A study of tea smoke culture during the Tang, Song and Yuan dynasties

Abstract

  Historically, “tea smoke” has been seldom talked about, and has never been a theme or spotlight of the tea culture. Moreover, the entry for “tea smoke” included in A Grand Dictionary of Chinese Tea only offers two explanations, i.e. (1) the smoke generated when tealeaves are processed, and (2) the smoke generated when tea is made.

  However, when studying the poems about tea in the Tang, Song and Yuan Dynasties, the writer found that there are seven kinds of “tea smoke” recorded in historical materials besides the said two kinds of “tea smoke”:

（1）The tea smoke that looks like cloud and mist above the tea trees in tea gardens.

（2）The tea smoke generated when tealeaves are processed.

（3）The smoke generated when consumers bake tealeaves to remove the moisture in tealeaves.

（4）The smoke that arises from stoves when tea is made.

（5）The steam that arises from the soup when tea is made or the steam of tea soup is compared to tea smoke.

（6）The marks formed by tea smoke on walls.

（7）The smoke above the surface of crumby-cake tea.

  According to analysis by the writer, the first six kinds of tea smoke were seen in the Tang Dynasty. The 7^th kind of tea smoke was added in the Song Dynasty, indicating the form and quality of crumby-cake tea received more attention in the Song Dynasty. In the Yuan Dynasty, strictly speaking, the 3^rd and 7^th kinds of tea smoke were not seen, and only the other five kinds of tea smoke were mentioned in historical records, with the number of poems about the 1^st, 2^nd and 6^th tea smoke decreasing from that in the Song Dynasty. That is, the poems about tea smoke in the Yuan Dynasty were mainly about the 4^th and 5^th kinds of tea smoke. In addition, the Yuan Dynasty saw more poems about tea smoke than the Tang and Song Dynasties, with the proportion to all poems about tea smoke more than twice that in the Song Dynasty. That implies the tea lovers in the Yuan Dynasty gradually abandoned the pursuit of tea foams as seen in the Song Dynasty and returned to the plain aesthetic interest focused on tea tasting.

  Besides, the analysis of the reasons behind the increasing poems about tea smoke in the Yuan Dynasty also shows the culture about tea smoke not only reflects the aesthetic taste about tea in different times, but also vivified the descriptions about tea drinking scenes and made tea drinking a static and dynamic behavior that goes beyond a single space. Through the analysis, we can believe without hesitation that tea smoke is a very charming part of the Chinese tea culture.