Friday, February 29, 2008
Posted by Miss Neddy at 08:40 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Categories: Tea Related

Tea competitions or dou cha (斗茶) began in China during the Tang dynasty, but gained great popularity in the Song dynasty onwards. From the commoner in the streets, passing their tea cups around fellow competitors, to the concubines in the Imperial Palace trying to gain favour with the emperor by excelling in tea-making, there was no strata of society untouched tea competitions. Aristocrats who considered agriculture to be crude and dirty work nonetheless climbed mountains and scaled valleys to personally inspect tea plantations and select choice tea leaves for their competitions. Poet and politician Fan Zhongyan described the intensity of the competitions, where “victory made one feel as unassailable as the deities, while in loss, like defeated generals, submerged one in infinite shame.” (胜若登仙不可攀, 输同降将无穷耻).

In a tea competition, all aspects of tea-making come into play. The quality of the tea leaves are inspected, the skill of the competitor is judged and finally the tea itself is tasted and appraised. Court officials during the Song dynasty also made use of tea competitions to select the best tea leaves for imperial use. The Fujian province, with its vast selection of excellent teas, naturally became one great hub for tea competitions, as at least two great tea connoisseurs of the time were also officials in charge of selecting tea for the Imperial Court. Perhaps one of the most famous was Cai Xiang, a native of Fujian, who once served as prefect of the province. His contributions to tea culture included the writing of the Record of Tea (茶录), to compensate for what he felt were certain omissions in Lu Yü‘s Book of Tea.

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