TEA:

Hearty, Warm, Sustaining

To read tea leaves is to review the cultural and political history of tea over centuries, tracing the brew’s role as a medicinal palliative, spiritual assist, encouragement to artistic invention and world trade, and incitement for revolution and exploitation. But for those can’t read tea leaves, ‘Steeped in History: The Art of Tea’ now on view at UCLA’s Fowler Museum through November 29, will provide important insights. Curated by Beatrice Hohenegger, author of ‘Liquid Jade: The Story of Tea from East to West,’ the exhibition offers a visually stunning excursion through the centuries, beginning with the ‘discovery’ of tea as a medicinal plant in China a thousand years before the modern era, and the Chinese’s embrace of the art and uses of tea. The Fowler exhibit flows from gallery to gallery, following the migration of tea from China to Japan in the 12th century, and finally to Europe along with the Dutch traders, and America. A little background makes the significance of tea in world history even more remarkable. Like salt in ancient times, tea, because of its exclusive botany and particular climate and soil requirements, became an invaluable necessity and a desirable trading commodity. Tea comes from a single plant, camellia sinensis, native to southeastern Asia. The Chinese multiple-stem shrub (var. sinensis) has small leaves that protect it against cold weather, while the Indian single-stem plant (var. assamica) thrives in subtropical and rainy regions. The difference in color’black, green, oolong, yellow, red or white’depends on the varying levels of oxidation. Black teas are fully oxidized, white teas are nonoxidized. Chamomile, rooibos and herbal beverages are derived from other plants; they are infusions, not teas. While we may be accustomed to drinking loose-leaf tea stored in a tin or a bag, tea may also be compressed or powdered. During the Tang dynasty (619-907), tea was molded into bricks and then shaved and boiled in a cauldron. The custom of grinding tea into powder to form cakes or whisk with hot water in a tea bowl followed. The first teapots specifically designed for brewing loose-leaf tea were created in the 1500s. These early, unglazed vessels were designed and produced in Yixing, in eastern China. They were never washed, simply rinsed out with cold water, which resulted in the interior of the pot developing a residual layer of tea. The father of tea, according to legend, was the Chinese emperor Shen Nong, who tasted tea accidentally one summer day while visiting a distant region of his realm. He and his servants stopped to rest, and in accordance of the emperor’s ruling that drinking water be boiled as a hygienic precaution, he awaited his servants’ preparations. Dried leaves from a nearby bush fell into the boiling water and a brown liquid was infused into the water. As a scientist, Shen Nong is credited with identifying hundreds of medical and poisonous herbs by personally testing their properties. Tea, which acts as an antidote against the poisonous effects of some 70 herbs, was an important discovery indeed. Tea found its way to Japan along with Buddhism during the Heian period (794-1185) by monks who had traveled to China to study Zen and believed the beverage enhanced religious meditation. The custom spread to the royal court and was given imperial sponsorship, which elevated it to an art form and the creation of the Japanese Tea Ceremony, known as chanoyu (‘hot water for tea’).   Journalist/teacher Lafcadio Hearn, who lived and worked in Japan for 15 years at the turn of the century, married a Japanese woman and became a naturalized Japanese citizen, captured the significance of the Japanese Tea Ceremony: ‘The Tea ceremony required years of training and practice to graduate to art. The supremely important matter is that the act be performed in the most perfect, most polite, most graceful, most charming manner.’ This description of the ritual of tea ceremony is beautifully displayed through the accoutrements that complete the ceremonial pastime in the Fowler exhibition. These include tea bowls, each designed for a specific type of tea, (thick or thin), and season, shallow during the hot summer and taller with thicker walls for winter. A tea room has been constructed in the corner of one gallery in which the five essential elements are present: fire in the brazier, water in the water jug, earth in the ceramic tea bowl, wood in the tea-lacquered tea caddy, and metal in the teakettle. In the chado, or the ‘way of tea,’ the host symbolically brings together the entire universe through these elements.   Knowledge of tea in Europe began with the Portuguese, who developed the first trade route with China in the mid-16th century, transporting the tea aboard Dutch ships from Lisbon to France, Holland and the Baltics. Tea became popular in The Hague, due in part to its high cost (over $100 a pound), and as a result, became the exclusive domain of the rich. But as consumption increased, prices fell and the craze for things oriental swept Europe, tea became part of the way of life. By 1650, the Dutch were trading throughout the Western world. Peter Stuyvesant brought the first tea to America, satisfying the colonists’ taste for the exotic beverage. By the time the English arrived in America, they found that the small settlement of New Amsterdam consumed more tea at that time than all of England together. The history of tea takes on geo-political significance as trade meant power in the late 17th and 18th century, and this development takes up the final galleries in the exhibition.   Initially, tea was not valued as a commodity unto itself, but as tea-drinking became more popular, teapots and other Chinese ceramics were found to make practical ballast for sailing ships, which were sold after the voyage. Soon the demand for tea and the chinoiserie phenomenon spread across Europe in the 17th century. China remained the sole provider of tea in world trade throughout the 18th century. With the merger in 1773 of the John Company and the East India Company, both established to promote Asian trade, the British company held a privileged position with the British government, not only in trade monopolies but also in territorial rule, most notably in India.   Tea is re-emerging as a preferred beverage in the United States, cited for its health benefits and as a pleasant social accompaniment. Looking back through the Tea Manual Chashu by Xiu Cishu in the Ming Era, not much has changed. It advised the following occasions for drinking tea: In idle moments, when thoughts are confused, in the bridal chamber, after tipsy guests have left, and finally when viewing springs and scenic rocks. (Beatrice Hohenegger ‘Steeped in History’ guest curator and tea specialist considers the history and culture of tea at 4 p.m., September 12 at the museum. For more information, visit: wwwfowler.ucla.edu.)