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<p>This article examines <i>Yangxian minghu xi</i> (Genealogy of Yangxian teapots), a primary text crucial for studying Yixing <i>zisha</i> pottery within the historical and cultural framework of the late Ming (1368–1644 CE). I argue that the text, written in the context of a thriving tea culture and intense competition among literati for social distinction, was not primarily a manual documenting the techniques of <i>zisha</i>. Rather, it uses late Ming art criticism tropes to elevate Yixing teapots from functional objects to works of ‘scholarly art.’ As a discourse integrating ceramic manufacturing, tea drinking, and connoisseurship, <i>Yangxian</i> functioned as a <i>technê</i>—a strategic deployment of rhetoric and art-historical knowledge—to enhance the value of Yixing teapots and, by extension, the status of the literati who promoted them, thereby shaping the reception for Yixing teapots and defining the taste of tea wares and tea drinking in late Ming China.</p>

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‘Just a tool for tea’? Yangxian minghu xi, Yixing zisha, and the technê of late Ming literati culture

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2025年9月1日

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  • Ruiying Gao

摘要

This article examines Yangxian minghu xi (Genealogy of Yangxian teapots), a primary text crucial for studying Yixing zisha pottery within the historical and cultural framework of the late Ming (1368–1644 CE). I argue that the text, written in the context of a thriving tea culture and intense competition among literati for social distinction, was not primarily a manual documenting the techniques of zisha. Rather, it uses late Ming art criticism tropes to elevate Yixing teapots from functional objects to works of ‘scholarly art.’ As a discourse integrating ceramic manufacturing, tea drinking, and connoisseurship, Yangxian functioned as a technê—a strategic deployment of rhetoric and art-historical knowledge—to enhance the value of Yixing teapots and, by extension, the status of the literati who promoted them, thereby shaping the reception for Yixing teapots and defining the taste of tea wares and tea drinking in late Ming China.