The Fengshi wenjian ji, the “Record of what Mr Feng heard and saw”, is a collection of notes by the Tang official Feng Yan.[1] Its chapters treat the script and the books, the court institutions, the customs and the monuments of the Tang. Each subject gets one short section.[2]
The author
Feng Yan says that he was at the Imperial Academy in the Tianbao era, 742 to 756.[3] In the Dali era, 766 to 779, he toured the counties of Xing prefecture as an official.[4] His list of the honorific titles of the Tang emperors ends with the successor of Daizong, whom he calls the present emperor.[5] He was therefore writing in the reign of Dezong, after 779.
The section on tea
The sixth chapter opens with tea.[1] It follows the custom of tea drinking from a monastery on Mount Tai in the Kaiyuan era to the tea shops of the towns. It then follows the custom from the treatise of Lu Yu to the court.[1] At its end it reaches the Uyghurs. They came to court driving fine horses and went home with tea.[1] The Xin Tang Shu tells the same story of tea in its life of Lu Yu, in the same order. Its note on the Uyghurs follows Feng Yan.
The same chapter describes the offerings set up by the road at a funeral in the Dali era.[1] Among them was a carved display in which Yuchi, Duke of E, fought a Göktürk champion. The figures moved by a mechanism as if alive.[1] The duke is the early Tang general Yuchi Gong.
The passage
吳主孫皓每宴羣臣，皆令盡醉。
韋昭飲酒不多，皓密使以茶茗自代。
晉時謝安詣陸納，納無所供辦，設茶果而已。
按，此古人亦飲茶耳，但不如今人溺之甚，窮日盡夜，殆成風俗。
始自中地，流於塞外。
往年回鶻入朝，大驅名馬市茶而歸，亦足怪焉。
Whenever Sun Hao, lord of Wu, feasted his ministers, he made them all drink until they were drunk.
Wei Zhao did not drink much wine, and Hao secretly had him put tea in its place.
In the time of the Jin, when Xie An called on Lu Na, Lu Na had nothing to provide and set out only tea and fruit.
I note that the men of old drank tea too, but not so excessively as people now, who go on all day and all night until it has almost become a custom.
It began in the central land and flowed out beyond the frontier.
In former years the Uyghurs came to court, drove in great numbers of famous horses, bought tea and went home. This too is something to wonder at.
大曆中，太原節度辛雲京葬日，
諸道節度使使人脩祭，范陽祭盤最為高大。
刻木為尉遲鄂公與突厥鬭將之戲，
機關動作，不異於生。
In the Dali era, on the day of the burial of Xin Yunjing, military governor of Taiyuan,
the military governors of the various circuits sent men to hold sacrifices, and the sacrificial stand of Fanyang was the highest and largest.
Wood was carved into a play of Yuchi, Duke of E, fighting a Göktürk champion,
and its mechanisms made the figures move no differently from living men.
References
Articles resting on this source 2
What links here1
Cite this article
Yavuz, Emre-E. “Fengshi Wenjian Ji.” Turkic Atlas, revised 28 October 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/sources/fengshi-wenjianji/
Last revised: 28 October 2026
