Zhang Dai
Zhang Dai (1597-1679), named Zongzi, Shigong, and Tao'an, was a native of Shanyin (now Shaoxing, Zhejiang) and lived in Hangzhou. Zhang Dai was an essayist and historian in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, as well as an expert in tea appreciation.
Zhang Dai was born in a family of generations of benevolent officials. In his early years, he traveled in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong, Anhui and other provinces, and had extensive experience. His family had accumulated a large amount of Ming Dynasty historical materials over three generations and was well-read. When he was 32 years old, he had to use the family collection materials to compile a biographical history of the Ming Dynasty. After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, he went into the mountains with his hair untied and wrote books in peace and poverty. His works include "The Book of the Stone Chamber", "Collected Works of Langhuan", "Memories of Tao'an Dreams", "Dream Search of the West Lake", etc.
Zhang Dai has a wide range of interests and pays great attention to various people, dynamics, people's lives, customs and habits in society, as well as many aspects such as diet, fruits and vegetables. These were often looked down upon by the authentic literati of the old era, but he had the interest and courage to appreciate and record them. He wrote an "Epitaph for Himself", in which he very frankly admitted that he was a "child of beasts and loved prosperity very much" and called himself a "tea and orange abuser".
Zhang Dai is very good at tea tasting. The section "Min Laozi Tea" in "Tao'an Dream Memories" is very vivid: Yu said: "The fragrance is strong and strong, and the taste is very rich. This spring tea Yeah! Xiang Yu’s gift is Qiucai.” Wen Shui laughed and said, “I’m seventy years old, and there’s no one who appreciates it better.” So we decided to make friends. Zhang Dai is indeed an expert in identifying tea and water.
Zhang Dai is good at tea tasting, and he also carefully transformed the Rizhu tea in his hometown to create a kind of "Lan Xue Tea". "Rizhu Xueya" has been listed as a tribute in the Song Dynasty, and has the reputation of "Yuezhou Rizhu Tea, the best in the south of the Yangtze River". However, in the Ming Dynasty, due to the exquisite preparation method of Usnea tea in Xiuning, Anhui Province, it became famous and overshadowed it, and even became famous in the United States. Zhang Dai "then recruited She people to join the Japanese cast", just like the usnea making method, using the method of cutting, digging, moving, spreading, fanning, frying, baking and hiding. Then he explored the spring water and found that "he had a spring with water, but the fragrance could not come out. If he boiled the spring water and put it in a small pot, the fragrance would be too strong. He mixed it with jasmine, tried it again and again, put it in an open porcelain pot, and waited for it to come out." When it is cold, wash it down with the boiling soup. The color is like a bamboo trellis, the green powder is uniform, and it is like the first dawn on a mountain window, the light shines through the paper. It's diarrhea. The snow buds have been harvested, but they haven't gotten their energy yet." ("Tao An Mengyi·Lan Xue Tea") Four or five years later, Lan Xue Tea became popular in Shaoxing. Tea drinkers changed their usual habit of drinking usnea, and instead drank it instead. Later, even Usnea tea was renamed "Lan Xue". Zhang Dai deserves the credit for Lanxue Tea's reputation.
In the Ming Dynasty, Shaoxing had already opened Youshao teahouses. One of them was particularly exquisite in boiling water and making tea: "The spring is filled with jade, the tea is orchid and snow, the soup is boiled with a spin, there is no old soup, and the utensils are washed with time. The filthy vessel, its heat and soup, also have the combination of heaven and earth." Zhang Dai was particularly fond of this teahouse, and personally named it "Brother Lu", which means "tea nectar has a brother". He also wrote "Tea Fighting": "Water is addicted to tea, and there is an ancient custom in the relationship. The auspicious grass and snow buds are known as Yue Jue, especially cooking is illegal. The kudzu stove has always been dusty, and there is no one to appreciate it, causing feathers. Those who have accumulated beetles will choose a good place, and the Tangmeng will be repeated. The water talisman will be delivered from the Yuquan. The tea will come from the blue snow. The melon seeds will be roasted. Why should I be beside the Ruicao Bridge? The orange pomelo and pears will come from the Cushan Garden. Water is sweet, fragrant, clean and cool. It is a common thing for the seven families, no matter firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, there is no need for it in one day. Seven bowls of water are as good as those of the common people. Lutong tea is not a taste, and a pot of it is dusty. , use it to talk freely, burn incense on the couch in the early morning, and get drunk in the first half of the night."
Zaoyan Spring, a famous spring in Shaoxing that was once famous as Hupao and Huiquan, was once buried and has been destroyed. It is unknown to anyone, but it was discovered by Zhang Daizhong. He described the process in his article "Qianquan":
In the summer of Jiayin, I passed the mottled bamboo and took water to sip it. The phosphorus had Guijiao. Different. When you walk and look at the color, it looks like the autumn moon and frost in the sky, the sky is white, and it's like the light mist coming out of Xiu, the pine trees and the rocks, which are light and want to disperse. Yu hastily saw calligraphy and painting at the mouth of the well, and brushed it with a broom. The calligraphy of "犊quan" came out, and the calligraphy was as big as that of Youjun. Benefit from differences. Try the tea, the tea is fragrant. There is little smell of stone in Xinji. After staying there for three days, the energy will be exhausted. There is no other way to identify the Wanquan. Take the water and lick it with your tongue and palate. If it passes the cheek, it will be empty. If there is no water to swallow, it is a Wanquan. Those who do good deeds believe it, and as soon as the sun comes, they may make wine, open a tea house in Huanquan, sell it in jars, or give gifts to the officials. Dong Fangbo guarded Yue and drank the water. He was willing to drink it, but he was afraid that he would not give it to him. He blocked the water spring, and the water spring became more and more famous.
There are many descriptions of tea affairs, tea theory, and tea people in Zhang Dai's collected works.
Zhang Dai has tea friends, and among his tea friends there is Luyun Valley in Kuaiji, "Unless there is a severe storm, unless there is a last resort, he will come to his house every day, sip tea, burn incense, talk and laugh, and stay here for thirteen years"; Zhou Youxin, who "always talks about Baimen Minwenshui" with his throat tea. His brother Jidi, a mountain man who was fond of "rice stones, bamboos, mulberry tea, and Dongpo meat", and his brother who fought with him "to drive across the Central Plains side by side, and it's unknown who will win" are also "tea addicts".
Dai also enjoys playing with tea sets. His younger brother, a mountain man, got a porcelain pot with an ancient style. He played with it for a year and got an inscription on the pot: "Sunbathing in the moon is also its color, Ge Kiln's Han jade is also its breath, and the green mountains are white and its food." There is also another one. There is only a tea bowl from the Xuan Kiln, Zhang Dai has an inscription saying: "At the beginning of autumn, under the green Wuwu. Plain porcelain comes out, spreading the quiet night." There is also a purple sand pot without the maker's seal. Zhang Dai confirmed that it was the hand of Gong Chun, and the pot inscription was specially made. : "Many of the famous paintings from ancient times are not signed. Looking at this pot, each one is Gong Chunye. Da Bin recognizes his bones. Dare you dare?"
Zhang Dai can be said to have been painted in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. A tea ceremony expert.