Chinese people enjoy sipping Tea, with the tea culture being passed down for thousands of years. The main components of tea culture include the evaluation techniques of tea leaves, artistic operation methods, appreciation of the tea-drinking environment, etc. The entire process of tea drinking is imbued with a beautiful ambiance, and in this overall process, tea utensils, as the foundation, are indispensable. Alongside the millennial development history of tea culture, the evolution of tea utensils can be said to be a beautiful landscape in its own right.
The Tang Dynasty was the first peak in the history of ceramic development in China, and the flourishing of tea drinking at this time also spurred the development of tea utensils. During this period, tea utensils had a broader field for development. Archaeological excavations at Kiln sites prove that, in addition to kilns such as Yue Kiln, Ding Kiln, Wuzhou Kiln, Yuezhou Kiln, Shouzhou Kiln, and Hongzhou Kiln, Northern kilns like Xing Kiln, Quyang Kiln, Gongxian Kiln, and Southern kilns like Jingdezhen Kiln, Changsha Kiln, and Qionglai Kiln were also producing tea utensils in large quantities at the time. This sufficiently demonstrates the close integration of ancient Chinese ceramic culture with traditional tea culture. It is worth mentioning that the types of tea utensils in the Tang Dynasty were rich, including tea mills, wind stoves, tea kettles, saucers with stands, and Tang Dynasty white-glazed flower-shaped saucers with stands, among others. These are all witnesses to the glory of Chinese tea culture!
China's traditional Porcelain tea utensils come in various varieties, mainly including: Celadon tea utensils, white porcelain tea utensils, black porcelain tea utensils, and colored porcelain utensils. These diverse types of porcelain each had their heyday in different stages of ancient Chinese history, transitioning from celadon to white porcelain, then to black porcelain, and on to colored porcelain.
Chattings about tea and talking about tea utensils—small cups and saucers, delicate cup stands, leaning over to sip, the aroma of tea fills the nose. That is the fragrance of tea that has transcended thousands of years, enduring and fresh, allowing us to remember and feel the power from a thousand years ago.