Understanding the Tea Space in Ancient Chinese Paintings with the Aid of Artificial Intelligence

Tea spaces serve as the material embodiment of Chinese tea culture, yet quantitative research on tea spaces depicted in ancient paintings remains insufficient. This study examined 207 ancient paintings spanning the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, employing K-means colour clustering, shape index analysis and random forest methodologies. Findings reveal: (1) Regarding colour characteristics: the mean colour dominance index across ancient paintings ranged between 1.39 and 1.50; (2) Complexity: Song Dynasty tea utensils exhibited the highest complexity, followed by Tang and Yuan, with Ming and Qing showing the lowest complexity; (3) Service intensity: Qing and Song tea spaces demonstrated higher service intensity, followed by Yuan and Ming, with Tang showing the lowest intensity; (4) Influencing factors: War and floods exerted a significant negative impact on the proportion of tea spaces and the complexity of tea utensils.This study offers a fresh perspective on the development of Chinese tea culture.