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THE BRAZIER
The brazier should be made of brass or iron and shaped like an old-fashioned tripod. Its walls should be three-tenths of an inch thick at the lip and nine- to six-tenths thick in the body. The brazier should be hollowed out and then plastered over. On mine there is writing in the ancient script on all three legs, there being twenty-one characters in all. One leg says : "K'an above; sun below and 1i in the middle." On another leg is the inscription "Cast in the year following the destruction of the Mongols by the Great T'ang." Yet a third inscription says "Harmonize the five elements in the body and you will banish the hundred illnesses." There are windows on my brazier between the legs. The bottom part is the draught hole and the place for taking out the ashes. Above each window are more characters in the ancient script, for a total of six. There are two characters over each window and together they say, "For the Lu family to boil tea." Set into each window is a grid. One grid has a pheasant on it. Now the pheasant is a fire bird. Its trigram is li. On another there is a small tiger which is a wind beast and has the trigram sun. On the third there is a fish, a water creature of the trigram Van. Sun rules the wind, 1i rules the fire and Van rules the water. Wind can stir up the fire and the fire can boil water. This is why the three trigrams are on it. Other ornamentation includes geometric designs, chained flowerbuds, hanging vines and winding brooks. While most braziers are wrought from iron, they can be made from worked clay. The receptacle for ashes has three feet with an iron handle for carrying. THE BASKET
Woven from bamboo, it is one foot, two inches high. It is seven inches in diameter. Some people use rattan and weave it together to make a wooden box in the shape of the bamboo basket. The basket has six openings in it and over the bottom is a cover like that of a satchel added for the sake of beauty. THE STOKER
It is hexagonal, is made of iron and is one foot long. It comes to a sharp point. On the handle is a small head with a tassel tied to it to set it off. It is not unlike the wooden staffs carried by our soldiers along the dikes. Following one's own pleasure, the instrument may be represented with the character ch'ui or fu. THE FIRE TONGS
Fire tongs were once designated by chii, the word for chopsticks. Those in common use are cylindrical and are one foot and three inches long. The head is cut of f flush and does not have the onion-shaped head. Tongs with a hook and chain are made of iron or worked copper. THE CAULDRON
The cauldron is made of pig iron although some of today's craftsmen use the so-called puddled-iron process to make them. They are usually made from old plowshares or scrap chains. Clay is spread over the inside and gravelly earth over the outside. The cauldron is polished on the inside to make it easy to clean but is allowed to remain rough on the outside to absorb more of the flames. The ears are squared for stability and the lips flared to facilitate spreading the leaves. The bowl is extended to protect the center. When the bowl is thus extended, the center will be agitated. When the center is agitated, it is easy to toss the leaves. When leaves can be tossed without hindrance, then the taste will be pure and unadulterated. In Hung Chou the cauldrons are made of tile and in Lan Chou, of stone. Both the tile and stone ones are exquisite utensils, but by their nature they lack stability and are hard to manage. For long usage, cauldrons should be made of silver, as they will yield the purest tea. Silver is somewhat extravagant, but when beauty is the standard, it is silver that is beautiful. When purity is the standard, it is silver that yields the purity. For constancy and long use, one always THE STAND
The stand is made in the shape of a cross with the arms intersecting. It will be scraped down in the center to make a hollow for receiving the cauldron. THE PINCERS
Pincers are like chopsticks and are made of green bamboo. They are one foot, two inches long. In the first inch, there should be a joint. The pincer should be split just before the joint. Then, when the tea is being heated, sap from the bamboo will drip into the fire. The fire will receive its fragrance and purity and go on to intensify the flavor of the tea. If one is not among the valley forests, then for long-term use, it is perhaps better to use pincers made of purified iron or wrought copper. THE PAPER SACK
The bag should be made of a paper that is thick and white and made from rattan. One layer should be pressed upon the other and then be stitched to store the heated tea. This will keep the tea from losing its fragrance. THE ROLLER
The roller is made, by preference, of wood from the orange tree. If that is not available, then either the pear, the Tung or the Che should be used. The inner part of the roller is rounded while the outside is square. Thus back-and-forth movement is easily effected without its tipping over. By the same token, the contents on the inside can pile up without spilling over. The shape of the depression carved into the wood is that of the lower part of a carriage wheel without spoke or axle. It is nine inches long and one and seven-tenths inches across. The long diameter of the depression is three inches. The thickness at the center is one inch and that of the sides is one-half inch. The center of the axle is square, and it has a round handle. A brush goes with the roller, the tip of which is made of bird feathers. GAUZE AND CASKET
The netting or gauze should be measured against the lid of the casket to ensure that it will fit inside. Meant to serve as a strainer, it should be made of fine silk that has been tightly stretched over strong bamboo, split and bent. The casket may be made from a joint of bamboo or from the lacquered wood of the Shan tree. It should be three inches high, the cover being one inch and the bottom, two inches. The diameter of the opening should be four inches. THE MEASURE
Sea shells, such as those of the clam or oyster, make proper measures, but it is also acceptable to use ladles made of bamboo, iron or brass. The measure is meant to standardize, to set limits. To one pint of boiling water add no more than a square inch of tea. If you favor a thin tea, you may lower the amount. Likewise, if your taste runs to a stouter and richer brew, then add still more. THE WATER DISPENSER
The chow tree, the pagoda tree, the catalpa and the tzu give up their wood to make the water dispenser. The wood is joined on the inside and covered over on the outside by sewn cloth or lacquer. The capacity of the dispenser is ten pints. THE WATER FILTER
Filters in common use are made of frames shaped from raw copper. The use of raw copper will ensure the freshness of the water as well as guard against foul and mossy odors that make the water brackish and harsh. If you use wrought copper, it will smell of moss; and if you use iron, it will create foul odors that make the water offensive to the taste. People who are tied to the deep forests or who rest in the seclusion of remote valleys frequently make their filters of wood or bamboo. Such equipment does not, however, wear well and for extended use it is best to use raw copper. There is a bag that fits over the copper frame. To make it, first weave young and tender bamboo together doubled over. Cut a piece of jade-green silk woven with double threads and waterproof and sew it over the copper frame. Ornament it with a decoration of delicate kingfisher feathers or perhaps silver filigree. When you have completed it, make a green oiled bag to store it. It should have a diameter of five inches with a small handle of only one and one-half inches. THE WATER LADLE
It is sometimes called a hsi shao and is made of a gourd split apart or it may be fashioned from carved wood. A fu on tea written by a noble retainer of the Chin dynasty says, "Decant it from the bottle-gourd. Its mouth is broad, its neck thin and the handle short." During the Yung Chia period, a man from Yu Yao named Yii Hung went into the Pao Pu Mountains to pluck tea and while there met a Taoist adept. He said, "I am Tan Ch'iu-tzu. May I beg of you the remains of your tea bowl and hsi?" The hsi was a wooden ladle. Nowadays, ladles are generally made of pear wood. THE BAMBOO PINCERS
The pincers may be made with wood either from the peach or from willow, grape or palm. It is permissible also to use the heart wood Of the persimmon. They should be one foot long with silver set into the ends. THE SALT DISH
It may be stoneware and if it is round, it should be four inches in diameter. It may, however, be in the shape of a casket, or even a bottle or jar. It is meant to hold the salt. There is a spoon that goes with it, made of bamboo, and is four and one-tenth inches long by nine-tenths of an inch wide. It is like a chopstick. THE HEATING BASIN
Used to hold the boiling water, it can be made of stoneware or clay. Its capacity is two pints. THE TEA BOWL
Yueh Chou ware is best. Ting Chou ware is next best. After that come the bowls of Wu Chou, Yueh Chou, Shou Chou, and Hung Chou. There are those who argue that the bowls of Hsing Chou are superior to Yiieh ware. That is not at all the case. It is proper to say that if Hsing ware is silver, then Yiieh ware is jade. Or if the bowls of Hsing Chou are snow, then those of Yiieh are ice. Hsing ware, being white, gives a cinnabar cast to the tea. Yueh ware, having a greenish hue, enhances the true color of the tea. That is yet a third way to describe Yueh Chou's superiority to Hsing Chou in the way of tea bowls. In his poem on tea, Tu Yu speaks of the equipage and of a moistly glossy bowl that originated in the East. The bowl was Yueh ware. Hence for him Yueh Chou made the best of bowls The lip does not curl over, but the base is round and shallow and will hold fewer than eight ounces. Stoneware from both the Yueh Chous is of a blue-green shade. Being so it intensifies and emphasizes the color of the tea. If the tea is of a light red color, it will appear as red in the white bowls of Hsing Chou. I f the tea is red, it will look a rusty brown in Shou Chou bowls, they being of a yellow glaze. Because Hung Chou ware is brown, the tea will look black. All of those are unworthy of tea. THE BASKET FOR CUPS
The basket is made of white rush rolled and plaited. It is capable of holding up to ten cups. Sometimes a basket like that already described earlier is used. In such cases, paper and cloth are cut, pressed together and sewn into squares for partitions. That type of basket also should accommodate ten cups. THE BRUSH
The brush should be made by twisting together strips of bark from the coir palm and then binding them together after having inserted them into a block of dogwood. Alternatively, a small bundle of bamboo can be cut and fashioned into a tubular shape like that of an enormous writing brush. THE SCOURING BOX
The box is meant to hold the dregs after scouring. It is joined together from catalpa wood and then shaped much like the water dispenser. It has an eight-pint capacity. THE CONTAINER FOR DREGS
All the tea dregs are collected in this container which is manufactured just like the scouring box except that it will hold only four pints. THE CLOTH
The cloth is made of coarse thread and is two feet long. There should be two and they are to be used in turn for cleansing the rest of the equipage. THE UTENSIL RACK
Sometimes it is made like a bed board and sometimes like a rack. It can be built either of the best wood or of unblemished bamboo. Whether wood or bamboo, yellow or black, it can be shaped like the bar to a door and lacquered. It should be three feet long, two feet wide and six inches high. Its role is to hold all the implements so that they can be displayed in their proper order. THE CARRYALL
The carryall got its name from the fact that it can properly accommodate the entire tea equipage. Inside the basket, bamboo slats are worked to fashion triangular or square cubbyholes. Over the outside, double-size laths are used and laid lengthwise across the breadth of the basket. When only single-size laths are used, they should be clamped together into double ones. Into the warp of the weave, cut square holes to achieve an openwork effect. Yom-carryall should be one and one-half feet high, one foot across at the bottom and two inches thick. Also it ought to be two and four-tenths feet long and open out to two feet wide at the top. |
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