The Tang Dynasty was an important period during which the custom of drinking tea spread from a corner of Jiangnan to the whole country. Tea began to become an essential item in the daily diet of the Chinese people. In Volume 6, “Tea Drinking” of “Fengshi Wenjian Ji (《封氏闻见记》)” written by Feng Yan (封演) in the Tang Dynasty, it is recorded: “During the Kaiyuan period (in the Tang Dynasty), starting from places like Zou, Qi, Cang, and Yi (邹, 齐, 沧, 棋), and gradually reaching the capital cities, many shops were opened to decoct and sell tea. Regardless of whether people were from the religious or secular world, they could pay money and get a cup of tea. Lu Hongjian (陆鸿渐) from Chu wrote about tea… Thus, the art of tea ceremony became widely popular, and there was no prince, minister, or court official who didn’t drink tea… It first started in the central regions and then spread to the areas beyond the Great Wall.”

For the culture of tea, the Tang Dynasty was a crucial juncture. Before the Tang Dynasty, the function of tea was mainly “medicinal”. As stated in “Guangya“: “If you want to boil and drink tea, first roast it until it turns red, pound it into powder, put it in a porcelain container, pour boiling water over it, and add scallions, ginger, and tangerines to season it.” It doesn’t sound very delicious, does it? In the Tang Dynasty, Lu Yu, the Sage of Tea who emerged from a Buddhist temple, endowed tea with more cultural connotations. Tea finally moved from being “a fine tree in the south” into the studies of literati, and also crossed the high walls of the imperial court and entered the public’s field of vision. The culture of tea began to thrive from the Tang Dynasty.

Before the Tang Dynasty, people boiled fresh tea leaves without much processing. Since the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, tea leaves started to undergo deep processing. Generally, the method of making tea cakes was adopted to make storage and transportation more convenient. The production of tea cakes generally went through seven procedures, namely picking tea leaves, steaming tea leaves, pounding tea leaves, shaping the tea paste into cakes, roasting the tea cakes, stringing the tea cakes together, and sealing the tea cakes. These production techniques and tools were extremely innovative at that time.  

Ⅰ. Tang Dynasty Specialty Tea

1. Tea Porridge:

When making tea, grains such as rice and beans are added and boiled together to form a porridge-like beverage. Lu Yu recorded tea porridge in “The Classic of Tea“. The tea porridge he mentioned was made by grinding tea leaves into a fine powder similar to rice grains, adding rice flour, oil, and salt to make tea balls or tea cakes. When drinking, these tea balls or cakes are crushed, and seasonings like scallions, ginger, pepper, and cinnamon are added. Then, it is cooked with water, and a large pot of tea porridge is made for everyone to enjoy. This is the original form of Lei Cha.

2. Compressed Tea:

Also known as cake tea, it is a kind of tea cake made through processes such as steaming the picked tea leaves to halt fermentation, pounding them into a pulp, and then shaping them in a mold. When it comes to drinking, the tea cake needs to be roasted and then ground into a powdery substance before being decocted. The production process of compressed tea in the Tang Dynasty was rather complicated, and high-quality compressed tea was often regarded as a precious item. For example, the compressed tea made from Guzhu (顾渚) Zisun (Purple Bamboo) tea  was highly esteemed and was one of the tribute teas at that time.

3. Decocted Tea:

This was a quite popular way of drinking tea during the Tang Dynasty. First, the tea cake was dried by roasting and then ground into powder. After that, it was put into boiling water for decocting. Sometimes, seasonings like salt were added. Decocting tea placed great emphasis on the heat control during the cooking process and the quality of the water used. There were also certain requirements for the tea-cooking utensils, such as the commonly used wind stove and tea cauldron. Through the method of decocting tea, the aroma and flavor of the tea leaves could be fully brought out. Decocted tea is indeed a significant achievement in the development of tea craftsmanship and tea-drinking culture in the Tang Dynasty. Let’s learn about the background of the birth of decocted tea.  

Ⅱ. The Background of the Birth of Decocted Tea

In the early Tang Dynasty, the tea-making methods were relatively simple, and the varieties of tea were far less abundant than they are today. There were only crude tea, loose tea, powdered tea, and compressed tea, all of which belonged to the category of unfermented tea.

In daily tea drinking, the early method of boiling tea was still used. First, the tea leaves were simply processed, such as being chopped, boiled, roasted, or pounded, and then brewed with boiling water. Some people would also add seasonings like scallions, ginger, dates, and tangerine peels, and then “boil it for a long time until it boils vigorously” before drinking. The former method is similar to the common tea-boiling method nowadays, and the latter is commonly seen in the southwest and northwest regions of China, as well as in some countries in Central Asia and West Asia.

Lu Yu regarded the tea soup made with these two methods as “waste water in the ditch.” It seems that he was quite sharp-tongued. The Sage of Tea had his own understanding of tea. He proposed a better way of tea tasting – the decocted tea method. The decocted tea method includes a series of meticulous steps, from preparing the tea and water, starting the fire to boil the water, adding salt for seasoning, putting in the tea leaves, fostering the tea froth, dividing the tea, drinking the tea, to cleaning the utensils. It reflects the Tang Dynasty’s emphasis on the tea-drinking ceremony and their aesthetic taste, and has had a profound impact on the tea culture of later generations.

Influenced by the previous dynasties, people in the Tang Dynasty still mainly boiled tea. The difference was that they began to form their own unique norms in terms of the selection of utensils, the control of water temperature, and the blending of the tea soup. Lu Yu, the Sage of Tea, wrote a specialized book titled “The Classic of Tea,” which provided detailed descriptions of each step in the process of boiling tea.

Ⅲ. The Process of Decocting Tea

Today, let’s talk about the tea-drinking culture of the Tang Dynasty. Among them, boiling tea is the key! Lu Yu described the process of boiling tea in detail in the section “The Fifth – Boiling” of his work. A pot of tea needs to go through three stages of boiling to bring out its unique flavor!

1. The First Boiling:

When the water starts to boil, small bubbles like fish eyes appear, and there is a slight sound. This is the water at the first boiling stage. People in the Tang Dynasty were particular. When the water boiled to the first stage, they would add an appropriate amount of salt according to the amount of water to season it. In The Classic of Tea, it is said: “When it first boils, adjust the amount of water and season it with salt. If you discard the remaining tea after tasting, isn’t it like concentrating on just one flavor?”

2. The Second Boiling:

Bubbles well up like a gushing spring and are strung together like pearls, and the tea powder dances in the center of the boiling water. As the temperature rises, more and more bubbles appear in the water. They bubble up in strings along the edge of the bottom of the pot like a gushing spring, looking like pearls strung together. This is the second boiling stage. At this time, you should first scoop out a ladle of water, then use a bamboo whisk to stir around in the boiling water in circles, and then slowly pour the powdered tea into the center of the boiling water. As recorded in The Classic of Tea: “When it reaches the second boiling, scoop out a ladle of water. Use a bamboo whisk to stir vigorously around the center of the boiling water, and then pour the appropriate amount of powdered tea into the center.” Just imagine this scene. Isn’t it full of a sense of ritual?

3. The Third Boiling:

The water surges and the waves roll, and when it reaches this stage, the water is overcooked and the boiling should stop. When the bubbles on the surface of the water roll violently like surging waves, that is the third boiling stage! At this time, the water temperature is extremely high. The water vapor in the bubbles is saturated, and the air pressure increases. The bubbles keep rising, bursting, and releasing steam, and the water is boiling completely. As stated in “The Classic of Tea“: “When the water surges and the waves roll, it is the third boiling. If the water is boiled beyond this stage, it is overcooked and not suitable for drinking.”

After the water reaches the third boiling stage, it should not be boiled any further, otherwise, the tea will not taste good. So, when the water reaches the third boiling, the ladle of water that was scooped out during the second boiling should be poured back in. This is called “stopping the boiling and fostering the tea froth (止沸生沫)”. As described in “The Classic of Tea“: “After a while, the water surges like a rushing torrent with splashing foam. Use the water that was scooped out earlier to stop the boiling and foster the tea froth.” The three stages of boiling tea in the Tang Dynasty are not just a harmonious dance of water and tea, but also a magnificent symphony of culture and life. Amidst the curling aroma of tea, it reveals the Tang people’s ultimate pursuit of the art of life and their aesthetic taste. When people in later generations think of that scene in the past, they can’t help but be fascinated and immersed in the elegant charm of the tea’s fragrance and the rich cultural heritage.

In addition, a simpler way of drinking tea – steeping tea, also began to appear. Due to the popularity of tea leaves, it eventually replaced boiling tea and became the most popular way of drinking tea in later generations.

Summary

Although the cultural heritages introduced here, whether it is the Hanfu culture, daily life, or food culture, are just a tiny part of the prosperous era of Chang’an in the Tang Dynasty, I still hope that all of you can confidently realize from the vast sea of history that the Tang Dynasty is not only in books, paintings, and texts, but also in our daily life, in the aspects of clothing, food, housing, and transportation, and in the hearts of each and every one of us.