The gaiwan — bowl with a lid — has a novel place in tea utilization in cultures of Chinese language language heritage. Click on on on any image beneath to benefit from a slideshow with captions on its lineage of development.
- A wine cup used inside the bronze age in China. Uncover that there is a mouth piece, a reverse eave for less complicated pouring into the cup, a ear ( foreshortened — inside the centre of the cup pointing within the path of you — i.e. on the right side of the mouthpiece ) and full with two posts for guiding the lean of the cup for proper technique. Sooner than the design decision for the easier spherical kind tea bowl, the people in antiquity had considered very fastidiously the functioning of a ingesting vessel.
Jue wine cup, bronze, Shang Dynasty ( 1399 ~ 1000 B.C. ), Assortment Nationwide Palace Museum, Taipei
- A millennium later, the ingesting vessels for the royal and the noble had been quite a bit simplified. The tripod was dismissed, so have been the numerous totally different choices other than the ear.
Jade tall cup with ear. Han Dynasty ( 202 B.C. ~ 8 A.D. )
- One different millennium passed by, the experience of porcelain was already terribly refined in China. The craftsmen have been ready to provide wares not solely of actual varieties, however as well as playful and artistic ones. The ear attribute of the cup is not exempted as a aim for his or her creativity. The elf ear kind employed on this playful design was derived from the bat, an auspicious icon inside the historic custom. Observe moreover that the final kind is much simplified nonetheless however well-balanced and stylish. Designs in crafts had gone by way of quite a bit evolution by that time.
Cup in Mild Aqua Glaze ( Celadon ), Ge Kiln, Yuan interval ( 1201 ~ 1400 A.D. ), Assortment at Nationwide Palace Museum, Taipei
- Sooner than the cup serves the goal as an infusion ware, the lid for it has on a regular basis been important for preserving warmth in and filth out.
White jade cup with two ears and zitan picket lid, Tune Dynasty ( 960 ~ 1279 A.D. ), Assortment at Nationwide Palace Museum, Taipei
- A seventh century painting about Xiaoyi 蕭翼, a courtroom minister of the Tang Dynasty, debating and swindling his method to pay money for the legendary calligraphic scroll “Lanting” which introduction was the work of Wang Xizhi 王羲之. Whereas the assured and handsome making an attempt cheater was convincing the puzzling monks, two servants have been preparing tea to acquire the well-dressed customer. The youthful boy was holding a cha zhan tea bowl ( 茶盞 ) with a cha tuo receptacle ( 茶托 ) to attend for water from the older man, who was heating water in a caldron — not a kettle, it was not invented or commonplace however. Tealeaves had been ground into powder and positioned inside the tea bowls. In the mean time, the one kind of tea obtainable to most people was compressed.
Genuine painting Xiaoyi Swindling for the Lanting Scroll 蕭翼賺蘭亭圖 by Yan Liben 閻立本 ( 600 ~ 673 A.D. ) This copy itself is from a reproduction made inside the eleventh century ( Tune Dynasty ) of the distinctive. Copying distinctive painting was a necessary strategy of conservation, assortment and exhibition inside the earlier days. Assortment on the Nationwide Palace Museum, Taipei
- Predecessor to the teacup saucer, the tea bowl receptacle — the tuo 托 — takes many shapes and designs. Typically there is a recess cavity for holding the foot of the tea bowl, a flat extended wing or ring for holding, and a taller foot for easy lifting and resting.
Lacquerware receptacle for tea bowl, in Qulun motif ( 曲輪 ). thirteenth century ( Southern Tune Dynasty ), China. Assortment at Tokyo Nationwide Museum, Japan
- Tea ingesting in China had remained nearly unchanged for numerous centuries. On this twelfth century painting, the monks are nonetheless holding tea bowls with receptacles in a design identical to that the servant holds inside the seventh century painting. Nonetheless, the servant now makes use of a protracted spout water pot — perhaps initially a wine pot — in order so as to add water into the bowl and on the similar time whisks the content material materials. Uncover that the receptacles are in pink and the bowls in black — vogue on the time in positive areas, which had profound have an effect on in Japanese tea ware design to right now.
5 Hundred Luohans ( ie Arhats / Arahants ) Scrolls 五百羅漢圖 ( ingredient ), Southern Tune Dynasty ( twelfth ~ thirteenth century ), no signature, probably by Zhou Guichang 周季常. Assortment at Daitoku-ji, Kyoto
- This presumably what the 5 hundred luohan painting depicts: heavy black glaze tea bowl from the Imperial appointed Fujian Kiln 建窯. This type of tea bowl includes know as tenmoku in Japan.
Youdi black glaze tea bowl on pink lacquer receptacle, Southern Tune Dynasty ( 127 ～ 1279 A.D. ), Assortment at Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka
- By the thirteenth century, the kind of tea consumption remained simply in regards to the similar. Uncover that water stays to be heated in a caldron or pot first. The servant inside the foreground is milling tealeaves into large powder. Mills of comparable design are nonetheless used as we converse in Japan for buying powdered tea. The tea bowls are stacked bottoms-up on the desk behind, subsequent to the column of tea bowl receptacles. Uncover the servant inside the background is pouring water into the bigger bowl. The take care of of ladle stands out from that bowl. In consistence with numerous totally different work and murals, it is seemingly that water is infused/mixed with the grounded tealeaves inside the bigger vessel sooner than ladled into the serving tea bowls in such setup.
Tea Extraction 攆茶圖 ( ingredient ), Liu Tune Nian 劉松年 c.1200 A.D.
Assortment at Nationwide Palace Museum, Taipei
- This tea bowl design presumably identical to these inside the tea grounding painting. There’s quite a few such lighter colour and shallow tea bowls from Tune Dynasty in existence as we converse. Such conical tea bowls are generally known as cha zhan 茶盞 in Chinese language language.
Longquan Kiln 龍泉窯, Between Tune and Yuan Dynasty, thirteenth century.
- In a single different painting by Liu Tune Nian, the place he depicts two tea distributors in a tea opponents, tea cups with rounder bottoms and deeper bellies are used with out receptacles. That’s understandable, tea is served formally to the gentry inside the earlier tea extraction painting, the place proper right here tea-making have to be fast and atmosphere pleasant among the many many specialists. Uncover that there is not a seen use of the whisk. In response to written documentations, the powdered kind stays to be the norm of tea on the time, and water have to be added with skill to offer the proper drink. Possibly that why the extreme look on the face of the individual with the pot.
Tea Rivals 鬥茶圖 ( ingredient ), Liu Tune Nian 劉松年, c.1200, Assortment the Nationwide Palace Museum, Taipei
- Rounder and deeper tea bowls ( cha wan 茶碗 ) have on a regular basis been used alongside with conical kind shallow cha zhan, akin to this eleventh century celadon tea bowl in Koryo Dynasty Korea. Equally customary vessels might want to have been used inside the scene inside the Tea Rivals painting. Deeper tea bowls make it easier for tea infusion/concoction all through the bowl with out spilling. Moreover they keep temperature increased.
Celadon Tea Bowl, Koryo Dynasty ( 1000 ~ 1100 A.D. ), Assortment at Detroit Institute of Arts
- Unfastened leaf tea was formally appointed as the favored tea kind relatively than compressed tea at first of the Ming Dynasty ( 14th ~ seventeenth century ). With that ground tealeaves turns into an element of the earlier in China and steeping has since flip into the style. Tea pot has then acquired a key place. Cha zhan ( 茶盞 ) tea bowl is modified by cha wan ( 茶碗 ) tea bowl. Uncover on this seventeenth century painting the characters are holding very huge tea bowls. The respectively huge teapot sits subsequent to a small mouth water pot.
Tea Tasting 品茗圖 ( Ingredient ), ( attributed to ) Chen Hong Shou 陳洪綬 ( 1598 ~ 1652 ), private assortment
- The unfold of tea was expedited with the unfastened leaf kind, so was utilizing teapot and the cup. In Japan, outside of the tea ceremony, tea from the pot and drunk from the cup helped to democratize utilizing the properly being drink.
Massager, Women’s Toilet Sequence, Felice Beato, c1880
- Imperial appointment of the unfastened leaf as the favored kind of tea had helped the event and sophistication of tea manufacturing to realize the vary and fineness we benefit from as we converse. By the sixteenth century, finer teapots had already flip right into a improvement amongst people of the scholarly and privileged class for matching tea top quality. Uncover on this early Yixing occasion, the shape retains a placing likeness of the wine pot, similar as these water pots utilized in beforehand cited work. This particular artist, nonetheless, did give you a superb variety of conventional teapot varieties.
Tall Yixing Teapot, Shi Dabin 時大彬 ( energetic early seventeenth century ), Ming Dynasty, Assortment at MAI Foundation
- Design and provides of tea cups have been liberated since unfastened leaf turned the foremost tea kind and the tea pot taken up quite a lot of the processes in tea preparation. Porcelain has been a critical supplies. Kind, kind and ground design are as diversified as quite a bit as vibrant. This “gang trend” 缸杯 — footless cup with wide-short abdomen — occasion is from mid-Ming Dynasty inside the Cheng Hua interval 成化 ( 1465 ~ 1487 ), which was auctioned in 2014 for an astronomical decide.
Doucai “gang” trend cup 鬥彩缸杯 with rooster motif, Cheng Hua Imperial Kiln, Jiangxi
- It is unclear when and the way in which the gaiwan ( 蓋碗 ) had flip right into a critical tea vessel. Nonetheless, by early 18th century, gaiwan was already an ordinary day-to-day household merchandise. This seems a logical evolution with the popularity of unfastened leaf tea finally. Uncover on this design, the brim of the bowl concave inwards, akin to cookware lidded bowls. The receptacle will be missing — it was nonetheless trendy to make use of 1 with a particular design and supplies.
White Porcelain Gaiwan Pair with painted panorama, Yongzheng interval ( 雍正年間 1722~1735 ). Assortment at Nationwide Palace Museum, Taipei
- The elemental type of the modern gaiwan was formed inside the 18th century, as is mirrored on this extravagant birthday present mannequin. Uncover the brim of the tea bowl is now convex comparatively concave — as utterly totally different from the tea bowl samples cited beforehand. The shape and proportion of the foremost choices, the thickness distribution of the lid button are moreover all there. Solely the material is completely not acceptable for proper use. That’s solely nonetheless one tiny piece of the quite a few exhibitions of wealth of the late imperial courtroom.
Gold gaiwan with enamel inlaids, Qianlong interval ( 1736 ~ 1795 A.D. ), Assortment at Nationwide Palace Museum, Taipei
- Although the elemental type of the modern gaiwan was formed inside the 18th century, the craftsmen nonetheless sometimes purchased commissions to offer sorts of different extravagant choices, regardless of functionalities. It was true then; it is true now.
Tall foot gaiwan in gold glaze, Qing Dynasty ( 1644 ~ 1911 A.D. ), Assortment at Nationwide Palace Museum, Taipei
- When pictures obtained right here to this part of the world inside the 1850’s, the gaiwan was already such an ordinary household merchandise that it has flip into a typical motif in most inside portraits. In distinction to the teapot and tea bowl sooner than it, the gaiwan stands alone as every the singular vessel serving every infusion and ingesting features. Uncover that the gaiwan proper right here rests on a receptacle of a particular supplies than the bowl. That’s inline with the receptacle customized of the cha zhan tea bowl.
Western Man in Hong Kong in Chinese language language Costume, Lai Afong Photographs, c1880
- This large gaiwan that appears inside the dwelling portrait of two increased class women has the receptacle made within the similar supplies as a result of the tea bowl. This was an extravagant technique when manufacturing of points was nonetheless very expensive, because of the receptacle could merely flip into ineffective when the tea bowl was broken.
Larger Class Chinese language language Ladies, Lai Afong Photographs, c1880
- A youthful man holding a gaiwan in an opium den to pose as ingesting from it.
Image by Lai Afong, c 1880
- We now have found no reliable provide as to when the gaiwan is used only for infusion and tea decanted from it into totally different vessels for ingesting. On this {{photograph}} taken of a tea tasting room of a worldwide vendor’s in Canton ( Guangzhou ), it is clear that the tea from the doom-lidded taster’s mugs is served in gongfu trend small teacups inside the entrance row. That may be very utterly totally different from the Western customized of holding the tea in an unlimited bowl and the tasters slurping up from a spoon. We predict this apply is also related to the way in which by which we make tea inside the gaiwan and ingesting from small cups as of late. It is talked about that in Chaozhou and southern Fujian, people have on a regular basis been doing that.
A Tasting Room in Canton ( ingredient ), John Thomson, c1880
- Instantly, the gaiwan ( appropriate determine in Hong Kong: cha zhong 茶盅 ) stays to be a necessary piece of infusion ware inside the day-to-day lifetime of many people outside of the tea commerce or tea connoisseur circle, akin to on this working class dimsum restaurant in Hong Kong.
Males at shared desk, Lin Heung Rou, Central, Hong Kong
- Poor top quality mass produced gaiwans of harmful designs flood a market of under-informed modern-day purchasers. Thick, clumsy brim; slim abdomen; and heat conducting lid buttons are numerous the widespread flaws of cheaply produced gaiwans which could be selling for 1000’s of % markup margin.
Crude top quality mass produced gaiwans selling for correctly over 10 USD, photographed in a Chinese language language product emporium in Hong Kong
- Industrialization has helped smaller producers to make accurately designed gaiwans with low cost top quality obtainable to a rising market of tea hobbyists and different individuals of the commerce. One merely should know what to seek for and the place to hunt out it.
White porcelain, fashionable semi-mould produced gongfu tea gaiwan, Fujian
- This particular gaiwan design has a hoop saucer, a homage to the development when it was first invented to hold the tea bowl: the cha tuo. A taller bowl is best for use as a cup and for infusing inexperienced or black teas utilizing longer infusion time.
Tall gaiwan with ring trend receptacle, blue and white porcelain, hand-painted panorama motif on fashionable mould produced bisque, Jingde Zhen
- This gaiwan has a spherical bottom tea bowl, skinny brim, tall dome lid and thin lid button-wall for superior gongfu infusion and coping with. Instead of a cha tuo, this design employs a saucer instead. This shows a serious utilization of gaiwans is supposed for infusion comparatively than for ingesting from. The cha tuo turns into irrelevant, since its aim is for lifting the tea bowl for ingesting. For further information on use the gaiwan as a cup, please be taught this textual content: Using the Gaiwan as a Cup
Modern hand-thrown Kaolin porcelain, Jingde Zhen
- Lid: Not solely is the lid instrumental for infusion top quality and ease of coping with, it is also decisive to the look of the gaiwan. The dome has to rise extreme enough for proper insulation for the ground of the tea liquid, however low enough for the fingers to manoeuvre on it with comfort. The rim have to be skinny enough for precision in scooping the leaves, tea foam and so forth, and however not too skinny to be merely breakable. The button, which is essential for coping with whether or not or not using the gaiwan as an infusion instrument or as a cup, have to be raised extreme enough from the lid to steer clear of an extreme quantity of heat carried out to it. To that ends, thinness of the material will be essential.
- Tea Bowl: The shape, thickness distribution and supplies integrity of the tea bowl is the soul of a gaiwan. The way in which with which heat is circulated, dissipated and maintained inside it is key to infusion top quality. Right thinness and curvature on the brim, a big enough abdomen to allow scooping by the lid and a steadiness of weight are key to scrub coping with.
- Tuo: The tuo of a gaiwan serves every the goal of a saucer and that of a cup ear. It has to have a receiving cavity to go well with the foot and bottom of the bowl correctly so that when the bowl is tilted for ingesting, it is nonetheless securely held between this cavity and the lid that is pushed once more, held by the other hand. Totally different names for the tuo embrace receptacle, saucer, tea bowl stand, and so forth. For extra details about use a gaiwan as a cup, please be taught this textual content: Using the Gaiwan as a Cup
An insignificant-looking piece of equipment
We infuse tea in it as if it have been a teapot. Some drink from it as a teacup. Many nonetheless use it for every features on the similar time. However little has been documented about this little indispensable piece of teaware. In our first attempt to assessment the historic previous of gaiwan basing on historic clues, we now have found that its existence is inseparable from the evolution of tea itself.
Gaiwan: merely indispensable
This slide current is our first attempt to assessment how the gaiwan has come about. Please click on on on the first image to start out the current.
There are a selection of recurring phrases inside the image captions that presumably you favor to considerably further particulars about:
Cha zhan ( Chinese language language: 茶盞 ): tea bowl with a conical kind and infrequently used alongside aspect a receptacle “stand”, type of like a cup on a saucer the quaint technique.
Tuo ( Chinese language language: 托 ): the receptacle for a cha zhan or tea bowl, as in plant the receptacle for the flower. Some use the phrase stand, nonetheless because it’s used as a take care of, identical to the ear of a cup, so the time interval receptacle, which is attached to the flower, because it’s hooked as much as the bowl, is a bit more appropriate. In Japanese and some Chinese language language, the character 台 is used, this refers again to the strategy of how some customs take into account it as a stand comparatively than moreover as a take care of.
Receptacle: see “tuo” above
For further particulars in regards to the gaiwan, perhaps you’d wish to go to those totally different articles: