Tea cakes were still used when drinking tea in the Song Dynasty, but most of them no longer directly cooked tea leaves, which was called tea. When ordering tea, put the finely ground tea powder directly into the tea bowl, then pour it into the boiling water, stir it briefly and drink it. It was on the basis of the way of ordering tea that people in the Song Dynasty created a tea-drinking entertainment method called "tea fighting".
"Tea fighting", also known as "tea battle", is a competition of tea leaves and tea ordering skills. The practice of tea fighting began in the Five Dynasties and became extremely popular in the Song Dynasty. From literati and officials to common people, everyone was keen on this practice. Before making tea, the tea powder must be crushed and sieved. The finer the tea powder, the better. This will allow it to float after entering the water, and it is also easy to produce soup flowers and aggregate, thus "bringing out the color of the tea."
The process of making tea is divided into four steps. The first step is to warm up the cup. Cai Xiang (1012-1067) of the Northern Song Dynasty once said: "If you want to order tea, you must first heat the cup to make it hot. If it is cold, the tea will not float." The second step is to prepare the ointment, which is to put a certain amount of tea powder into the cup. Add a small amount of boiling water and mix into a thick paste. The third step is to order tea, which is also the most important step in the tea fighting process, that is, pouring boiling water into the cup. When filling water, the water is required to gush out from the spout in a columnar shape. The filling should be continuous and stop as soon as it is filled. The last step is whisking, which is to use a small broom-like tea spoon (xiǎn) to stir the tea soup to make it bloom.
Winning or losing in a tea fight mainly depends on the color and uniformity of the tea noodle soup and the water marks at the junction between the tea cup and the tea soup. The soup is evenly distributed and bright white in color. If the soup flower sticks to the wall of the cup for a long time without retreating, it is the best and is called "biting the cup". If the soup flower disperses quickly, it is called "cloud foot disorder".
In addition to tea fighting, a tea art called "tea sharing" was also popular in the Song Dynasty. Before dividing the tea, boil the tea powder to a certain level to cultivate the flowers, then pour it into the tea cup, stir gently to appreciate the unpredictable flowers on the surface of the tea soup. Lu You (1125-1210) of the Southern Song Dynasty mentioned the popular tea art of the Song Dynasty in the poem "The short paper is sloping and I am making grass, and the eyes are open and the breasts are thin, I am playing with the tea."
Whether tea fighting or tea sharing, they are actually various literati entertainments derived from tea drinking. Although they are extremely sophisticated, they are far away from the original intention of drinking tea itself. Therefore, the style of fighting and dividing tea has gradually declined in the Yuan Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, it finally disappeared due to the abolition of tea groups and dispersion.