01 / 04

日誌 · Journal

Knowledge, stories,
and the aesthetics
of daily life.

Eight things worth knowing, the five stages of the water, and the four dynasties that each drank tea a different way. Nothing here is behind a sign-up.

Song dynasty tea texts and brushwork laid out on a scholar's table.

02 / 04

知識索引 · The Knowledge Index

Eight things worth knowing.

Lu Yu, the Tang scholar who wrote The Classic of Tea, seated with his brush and scrolls.

Lu Yu

陸羽與茶經

The Tang scholar Lu Yu gave tea language, method, and cultural form. The Classic of Tea made drinking a studied art rather than a casual habit.

唐代學者陸羽為茶立下語彙、方法與文化形制。《茶經》使飲茶自隨性之習，成為可以研究的技藝。
Song dynasty whisked tea: pale foam raised in a dark Jian ware bowl with a bamboo whisk.

Song Dian Cha

宋代點茶

Powdered tea was whisked into a luminous surface. Technique, bowl, foam, and scholar taste became a single aesthetic practice.

茶末經擊拂而成一片瑩然之面。技法、茶盞、湯花與文人品味，合為同一種美學實踐。
A black-glazed Jian ware bowl, its iron-rich surface catching the light.

Jian Ware

建盞

Black-glazed bowls made pale tea foam visible. Their iron-rich surfaces turned drinking into an encounter with light and mineral depth.

黑釉之盞，使潔白湯花得以顯現。其富鐵的釉面，令飲茶成為一場與光影和礦物深度的相遇。
A gongfu tea table seen from above: gaiwan, fairness cup, and a row of small tasting cups.

Gongfu Tea

工夫茶

Gongfu is not speed but skill over time. Small vessels, repeated infusions, and precise gestures reveal the leaf gradually.

工夫者，非快也，乃積時而成之功。器小、反覆沖瀹、手勢精準，使茶葉逐道展露。
A porcelain fairness pitcher pouring evenly into small tasting cups.

Fairness Cup

公道杯

The fairness cup is ethics in porcelain. It equalises strength before serving, making hospitality visible on the table.

公道杯是瓷中之義。分茶之前先均其濃淡，使待客之心於席上可見。
Hands pouring from a yixing pot in warm light, serving a guest.

Tea Hospitality

茶與待客之禮

A host offers temperature, timing, sequence, and attention. Tea becomes a refined way to receive another person.

主人所奉者，為溫度、時機、次第與心神。茶因此成為接待他人的一種細緻方式。
A single cup on a sill beside a quiet window, steam rising in still air.

Tea Meditation

茶與靜心

The cup narrows the world enough for attention to return. Breath, steam, and silence make practice ordinary and repeatable.

一盞在手，世界收窄至足以令心神回返。呼吸、水氣與寂靜，使修習成為日常而可反覆之事。
An open celadon tea gift set with a landscape motif, laid out for presentation.

Tea Gifting

茶與禮

Tea carries respect without shouting. Origin, vessel, blessing, and packaging turn a gift into memory.

茶致敬意而不張揚。產地、器物、祝願與包裝，使一份禮成為記憶。

03 / 04

候湯 · Reading the Water

Water boils in five stages.
Your eyes are the thermometer.

Lu Yu wrote these down in the eighth century, before anyone could measure heat. You do not need a thermometer either — you need to know what the bubbles are telling you.

溫度 · °C

一

蝦眼 Shrimp eyes

< 80 °C

— no tea family is named for this stage

The first bubbles, no bigger than a shrimp's eye, clinging to the floor of the kettle. 初現的小泡，細如蝦眼，貼在釜底不動。

二

蟹眼 Crab eyes

80 – 86 °C

綠茶 Green

They widen and begin to lift. Green tea wants the water here, before it turns bitter. 泡漸大而始上浮。綠茶要的正是此時的水，再熱便苦了。

三

魚眼 Fish eyes

86 – 93 °C

烏龍 Oolong

Large, slow, rising in a steady file. Oolong opens here and gives up its perfume. 泡大而緩，魚貫而上。烏龍於此舒展，香氣始出。

四

連珠 String of pearls

93 – 98 °C

普洱 · 陳年老葉 Pu'er and aged leaf

A continuous thread of bubbles at the wall of the kettle. Pu'er and aged leaf ask for this. 釜壁之上，泡如連珠不斷。普洱與陳年老葉，所求即此。

五

騰波 Rolling boil

98 °C +

水老 Not for tea

Waves and drumming surf. Lu Yu called water boiled past this point old, and would not drink it. 騰波鼓浪。陸羽謂過此則水老，不可食也。

五段之溫，皆錄自本節文字；騰波作斜紋，如《茶類地圖》之黑茶，蓋其在軸上而不可用。 Every figure on this axis is one this section already states. Shrimp eyes 蝦眼 is drawn from the foot of the axis because the copy gives it a ceiling and no floor. Rolling boil 騰波 is hatched rather than filled, the way dark tea 黑茶 is hatched on the oxidation scale — a zone that exists on the axis and that the text tells you not to use.

Water poured in a thin steady line into a warmed cup, steam lifting.

04 / 04

茶之源流 · The Vessel Thread

Tea history is not dates.
It is four ways of drinking.

Boiled, whisked, steeped, infused again and again. Each way of drinking had its own vessel, and the vessel is the argument.

No vessel named

Mythic time

神農傳說

The myth of Shennong frames tea as a discovery of balance: leaf, body, heat, and attention. Before tea became taste, it was a way of reading nature.

A patinated bronze cauldron with a bamboo ladle resting in it, steam rising from clouded tea, on dark aged wood.

器 · Open cauldron

618 – 907

唐 · 陸羽與《茶經》

Tea was pressed into cakes, roasted, ground to powder, and boiled in an open cauldron with salt. Lu Yu gave the practice a vocabulary — source, water, fire, vessel, conduct.

Song dynasty whisked tea: pale foam raised in a dark Jian ware bowl with a bamboo whisk.

器 · Black-glazed Jian bowl

960 – 1279

宋 · 點茶

Powdered tea was whisked until it stood in a pale, stable foam. Black-glazed Jian bowls existed to make that foam visible. Competitions were judged on the colour of the froth.

Unglazed clay teapot pouring a steeped infusion into a small cup.

器 · Unglazed Yixing clay

1368 – 1644

明 · 散茶

The Hongwu Emperor abolished compressed tribute cakes in 1391. Leaves were steeped whole in unglazed Yixing clay, and shape and fragrance became visible for the first time.

A gongfu tea table seen from above: gaiwan, fairness cup, and a row of small tasting cups.

器 · Small vessels

1644 – 1912

清 · 工夫茶

Gongfu is not speed — the name means skill earned over time. Small vessels, water held to a few seconds, and the same leaves opened again and again.

No vessel named

Now

當代茶禪

The old forms are not copied as nostalgia. They are edited into a living ritual for modern attention.