The Song Dynasty（960-1279） was the peak period of tea drinking in Hangzhou. According to A Dream of Splendor, the special way of how people drinking tea gave birth to "Jianzhan", a very representative vessel for "Dian Cha" (most of the tea in the Song Dynasty was in the form of semi-fermented tea cakes. The dian cha process starts with grinding a suitable amount of the tea into powder, then sieve for the finest powdered tea and put it in the tea cup. Then pour a small amount of boiling water in the cup to make a “tea paste”, then again pour in boiling water, stir the tea with a bamboo tea whisk at the same time, until the water and the tea are fully blended and the froth appears. This action of pouring boiling water is called "dian", hence the name "dian cha").

The newly unearthed four pieces of black glazed "Jian Zhan" from the imperial city site of the Southern Song Dynasty are exhibited at the Linping Museum in Hangzhou since June 9.