Download The tea-things from the Tang crypt of Famen temple and tea culture

The tea-things from the Tang crypt of Famen temple and tea
culture of the Tang dynasty.
Jinke Han
Famensi Museum, Fufeng, Shaanxi, 722201 China
Summary
The set of tea-things found out from underground of Famen Temple of Shaanxi
province reflect the content of the royal tea culture of Tang Dynasty and the procedure,
style and features of the royal tea service and it reflects the loftiest extent reached of the
royal tea service in external material form with the most plentiful cultural intension. Hence,
the imperial house of the Tang Dynasty offers to the emperors the enjoyment of fresher,
newer "connotation" by means of tea culture and tea service. Meanwhile, it was used to
great diplomatic envoys of various countries, entertain officials, associate with friendly
nations, make contact with imperial kinsmen, etc. and it mixes together the Chinese
ancient spirit of harmony and respect and Confucianism, Taoism, pushing forward the
material and spiritual civilization of the Tang Dynasty. The royal tea service is developed
on the base of Tea scripture, blended with the royal etiquette, it reflects the overall,
profound tea culture which was very popular during the Tang Dynasty and it gives a
centralized reflection of the mixing of tea and politics, religion, economy, culture, etc. It is
the development and spread of the tea culture of the whole society on higher levels.
Keywords
Famen Temple, Tang Dynasty, royal tea service
Introduction
Famen Teple lies north to Fufeng county, Shaanxi province, 110 km west to Xi'an. On
February, 1987, the cleaning-up of the pagoda that collapsed in 1981 was started and the
underground palace that emperor Xizong had closed and sealed the door on January, 15th
, 874 AD was discovered on April 3rd • Numerous precious cultural relics unknown to the
outside world during 1113 years were found out from the palace and included various gold
and silver tea sets used for baking, grinding, shifting, cooking, drinking and storing in Tang
Dynasty. They were the precious objects offered to the Buddha by Emperor Xizong,
completely reflecting the procedure of the Tang imperial tea custom in addition to the
contents of tea culture. In Tang Dynasty, drinking tea was very popular and the way of
drinking was quite sophisticated. To the time when Lu Yu finished his writing "Tea
Scripture", the custom of drinking tea became theorized. However, the practical way of
making tea has been lost and the tea services also have become rare. Then, this
discovery is very important to study the tea culture in Tang Dynasty.
Royal tea-things and tea culture in Tang Dynasty
The tea things were an important element in tea ceremony when Lu Yu created a tea
culture. One of the reasons was to make tea ceremony more popular and the other was to
make the brilliant ceremony in the look. This method seemed complicated but did not
damage the simplicity of the tea ceremony. But the state changed when the tea ceremony
spread into the Court. Emperors and empresses were difficult to understand the spirit of
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Gilded silver tea grinder
Gilded silver tea case
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Gilded silver openwork basket
Three-legged salt table
the tea ceremony and they attached importance on the look of the ceremony. Specifically,
in that the Dynasty declined after the middle of Tang Dynasty, emperors did not
concentrate on managing government business. Instead their daily life became luxurious
day by day. This situation can be clear1y known from the tea-things that were unearthed at
the temple. The gilded silver tea grinder is about 1 kg in weight and the silver tea case is
1.4kg. These appliances were made at special factory for emperor. Government officials
presented tea things to emperor, as evidence, on a silver openwork basket the name of
presenter is written down. The presenters chose the things to suit the emperor's taste and
Emperor Xizong put his name onto the silver axis to show his satisfaction. These
tea-things used at the Court were held a memorial service at Famen Temple. This shows
the combination of the worldly tea culture and the Buddhism. However, three thoughts of
Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism joined each other and advanced as the art. It
appears in the decorations of each of the tea-things. For example, flying Big Birds on the
gilded silver tea grinder show Taoism. On the other hand, we can see Buddhism in the
three legs salt table constituted with leaves and flowers of lotus symbolized Buddhism.
These tea-things that were offered to the temple by the Imperial Household were being
used by the emperor in daily life. Then, we can know from these that the emperors in the
Tang Dynasty changed compatibly corresponding to Buddhism and Taoism in necessary.
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They wished for the happiness to the Buddhism and prayed to Taoism for perennial youth
and immortality. But it was able to find out that the thought of the Taoism was stronger
than the Buddhism on influence.
Besides, glass receptacles and Mi Ce porcelains were unearthed. But it is not clear if
these were used for drinking tea. As the general opinion, these utensils should be used for
various purposes including for drinking tea. The glassware had been already introduced to
China in the 1st century. Most of the 18 glazed objects unearthed from the underground
palace were the tributes offered by the producing countries in the late of .Tang Dynasty.
This discovery provides important materials for historical research on cultural exchanges
between China and foreign countries. The cultural thought of Tang Dynasty were various
and included even the confronted cultures, countries and religions.
Through the situation, we can see in the Tang Dynasty, tea culture accomplished by
cultured men grew to the magnificent "Tea-Tao" in the Court and Buddhism. And this
proves that the origin of tea ceremony was in China and after that spread to Japan and
other countries.
Conclusion
On 1987, the underground palace was discovered at Famen Temple. And at the center
of the rear chamber of the crypt, a set of royal tea-things in the name of 'Wuge"(Emperor
Xizang's infant name), which was made of gold and silver was found out. This is the
earliest, intact, exquisitely made tea-things in the world cultural history. And it was relic
that had not put down in ancient historical records and tea books as the most important
find of cultural archeology of the 20th century. It proves the existence of tea culture and
tea-service at 'the royal Court of the Tang Dynasty and provides new substantial evidence
for studying the tea culture of Tang Dynasty. The royal tea service developed on the base
of Tea Scripture blended with the royal etiquette. It influenced on the overall, profound tea
culture that was very popular in the Tang Dynasty. The emperor's tea-set records a
thousand and one links of tea culture and Buddhist culture in China and Japan. It is now to
open the historical picture scroll of tea culture of China and Japan.
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