Chadong 茶董

Chadong 茶董 "Overview on (the culture of) tea" is a book on tea written during the Ming period 明 (1368-1644) by Xia Shufang 夏樹芳 (c. 1551–c. 1635), courtesy name Maoqing 茂卿. He hailed from Jiangyin 江陰, Jiangsu, and obtained the juren degree in 1585. Apart from the Chadong he also wrote the books Qizhenzhi 棲真志, Faxizhi 法喜志, Cilin haicuo 詞林海錯, Haijing 海鏡, Nüjing 女鏡, Jiudian 酒顛, Qinyuan 琴苑 and Qixing tongpu 奇姓通譜. His collected writings are called Xiaohe ji 消喝集, Xia Maoqing ji 夏茂卿集 and Binglian ji 冰蓮集.

The title of the Chadong goes back to an expression in the book Shishuo xinyu 世說新語, where it is said that Gan Bao 干寶 (d. 336) was as a master in the narration of ghost stories in his book Soushenji 搜神記. He is compared with Dong Hu 董狐, an ancient historian of the state of Jin 晉 during the Spring and Autumn period 春秋 (770-5th cent. BCE), and is therefore rated a master writer like Dong Hu, namely in the field of ghost stories (gui zhi Dong Hu 鬼之董狐; at that time Dong was already a family name, but this is derived from the bearer's function as overseer, dong 董, of the ducal library and the state historian of Jin).

The book of 2 juan length lists, in 99 brief chapters, various information on tea quoted from books from the Southern Dynasties 南朝 (420~589) to the Jin period 金 (1115-1234), both prose texts and poems. The compilation is very heterogeneous and not very systematic. It includes numerous errors and selects arbitrarily among the sources.

The Chadong is introduced by a preface written by Chen Jiru 陳繼儒 (1558–1639). It was presented to the compilers of the imperial series Siku quanshu 四庫全書 by Wang Qishu 汪啟淑 (1728–1798) from his private library but was not included in this collection. Yet it can be found in the series Gujin shuobu congshu 古今說部叢書.

Chadong bu 茶董補

Chadong bu 茶董補 is a book on tea written during the late Ming period 明 (1368-1644) by Chen Jiru 陳繼儒 (1558-1639) as a supplement to Xia Shufang's 夏樹芳 (c. 1551–c. 1635) Chadong 茶董, for which Chen also wrote the preface.

The text of 2 juan length adds important information that is not found in the Chadong. It consists of 71 (72) brief chapters, many of which are derived from older texts and not from the author's own experience.

The Chadong bu is included in the series Haishanxianguan congshu 海山仙館叢書 and Congshu jicheng chubian 叢書集成初編.