Jiānchá shuǐ jì 煎茶水記
Notes on Water for Tea-Brewing by 張又新 (Zhāng Yòuxīn, 撰)
About the work
The foundational Chinese text of water-connoisseurship for tea — the systematic ranking of water-sources for tea-brewing. A short one-juàn mid-Tang treatise by Zhāng Yòuxīn 張又新 zì Kǒngzhāo, zhuàngyuán of Yuánhé 9 (814). The work first records the Xíngbù shìláng Liú Bóchú’s 劉伯芻 ranking of seven waters; then records the alleged Lù Yǔ ranking of twenty waters, claimed by Zhāng to have been transmitted from Lǐ Jìqīng 李季卿 (the Dài-zōng-period prefect of Húzhōu) on the basis of an oral teaching from Lù Yǔ himself, the manuscript of which Zhāng obtained from a Chǔ monk at Jiànfúsì 薦福寺 in 814. The Sìkù editors and Ōuyáng Xiū before them have rejected the Lù Yǔ attribution as a forgery, but the work nonetheless became canonical in establishing the framework of Chinese water-aesthetic ranking.
The WYG recension appends two later supplements: Yè Qīngchén’s 葉清臣 Shù zhǔchá quánpǐn 述煮茶泉品 (Sòng-period) and Ōuyáng Xiū’s Dàmíng shuǐ jì 大明水記 + Fù lùn Fúchá shuǐ jì 附論浮槎水記.
Tiyao
We submit that the Jiānchá shuǐ jì is in one juàn by Zhāng Yòuxīn of the Tang. Yòuxīn, zì Kǒngzhāo, was a man of Lùzé in Shēnzhōu. His great-grandfather was Sīmén yuánwàiláng Zhāng Zhuó; his father was Gōngbù shìláng Zhāng Jiàn. He was top jìnshì of Yuánhé 9 (814). (Note: the Tang-shū biography says only “in Yuánhé, became jìnshì high in rank”; that it was Yuánhé 9 is known from internal evidence of this book; that he was zhuàngyuán is known from the Yuán-compiled Shìzú dàquán’s reference to him as “zhuàngyuán jídì”). He rose through Yòu bǔquè, partisanally attached to Lǐ Féngjí, one of the bāguān shíliùzǐ (Eight-Pass Sixteen). When Lǐ was made Shānnán dōngdào jiédù shǐ, Zhāng was made his xíngjūn sīmǎ; he was demoted for the Tián Bēi affair to Jiāngzhōu cìshǐ (the Xīn-Tang-shū and Jiù-Tang-shū both say “Tīngzhōu” — but the work itself calls him “Cìshǐ of Jiǔjiāng”, so it must be Jiāngzhōu, the Tang-shū having confused the graphically-similar characters. Shūlù jiětí gives Fúzhōu, even more mistaken).
Later attached to Lǐ Xùn, promoted to Xíngbù lángzhōng and Shēnzhōu cìshǐ; with Lǐ Xùn’s death he was again demoted, ending as Zuǒsī lángzhōng. His career is recorded in Xīn-Tang-shū. The book first lists Xíngbù shìláng Liú Bóchú’s ranking of seven waters; next lists the ranking of twenty waters by Lù Yǔ — saying that in Yuánhé 9, just after he had achieved fame, while at Jiànfúsì he obtained the manuscript from a Chǔ-region monk, who titled it Zhǔchá jì (Notes on Boiling Tea); that this had been received under Dàizōng by Húzhōu cìshǐ Lǐ Jìqīng from the oral teaching of Lù Yǔ. After this comes Yè Qīngchén’s Shùzhǔchá quánpǐn and Ōuyáng Xiū’s Dàmíng shuǐ jì + appended Fúcháshuǐ jì. Investigating Shūlù jiětí: this book is already there said to attach the Dàmíng shuǐ jì at the end — so this is what Sòng persons appended. Yè Qīngchén’s record calls Zhāng’s book the Shuǐjīng — apparently a casual mis-citation. Ōuyáng Xiū’s record vehemently denounces Zhāng’s falsehood, saying that what he reports does not agree with Lù Yǔ’s account; comparing the Chájīng, we confirm this is so. The Tang-shū Lù Yǔ biography records: when Lǐ Jìqīng was Xuānwèi of Jiāngnán, some recommended Lù Yǔ to him; Yǔ came in country dress with his utensils; Lǐ did not treat him with courtesy; Yǔ was ashamed and wrote a Huǐchá lùn (Defamation of Tea) — so Lù Yǔ and Lǐ Jìqīng were utterly at odds; how could there be a question of oral-teaching of a Shuǐjīng? Probably because Yǔ was famous-and-honored in tea, Zhāng falsely-attached his name. However Lù Yóu 陸游’s RùShǔ jì says: “Shǐjì dàoxiǎng — Gǔlián water in several jars, truly an absolute-supreme product — sweet, full, clean, cold, having all the various virtues. Earlier writers attacked the water-rankings as unreliable; the water-rankings may not all be appropriate, but Gǔlián spring is conspicuously beyond Huìshān — that cannot be falsified.” So Lù Yóu also took something from this book. Submitted Qiánlóng 46 month 5 (1781).
Abstract
The work is the foundational Chinese document of water-connoisseurship — the systematic claim that the source of brewing-water affects the quality of brewed tea and that waters can be objectively ranked. The two ranking systems preserved are:
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Liú Bóchú’s seven waters: (1) Zhōnglíng quán 中泠泉 at Yángzǐ (Jīnshān Island, in the Yángzǐ river off Zhènjiāng); (2) Huìshān quán 惠山泉 at Wúxī (Liú’s no. 2); (3) Hǔqiū sì shíquán 虎丘寺石泉 at Sūzhōu; (4) Dānyángxiàn Guānyīn sì shuǐ 丹陽縣觀音寺水; (5) Yángzhōu Dàmíngsì shuǐ 揚州大明寺水; (6) Wú Sōngjiāng shuǐ 吳松江水; (7) Huáishuǐ 淮水 — a coastal-southeast-Chinese ranking that became standard for the Tang-Sòng-Yuán period.
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“Lù Yǔ’s twenty waters”: a more elaborate ranking placing Lúshān Kāngwáng quán 廬山康王谷簾水 first, Wúxī Huìshān quán 無錫惠山泉 second, Qízhōu Lánxī shíxià shuǐ 蘄州蘭溪石下水 third, etc. — almost certainly Zhāng Yòuxīn’s own composition, dressed up as a Lù Yǔ recension to give it canonical authority.
The dating of the composition: Zhāng records that he composed the work shortly after his 814 jìnshì; the Sìkù editors place it in his Yòu bǔquè period (the late Yuánhé through Chángqìng, c. 814–825); after his Tián Bēi banishment of 825+ Zhāng was off the central stage. The Ōuyáng Xiū rejection of the Lù Yǔ attribution is now universally accepted by modern scholarship — the Chájīng itself nowhere ranks twenty waters and gives quite different aesthetic principles (mountain-water first, then river, then well; with the Chájīng-version best-water being fresh-running mountain springs).
Despite the forgery, the work’s influence has been profound. Its rankings shaped SòngYuánMíngQīng water-aesthetic thought; specific waters listed by Zhāng (Zhōnglíng quán, Huìshān quán, Hǔpǎo quán of Hángzhōu, Kāngwánggǔlián at Lúshān) became permanent pilgrimage destinations for tea-connoisseurs.
Translations and research
- Benn, James A. 2015. Tea in China: A Religious and Cultural History. Honolulu: U Hawaii Press.
- Zhū Zì-zhèn 朱自振 (ed.). 1996. Zhōng-guó chá-yè lì-shǐ zī-liào xuǎn jí 中國茶葉歷史資料選輯. Běijīng: Nóng-yè chū-bǎn-shè.
- Suzuki Tetsuo 鈴木哲雄. 1989. “Tōdai chasho no kenkyū 唐代茶書研究”. Komazawa University.
Other points of interest
The “Zhōnglíng quán” at the head of Liú Bóchú’s ranking — described as a spring rising in the middle of the Yángzǐ River, accessible only by lowering a vessel from a boat at the proper point — has been the subject of much pilgrimage tea-culture. The location is in fact a fast-current zone where Jīnshān Island’s groundwater rises through the riverbed; the spring is no longer accessible since the Qing river-engineering and modern dam-construction.