Gaiwan, cups and pitcher: the porcelain side of the tea table
盖碗、品茗杯与公道杯：茶席上的瓷器组合
Traditional 蓋碗、品茗杯與公道杯：茶席上的瓷器組合
When tea leaves a gaiwan, its next destination explains the table. A pitcher gathers it before serving. A direct pour distributes it among cups. Learn these separately documented routes, then distinguish the cup that holds the drink from one emptied for smelling.
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Control the pouring gap
A gaiwan may be a drinking bowl or a brewer. When brewing for other cups, the tilted lid leaves a pouring gap and holds back larger leaves. What receives the infusion is a separate choice: Wu’s lesson uses a pitcher; the Chaozhou specification describes direct distribution. Practise the grip with cool water before using hot tea.
Follow one infusion
In Wu Deliang’s illustrated lesson, the pot pours into a pale pitcher. The pitcher then fills the small white cups. Figure 2 shows both transfers. The pitcher gathers the infusion before the server divides it. This is an instructional demonstration, not a record of every Taiwanese household’s routine. The text also describes a gaiwan pouring into the pitcher before serving.
A documented direct pour
In the published Chaozhou procedure, tea leaves the brewing pot and goes directly to the small cups. Section 8.15 first discards a little weak liquor from the front of the spout into the tray. The server then works anticlockwise from the upper cup of the triangular 品 arrangement, filling the cups in two passes. Section 8.16 distributes the last drops. No pitcher intervenes in this serving sequence.
Two cups, two actions
Yu describes tea entering the tall aroma cup and then being transferred into the drinking cup. The tea is now ready to drink from that second cup. The first cup is empty and still warm: bring it near the nose to appreciate the remaining aroma before drinking. This gives each cup a clear job.
A pitcher can have a lid
Wu’s Taiwan Teaware pairs two wood-fired pitchers by Xu Zhaoyu: one open, one with a fitted lid and ring knob. Both have a pouring lip and handle. The caption identifies them as chahai. A lid alone does not make a vessel a brewing pot; the documented role and transfer matter.
Keep serving tea and waste water apart
Before that serving, Wu sends the pot-warming water into the tea boat in wet preparation, or into a separate shuifang in dry preparation. Neither is the pitcher receiving the drink. Names need context: Li Bingyan and Lin Nan call a washing basin chaxi, chachuan or chahai. In Wu’s lesson, chahai means the serving pitcher. Follow the action before translating the name.
Sources#
- 广东省博物馆、香港市政局 主编《中国古代茶具展》(1986)
- 陈宗懋 主编《中国茶叶大辞典》(2000)
- 王镇恒、王广智 主编《中国茶学辞典》(2013)
- 吳德亮《台灣茶器》
- 李炳炎、林楠：《潮州茶器（1860—2020）》，暨南大学出版社，2022. ISBN 9787566832412.
Bibliographic correction: the library copy is by Li Bingyan and Lin Nan, Jinan University Press, 2022. The former authors, publisher, year and claim of a complete reading were incorrect. Correcting this record does not verify every inherited claim citing it; those claims require passage-level review.
- 什么是公道杯？ (洪锦铉, 2021-01-22) ↗
- Gaiwan ↗
- 香港藝術館：茶具藏品（青花書法蓋盌、建窰茶盌） ↗
- 芳茗遠播：亞洲茶文化展（清代蓋碗、臺灣與工夫茶器） ↗
- 徐京红：《经典茶具210问》
- 静清和：《茶与茶器》
- DB4451/T 4—2023 潮州工夫茶艺技术规程 · 潮州市市场监督管理局 · 2023-10-30
- 余舜德 / Shuenn-Der Yu, 2018 · 128 (PDF 6)
- 吳德亮《台灣的茶園與茶館》 · PDF 36–38 · 圖2 / fig. 2
- 李炳炎、林楠《潮州茶器（1860—2020）》 · 第四章 第六节 器型 · 三、茶洗、茶盘、茶垫 · 圖4-106
Status and editorial notes sources cited
Sources are listed below. Their presence does not certify every claim; source-specific interpretations and unresolved questions are identified in the text. This page has not received independent expert approval.