Emperor Huizong, part 2

In my first article, I already mentioned the strangest mention of tea in this book, when tea was believed to have been used to perform some kind of black magic! In total, I've recorded the word 'tea' on 27 pages out of 515 in this biography of Emperor Huizong by Patricia Buckley Ebrey, published by Harvard University Press. This means that tea played quite an important part in Huizong's life, if it's mentioned so often. The author recognizes this on page 314 when she writes: "We know nothing of what he liked to eat, but his love of tea is well documented. Although as emperor he could ask for any tea grown in the country, he did not lose his enthusiasm for trying new ones and perfecting ways of brewing it."

While the biography focuses on Huizong, we also learn something interesting about the Chinese capital on page 23: "Entertainment was available around the clock outside the palace. Theaters, wine shops, restaurants, tea houses, and brothels were densely packed in the entertainment quarter." I don't think that tea houses and brothels were mentioned together by accident in this sentence. In Taiwan, 40 years ago, 'tea houses' was the socially correct way to call a brothel and the serving of tea was just one part of the service a man would get in these places. There might also have been tea houses focused just on tea, but it's just as likely that there was a market for combining both entertainments! 

In my next post on the subject, I'll examine the important role tea played in the economy and politics of the Sung dynasty. Tea even played a role in the military!