Listening for Silence
眠雲臥石
Among the literati and aristocracy of dynastic China, the art of tea was a culinary and cultural pursuit of primary import, a social and creative activity that developed from the ancient practices of chefs de cuisine, physicians, apothecaries, and alchemists, all of whom relied on the agrarian and production skills of cultivators for tea. Over two millennia, the art of tea evolved within a constantly changing panorama of aesthetics, methods, and paraphernalia. Transformation and innovation in the art of tea affected criteria, procedure, and equipage, and in turn such variations frequently altered technique timing, and performance. Yet, even as the art of tea changed, there were immutable principles and rudiments. The true color, scent, and flavor of tea were the three unassailable constants, just as water was the foundational medium of the drink:
“Tea is the spirit of water.
Water is the essence of tea.
Without pure water, its spirit cannot be revealed.
Without fine tea, its essence cannot be perceived.”
Zhang Yuan, Chalu (Record of Tea, ca. 1593)
Water was vital to the expression of tea and provided the means by which essence of the leaf was made manifest. Accordingly, heating water was one of the most important steps in the brewing of tea.
In the eighth century, the Tang tea master Lu Yu described boiling water in an open cauldron in a maximum of three stages:
“Of boiling water, when bubbles appear like fish eyes and there is a faint sound, that is the first boil. When bubbles climb the sides of the cauldron like strung pearls in a gushing spring, that is the second boil. When appearing like mounting and swelling waves, that is the third and last boil. Boiled any more, and the water is old and spent and undrinkable indeed.”
Lu Yu, Chajing (Book of Tea, 780)
Brewing Tea in a Cauldron
By observing the three stages of boiling water, Lu Yu believed that the quintessence of the water was preserved and present. However, after a generation or so, the method of heating water in an open cauldron was superseded by boiling water in a ewer, a closed vessel with a narrow neck that did not allow the observation of water and required a different means by which to judge the heat of the water.
Ewers for boiling water
Taking direction from Lu Yu, who described the ever present “faint sound” of boiling water, later tea masters listened for the reverberations made by the heating vessel.
Crane Woods, Jade Dew
Five hundred years after Lu Yu, the Song official Luo Dajing published the Helin yulu 鶴林玉露 (Crane Woods, Jade Dew, 1252), a sixteen-volume collection of disparate writings on scholarly subjects that included reviews and critiques of earlier Song dynasty philosophers and writers as well as commentaries on numerous miscellaneous subjects, including the art of tea.
Among Luo’s sundry writings was an observation on the boiling of water for tea in which he noted the several differences between the practices of the Tang and the procedures of the Southern Song dynasty. Luo Dajing attributed the variations to the changes in equipage and utensils, especially the bronze tripod brazier and silver cauldron:
Crane Woods, Jade Dew “My classmate Li Nanjin said that the Book of Tea used “fish eyes” and “strung pearls in a gushing spring” to gauge the boiling of water. Nowadays, however, a tripod and cauldron are rarely used to make tea.”
余同年李南金云茶經以魚目湧泉連珠為煑水之節然近世瀹茶
鮮以鼎鑊
Luo Dajing then explained that the open cauldron formerly used to boil water had in later times been replaced by a closed ewer. Luo also noted that the primary means of determining the three stages of boiling changed from observing bubbles to listening to the distinctive sounds created by the heating vessel. However, unlike Lu Yu, who gauged the water at the beginning of the second boil, Luo Dajing gauged the water after the second boil and just before the third boil, admonishing the practitioner to use that precise instant as the proper measure of heat.
Boiling Water with a Ewer
Crane Woods, Jade Dew “Using a ewer to boil water makes it difficult to observe, so the distinctive sounds of the first, second, and third boils are used as the requisite criteria. To reiterate, Lu Yu’s method used the imperfect tea cauldron, and so the second boil was used as the appropriate measure, none of which is comparable to today’s boiling hot water in a tea ewer. Use the sound between the second and third boils as the proper gauge.”
用瓶煑水難以侯視則當以聲辨一沸二沸三沸之節又陸氏之法以未就茶鑊故以第二沸為合量而下未若以今湯就茶甌瀹之則當用背二涉三之際為合量乃為聲辨之
Next Luo Dajing cites a poem of sounds that celebrates the stirring of insects in early spring, followed by a summer chorus of cicadas, and then the rumble of the convoy in a succession of seasons that end with the harvest and transport of tea. Next in the poem comes instruction to listen for the reverberations of the ewer, sounds that signal the proper boiling of water for the brewing of tea, sounds that resemble the soft, whispery susurration of wind in the pines or the murmuring waters of a brook.
Crane Woods, Jade Dew “Thus, the poem of distinctive sounds states,
Among the stone steps, insects chirp and ten thousand cicadas urge on.
Suddenly a thousand carts come trundling.
On hearing the sounds of wind in the pines and burbling brook,
Quickly call for the pale celadon porcelain cup!”
詩云砌蟲唧唧萬蟬催忽有千車梱載来聽得松風并澗
水急呼縹色緑瓷杯
Then, beyond complementing the finesse of the poetry, Luo Daojing further instructed that water be boiled only to the point when it was thoroughly heated but still maintained its lively quality, for then the brewed tea tasted sweet. If the water was overly boiled, then the tea tasted bitter. Moreover, even when the heated ewer emitted the sound of reverberations, if the water boiled too suddenly, too quickly, then the water was spent, and the brewed tea tasted bitter.
Crane Woods, Jade Dew “This commentary is indeed refined. However, the method of making tea requires boiled water that is fresh and not spent. When the boiled water is fresh, then the flavor of the tea is sweet; when spent, then it is excessively bitter. Even if there are the sounds of wind in the pines and burbling brook, but the boiling be done in haste, would there be nothing but water, spent and bitter?”
其論固已精矣然瀹茶之法湯欲嫩而不欲老蓋湯嫩則茶味甘老則過苦矣若聲如松風澗水而遽瀹之豈不過於老而苦哉
Finally, Luo Daojing ended his commentary with an addendum to the aforementioned poem,
providing a refinement in the boiling of water by waiting for the boil to cease and listening for the sound of silence before brewing with it. He then added rain falling on the scaly leaves of the cypress tree to the sounds that favored the proper brewing of a sweet tasting tea that he called Spring Snow.
Crane Woods, Jade Dew “By moving the ewer away from the fire, waiting awhile until the boiling stops, and then brewing with it, only then is the boiled water elevated and the flavor of tea, sweet. This is something that Nanjin did not mention. Therefore, I amend the poem:
When the sounds of wind in the pines and cypress rain arrive,
First, quickly remove the bronze ewer from the bamboo stove,
Wait until the sounds are all silent,
When the bowl of Spring Snow surpasses ambrosia.”
惟移瓶去火少待其沸止而瀹之然後湯適中而茶味甘此南金之所未講者也因補以一詩云松風檜雨到来初急引銅瓶離竹爐待得聲聞俱寂後一甌春雪勝醍醐
Complete Text on boiling water from Crane Woods, Jade Dew
鶴林玉露
余同年李南金云茶經以魚目湧泉連珠為煑水之
節然近世瀹茶鮮以鼎鑊用瓶煑水難以侯視則當
以聲辨一沸二沸三沸之節又陸氏之法以未就茶
鑊故以第二沸為合量而下未若以今湯就茶甌瀹
之則當用背二涉三之際為合量乃為聲辨之詩云
砌蟲唧唧萬蟬催忽有千車梱載来聽得松風并澗
水急呼縹色緑瓷杯其論固已精矣然瀹茶之法湯
欲嫩而不欲老蓋湯嫩則茶味甘老則過苦矣若聲
如松風澗水而遽瀹之豈不過於老而苦哉惟移瓶
去火少待其沸止而瀹之然後湯適中而茶味甘此
南金之所未講者也因補以一詩云松風檜雨到来
初急引銅瓶離竹爐待得聲聞俱寂後一甌春雪勝
醍醐
Note
Luo Dajing 羅大經 (js 1226, 1196–after 1252), Helin yulu 鶴林玉露 (Crane Woods, Jade Dew, 1252), juan 3, pp. 3a-3b. SKQS
Figures
1
Attributed to Yan Liben (died 673)
Xiao Yi Stealing the Orchid Pavilion Preface, detail
China: Tang dynasty (618–907)
Handscroll: ink and color on silk
27.4 x 64.7 centimeters
National Palace Museum, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China
2
Crane Woods, Jade Dew, Scroll Three
Facsimile
3
Anonymous
Preparing Tea, detail
Mural in the tomb of Zhang Shiqing
China: Liao Dynasty (1093-1117)
Wall painting: plaster with ink and color
42.3 x 30 centimeters
Xuanhua, Hebei, China
4
Anonymous
Preparing Tea, detail
Mural in the tomb of Zhang Shiqing
China: Liao Dynasty (1093-1117)
Wall painting: plaster with ink and color
42.3 x 30 centimeters
Xuanhua, Hebei, China