Ming Dynasty Yixing Teapot Designs

The maturation of our contemporary tea praxis occurs in the Ming dynasty (1368 – 1644 CE), with the development of Yixing teapots and elite society’s adoption of whole leaf tea. The Ming dynasty was a time of great change in Chinese culture and society; the country evolved from agrarian feudalism to a vibrant market-based economy, full of luxury goods, and the composition of high society, originally composed of a dominant class of government employed Scholar-officials, opened to an up-and-coming competitively wealthy and educated merchant class. It is during this period, spurred on by these economic and social changes, that literati critics turned their attention to the matters of taste, negotiating the form, function, and use of new zisha wares for an evolving tea culture. 

Domestic imperial tribute originated as a form of taxation, the presentation of goods produced on the lands of the feudal nobility sent to the sovereign; over time, the system evolved from a subsistence focus on staple grains to the unique production of each province, and eventually, direct imperial oversight of tribute-production exclusively for the inner court of the emperor. Cake tea, later called “wax tea” (la cha, 蠟茶), was the dominant form of tea consumed by nobility and mandarin elites of the Tang dynasty, and the first tea received as imperial tribute, from gardens in Guzhu (near Yixing), expanding to Beiyuan (east of Wuyi) in the early Song[1]. The production methods of caked tea underwent continuous innovation to match the evolving preferences and brewing methods of the imperial household and elite-scholar officials as it was used for the boiled and whisked tea of the Tang, Song, and Yuan dynasties. Over its more than 400 years of production, a complex and highly refined production process resulted in a heavily scented and flavored tea. To generalize: small tender buds were picked in early spring, steamed, pounded into paste, molded into cakes[2], then dried in baking houses; later, some of the cakes bound for the emperor were polished with additional tea-paste and aromatic oils, particularly Borneo camphor. These cakes were occasionally roasted before or after breaking, and then grounded, sifted, and boiled or whisked into a frothy drink that later inspired contemporary matcha.

Cake tea was first made on Mount Guzhu (顾渚山), on the southwestern shores of Lake Tai in northern Zhejiang, near modern day Yixing. The earliest records of tea production on this mountain predate 200 CE, and continued under various names, including Zisun (紫笋, “purple shoots”), Yangxian (阳羡), and Guzhu (顾渚)[3];  Lu Yu lauded Zisun tea in the Chajing (茶經), as one of the best teas of the early Tang. By the late 700s CE, more than 30,000 people worked in the production of Yangxian tribute tea, and a dedicated imperial tea office oversaw the production and sending of tribute tea to the court. This Imperial managed infrastructure developed through the Song, and was used in the Ming even after cake tea ceased to be accepted as tribute.

In the Yuan dynasty, Guzhu cake tea was overtaken in fame and preference by Jian tea (建茶) from the Imperial Beiyuan[4] (北苑) tea garden, to the east of the Wuyi mountains, though Guzhu remained a lauded tea of superb quality. In both Guzhu and Beiyuan, thousands of workers were conscripted for tea production during the spring harvest window; the imperial overseers set difficult or impossible production quotas, and received bribes of various sorts from the peasants pressed into corvee labor and the farmers unable to meet their expected production. Much of the tea produced was coopted long before reaching the imperial household, illegally taken by corrupt officials for private sale. In the Song dynasty, private cake tea production was established nearby the imperial Beiyuan estate in an area called Heyuan (壑源); this tea was occasionally redirected for tribute but was otherwise available for trade and purchase, from founding through the abolishment of cake tea as tribute in the Ming dynasty. Tribute tea from Sichuan, Shaanxi, and other regions also existed at this time, though the majority of tea from outer provinces was produced for the tea-horse trade.

The Hongwu Emperor (洪武, r. 1368 – 1398 CE), first emperor of the Ming dynasty, inherited the state-managed imperial tea gardens and tribute system of the imperium. Born Zhu Xingzong (朱兴宗, 1328 CE) in present-day Anhui, the fourth and youngest child of a peasant family, his parents died of the plague when Zhu was sixteen; he joined a Buddhist monastery, spending his first three years after basic training as a mendicant wandering monk, and upon returning to the monastery, four years of scriptural training, including learning to read and write. Zhu was radicalized when the Yuan dynasty’s Mongol army destroyed the monastery during the Red Turban Rebellion, after which he joined the rebel forces. Starting as a foot soldier, he was recognized for his intelligence and leadership and quickly promoted through the ranks, eventually marrying the general’s (adopted) daughter and becoming the leader of the rebellion himself. With the fall of the Yuan and defeat of other rebel commanders, Zhu proclaimed himself Emperor of China.

The Hongwu Emperor’s taste in tea was influenced by his peasant upbringing, Buddhist education, monastic experience, and his social theories for the creation of an ideal Confucian society[5]. Much has been made of the Hongwu Emperor’s “ban on cake tea”, which is often overstated and misunderstood. It is commonly implied that the Hongwu Emperor “banned the production of cake tea” to “prevent the suffering of the peasants” involved in tribute tea production; this simplification confuses the actions and motivations of the imperial decree. In fact, cake tea was never banned from production, only rescinded as acceptable tribute over two separate decrees. Furthermore, while the suffering of the peasants was a consideration, the major initiative of Hongwu’s reign was the elimination of institutional corruption. By ending the production of tributary cake tea, the court was able to remove a key revenue source of corrupt eunuchs and officials in the imperial tea gardens: bribes from tea producing families seeking exemptions from unreachable quotas and the profit from selling stolen tribute tea. This change was paired with the reestablishment of the Tea Horse Department (茶馬司), originally created in the Song dynasty, for a state monopoly under imperial control in the trade of tea for horses with Tibet and Mongolia. Thus, while the preference for loose leaf tea played a small role in the Hongwu Emperor’s decision to end the production of cake tea as tribute, the decree was part of a much larger set of economic policies and legal reforms aimed at restructuring agriculture, trade, and taxes, to address fraud and corruption.

Cake tea was first eliminated as tribute by the Hongwu Emperor in 1375 CE, when he nullified the Imperial Tea Office at Guzhu, ordering the halt of its historical production[6]. The garden was ordered to produce 2 jin (斤; approximately ~2.5 lbs) of whole leaf tea in place of the prior cake tea as tribute. The second, more consequential ban[7] occurred in 1391 CE, with the elimination of tributary cake tea from Beiyuan, the decree stating that the tea’s production “overtaxes the people” and “everywhere bribes were taken”[8]. This edict went further than the first, specifying greatly reduced tea quotas, recognizing the farming families tending the land, and exempting them from corvee labor.

In any case, the production of and preference for cake tea were already in decline by the fall of the Yuan dynasty and formation of the Ming; literati and commoners alike had long-developed preferences for loose leaf tea, which was known predating Lu Yu in the Tang[9]. By the early 1300s, before the Ming dynasty, popular commentaries described whisking cake tea as old-fashioned and out of style; its continued consumption and preparation was associated with the most conservative fraction of mandarins. In 1378 CE, a mere 10 years into the Ming dynasty, Ye Ziqi (葉子奇, l. c. 1327–1390 CE, late-Yuan-early-Ming) wrote “People no longer use powdered tea from Jiangxi. Now, loose-leaf tea is preferred everywhere”[10].

The Imperial Court’s transition to loose-leaf tea did not end the culture of cake tea amongst the gentry or literati. Two generations of traditionalists, often those with cultural capital tied to the practice of cake tea, promoted the preservation of the earlier tea culture, and continued to patronize various styles of Tang and Song cakes; these influential scholar-gentlemen often taught the earlier praxis and shared tea with students and peers of a similar mindset. Production of Tang and Song dynasty style cake tea continued for private purchase for over 100 years after Hongwu’s second decree; ironically, it was the gardens of Guzhu near Yixing that supplied tea to the conservative traditionalist fraction fighting to preserve and promote the praxis of whisked tea against the rise of steeped tea and its ideocultural Yixing wares originating from that very region.

These conservative elite critics and patrons led an influential if eventually unsuccessful counter-movement that maintained the praxis of cake tea long after its mainstream cultural decline. There is a notable feeling of nostalgia in the writing of this group for the lost connoisseurship and traditions of the Tang and Song, and a desire for the revival of earlier ideals of tea. The conservative’s zealous promotion of Tang dynasty whisked tea was also likely originally driven by a desire to revert to earlier Chinese practices and native Chinese aesthetics after a century of Mongol (Yuan dynasty) rule. The effect of this campaign remains felt in the development of tea and teaware of the Ming, and is tied to the dominance of Yixing teapots later in the dynasty.

The Chinese nobility had long been of secondary importance in the administration of the state[11] in contrast to the managed bureaucracy of scholar-officials. The Yongle emperor, son of the Hongwu Emperor, took additional steps in the relegation of his brother-princes, stripping military commands and land holdings out of the family tree to prevent and punish challenges to his centralization of power after enthronement as Emperor. Zhu Quan (朱權, 1378–1448 CE)[12], 17^th Son of the Hongwu Emperor[13], retreated from politics and moved to Nanchang in Jiangxi after a power struggle during the succession of the Yongle emperor. There, Zhu took up the arts of the literati, becoming a renowned aesthete and author, writing 茶譜 (Cha pu, “Tea Manual”; c. 1440 CE)[14] a short and influential book on Ming dynasty tea preparation and wares.

Chapu covers the rankings and preparation of whisked[15], boiled, and steeped tea, and offers a window into the decisions of taste shaping the evolution of the praxis; Zhu Quan served as a tastemaker of sorts, who’s writing on the merits of boiled and brewed tea over whisked tea helped steer the patronage of a status conscious gentry class.

雜以諸香，飾以金彩，不無奪其真味。然天地生物，各遂其性，莫若茶葉，烹而啜之… 然無地生物，各遂其性，莫若茶葉，烹而啜之，以遂其自然之性也。予故取烹茶之法，末茶之具… 予故取烹茶之法，末茶之具。崇新改易，自成一家.

Mixed with perfumes and adorned in gold, they rob tea of its true flavor. Better to steep whole tea leaves and drink them, letting their nature unfold… However, all things on earth follow their own nature. For tea leaves, nothing is better than boiling to feel their natural character… Therefore, I have adopted the method of boiling tea and adapted the tools of powdered tea for this new method. Honoring innovation and change, I have formed a style of my own.

-         Tea Manual (茶譜, Cha pu), published c. 1440 CE by Zhu Quan (朱权)

The Wu Clan of Yixing[16] was a managed family lineage of almost 20 juren (舉人) and jinshi (进士) degree holders[17], a commoner family that rose to the gentry class in the Ming dynasty through the imperial examination and their service as scholar-officials. A generation after Zhu Quan, Wu Lun (吴纶, 1440 – 1522 CE)[18], a member of the Wu Clan and a recluse (逸人, yiren)[19] living between two family villas in the hills outside of Yixing, was a celebrated scholar and tea expert known as the “Yangxian Tea Master” (阳羡茶人). Wu was heavily involved in literary circles, composing and exchanging poetry and tea with other educated gentlemen. Though he never took the civil service examination, he was part of the network of wealthy and learned mandarins dominant in Southern Chinese literati circles through his father and brother, both scholar officials: Wu Lun’s father, Wu Yu (吴玉, fl. c. mid-1400s)[20], studied at the National Academy via recommendation and later served in the Ministry of Revenue; Wu Lun’s brother, Wu Jing (吴经, fl. c. late-1400s)[21], following in his father’s footsteps, was likewise recommended for study at the National Academy, and maintained an active career in civil service.

Wu Lun’s reputation expanded his circle of friends to the literati of Suzhou, amongst whom he was a respected figure in the tea community; he was welcomed or visited by leading figures such as Wu Kuan (吳寬; 1435 – 1504 CE)[22], Wen Zhengming (文徵明, 1470–1559), and others[23], amongst whom he advocated for the preservation of the Song dynasty cake tea praxis, which he continued to teach and practice nearly a century after Emperor Hongwu had abolished its status as a tribute tea.

Wu Kuan, a prominent scholar official, likewise promoted and practiced a continuation of the Tang dynasty whisked tea tradition. Wu owned a cake tea producing garden and is known to have been personally involved in its manufacture; he traded tea with Wu Lun, who preferred and promoted the cake tea from Guzhu, claiming it as an identifiable product of the Yixing area. Such was Wu Lun’s renown and influence that students traveled to his mountainside villa to learn his method of tea preparation and practice; Gu Yuanqing (顧元慶; 1487 – 1565 CE)[24], a famous book collector, tea connoisseur, and publisher from a wealthy merchant family native to Changzhou, near Suzhou, was a tea-student of Wu Lun, learning the art of whisked tea from the famed master. Yuanqing was editor of the well-received Cha Pu (茶譜, “Tea Guide”)[25] by Qian Chunnian (錢椿年)[26], which he published in revised form in 1541 CE. Gu’s edited Cha Pu discusses the expense of cake tea, and records instructions for the scenting and preparation of whisked tea, preserving much of the teachings from or aligned with the reclusive elder Wu.

While Wu Lun was an opponent of the literati’s cultural conversion to loose-leaf tea, later generations of the Wu clan were deeply intertwined with contemporary Ming and Qing tea culture and the rise of Yixing teapots; various members of the family wrote treatise, funded books, and commissioned designs of zisha wares, indelibly shaping the evolution and praxis of contemporary leaf tea.

The loose leaf of the early Ming was prepared in various unstandardized methods, either boiled in a kettle over a fire, or steeped in the once boiled kettle off of the fire, and poured into cups for serving. The boiled and steeped preparations co-existed, and often the same tea was prepared in either method. Boiling kettles in the Ming dynasty could be made of metal or ceramic, including eventually Yixing kettles from which teapots originated.