Page 35 - Lunyushanren Col II

lasted longest was adjudged the most skillful. Tea bowls with dark-coloured glazes were thus especially
desirable since the pale froth of the whipped tea was shown to best advantage against a contrasting
glaze. Black-glazed tea bowls were therefore made at a number of kilns in the Song dynasty, including
the Ding kilns of Hebei province, but the bowls most frequently praised in historical texts were those
from the Jian kilns of Fujian province.

Cai Xiang (蔡襄 1012-1067), who was a famous Northern Song calligrapher and government offcial
in Fujian, as well as a connoisseur of tea, noted in his Cha Lu (茶錄 Records of Tea), published in
1060, that:

‘The white froth stands out best in a black tea bowl. Tea bowls made in Jian’an were
glazed black and with streaks resembling hare’s fur. Their body is slightly thicker
than normal, and retains the heat for a long time. Hence they are the most suitable.’

Cai Tao 蔡絛, who also came from Fujian, said of his uncle Junmo 君謨 (Cai Xiang) that the latter
had ten tea bowls, four having hare’s fur glazes, which he thought produced an effect resembling
butterfies’ wings, and which Cai Xiang greatly prized (see Cai Tao’s biji 筆記, entitled Tieweishan
congtan 鐵圍山叢談, vol. 6). It was partly the infuence of Cai Xiang that resulted in tea from Fujian
being recognised as the fnest quality tea, since he initiated the production of the superb small Dragon
Tribute cakes of tea.

There are many references to Jian ware tea bowls in the writings of Song dynasty literati. Huang
Tingjian 黃庭堅 (1045-1105), one of the four great calligraphers of the Song dynasty, who was also
a poet, painter and government offcial, alludes to them in several works. These include Manting Fan
滿庭芳, which contains the lines: yan gao jian ru, jin lü zhegu ban,

研膏濺乳

金縷鷓鴣斑

‘The whisked milk-like froth [of the tea], [reveals] the golden wisps of partridge [feather] speckles’.
While the reference to Jian wares is made even clearer in Huang Tingjian’s Heda Mei Ziming Wang
Yangxiu dian Miyunlong 和答梅子明王揚休點密雲龍, which includes the lines: Jian’an ciwan zhegu
ban, Gulian shui yu yue gong se,

建安瓷碗鷓鴣斑

谷簾水與月共色

‘In the Jian’an ware bowls with partridge [feather] speckles, the water from Gulian shares the same
colours as the moon’.

Emperor Huizong also recorded a particular appreciation of black tea bowls from Fujian in his Da
Guan Cha Lun, and there are several surviving references to the emperor personally preparing tea for
selected ministers, as a special mark of favour, apparently using Jian ware tea bowls. One such occasion
took place in the third month of the second year of the Zhenghe reign (1112) at a special banquet in
the Taiqing tower 太清樓 to honour Cai Jing (蔡京1047-1126 - father of Cai Tao, mentioned above).
On this occasion the emperor used the fnest tea, recently sent as tribute from Fujian, prepared it with
Huishan spring water, and served it in tea bowls with fur-like glaze [Jian ware]. Cai Jing records two
more such imperial banquets – one of these took place in the frst year of the Xuanhe reign (1119)
in the Baohe Hall 保和殿, when again the emperor prepared the tea himself. The third occasion
recounted by Cai Jing took place in the second year of the Xuanhe reign (1120) during a banquet in
the Yanfu Palace 延福宮. Cai Jing described the appearance of the white froth in the tea bowl and
uses the phrase ‘scattered stars and a tranquil moon’ 疏星澹月, which could describe the froth on the
surface of the tea against an ‘oil spot’ Jian ware glaze.

That Jian ware tea bowls were also used at the court of the Southern Song emperors appears to have
been confrmed by the discovery in 2012 of a damaged Jian ware tea bowl with rare yohen glaze near
the site of the Southern Song palace at Hangzhou, Zhejiang province (illustrated in Treasures of the
Fujita Museum: The Japanese Conception of Beauty 国宝曜変天目茶碗と日本の美, Fukuoka City Art
Museum, 2015, p. 192, fgs. 1-3). It seems clear that some tea bowls made at the Jian kilns were
specifcally made for the Song emperors. Certain inscriptions were applied to the base of Jian tea
bowls before fring. Some of these are single characters, and may refer to the maker or the prospective
owner of the bowl, some are numbers and some appear to be geometric marks – perhaps indicating a
particular workshop. Importantly archaeologists have found bowls which had the characters 進琖 jin
zhan ‘bowl for presentation [to the emperor]’ impressed into the exterior base within the foot ring,
while others had the characters 供御 gong yu ‘for imperial use’ incised into the exterior base. It may be
signifcant that the character 琖 zhan was used on these Jian ware tea bowls, since, as Wu has noted,
the character originally referred to small jade cups and provides an indication of the high regard in

33 The Linyushanren Collection, Part II