Tea service

“Sharp tools make good work.”,this saying is talk about normal work,. tea ceremony is not only a material activity but also a spiritual activity,. It is particular about the tools, the tools are required not only for being convenient to use, but also being methodical and artistic. Therefore, long ago, in <the Ch'a Ching>, the tea saint Luyu designed elaborately two dozens of tea tools which are suitable for boiling tea or tasting tea.

1, Wind stove: Being used to fire for cooking tea. It is designed according to the Taoism‘s mentality of the five elements and the patriotism in Confucianism. it is made by iron or mud.

2, Bamboo basket: pleached by bamboo thread, quadrate, it is used to pick tea. it is required not only to be convenient but also to be beautiful. The ancients designed it purposely because they always liked to picking, boiling, and eating tea by themselves.

3, Char breaking tool: a six arris tool made by iron, about a unit of length, it is used to smash char.

4, Char catching tool: clip char.

3, Kettle: it is used to boiling water for cooking tea, like the tea fettle today in Japan. During T’ang, there also existed porcelain fettle, stone fettle even sliver fettle in rich family.

6, Kettle bed: made of wood, used to place the kettle.

7, Paper purse: preserve tea after heated, pretend it from letting its aroma out.

8, Grinding and whisking tool: the former is used to grinding tea, the latter is used to whisking tea.

9. Net and case: net is used to filter tea. Case store tea.

10, Spoon: estimate how much tea is.

11, Water square: store un-boiled water.

12, Drying purse: filtrate water which is used to boil tea. it is often made of copper, wood or bamboo.

13, Gourd ladle: bail water. some are made of wood.

14, Bamboo stick: stir water to make tea more fragrant.

15, Salt vessel and spoon: during T’ang, salt is added into tea to make it less bitter and sweeter. the former is used to store salt, the latter bail salt.

16, Pot: store boiled water. Boiling tea is separate into three steps. At first, put tea into boiling water directly, the second, after bubble appear in the water, bail the tea and put it into pot. the third, fill the fettle with boiled water in pot, that is called “save boiling”, ”rise soul”

17, Bowl: being used to taste tea. it is popular to use Yue china in T’ang, except it there were Ding china, Wu china, Shou china, Hong china. the Yue china is excellent.

18, Basket: store bowls.

19, Broom: rinse appliance, like the broom used in the kitchen.

20, Washing pool: being used to store water to wash tea set.

21, Sediment tool: collect every kind of sediment.

22, Tiny cloth: using for cleaning appliance.

23, Closet: using for displaying tea tools, like the wine cabinet today.

24, Collecting basket: use for collecting all tea tools after drink tea.

In modern time, it is so hard to know how complicated it is to drink a cup of tea. but it is necessary progress for the ancients to drink a cup of tea. it is a kind of ceremony.