tea. It is cheap and affordable, but it is rarely used in modern times. In the south of China, such as Hainan, pots and bowls made of coconut shells are used to make tea, which are economical and practical, and are also artistic appreciation. Canned tea in wooden cans and bamboo cans can still be seen everywhere, especially in the wooden boxes of oolong tea in Wuyishan, Fujian Province, where landscape patterns are painted on the boxes, which are well-made and unique. As works of art, boxwood pots and Erhuang bamboo tea pots are also treasures given to relatives and friends, and have practical value.
7. Enamel tea set
Enamel tea set was popular in China from 1951s to 1961s because of its durability, portability and practicality, and was later replaced by other tea sets.
In addition, tea sets made of jade, crystal and agate have existed in history. Because the equipment is difficult to make, expensive and of little practical value, it is mainly used as decoration to show the owner's wealth, so it is rare.
Tea sets are made of various materials, with various shapes and patterns. How to choose it depends on the local tea drinking customs and habits, tea drinkers' aesthetic taste in tea sets, and the kind of tea to drink and the environment. For example, in the northeast and north China, most people make tea in large porcelain pots and then pour it into porcelain bowls for drinking. Jiangsu, Zhejiang area in addition to the use of teapot, generally used to use a covered porcelain cup, direct bubble drink. In the city, there are also glasses to make tea directly. In Sichuan area, people like to drink tea with porcelain "covered bowls and cups", that is, a small flower bowl with a big mouth and a small saucer under it. There is a close relationship between tea and tea set. Good tea must be brewed with good tea set to complement each other. The quality of tea sets will have a direct impact on the quality of tea soup and the mood of drinkers. Generally speaking, porcelain tea sets and pottery tea sets are the best, followed by glass tea sets and enamel tea sets. Because porcelain is slow in heat transfer and moderate in heat preservation, it will not react chemically with tea, and tea can get better color and fragrance; Moreover, it has beautiful shape, exquisite decoration and artistic appreciation value. Pottery tea sets are elegant in shape and simple in color, especially Yixing purple sand, which is a rare product in pottery. It is used to make tea with mellow fragrance, clear soup color and good heat preservation, and it is not easy to deteriorate even in summer.
oolong tea has strong aroma and mellow taste. When brewing, the tea leaves are pre-heated with a boiling water shower before being put in; Tea leaves are brewed with boiling water immediately after being put in, and washed with boiling water for many times to make tea fragrant. Therefore, it is most suitable to use pottery tea sets for brewing oolong tea. However, the opacity of pottery tea sets makes it difficult to appreciate the beauty of bud leaves in the pot after making tea, which is not suitable for making famous tea.
If you brew with a glass tea set, such as Longjing, Biluochun and Junshan Yinzhen, you can give full play to the advantages of transparency of glassware, which is pleasing to the eye.
As for other tea sets, such as enamel tea sets, although they have some shortcomings in appreciation value, they are also durable and easy to carry, and are suitable for use in factory workshops, construction sites and travel. The plastic tea set, because of its texture, also has an influence on the taste of tea. Except for temporary use under special circumstances, it is not suitable at ordinary times, especially it is forbidden to brew high-grade green tea with plastic thermos cups. Therefore, the long-term insulation of the cups will make the tea soup red, the aroma low and the taste of cooked soup appear, which will inevitably spoil the scenery.