Tea basket is a type of container. Lu Guimeng of the Tang Dynasty wrote a poem titled “Tea Basket,” which includes the lines, “The golden knife splits the emerald Bamboo, woven like slanted waves.” From this, we can infer that a tea basket was a bamboo-made tea utensil with a slanted weave pattern. The term “tea cottage” mostly refers to the small thatched hut where tea people lived. In his poem “Tea Cottage,” Pi Rixiu of the Tang Dynasty wrote, “Perched on the sunny cliffs, this humble abode is alive and vibrant for days. Red water is drawn from the shed, and firewood and bracken are roasted before the hearth. After the old man grinds the tea, the middle-aged woman takes a break from pounding tea. Facing each other as they close the wooden gate, the fragrance fills the mountains under the moon.” The poem depicts the arduous process of tea-making by the dwellers of the tea cottage, including roasting, grinding (crushing), boiling, and pounding tea.
In ancient times, people used a charcoal stove to boil tea. Since the Tang Dynasty, the stove used for boiling tea was commonly referred to as a “tea stove.” According to the biography of Lu Guimeng in the “History of the Tang Dynasty,” he lived in Fuli, Songjiang, and disliked socializing with commoners. Even when visitors came to his Door, he would not see them. He did not ride horses or take boats but instead spent his days “setting up a pavilion with a thatched roof and a bookshelf beside the tea stove” while traveling around the rivers and lakes, calling himself a “free man.” After the Southern Song Dynasty, Yang Wanli, one of the “Four Greats,” wrote in his essay “Yabo Hall,” “A desk for pens, a stove for tea, earthen pots, and wicker cups.” In his poem “On Purple Bamboo,” Tang Dynasty poet Chen Tao wrote, “Fragrant smoke enters the tea stove, and still greenness aligns the chessboard.” This shows that during the Tang and Song Dynasties, literati and artists were often accompanied by “tea stoves” whether they were reading or playing chess. Moreover, the mention of the tea stove alongside the desk for pens and earthen pots indicates that by the Tang Dynasty, the “tea stove” had become an essential daily item.
In ancient times, the tool used for Drying tea leaves was called a “tea dryer.” According to the “Geography Annals” of the “History of the Song Dynasty,” “There was a tea dryer in Beiyuan, Jian'an.” This was well-known. According to the “Tea Record,” a tea dryer was a bamboo basket wrapped with reed leaves (leaves of the reed bamboo). Since reed leaves have the effect of reducing heat, they could prevent the tea leaves from being over-dried. By placing the tea leaves on the tea dryer and using a low heat for drying, the color and aroma of the tea would not be damaged.