Report on Water for Brewing Tea

Report on Water for Brewing Tea (Chinese: 煎茶水记; pinyin: Jiāncháshuǐjì) is a tea monograph by late Tang dynasty era author Zhang Youxin (Chinese: 张又新) from 814.^[1] This book is the earliest monograph wholly devoted to the quality of water for brewing tea.^{[citation needed]} In the 13th century, it was compiled alongside several other texts on tea from the same period into the Baichuan xuehai (Chinese: 百川學海).^[2]

Content

The primary content of the work was a list of water sources and the quality of these sources. Parts included:

• A short list of water sources from seven locations, ranked from 1 to 7:

1. Nanling of Yangtze river.
2. Wuxi Hui Mountain Temple Spring
3. Suzhou Tiger Hill Temple Spring
4. Danyang Guanyin Temple
5. Yangzhou Da Ming temple
6. Wuzhong River
7. Huai River
8. Temple of Small Gods fountain.

• An anecdote about Lu Yu's marvellous ability as water connoisseur.
• A longer list of water quality ranking from twenty locations, with water from melting snow placed last.^[3]