Understanding The Literati’s Living Condition Of The Four WU Families From The Tea Set In The Painting Of Wen Zhengming

Since the Ming Dynasty, the stratum of scholars who affected by the society, politics, economy, culture and many other factors at that time, having a common cultural life tendency in pursuing the leisurely, open, cheer state. Especially the Wuzhong district is the most developed place at that time. As the material life got greatly improved, the living conditions which is leisurely and tasteful of the scholars in Wuzhong district even effect the cultural ethos in many districts at that time. But this influence is shown in numerous aspects. For example:the scholars’ pursuit in the poetry and painting is one aspect. For this reason, Wu School which appears in Wuzhong district shows the gathering scene of poetry and literati from anther side. Similarly, the pursuit of tea culture is also an important performance for the scholar in pursuing the real-life conditions at that time. Wen Zhengming’s Hui Mountain Tea Party shows us a scene which the scholar and painters in Ming Dynasty get together and enjoy the tea. It is not accidental for the appearance of the typical living conditions of Four WU Families share the tea with their friends, it has a close relationship with the political ecology, cultural environment, economic base and the special geographical environment in Wuzhong at that time. There is no doubt that tea-tasting is an important part in the gathering of the scholars, from literature and paintings which spread from that time can see the flourishing of the tea culture. The reason for appearing this situation is just because it is inseparable with the leisurely and refined life state of the literati. This paper explained for several times that the appearance of the tea set in the painting of the Four WU Families. While in this case, it tells an ’easy’ living condition which regards the hidden ’leisure’ as main idea and it’s full of the ’fun’. While the tea set, which is the scenery of the painting, is a kind of tool that the scholars release their’feeling’. So it has a practical guiding significance for the people who want to understand the changes of the inner spirit thought of literati and their living conditions in the tea painting in Ming Dynasty.