Zhang Dafu, the Persevering Tea Men

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In the late Ming dynasty, many scholars competed with each other in water choosing in tea tasting, thus there formed the luxurious habit of scholars who went a long way to fetch famous spring water and insisted on the principle that “tea must be steamed with famous spring water”. Zhang Dafu was a famous composer in the lateMing dynasty and the early Qing dynasty. His life experience of tea drinking would help to better understand the thoughts of the scholars and the tea culture phenomena in the Ming dynasty.

Zhang Dafu, styled Xingqi, was also known as Hanshanzi. He was born in in a poor family in Wuxian county in Jiangsu province. It is said that Zhang Dafu had received little education but was honest and simple. He didn’t like working but was especially interested in tea drinking, which constituted an important part in Zhang’s life. As long as his life was somewhat bettered, he would sit silently in the small hut in front of the tea stove and unconsciously he would fell asleep; when waken up by his son who was reading, he was happy; while at that time, the tea on the stove was just ready for him to drink.

To choose spring water for tea tasting was the hobby of the Ming people, and Zhang was of no exception. Zhang Dafu considered the well water as rare precious water for tea brewing if it didn’t rain for three months, and would use pots to store the water. The scholars in the Ming dynasty would drink the tea that was brewed with the long-stored famous spring water while reading the books of the past sages, as they would consider it as the happiest moment in life.

The pursuit offamous spring water of the scholars in the Ming dynasty could be described as “persevering”. Even when Zhang Dafu was poor-stricken and blind in his old age, he still persisted in the affairs of selecting and transporting water. What was more, when he was dying, Zhang still regretted that he hadn’t drank the Wuyishan tea, from which we could easily see that the scholars in the Ming dynasty had really gone very far in regards of the principle of “tea must be precious and be steamed with famous spring water”.