A Friend's trip to Yixing

[Eastree]

He brought back a little tea history, according to the tour guide:

[quote]This is the one of the three centers in China for
teapots. These are the clay ones and not the porcelain pots. They are
small because the Chinese drank straight from the pot – the vessel was
originally the cup as well as the pot and each person had their own. The
idea of tea cups separate from the vessel came to them from the British. [/quote]

I'm not quite sure how much to believe that, at least as stated. I've heaard otherwise before this.

Any way, his descriptions of bamboo forests and the rest of the surroundings REALLy make me want to visit.

[Zanaspus]

Indeed, I have read many accounts of yixing pots originally being a brewing AND drinking vessel.

[AdamMY]

I've heard that the Chinese have at times drank tea directly from the teapot. And I am no expert on Tea history, but from what I read teapots are no where near as old as drinking tea, and more traditional tea vessels were more like bowls or cups. And I am unsure where the gaiwan fits in with history.

Though I do believe that the Chinese have had cups of some sort, long before teapots were developed.

And correct me if I'm wrong, I thought the older the pot you are looking for the harder it is to find a small one (aka <200 ml). As in the people that had teapots in the Qing dynasty or older, often used the teapot to serve large groups of people.

[Eastree]

If I understood the gist of the (longer) email, it sounds like the tour guide was trying to simplify in stead of explaining the entire process from originally brewing in cups. In stead of explaining in terms that pouring into smaller vessels wasn't a tradition until the West introduced it, and including the change of vessel style, he just used "tea pot" as his explanation for brewing vessel.