http://www.leavesofjade.com/index.php/tea_blog/index/ en alnedra.mofi@gmail.com Copyright 2010 2010-03-20T09:09:13+00:00 http://www.leavesofjade.com/index.php/tea_blog/tilting_pot_and_tea_dam_cup/ http://www.leavesofjade.com/index.php/tea_blog/tilting_pot_and_tea_dam_cup/#When:14:13:35Z A sharky friend of mine passed me a link to this delightful cup, known as a Tea Dam Cup. I love the different colours and how tea bags (although possibly not finer leaves or tea powder) can be left to drain on the side. Whenever I order tea and a tea-bag comes in the cup, I’m always at a loss for where to deposit the tea-bag, especially if the cup did not come with a saucer. However, at almost £15, it is a little pricey. The cup brought to mind a teapot I have seen several times at the local Ritz-Carlton hotel. The tea-room at the ground floor serves a quite excellent high tea, and the waiter calls their interesting teapot an “elephant teapot” due to the very long spout. I found that it is more commonly known as a Tilting pot and the ingenius part of the design is a little shelf within the teapot. Lie it down, with the spout pointing upwards will enable the tea to steep. Let it stand normally, and the water inside no longer comes in contact with the tea leaves, left high and dry on the shelf. I am most tempted to buy one! Tea Related, Teapots 2009-02-13T14:13:35+00:00 http://www.leavesofjade.com/index.php/tea_blog/set_in_stone/ http://www.leavesofjade.com/index.php/tea_blog/set_in_stone/#When:14:39:55Z The recent Chinese New Year festivities brought several merchants from China with interesting wares to sell, such as jade sculptures, distinctive snacks, traditional embroidery and of course, tea sets. Several years ago I bought a stone tea-set. The stone is drilled into and slowly carved and polished into a teapot shape. It can be fairly hard to do since a teapot can’t be too thick, but over-polishing can easily lead to the stone cracking or a hole resulting from the stone being worn too thin. The set I bought this time around was not as lovely as the one I bought previously, but then again, it is more than a hundred dollars cheaper. The surface is unpolished, so it looks like a murky black clay pot under certain lighting conditions. I hope to be able to nurture it into a soft velvety shine eventually. The stone used for making the teapot is reportedly high in selenium, and liquids that have be poured into the pot will be infused with trace amounts of selenium. The brochures that came with the pot extolled the virtues of selenium intake, which includes curing constipation, easing diabetes, helping with arthiritis and numerous other ailments. I would take the health claims with a pinch of…selenium, I suppose! Pictures of the pot will be forthcoming, once I can photograph it in decent way. In my room, it looks like a vaguely teapot-shaped blotch of inkiness. Tea Related, Teapots 2009-02-09T14:39:55+00:00 http://www.leavesofjade.com/index.php/tea_blog/far_flung_consort/ http://www.leavesofjade.com/index.php/tea_blog/far_flung_consort/#When:06:20:55Z Wang Zhaojun was indubitably an intelligent woman, and it was said that she was skilled in many arts, such as the playing of the pipa, chess and calligraphy. When the Han emperor Yuan was asked by the Xiongnu chanyu (chief) Hu Hanxie for a Han princess to marry, he either picked Zhaojun because she was portrayed by a corrupt Imperial artist as the plainest woman in his harem; or Zhaojun volunteered, knowing that her refusal to bribe her way to meet the emperor would mean she would spend her life alone in the harem.  When the Han emperor first saw who he was sending to the barbarians, he was stunned by her beauty. The artist responsible for marring her potrait, Mao Yanshou, was executed (with sufficient cause - deceiving the emperor in any way is a crime punishable by death). Wang Zhaojun is often depicted departing for the regions beyond the Great Wall cloaked in fur-lined red silk and clutching her pipa. The purple clay Wang Zhaojun teapot is long and slender, its shape reminiscent of the pipa so closely associated with her. The handle is slightly notched, to mimic the tailpiece where the strings are anchored near the bottom of the instrument.It is the only teapot whose lid is not crowned with a knob, but with a half-ring - the top of the pipa is usually a loop or a lingzhi shaped adornment, decorated further by carvings or a jade piece.  The teapot sits squarely and firmly, well-grounded in comparison to the small-bottomed Yang Guifei teapot, or the almost-floating Diaochan teapot. The base of the teapot holds a surprise: Three parallel bars are engraved around the seal of the maker, creating the “strings” for this clay pipa. The top-down view does not do the teapot sufficient justice, as it looks slightly tear-dropped shaped only. In fact, there are two very faint indentations on either side of the teapot. I am not entirely sure why the indentations are there, but it could be to imitate the ripple-like frets that are at the top of the pipa. Like the other teapots, it is surprisingly light for its size, and its generous spout is very fitting with the overall design, as its lines are very strong throughout. Tea Related, Teapots 2008-08-05T06:20:55+00:00 http://www.leavesofjade.com/index.php/tea_blog/sable_and_cicada/ http://www.leavesofjade.com/index.php/tea_blog/sable_and_cicada/#When:14:42:00Z Of the four beauties, there is one who is arguably a fictional character. While she plays in important role in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms (三国演义), Diaochan (貂蝉) is not found in any historical accounts or records of the Three Kingdoms period. Morally too, she seems an ambiguous character, as her seduction of the foster father and son Dong Zhuo and Lü Bu in order to cause conflict between them was primarily motivated by her filial piety towards her own foster father, Wang Yun. However, there are later accounts of her death by the hand of Guan Yü, a righteous general who served Liu Bei, when she attempts to seduce him. As Diaochan is somewhat a cipher in history, I find the teapot named after her somewhat puzzling too. Of the four teapots, the grey clay Diaochan teapot is the heaviest and most angular. From certain angles, it has a light grace, seeming to float a little off the surface of the table, and its notched ear hints at feminine curves . But from other angles, it seems squat and awkward, perhaps to hark back to Diaochan’s humble origins; she was a peasant, supposedly nameless, until sold into Wang Yun’s household. On the other hand, she had seduced both Dong Zhuo and Lü Bu with her dancing, her singing and music playing, so she could not have been too clumsy a girl. My friend A. speculated that the grey clay and squatness hint at the animalistic qualities of her name, lending a primeval and primitive air to the teapot. There are 2 qualities of the teapot that I love, though; it is the smoothest of the four, as it feels like a river-worn stone, and the grey hues make it resemble a natural object even more. The other is that despite its angularity, it sits very comfortably in the hand. The handle is generously large enough and the wide lid allows for a relaxed hold. It feels robust enough that I do not fear breaking it if I held it too tight, as I do the other teapots, although I do not quite consider that a point in its favour; after all, it is named after a graceful dancer, and should have a certain level of delicacy to it. Nonetheless, its somewhat contradictory qualities make it stand out, and it is worthy of the equivocal lady herself. Tea Related, Teapots 2008-07-28T14:42:00+00:00 http://www.leavesofjade.com/index.php/tea_blog/her_cloudlike_clothes_her_flowerlike_face/ http://www.leavesofjade.com/index.php/tea_blog/her_cloudlike_clothes_her_flowerlike_face/#When:15:00:00Z One of my favourite teapots, the Yang Guifei pot is based on a poem by Li Bai, who had served the Emperor Xuanzong and wrote the poem to flatter his favoured consort Yang. 云想衣裳花想容， 春风拂槛露华浓。 Clouds remind me of her garments, flowers bring to mind her face; the spring wind brushes past to reveal a luscious bloom. 若非群玉山头见， 会向瑶台月下逢。 If I had not encountered her at the peaks of the Jade Mountain*, it must be beneath the Jade Platform one moonlit night^ we met. (Apologies for mangling the great poet; I attempted as literal a translation as possible). The teapot from the side looks like a stylised cloud, as one might see in classical Chinese paintings, or Chinese religious carvings. From the top, it resembles a flower in bloom, perhaps the peony, a flower often associated with royalty, and in its plumpness, with the zaftig Yang Guifei. The teapot is made of zisha tinted to resemble red clay, and the surface is smooth but with very fine bumps, uncannily like human skin. The “roof-beam” handle is a little short for bigger hands, but just right for smaller ones; obviously this is a pot made for women. The pot is round and plump, but tapers down with a dancer’s grace at the base; Yang Guifei was known to be a skilled dancer. The side view is also reminiscent of a dancer’s upper body, one arm (the spout) stretched out, one arm (the handle) curved slightly towards the head. Despite the small base, the pot is very well-balanced, possibly because the generous spout and upswung handle provide adequate counter-weights. Despite its fairly large volume, the pot is very light, which means the walls of the pot are made very, very thin. *The Jade Mountain is a real location in Taiwan, but in this poem actually means a mountain in the celestial realm (Chinese Heaven, one might say). ^The word 瑶 yáo means a type of precious jade, whereas the word for Jade Mountain 玉 yǜ is a more generic term. The Jade Platform refers to another celestial abode, a terrace or tower, and as evinced by the name, is made of or decorated with countless precious jewels. Tea Related, Teapots 2008-07-21T15:00:00+00:00 http://www.leavesofjade.com/index.php/tea_blog/beauties/ http://www.leavesofjade.com/index.php/tea_blog/beauties/#When:14:31:00Z As I mentioned before, Lu Yu makes limited edition teapots, some of them themed. One of my favourites was the four Sacred Beasts set, which were very masculine and heavy. The four Sacred Beasts are legendary animals which guard the gates between the worlds of the living and the dead at the four cardinal points. They were the Green (or possibly Blue) Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird and Black (or Dark) Tortoise. I loved how hefty the pots were, and the striking design of each teapot. Even the Vermilion Bird had a raptor-like grace which was not effeminate in any way. Alas, by the time I could afford to buy teapots, none of the tea-houses I frequented stocked any more of the pots. However, a new set, entirely different from the Sacred Beasts set, captured my attention. Where the Sacred Beasts were hefty, these were remarkably light, though they were not small for clay teapots. Where the Sacred Beasts were almost starkly masculine in their strong lines and fairly angular designs, these were all curves, reminiscent of flowers, clouds, sashes and musical instruments. The Four Beauties have been mentioned more than once in this blog, especially in the entry on Lychee tea. The Four Beauties set are four light, curvaceous, vivacious teapots, each named for one of the Four Beauties of ancient China. In my next few entries, I will talk about the four Beauties in more detail. Tea Related, Teapots 2008-07-16T14:31:00+00:00 http://www.leavesofjade.com/index.php/tea_blog/bodhidharma/ http://www.leavesofjade.com/index.php/tea_blog/bodhidharma/#When:15:21:01Z   Bodhidharma (also known in Chinese as 达摩 Dá Mó) is traditionally acknowledged to have brought 禅 Chán Buddhism (more commonly in its Japanese version, Zen Buddhism) from India to China. Especially in Japanese art, Bodhidharma is shown to have his eyes wide open, even in meditation. The legend goes that while in meditation, the venerable monk fell asleep for a brief moment; angered by his own weakness, Bodhidharma cut of his own eyelids and threw them to the ground. Later the eyelids grew into a bush, and Bodhidharma, tasting the leaves of the bush, found that they gave him great alertness and clarity of thought. Thus was the first tea bush born. Incense burning traditionally is conducted with meditation, but also with tea-drinking, so teapot craftsmen may also turn out incense burners in clay as well. A Bodhidharma inspired incense burner is both elegant and apt for the Buddhist tea-drinker. The round ball in the middle of the burner is represents the head and torso of the meditating Bodhidharma, and also serves to dissipate the smoke emitted by the burner, which emerges from a hole beneath the ball. As Bodhidharma discovered and advocated, tea is a good accompaniment to Buddhist meditation, which can sometimes take hours at a stretch, as tea bestows both calmness and alertness. As mentioned in an earlier entry, tea and Buddhism are tightly intertwined, especially in China and Japan. Teapots, sharing cups and tea trays frequently carry Buddhist aphorisms or phrases. One early favourite of mine was a blocky teapot that had the entire Heart Sutra etched in its side. Other phrases may not be explicitly Buddhist, but convey concepts common to both tea culture and Buddhism. The sharing cup behind the teapot bears a fairly literal phrase 茶香 Chá Xiāng, which can mean either “Fragrance of Tea” or “Tea is Fragrant”. The teapot itself bears the words 清心 Qīng Xīn, which can mean “A Clear Heart” or “To Clear the Heart”. Tea Related, Teapots 2008-04-25T15:21:01+00:00 http://www.leavesofjade.com/index.php/tea_blog/small/ http://www.leavesofjade.com/index.php/tea_blog/small/#When:13:51:01Z This is my own Yixing teapot sitting on my computer keyboard [a Macbook].  This teapot pours just enough tea for two cups. My first attempt at a Chinese tea party was met with laughter and not a little derision. A teapot made for the Chinese tea ceremony (gongfu cha 工功茶, see previous post) may be as small as a plum and even a six person pot is no larger than an orange. To English eyes, it looks like a tea party for toys, and not something to be taken seriously. This is what incited the laughter of my English friends who thought at first that I was joking. Everything about gongfu cha is small. The pot is small, the cups are small. The cups are only just larger than a thimble, but the connoisseur still attempts to finish a cup in three sips and not in a single mouthful. That things are small is one of the four essentials of the Chinese tea ceremony. The reason for this obsession with smallness may be summed up in a word: control. With the smaller teapot, it is easier to control the proportions of tea leaf to water, the temperature of the pot, the pouring of the tea and a million other details. Teacups for gongfu cha are small for the same reason that white wine glasses are small: it allows you to better control the temperature of the beverage (incidentally, there is no mysterious scientific reason for this: it is simply that you can finish that portion of drink quickly enough before the temperature changes). By contrast, the kettle for boiling water for gongfu cha is large: the surface area to volume ratio is smaller and therefore the kettle retains heat better the larger and rounder it is, and the best kettles are of clear glass, which allows you to see the size of the bubbles inside. Tea Related, Teapots 2008-04-09T13:51:01+00:00 http://www.leavesofjade.com/index.php/tea_blog/examples_of_small_tea_sets/ http://www.leavesofjade.com/index.php/tea_blog/examples_of_small_tea_sets/#When:15:03:00Z Here are some pictures of compact tea sets which are suitable for small apartments, rooms or even the office. Many of them were designed to be given as gifts, and are quite attractive. First we have a foursome, where the four types of flowers represent the four seasons: 梅 (méi) Plum Blossom 兰 (lán) Orchid 菊 (jǘ) Chrysanthemum 竹 (zhú) Bamboo (Yes, strictly speaking not a flower, but it’s one of the few plants that remains green in winter) A 盖碗 (gài wǎn) or lidded cup can also be used as the central part of a tea set: This set’s gài wǎn is a little unorthodox in design, but has a gorgeous jade green colouration. The only reason why I didn’t snap it up was because of the metal sieve. However, the size and shape of the sieve is an excellent one. Finally, a more traditional clay teapot set. The teapot is sized just right for two cups, so there is no need for a sharing cup Tea Related, Teapots 2008-04-02T15:03:00+00:00 http://www.leavesofjade.com/index.php/tea_blog/little_birds/ http://www.leavesofjade.com/index.php/tea_blog/little_birds/#When:15:02:00Z I recently bought a new camera, so I thought I would show off two of my favourite teapots. Both are from Lu Yu, the branch of the tea company Tenren which produces high quality clay teapots. Most of the teapots produced by them are limited runs, and in later years some sets bought and sold for high prices. A few teapots are classics that they produce consistently from year to year, such as the Little Pigeon: One of their limited edition teapots that I use regularly was a gift from my good friend, 醉茶仕. It is known as the Phoenix: The Phoenix is a 提粱壶 (tiliang hu), or a “beam” teapot, because the handle sweeps above the teapot like a roof beam instead of being an ear on the side. Another good example of a “beam” teapot is one like this: This has a more pronounced roof beam-like shape to the handle. How small can Chinese teapots get? How about a one-cup teapot? The teapot is even smaller than is obvious, because I have very small hands. I have no trouble with hefting heavier teapots, but I find smaller teapots more convenient because my fingers wrap more easily around small teapot handles and lids. My two little birds (Little Pigeon and Phoenix) are not only a delight to look upon, but also a delight to use. Tea Related, Teapots 2008-03-28T15:02:00+00:00