169

Tu Lei (d. 1240) was from Linchuan in Kiangsi province. Toward the end of his life he served as private secretary to Hsu Kuo, the minister of the imperial treasury. However, on a mission to Shantung he was killed along with his superior by General Li Ch’uan. When the Chinese first began drinking tea in the fifth and sixth centuries, they boiled it along with ingredients as diverse as cloves and scallions and drank it mostly as a medicinal broth. It wasn’t until the ninth and tenth centuries that they began drinking tea by itself—though as a powder they whisked into boiling water rather than in the form of leaves. This small, portable tea stove was made of clay and included a woven bamboo exterior that allowed it to be moved about while the coals inside it were still hot. Only a close friend would appreciate such simple pleasures. And only such a friend, who no doubt also came to appreciate a friend’s plum blossoms, would visit on such a night.

Winter Night

TU LEI

For a winter-night guest tea serves as wine

boiling on a wicker stove as the coals turn red

outside the window is the same old moon

but with plum blossoms now it’s different