Exhibition Period：1/6/2007-2/12/2007
For hundreds of years, tea drinking has remained popular and fashionable in China. A line in a poem written by Yuan Chen during the Tang Dynasty describes the special charisma of tea: "Tea: good-smelling leaves, or young sprouts, appealing to poets and monks". Today, sipping fine tea and appreciating the culture and emotional delights of tea are considered a refined pastime enjoyed by many people.
Looking back through history, as tea culture developed and became increasingly sophisticated, different tea drinking habits and customs grew up and, on top of that, a set of unique and standardised utensils specially designed for tea appeared in Chinese tea culture: teaware. From the time around the Han and Tang Dynasties, to Song and Yuan, and through to Ming and Qing, Chinese teaware had been sparkling with all kinds of different styles. For example, a kind of shallow tray that appeared well before the Tang Dynasty, and the white glaze common in the Song and Yuan Dynasties. The ever-changing aesthetic features and craftsmanship of teaware are amazing.
The utensils used in the Qing Dynasty for drinking tea reached the height of their development in terms of decoration, glaze colour and shape. Blue and white patterns as well as powder doped colours are among the most typical features. Also the choice of materials demonstrated variety. Besides "Jin Porcelain and Yi Tao" (the choice of porcelain from Jing De Zhen and pottery from Yi Xing as teaware), there are others made from gold, silver, copper, tin, lacquer, jade, crystal and agate. The shapes of teaware and the illustrations also varied in style. They are picturesque and diverse – majestic mountains and rivers, white cranes and green birds, colourful butterflies and flamboyant flowers, as well as talented gentlemen and ladies.
At the same time, the main tea drinking cultural development in the Qing Dynasty shifted from a focus on royal tastes to folk culture. The evolution from the use of teapots to using tea bowls to pour tea during the reign of Kang Xi is a significant change. Moreover, as the tea trade in the Qing Dynasty quickly grew and developed, at a time when China almost dominated the worldwide tea market, a large quantity of porcelain teaware was exported to the western world. All these changes opened possibilities for the diversified development of Qing-dynasty tea culture.
In the "The Fragrance of Qing's Tea - An Exhibition of Qing-dynasty teaware", co-organised by Macao Tea Culture House and China National Tea Museum, there are a total of 84 pieces of refined teaware. These include teapots, teacups, tea plates, tea basins, tea trays and tea leaf cans, as well as sugar cans and milk jugs among the porcelain exported during the mid-Qing Dynasty. There is also packaging paper, equity stocks, tax payment certificates, shipping bills and business tax certificates related to tea during the late Qing Dynasty and the early period of the Republic of China, adding history to the rich aesthetic values of the diverse display. The exhibition will certainly enrich the tea culture of Macao, a small city that was the first to export tea leaves to the western world.