Chadong 茶董

Chadong 茶董 "Overview on (the culture of) tea" is a book on tea written by the Ming period 明 (1368-1644) scholar Xia Shufang 夏樹芳, courtesy name Xia Maoqing 夏茂卿. He came form Jiangyin 江陰, Jiangsu) and obtained his juren degree during the Wanli reign 萬曆 (1573-1619). Except the Chadong he has also authored the books Xizhenzhi 棲真志, Faxizhi 法喜志 and Qixingtong 奇姓通. The 2 juan "scrolls" long Chadong lists various information on tea quoted from books from the Southern Dynasties period 南朝 (420~589) to the Jin period 金 (1115-1234), both prose texts and poems. The compilation is very heterogeneous and not very systematical. It includes lots of errors and selects arbitrarily among the sources. The title is derived from a quotation in the book Shishuo xinyu 世說新語, where Gan Bao 干寶 is quoted as a master in the narration of ghost stories in his book Soushenji 搜神記. He is compared with Dong Hu 董狐, an ancient historian of the state of Jin 晉 during the Spring and Autumn period 春秋 (770-5th cent. BCE), and is therefore rated as master writer like Dong Hu, in the field of ghost stories (gui zhi Dong Hu 鬼之董狐; at that time Dong was already a family name, but this is derived from the bearer's function as overseer dong 董 of the ducal library and the state historian of Jin). The Chadong is introduced by a preface written by Chen Jiru 陳繼儒. It was presented to the compilers of the imperial reprint series Siku quanshu 四庫全書 by Wang Qishu 汪啟淑 from his private library, but was not included in this collection. Yet it can be found in the series Gujin shuobu congshu 古今說部叢書.
There is a supplement called Chadong bu 茶董補 written by the Ming period scholar Chen Jiru 陳繼儒.