Tea Pots in Ancient China
The tea was without a doubt discovered by the Chinese. How about teapots? The history of teapots is still being debated by the scholars from the East and West. The scholars from the Far East like to believe that the tea pots were invented by the Chinese just as tea was. The scholars from the West however, believe that the Chinese did not invented tea pots. It was believed that the Chinese brewed tea directly from tea cups and not tea pots before tea pots became known to the European. Although the Chinese believe the beginning of Chinese glazed pottery can be dated as far back as 2.000 years ago, the earliest Chinese (partially) glazed clay tea pots exist today can only be dated between 960 to 1279 (Song dynasty). The Chinese pottery can be dated before human knew how to write. The earliest coarse gray earthenware found today can be dated long before Shang Dynasty (1766-1122BC). During the Shang Dynasty, the finer white pottery started to appear. Before Ming Dynasty, the Chinese pottery with the shape of tea pot was not actually a tea pot. Before Ming Dynasty the tea pot was a cook ware used to cook herbal medicine or a wine pot. The spout on the herbal medicine pots (kettles) served as a filter to filter the herbal left over. The tea pot was called medicine pot. To brew tea with hot water was not started until Ming Dynasty. Once people started to brew tea with hot water, smaller medicine pots named tea pots started to appear in china. Are you a bit dizzy with all those pot talk? I dont know about you. I know that I am. The way I see who invented tea pots in my view is a great debate between Italian spaghetti and Chinese noodle. I personally so not care whoever invented noodle or spaghetti first. As long as they taste great and less fillings.
NOTE:
1 The herbal medicine was put into the medicine pot or little. The medicine pot was then filled up with water. Bring it to boil and let it simmer until the water go down to 1/3 to 1/2 of the pot. Strain the herbal the spout on the medicine pot will do the trick) and drink the fluid. This is how the Chinese herbal medicine works for the past thousand of years. The clay tea pot was actually a smaller version of the traditional Chinese medicine pot. However, it is possible that the tea was made in the herbal medicine pot.
2 The earliest pottery pot that has the shape of todays tea pot can be dated between 7th to 8th centuries Tang Dynasty). The pot was unglazed. It is believed that the pot was used to serve wine since before Ming Dynasty; the way to make tea was the same as to make herbal medicine.
3 The earliest pottery pot found today can be dated between 3000BC to 2000BC. The pot was found in Yangshao village in Northwestern China and in Lungshan in Northeastern China in Shandong Province.
In this section, we are to explore the arts and history behind some of the greatest tea pots in the world to date. To date, people can not talk about tea pots without talking about Yixing. The clay tea ware from Yixing today however, is not as sophisticate as those from Ming Dynasty. Between 1950 to 1975, the art works of pottery from Yixing were in such a pool quality that the name Yixing seemed to become the symbol of a long forgotten city. For the past 20 years, many famous artists publish their works of great pottery tea pots that have nothing to do with Yixing at all. Yixing is a city with a big name and a lot of tea pots. For people who want to find highest quality of tea pots made for the past twenty years, Yixing may not be the light place to go. For that reason, we are going to discuss the tea pots of the good old days only and, the arts of picking a good tea pot.
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