Tea sets in the Tang dynasty

Tea drinking was so prevailing in the Tang dynasty that the tea set had established its own system. In the Chapter of Tea Set of his Encyclopedia of Tea, Lu Yu named 28 kinds of tea sets and divided them into wares for cooking, grinding, drinking and storing tea based on their function. At that time porcelain tea sets were mass produced in North and South China, with Yue ware and Xing ware as representatives for “Northern white and Southern blue.” Other major wares were in Changsha, Shouzhou, Hongzhou, Yuezhou, etc. Tea sets in the Tang dynasty were mainly bowls, cup supports and affusion ware, e.g., Jade Bowl unearthed in Changsha ware, Bottle of Tea Society unearthed in a Xi’an tomb, etc. Besides ceramic tea sets, there were tea sets of gold and silver. Through the silver tea sets with gold-plating unearthed from the underground of Famen Temple, we’ll see the grand spectacle of drinking tea in the royal court of Tang.