The Traces of Objects – A Survey of Teaware-related Materials in the Literature of Song Dynasty

Abstract

I write this essay to re-examine the history of "objects" and trace the historical trajectory of them as an "experiencer," which provides much food for thought on Chinese's current way of life. This kind of thinking does not mean recapturing the attitude of the Song people towards tea ware, but means researching the evolution of "tea ware" from Tang to Song and the influence of the evolution on the present. This may be a valuable guide to exploring the philosophy of Medieval China. Firstly, in this study, the corpus of ancient books in Song Dynasty is established with the utilization of literature investigation. In this process, the basic concepts and theoretical problems in tea ware ancient books in Song Dynasty have been sorted out and discussed with the utilization of relevant theoretical research methods, including philology, linguistics, history, bibliography, editology, art and so on. Secondly, relevant collected information is sorted out and summarized, including document titles, compilers, content summary, categories, various versions and so on. These ancient books of tea ware in Song Dynasty are listed in chronological order by drawing tables. Thirdly, the definitions of the relevant literature are listed through the method of induction and comparison. After comparing similarities and differences, own opinions are put forward. By summarizing the characteristics of tea ware in tea ware literature in different periods of the Song Dynasty, the formation and development of tea ware design ideas in the Song Dynasty are further explored. In the final analysis, I conclude that Cai Xiang (蔡襄) played a pivotal role in the teaware development in the Northern Song dynasty (北宋) and even the entire Song dynasty (宋代). Under his influence, the teaware-making aesthetics of the Song dynasty was dominated by teaware from Jian Kiln.