Chaju tuzan 茶具圖贊

Chaju tuzan 茶具圖贊 is an illustrated book on tools for the preparation of tea. It was compiled during the late Song period 宋 (960-1279) by a person dubbed Shen'an Laoren 審安老人, who was perhaps identical with Dong Zhenqing 董真卿, who is usually regarded as a Yuan-period 元 (1279-1368) master who wrote a commentary on the Classic Yijing 易經 "Book of Changes", Zhouyi huitong 周易會通, and whose studio name was Shen'an Shushi 審安書室. The book includes the date 1269 as the year of publication.

The short book describes in the shape of "praises" (zan 贊), twelve different tools and adds detailed images to illustrate their shapes and uses. The images show, with the particular designations in imitation of personal names, courtesy names and official ranks (Chaju shi'er xiansheng xingming zihao 茶具十二先生姓名字號), the following utensils:

The language of the text demonstrates that it was written by a highly educated person familiar with the administrative terminology of the time. An optical and technical modernization of the text was carried out during the Ming period 明 (1368-1644) by Mao Yixiang 茅一相. It is included in the series Xinshangbian 欣賞編, Gezhi congshu 格致叢書, Shanju zazhi 山居雜志, and Congshu jicheng chubian 叢書集成初編.

Figure 1. Image of a grinder

The "praise" has actually nothing to do with the grinder, but points at the medical functions of tea that resemble the Minister of Justice (facao) who brings back into order public life. The text roughly goes: "Even if [tea] is soft, it does not stink (or cause foul-smelling breath), and even if it is stringent, it does not cause nausea. For all cases [of illness and indisposition] it has a [positive] effect and brings everything back into its tracks and into orderliness. Is this not excellent?"