Chaozhou Gongfu Tea

Chaozhou Gongfu Tea

　　China is the homeland of tea, and also a nation of tea drinkers. In modern society where the art of tea drinking has gradually faded, Chaozhou Gongfu Tea continues to exude the fragrance of traditional tea culture. The writer Li Guowen wrote in “Drinking Tea in Guangdong and Hainan”: “Especially the Gongfu Tea of the Chaoshan region has truly taken root in people’s hearts. When it comes to the way of tea (tea ceremony), our homeland of tea—where we can hold our own against our close neighbor across the strait—is thanks to the Chaoshan people who help us regain some face.” So, what does Chaozhou Gongfu Tea, which can rival Japanese tea ceremony, actually look like? And where does its history come from? This was once a question that puzzled even a Japanese friend: “Regarding the history of Gongfu Tea, I have consulted Chinese scholars but never got a clear answer.” (Fumime Umi, “The Revival of Chinese Tea Culture”)

　　In ancient times, the essential Gongfu Tea set included at least the “Four Treasures”: a small brazier (white clay stove), a Yushu kettle (a brownish flat-shaped kettle for boiling water), a Mengchen teapot (a Yixing purple clay teapot), and a Ruoshen cup (a tea cup engraved with “Ruoshen’s Precious Collection” at the bottom). Chen Gongyin, a poet from the early Qing Dynasty who, together with Liang Peilan and Qu Dajun, was known as one of the “Three Great Masters of Lingnan,” wrote a poem titled “Tea Stove”: “White stove and blue kettle, the ones from Chaozhou are the finest. Clean and suitable to place nearby, small yet convenient to carry around. Catching the breeze through gaps, adding water makes the fire crackle. Beyond everyday hunger and thirst, it serves to nourish a floating life.” The tea utensils described in the poem are all small and portable, among which are the exquisitely crafted white clay stove and blue kettle from Chaozhou. The small white porcelain cup with blue floral patterns and the words “Ruoshen’s Precious Collection” engraved at the bottom were fired during the Kangxi era and are now as precious as treasure. By the Qianlong period, according to Yu Jiao’s “Dream Factory Miscellany”: “The stove is shaped like a truncated tube, about one foot two or three inches tall, mainly made of fine white clay. The teapot from Yixing kiln is the best—round body, flat belly, spout curved upward and handle curved, with larger ones holding about half a liter. Cups and saucers are mostly floral porcelain... There is one stove and one set of teapot and saucer, but the number of cups depends on the number of guests—the cups are small and the saucers round like full moons.” At the time, there were also accessories such as palm fiber mats, paper fans, water storage bottles, and tea rinsing basins. This form of tea set, with the exception of the stove—which later changed to a red clay mini stove from Fengshi—largely remained in use until modern times. The brewing and drinking of Gongfu Tea follows a very particular method. First is the selection of water and the skill in using fire—water must be mountain spring water, and the charcoal for the small stove is preferably olive pit charcoal. Boil water in a sand pot until it just begins to boil, then first warm the purple clay teapot and tea cups with hot water before placing the Wulong tea leaves produced in Fujian into the teapot. Coarse leaves are placed at the mouth of the teapot, finer powder in the middle layer, and then slightly coarse leaves on top. When the water in the pot comes to a rolling boil, lift the pot high and pour water along the edge of the teapot—avoid pouring directly into the center to prevent breaking the “tea heart.” Once a layer of white foam appears at the mouth of the teapot, gently scrape it off with the lid so it flows down along the teapot. Then pour more boiling water over the teapot to rinse off the foam and keep the tea heated, concentrating the fragrance within. When pouring tea into cups, keep the spout low to ensure an elegant presentation without bubbles—this step is commonly called “high pour, low sift.” While pouring, move the teapot between several cups, leaving not a single drop, to evenly distribute color and aroma—commonly referred to as “Guangong patrols the city, Han Xin deploys his troops.” Then, amid calls of “Please, please, please,” host and guests each take a cup, raise it to their lips to smell the tea aroma, then take a sip. Initially slightly bitter and astringent, the flavor soon overflows with fragrance and lingers delightfully. If there are many guests, the host does not drink during the first round (commonly called “the first pass”). Each time tea is brewed with boiling water, the cups are rinsed and warmed—a practice called “heating the kettle and teapot.” After several rounds, if the tea’s color is not strong, it is said to be “thin,” and new tea must be used. The modern scholar Weng Huaidong was among the first to document and summarize the Gongfu Tea ceremony. His book *Chaozhou Tea Scripture – Gongfu Tea* offers quite a detailed description of the tea-drinking process. The Qing Dynasty writer Yu Wen said: “The method of brewing Gongfu Tea originates from Lu Yu’s *Classic of Tea*, but the utensils are even more refined.” (from *Dream Factory Miscellany*) Some later commentators claimed that Gongfu Tea began in the Tang Dynasty, but this view is incorrect. Although Chaozhou Gongfu Tea deeply embodies the essence of Lu Yu’s *Classic of Tea* in its brewing principles, the formation of Gongfu Tea cannot be separated from three major innovations in the history of tea drinking: the production of strip-style loose tea, the promotion of the steeping method, and the emergence of purple clay teapots. Strip-style loose tea was created in the early Ming Dynasty through administrative decree. The *Ming Huidian* (Ming Statutes) states: “In the 24th year of the Hongwu reign (1391), an edict was issued instructing tea households to produce Jian’an tea, while banning the grinding and pressing of tea into compressed Dragon and Phoenix tea cakes.” Before this, people used compressed tea cakes that had to be ground into powder before brewing. With the advent of strip-style loose tea, it became possible to brew tea directly with boiling water (the steeping method). Strip tea carries a more natural fragrance, and the steeping method can be called “the origin of tea drinking for thousands of years” (Shen Defu, *Wanli YeHuo Bian*). These two elements form the foundation of Gongfu Tea. Later, with the appearance of purple clay teapots in the mid-to-late Ming Dynasty, the conditions were ripe for Chaozhou Gongfu Tea to enter the lives of people in southern Fujian and eastern Guangdong. The creator of the purple clay teapot was Gong Chun, a servant of the scholar Wu Yishan in the early 16th century in Jiangnan. Many masters followed, with Shi Dabin transforming the large-lidded pot into smaller sizes, and Hui Mengchen—who specialized in crafting small pots—flourishing during the Tianqi and Chongzhen eras of the Ming Dynasty (late 16th to early 17th century). His name appears in Wu Qian’s *Yangxian Famous Pottery Record* from the early Qing Dynasty. Because “the teapot should be small rather than large, shallow rather than deep, the lid should be slightly convex rather than flat—the strength of the tea and the fragrance should be allowed to gather in a rich haze” (Zhou Gaoqi, *Famous Teapots of Yangxian*), the purple clay teapot became indispensable to Chaozhou Gongfu Tea. For a long time, Gongfu Tea pots used Mengchen teapots (some locally made imitations from Fengxi). In 1975, a purple clay teapot handcrafted by Hui Mengchen was unearthed from the tomb of Huang Tinglin in Lufeng County, Guangdong, proving that purple clay teapots had spread to Lingnan by the late Ming Dynasty. During the late Ming and early Qing periods, frequent commercial trade between Chaozhou and Suzhou enabled Chaozhou merchants to bring large quantities of Yixing purple clay teapots back to Chaozhou as tea ware, calling them “Su pots” (Cai Hongsheng, *Chaozhou Merchants in Qing Dynasty Suzhou*). Combining this with the previously quoted poem “Tea Stove” by Chen Gongyin, we can say that Chaozhou Gongfu Tea originated in the late Ming and early Qing periods. The term “Gongfu Tea” originally described the craftsmanship involved in making Wuyi Rock Tea. Lu Yanchan’s *Continuation of the Classic of Tea* quotes Wang Caotang’s *On Tea*: “Only Wuyi tea is both stir-fried and roasted. When brewed, it is half green and half red—the green from stir-frying, the red from roasting... after stir-frying and roasting, the old leaves and stems are picked out to make the color uniform. Monk Chao Quan wrote: ‘fragrant as plum, aromatic as orchid,’ ‘with leisurely hands and fine skill, the work is meticulous’—this describes it perfectly.” It also quotes *Casual Observations*: “Wuyi tea on the mountain is rock tea... the best of it is called Gongfu Tea.” Therefore, naming the entire refined process of brewing and tasting Wuyi Gongfu Tea by the Chaozhou people as “Gongfu Tea” is entirely fitting.

　　The history of tea drinking in Chaozhou can be traced back to the Song Dynasty. During the Yuanfeng era, the famous scholar Wu Fugu from Chaozhou sent tea to Su Shi, who was far away in Huangzhou. Su Shi wrote in his reply “To Wu Ziyeh”: “You sent me several kinds of Jian tea, all of them excellent.” If Wu Fugu hadn’t tasted the tea’s excellence, how would he have dared send it such a long distance to Su Shi? Tea from the beginning served as a token of friendship. During the Jiajing era of the Ming Dynasty, Guo Zizhang, the prefect of Chaozhou, wrote in *Miscellaneous Records of Chaozhong*: “The local custom in Chaozhou does not emphasize tea much, so the finest teas do not reach here—only occasionally in Chaoyang, and even then they are good teas from Fujian.” It is true that people enjoyed famous Fujian teas, but to say “the local custom does not emphasize tea” is inaccurate. Five types of Ming Dynasty Chaozhou opera scripts still in circulation contain many references to tea drinking—for example, in the 19th scene of *The Lychee Mirror*, published in 1566: “(Servant girl) Guest, here is tea for you.” In the 8th scene of *The Lychee Tale*, published in 1581: “The elder says: So you are the matchmaker auntie, old man failed to greet you properly. Xiao Qi, bring a chair, serve tea.” In the song lyrics appended to *The Golden Flower Girl*, published during the Wanli era, from *The Story of Su Liuniang*: “You must tend to oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar, and offer betel nuts and tea to guests coming and going.” All these show that tea drinking was popular among the people and had become a friendly way to treat guests—even though Gongfu Tea was only in its infancy at the time. Contemporary Gongfu Tea inherits this cultural tradition of fostering friendship and harmony through tea drinking. For four people, three cups are used; for three people, two cups—ensuring that someone is always left out in each round, so the process of “please drink” continues non-stop, always filled with a peaceful and modest atmosphere. In both urban and rural homes in Chaozhou, lotus flowers are often grown in large dragon pots, or jasmine and honeysuckle are trained on trellises. On flower-bright moonlit nights, when good friends gather, water is boiled and tea is brewed—facing elegant tea sets and exquisite craftsmanship, there is indeed boundless charm. The modern patriotic poet Qiu Fengjia, while staying in Chaozhou, wrote a poem praising Gongfu Tea: “In the winding courtyard, spring breeze, sipping tea under the sky, bamboo stove and olive pit charcoal, personally brewed. A small sand pot brews fresh crane-beak tea, to try the maiden spring of lake and mountain.” (*Spring Thoughts on Chaozhou*) In an environment full of poetic charm, lifting the kettle and raising the cup, pouring slowly and sipping gently—it is both an artistic way to enjoy tea and a means to dispel the worries of the mortal world. Truly, it is one of life’s great pleasures.