Web Quest: The Way of Tea

Preparation

  • Load this Web quest unit onto lab computers, allowing students to directly link to sites. It can also be printed out and hard copies given to students to use.
     
  • Check the sites prior to assignment as they may change.
     
  • Divide class into three groups, assigning to each group one East Asian culture: China, Korea, or Japan.
     
  • Assign roles to each member of the group: recorders, researchers, presenter, etc. Use Individual Web Quest Research Worksheet to track progress.

Activity

  • Have students fill in the top section of the worksheet.
     
  • Explain the significance of the following key words for each culture: "skill" for China, "respect" for Korea, and "appreciation" for Japan.

    - Chinese gongfu tea focuses on the skill required to prepare and serve tea to guests. This social occasion generally involves a host and three guests seated at a square table. 

    - The presentation of tea in Korea has evolved as a sign of respect between the preparer and the recipient. To this day it is closely linked with Buddhist practice, with monks using tea as an aid to staying alert, especially during periods of meditation.

    - The Japanese tea ceremony is performed in appreciation of natural beauty. It is a special event traditionally prepared by the host for four guests. It involves the preparation of tea in a formal setting according to prescribed rules. 

    Ask students to keep these key concepts in mind as they research their assigned cultures. 

  • Direct students to research on the assigned culture's: 

    - Geographic (physical) features using maps: China - mainland; Korea - peninsula; Japan - islands. 

    - Trade: how and when was tea introduced to each culture? 

    - Governments: Song Dynasty (960-1127), China, Koryo Dynasty (935- 1392), Korea, and Momoyama Period (1573-1615), Japan. 

    - History of tea culture, consumption, and tea wares. For example, focus on the development of tea culture in China, on geography and natural resources for the making of tea wares in Korea, and on the tea trade in Japan. If appropriate, timelines can be created. 
     

  • Direct students to begin constructing oral reports and essays.  Ask students to incorporate the key concepts if skill, respect, and appreciation in their oral reports and essays.
     

Web sites and information for Web Quest: The Way of Tea

Chinese Geography and Culture

http://www.1upinfo.com/encyclopedia/F/Fujian.html
The Jian kilns where the Jian ware Tea Bowl was made are located deep in the mountains of the southeastern Province of Fujian at Shuiji, a small market town in Jianyang county. This site Includes a map showing where Shuiji is located, noting geography and resources of Fujian Province.

http://olimu.com/WebJournalism/Texts/Commentary/TianMuMountain.htm
Tianmu Mountain is the site of Buddhist monasteries where traveling Japanese monks stayed, and is not far from the Jian ware kilns. The misty valleys below Mount Tianmu are also noted as an excellent region for cultivating tea.

Chinese Tea Practices and Tea Wares

http://www.teanet.com.cn/haiwai9.htm
Contains information on the variety and classification of the six types of Chinese tea.

http://www.teamuse.com/article_010601.html
Connoisseurs preferred milky, whipped tea made from pale green, almost white tea leaves. Dark brown or black ceramic tea wares were favored for the contrast they provided. The white leafed tea (Jian cha) was grown in the same area where the Chinese Jian ware Tea Bowl was made, in the province of Fujian.

http://www.imperialtea.com/classroom/GongfuPrep.asp
Tea artifacts changed according to the tea customs in fashion. The bowl shape of the Chinese Jian ware Tea Bowl was necessary for whipping tea. Explore what happened to tea ceramics when steeped tea was introduced later, in the 14th-century Ming Dynasty.

http://www.teamuse.com/article_020302.html
This short article from the newsletter Tea Muse contains information on Lu Yu, the eighth-century Chinese tea enthusiast: his biography, philosophies, and important concepts from his classic text The Book of Tea.

http://tea.hypermart.net/countries/luyu.html
The eighth-century Book of Tea (Cha Jing) by Lu Yu claimed that a full appreciation of tea depended not only on the flavor but also on the color and shape of the tea items used.

http://www.moco.or.jp/en/index.html
This Museum of Ceramics, Osaka, Japan site has images and information on ceramics from China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam.

Korean Geography and Culture

http://www.koreanculture.org/
Visit the Korean cultural service Web site to learn more about this country, especially the section on ceramics. This site can also be used to visit cyber galleries of museums in Korea.

Korean Tea Practices and Tea Wares

http://www.koreana.or.kr/
Koreana, a quarterly magazine published by the Korea Foundation, is dedicated to increasing awareness about Korea's cultural heritage. Back issues on aspects of Korean culture, such as the winter 1997 issue on tea and tea culture, are available online.

http://pacificweb.pacific.co.kr/teascience/korean2_E.htm
Contains detailed information on the art, history, making, and utensils of Korean tea.

http://ccsun7.sogang.ac.kr/~anthony/kortea.htm
In Korea the idea of the living spirit of tea brings to mind a Buddhist monk in a mountain retreat welcoming visitors with a cup of tea. In this way, meeting over a cup of tea encouraged knowledge and artistic sensibilities.

http://www.hoammuseum.org/english/program/thesis03_6.html
During the Koryo dynasty when the Korean celadon Tea Bowl was made, rites involving tea ceremonies were considered important parts of the king's official duties. In one such rite carried out during official processions, soldiers prepared and presented tea on behalf of the king to his subjects.

http://wocex.com/english/trad/yumul/introm.htm
Korean celadon was revered by the Chinese as "incomparable under heaven" (author Taiping Laoren, ca. 12th/13th century). Korean celadon quality and beauty remain unsurpassed. The Koryo royal court used some of the finest examples of celadon pottery in their palaces both as vessels for daily use and as objects of fine art (see section on Koryo celadon).

Japanese Geography and Culture

http://www.city.bizen.okayama.jp/index_e.html
This city of Bizen site has several short videos, including kiln firing and a tea ceremony; as well as a virtual potter's wheel animation. The DIA's Japanese Bizen Ware Tea Storage Jar was produced in kilns located at Bizen in Okayama Prefecture, which began firing stoneware made from local clay in the twelve century. Leaf-tea storage jars were carried from Edo (present day Tokyo) to the tea growing area of Uji (near Kyoto) every year at the beginning of summer. The journey of the "honorable tea jars" was made to collect the tea for the shogun (supreme warlord ruling Japan). It was a sign of the shogun's power.

http://www.blueandwhiteamerica.com/ceramics.html
This site has a map of Japan and information on individual kiln sites.

Japanese Tea Practices and Tea Wares

http://www.e-yakimono.net/guide/html/bizen.html
"Six Old Kiln" sites of Bizen, Tamba, Shigaraki, Seto, Echizen, and Tokoname as well as other sites not in operation today produced ceramics for the Japanese tea ceremony.

http://www.city.sakai.osaka.jp/arekore/person/person1_e.html
The famous Japanese tea master, Sen-no Rikkyu (1521-91), advocated the use of simple Japanese items for tea gatherings, such as ceramics produced at rural kilns, as elevated expressions of restraint and cultivation. He stripped everything nonessential from the tearoom, developing a tea ritual in which there was no wasted movement and no superfluous object.

 
Other Resources
 
Books

Arreola, Daniel D. "Unit Nine: East Asia," World Geography. Evanston, 2003, 608-88.  Classroom text.

Blofeld, John. The Chinese Art of Tea. Boston, 1985.
In-depth overview of varieties of tea and tea drinking vessels, plus the history of tea, poems and treatises about tea, information on tea ceremonies and practices, and the effects of tea on physical and psychic health.

Videos

Sultan's Lost Treasure. Dir. Stephen Sweigart. Videocassette, WGBH Boston, Video, 2001.
Archeologist Michel L'Hour and his team salvage an ancient Chinese shipwreck in one of the largest marine archeological projects ever undertaken. The video includes a computer simulation of what the ship originally might have looked like. Though the ship and its cargo of ceramic trade wares were made after the time of the Chinese Jian ware Tea Bowl, the video shows several types of ceramics, how they were made, and points out China's trade and interaction with the wider world.
For more information, see: http://main.wgbh.org/wgbh/shop/products/wg2801.html

Robert Fortune: The Tea Thief, Director Diane Perelsztejn. Videocassette, Australian Film Finance Corporation, 2002.
This film chronicles the mid-18th century British espionage mission to acquire tea plants and growing secrets from China. It also reveals the importance of tea as a commodity crucial to the economy of three major Asian nations. Although one focus is the establishment of tea plantations in Northern India, the film also explores the importance of tea to China.

For more information, see http://www.filmakers.com/indivs/RobertFortune.htm

Web sites

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sultan/archeology2.html
The Nova website companion to the video, Sultan's Lost Treasure. This website mentions a Chinese ship that sank in 1323 off the coast of Korea near Shinan. This ship was bound for Japan when it was swept off course in a storm. Some of the Chinese and Korean ceramics recovered are related to the Chinese Jian ware Tea Bowl and the Korean celadon Tea Bowl.

http://www.enhancetv.com.au/index.lasso
Use Search on this site for information and downloadable study guide for the film Robert Fortune: Tea Thief.

http://www.chinapage.com/zhenghe.html
Contains information about the Muslim explorer Zheng He (aka. Cheng Ho), mentioned in Sultan's Lost Treasure. He served the Chinese emperors (Yongle and Xuande) and is often called the "Chinese Christopher Columbus".

See Web Quest: The Way of Tea above for additional websites.

For Japanese tea ceremony information, see the art lesson The Art of Tea.