Hui Mengchen's pots

The small teapots that are popular among tea drinkers in this part of the world were first designed by a potter known as Hui Mengchen who lived in the Ming dynasty. These pots may look very ordinary but it had a rich history and culture. This globular-shaped teapots are generally called Mengchen pots as characters such as made by Jingxi Hui Mengchen (Jingxi was the old name of Yiixing) were inscribed at the base of the pots. The pots come in three sizes, the smallest one is called the 2-cup size meaning the capacity is just nice for 2 persons. Then there is the 4-cup size and the largest is the 8-cup size. The cups are usually small as people tend to sip concentrated tea in small quantity.

The three sizes of Mengchen pots

There are very few original Mengchen pots made by Hui Mengchen himself. These are kept in museums and private collectors' hands. After Hui's death, his descendants continued making the pots as they were popular among tea drinkers. When the pots were exported to Europe in the 18th century, the Europeans began coping this design and the white-glaze pots were then popularly used to brew English tea.

The Mengchen pots are also called Bahkut teh (spare ribs soup) teapots locally as vendors selling this dish also use this pot to serve the tea that go with the dish (spare ribs soup). Occasionally people will go to the stalls and buy these pots from the vendors as the pots have developed an intense patina after years of usage.

Here I have 2 Mengchen pots of the 80s, an 8-cup size and the other 4-cup size pot. In those days, high quality zisha was used to make the pots even though the shape may look very ordinary.