Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Posted by 醉茶生 at 10:23 PM | Comments (1) | Permalink
Categories: Tea Related

The Chinese word gōngfū 功夫 (more familiar in its Wade-Giles spelling of “kungfu”) has two related meanings. The first is “skill” (most commonly in the Chinese martial arts), but the second is “time”. Gongfu therefore refers to the set of skills that one is not born with, but which are acquired through practice and the passage of time. This, therefore, is what martial arts and the making of tea have in common.

Gongfu cha is a method for preparing oolong tea. It is native to the Mǐn 閩 dialect group of southern China, which includes Fújiàn 福健 province, Táiwān 臺灣 and the Cháozhōu 潮洲 district of Canton. While the rest of China traditionally make tea in porcelain bowls, the Min use small clay teapots. It is sometimes described as a “Chinese tea ceremony” because of the numerous steps and apparent ritual that form this method of preparation. It must be emphasised that this is not a ritual: it is a method of preparing tea and unlike the Japanese equivalent, is not overtly religious. The method is not standardised and is deeply personal. The flavour and fragrance of the tea will depend on the water source, the temperature of the water, the amount of leaves in the pot, the steeping time, and a hundred other factors. No two people ever make tea in exactly the same way, and two different tea masters using the same set of leaves and the same water will not produce the same cup of tea.

The skills to be acquired are only those required to make a good cup of tea. It is possible to enumerate the most obvious of these skills. They are simple to learn, but all difficult to master.

The Taiwanese have a series of poetic four-word phrases or mnemonics to describe the different steps. Although the phrases have their origins in classical Chinese, they probably date no earlier than the early 20th century (or at earliest, late Qing Dynasty).

Mèng Chén mùlín 孟臣沐霖：
“The teapot is drenched in dew.” The first step is to rinse the teapot with hot water both to clean it and to warm it. Meng Chen was a Ming dynasty craftsman famous for his tea pots. In later times, the name Meng Chen therefore became a poetic name for a beautiful teapot.

Ruò Chēn chūyù 若琛出浴:
“Ruo Chen emerges from the bath”
The teacups are rinsed with hot water. Ruo Chen was an early Qing dynasty craftsman who invented the modern shape of the Chinese teacup (xiǎo ōubēi 小甌杯). The two steps, Meng Chen mulin and Ruo Cheng chuyu are more prosaically referred to as rèhú tàngbēi 熱壺燙杯 “heating the pot and scalding the cups”. An alternative name is Báihè mùyù 白鹤沐浴 “Bathing the white crane,” which is a reference to the pure white porcelain that is usually favoured for Chinese teasets.

Although the water temperature is most easily measured with a thermometer, it is possible, with practice, to determine the appropriate water temperature either visually or by feel. The size of the bubbles are a reasonable guide to the temperature of the water and may be determined visually if a clear glass kettle is used. Determining the water temperature by feel is not as masochistic as it might sound: placing a hand on the handle of the kettle, one is able to feel the vibration produced by the eruption of bubbles from the heated water. The degree of vibration produced by different sizes of bubbles is different, and the tea master may thereby gain a sense of the temperature of the water. Water that is too cool will not bring out the full fragrance of the tea, but water that is too hot will scald the leaves and change the taste. The tea master need only look at a glass teapot or to briefly lay a hand on the handle to know immediately if the water is at the correct temperature.

More in a later entry.

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