Today, it seems that the hip flask and teapot are almost the same in shape. Among all kinds of household appliances, if pottery is taken as an example, the shape of the pot is the most vivid and impressive, so it is also the most eye-catching. I have noticed that modern ceramists like to use their brains on pots to create various shapes.
The beauty of the pot lies in its body, lid, spout and handle, which together form a vessel. There are many kinds of shapes, sizes and decorations, and the characteristics of the times are easy to distinguish. But its basic shape has not changed from the Southern and Northern Dynasties to modern times. It is difficult for people today to tell a hip flask from a teapot because they are very similar.
In fact, there were no teapots before the Song Dynasty. People in China began to drink tea as medicine in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and it gradually evolved into a refreshing drink. Lu Yu's Tea Classic appeared only after the combination of the Tang Dynasty and Buddhism. As a ceremony of life achievement, it was valued by many parties, but this tradition was not popularized in the Song Dynasty.
As we all know, before the Song Dynasty, tea was served in bowls instead of cups. They boil tea in a bowl and pour it into a tea bowl. So the tea bowl is the main tea set. In the Southern Song Dynasty, the black glazed tea bowls produced in Fujian had rabbit hair on them, and the advanced ones had oil drops and other visual effects, which were brought back to Japan by Japanese monks. Therefore, the name of "Tianmu Bowl" is very prosperous, and the handed down products are regarded as national treasures by the Japanese. The black bowl is used because the foam of tea is delicate, and the black background can show its aesthetic feeling better.
When did the teapot come into being? After the tea ceremony changed, of course. But the teapot of later generations should be based on hip flask. There are two ancient drinking methods: taking an urn as a pot, it is easy to pour out the wine, and it is inevitable to use a big bowl, which is a drinking method of barbarians such as heroes of the Water Margin, characterized by boldness; Literati pay attention to the atmosphere, and they must use a hip flask when drinking. I'm afraid the short-flowing hip flask in the Tang Dynasty is a tradition of folk pottery making. Nobles should drink from gold and silver vessels! In the Song Dynasty, it was very clear that the hip flask had obvious characteristics of metal vessels, especially the blue and white hip flask in Jingdezhen, which was very delicate and beautiful, and could completely reflect the embryonic form of early gold and silver vessels. Its flow is slender and elegant, and its crank is also very handy. It is usually covered with a beautiful lion button. It is conceivable that such a pot is mistaken for a teapot by later generations. In fact, the hip flask in Song Dynasty was the ancestor of hip flask in modern altar. A few years ago, the tin wares produced in Lugang had the shadow of Song wares.
Why did China people change the habit of drinking tea? I didn't see any research data. Generally speaking, from the Song Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty, any major changes in China culture were mostly related to the Jin and Yuan cultures. As far as ceramics are concerned, the Song Dynasty used to be a culture dominated by blue and white porcelain and other primary colors, with elegant taste. In the Ming Dynasty, it was completely replaced by blue-and-white porcelain and colored porcelain, and the content of porcelain painting was also popularized and popularized. This is of course related to the introduction of materials and technology from the Middle East, but under foreign rule, people's tastes are gradually accepted by rulers, which is probably a very important reason.
The method of grinding tea into powder and pouring it into a bowl is changed to the method of making tea and drinking tea juice with boiling water, which is a fundamental change. Making tea and eating tea should be enjoyed by the leisure class such as princes and nobles. Not only is the quality of tea exquisite, but the whole process of making tea is a ceremony. So there are many props for drinking tea. I once received a set of small models of Tang Dynasty tea sets to Boke Museum, including a tea house, which shows that grinding tea leaves is a step of tea ceremony, not to mention Lu Yu's emphasis on boiling water and tea bowls in Tea Classic. The Japanese kept the tradition of matcha in the Song Dynasty, became decorations for monks and nobles, and gradually developed into a tea ceremony. Because tea is green, they no longer use black Tianmu bowls, but gray ones. So far, there is no teapot, only iron pot who boils water.
In northern China, drinking tea has gradually become popular, even replacing some social functions of drinking. After the Southern Song Dynasty, teahouses appeared all over the country. The operation method is that Dr. Tea cooks the tea and pours it into the guest's bowl. The ceremony in the tea ceremony was completely abandoned, just for drinking tea. This way is the inevitable development of the popularization of tea drinking, which will further affect the tea tasting habits of the upper class.
In order to serve customers conveniently, a big teapot is needed. The teapot is too big to hold the crank with your hands, so you invented the beam-lifting pot, that is, you made a handle on the pot. So later teapot can be divided into two categories: hanging beam teapot and holding teapot.
In the story book of the Song Dynasty, it is said that "take dew and cut cloud buds" and draw water from the spring to cook soup. In other words, it is freshly brewed and its taste is endless. Since it is a new bud, it is impossible to grind it. It can be seen that in the Song Dynasty, the people already had today's tea drinking methods, and the story took place in Zhaozhou in the north.
In ceramics, the appearance of teapot should be after the middle of Ming Dynasty. I have seen the colorful beam-lifting pot in Wanli official kiln in the late Ming Dynasty and the folk beam-lifting pot in Yixing in the catalogue. They are all wonderful, but compared with wine bottles, the number handed down from generation to generation is not much. It can also be said that the design is not easy to succeed because there is a handle on the pot. Especially for small and medium-sized pots, the handle holding the pot is on one side, which is easy to design into a harmonious whole and does not hinder the use. There is really no reason to change it to a hanging beam.
After the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, the number of teapots used by the people increased greatly, and teapots in folk kilns became common utensils. Drinking to entertain guests has gradually been replaced by drinking tea, and teapots and teacups have become a must for every family. By the end of the Qing Dynasty, Liang pots were rarely found, and porcelain pots with copper handles appeared. There are two or four buttons on the shoulder of the kettle, which were called iron by the ancients to install the copper handle.
This kind of pot is probably popular in Jiangnan and North China after the Republic of China. Most teapots in the south are like small pots with spouts, with more blue and white porcelain, four lines on the shoulders, simple shape, rugged landscape or flowers and birds and high artistic value.
Elegant people in the south are elegant when drinking tea. Since Yixing in the south of the Yangtze River produced the teapot, it seems that the coordination with Chinese tea art has reached a new level, that is, small pots drink strong tea. People in China used to drink unfermented green tea, but gradually they want to drink fermented oolong tea. Under the leadership of literati, tea art not only pays attention to the fragrance of tea, but also pays attention to the aesthetic feeling of tea sets, and the shape of pots has become the main creative object. Because Yixing's clay is very fine, and the baked clay pots feel good, under the creation of famous teachers in past dynasties, various patterns have appeared, with several typical appearances, which can be called classic works, very exquisite and unforgettable. This wave of teapot fever has made China people become the nation that loves pots the most, and it is also the nation with the richest teapot shapes. By the18th century, the whole world was drinking tea. Western civilized countries learn the application of tea sets from porcelain exported from China, and gradually design their own styles.
Yixing teapot has many styles, and the production time is more than 300 years, so it is difficult to judge the age because of its large quantity. Only the most discerning connoisseur can see the approximate age. It can be divided into early, middle and late Qing dynasty, and most of the styles have been in the Republic of China to meet the needs of the market.
Taiwan Province Province has a culture of drinking tea for the elderly. Our Baozhong tea and Oolong tea are both famous teas, so the tea-drinking culture was restored in the 1970s after the war, and the emphasis on teapots was also restored. After the mainland opened up, people from Taiwan Province Province went to Yixing to buy pots. When they found the newly designed pot shapes by several masters, they controlled and hyped them, making the shape of the new pot far less than that of the traditional pot. They sold millions of Taiwan dollars in the collection market in Taiwan Province Province, which was all the rage for a while. The heat has passed and no one cares.