Zhao Ji And General Remarks On Tea

Zhao Ji (Emperor Huizong) was the eighth emperor of Song Dynasty. Though an incompetent emperor, he was a very gifted artist, making tremendous achievements in calligraphy, painting, literature, and other artistic fields as well. The kind of calligraphic style invented by him—Thin Jin Style—was a gem in its kind, not only enjoying a high reputation in its own time, but much admired by later generations as well. Emperor Huizong was also a superb painter and tea master. However, it was also through him that the dynasty of Northern Song (960-1127) was overthrown.

Zhao Kuangyin—the first emperor of Song Dynasty—was a military officer at first. He seized his power from the previous Dynasty. But to prevent others from following his steps and subverting his kingdom, he gave military power to civil officers who didn't know how to maneuver armies at all, As a result. Song Dynasty's military strength was always fairly weak and it was always under threat from northern ethnic regimes. The situation came to its worst at Emperor Huizong's time. He was the kind of person who lived his life as a kind of art. Completely immerged in artistic charm, he totally ignored the cruelty of reality. When the Nurchen nationality to the northeast of China rapidly rose up and threatened to devour the Song Dynasty, Emperor Huizong mistook it as a flourishing age of "reconstruction from ruin and prosperity of coastal regions" and started compiling his General Remarks on Tea. In 1125, Nurchen army invaded Song Dynasty in a big way. Hurriedly passing down the reign to his son, Emperor Huizong thought he could preserve himself this way, but his successor didn't eave the situation, either. In the second year, Nurchen army marched southward again, breaching the capital of Song and capturing thousands of Song people, including Emperor Huizong and his son. Emperor Huizong suffered all kinds of tortures in the foreign land and finally died there.

Emperor Huizong was fond of drinking tea. He drew a picture called Picture of Drinking Tea, in which he was dressed in common clothes and enjoyed himself taking and discussing tea with the surrounding ministers. It is recorded in reference books that Emperor Huizong once cooked tea for his ministers in person. His tea had white froth floating on the surface like scarce stars and a brilliant moon. General Remarks on Tea is Emperor Huizong's summary of his predecessors’ achievements, and is also a summary of his own experience in tea drinking. The book contains merely 2800 words, but is very comprehensive, divided into exordium and 20 catalogues of place, climate, picking, steaming and pressing, making, differentiating, etc. The book has three main points. First it records and introduces the planting, picking and processing of Beiyuan Tea (produced in today's Jian'ou county of Fujian Province) which represents the highest level of tea making at that time. Second, it introduces how to differentiate tea cakes. Third, it talks about the art of cooking tea and competition in tea. Emperor Huizong maintained that tea picking should be in the morning and stop after sunrise. Tea cake that met three standards of "sparking in color, dense in texture, and sonorous in grinding" were of top quality. He opposed the partial emphasis on seeds and producing places of tea, and insisted that whether tea was good or not entirely depended on the facility or clumsiness of making techniques but not on the producing place. General Remarks on Tea put its stress on the part of competition in tea. His invention of "Seven Round' method of cooking tea was the most complex and delicate tea ceremony in China history.