When traveling, you can't settle down to drink tea. You can only make a big cup of tea with hot water according to local conditions, but it is good to have tea. If I am at home, it is common for me to drink 100 cups from morning till night. Tea is not only water to me, but also a drink and a medicine for daily health care.
In China, tea was not originally used for drinking, but for medicine. Regarding the magical effect of tea, the earliest legend is that Shennong loves the people as a son, and in order to treat the diseases of the people, he personally collects medicines and tastes herbs.
Once, Shennong tasted a kind of turquoise ball poisoning and fainted under the tree. The sap of the tree dripped into his mouth and was saved. That tree is a tea tree. Shennong found that tea has the magical effect of relieving all kinds of poisons. He often takes tea with him when picking herbs, and every time he is poisoned, he relies on tea to detoxify. At the worst time, Shennong was poisoned 72 times a day, and all of them spent the dangerous period with tea.
There is also a legend that Shennong used a kettle to boil water in the wild one day, and a leaf fell into the water and was covered with fragrance. After drinking it, Shennong discovered the magical effect of tea.
Finally, Shennong tasted a poisonous plant called "kidney tea", which could not even dissolve tea and died.
The legend of Shennong and tea is recorded in Shennong Herbal Classic. This book was written in the Qin and Han Dynasties, so at least in the Warring States period, our old ancestors knew how to drink tea and used it as medicine.
Tea, originally used as medicine, has gradually shifted from medical efficacy to spiritual level.
In the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Liu Kun, a well-known man with lofty ideals, said in a letter to his nephew, "A catty of dried ginger in Anzhou, a catty of cinnamon and a catty of scutellaria baicalensis were all needed before. My body is bored and I often admire real tea. You can put it away. "
Every time Liu Kun is depressed, she relies on the efficacy of tea. We can imagine him drinking a cup of "real tea" before the sword dance at dusk.
Because tea can cure the boredom in the body, it is gradually combined with meditation, and because it is combined with practice, drinking tea can enhance the realm of art and life. There is also a legend about the combination of tea and Zen: the founder of Dharma came to China from the East and vowed to stay awake and meditate in Shaolin Temple for nine years to alert the world. But in the third year, he often dozed off, so the ashamed Dharma tore off his eyelids and threw them on the ground. As a result, a tree grew on the ground, and Shuang Ye was born together, just like an eyelid. Disciples picked leaves to drink, and found that they could refresh their minds, so they began to drink tea at the Zen Temple.
Legends are bullshit, of course. Who is the founder of Dharma? However, it's true that drinking tea was very popular in Zen temples in the Tang Dynasty. Don't say Jackson Zhao Zhou "has tea!" The case has been passed down through the ages, and the demon teacher also asked his disciples to drink tea to save sleep when teaching Zen.
When Zen master Baizhang set up the jungle rules, he even set up teahouses and tea heads. In some big temples, there are more than a dozen teahouses just making tea.
The teapot was invented by the Zen master for the convenience of carrying when he was walking in the water. There are famous tea producing areas near temples in past dynasties. Fighting tea in the temple every spring improves the quality of tea ... which shows that tea and Zen are inseparable, but this is another story. Let's go back to the efficacy of tea!
Shen Nong's Classic of Materia Medica in Han Dynasty: "Tea tastes bitter, and drinking it makes people think well, sleep less, and improve their eyesight."
Shennong's Book of Food in the Han Dynasty: "Tea and tea are served for a long time, and they are mighty and pleasing."
Hua Tuo, a physician in the Eastern Han Dynasty, said: "Bitter tea is good for a long time."
Miscellaneous Notes by Tao Hongjing in Liang Dynasty: "Bitter tea changes bones lightly."
Tang Herbal Medicine in Tang Dynasty: "Tea tastes sweet and bitter, slightly cold and non-toxic. It is mainly used for treating fistula sores, facilitating urination, eliminating phlegm and quenching thirst, and making people sleep less."
Chen Zangqi's Collection of Materia Medica in Tang Dynasty: "Drinking tea for a long time makes people thin and removes body fat."
Lu Yu's Book of Tea in Tang Dynasty: "Tea is the best to drink because it tastes cold. People who are good at frugality, if they are thirsty and bored, their brains are sore, their limbs are bored, and their joints are uncomfortable, they must talk about it four or five times and fight for it. "
From these documents, we know that people before the Tang Dynasty realized that tea has many functions, which can not only make people sleep less, improve eyesight, have strength and be cheerful, but also lose weight and increase the sharpness of thinking, and even be as good as Lulu.
Liu Zhende summed up these benefits in the Tang Dynasty, saying that tea has ten virtues: dispersing depression with tea. Drive sleep with tea. Nourish life with tea. Eliminate evil with tea. Tea is good for manners. Show respect with tea. Taste with tea. Drink tea for health. Tea is feasible. Tea can nourish one's ambition.
After the Song Dynasty, the study of tea was deepened. Let's look at some ancient books:
Su Dongpo's Tea Theory in Song Dynasty: "gargling with strong tea is not only not greasy, but also hardens teeth and eliminates smoking addiction."
Wu Shu's "Tea Fu" in the Song Dynasty: "The husband quenches thirst, turns bones and strengthens the body, and the benefits of tea are wonderful."
Gu "Tea Spectrum" in Ming Dynasty: "People who drink real tea can quench their thirst and digestion, remove phlegm and sleep less, benefit waterways, improve eyesight, benefit thinking and relieve boredom. People can't live without tea for a day. "
"Compendium of Materia Medica" by Li Shizhen in Ming Dynasty: "Tea tastes bitter and cold, which can reduce fire best. Fire is a disease, but it will get better! Warm drinking makes the fire drop due to cold, while hot drinking makes the tea rise and disperse due to internal heat, and also relieves the poison of wine and food, making people refreshed and not sleepy. This tea is also useful. "
Li Shizhen is, after all, a great master. He first mentioned the shortcomings of tea in Compendium of Materia Medica. He said: "People with deficiency cold and weak blood will have cold spleen and stomach and dark vitality if they drink for a long time."
Huang Gongxiu's "Seeking Truth from Materia Medica" in the Qing Dynasty goes further, saying why people with deficiency of cold and weak blood can't drink tea. He said: "Tea is endowed with the essence of heaven and earth, and spring dew is fertile. If business is sufficient, mustard weaving will not work. It is sweet in taste and cold in nature, so it can clear phlegm and benefit the lungs, clear heat and detoxify the heart, reduce oil pollution and moxibustion can solve it. I can't digest anything, and the leaders don't know. Hollow drinking tea can enter the kidney and reduce fire, and the spleen and stomach are cold. Not suitable for taking. "
This is also the first opinion that "it is not advisable to drink tea on an empty stomach" to avoid hurting the kidney and stomach.
Besides deficiency cold, weakness of qi and blood, and inability to drink tea on an empty stomach, tea is beneficial. There is a record in the Tang Xuanzong Ji:
There is a monk in Dongdujin, 130 years old, still healthy and energetic. Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty was surprised to learn that he sent him to the palace and asked, "You are so healthy and live a long life. Have you eaten the elixir?" The old monk replied, "I am a minister and I don't know the medicinal properties." I only like tea. Anyone who belongs to me, I just want tea, or I can't get tired of drinking a hundred bowls. "
Drinking 100 bowls of tea a day makes me live to 130 years old, which reminds me of two poems by Su Dongpo: "Why did Di Wei take a pill and use seven bowls of tea in Lutong?"
Because of the miraculous effect of drinking tea, Master Rong, the Japanese "tea ancestor", studied Buddhism while drinking tea when he meditated in China. When I went back to Japan, I brought a lot of Buddhist scriptures and tea tree seeds.
After Rong Xi returned to China, he planted tea seeds in Beizhen Mountain in front of the Dharma circle (now Saga County) and gave them to Master Minghui of Xiaozan Temple in Thumb (now Saga County). Now, Saga's wild tea and Uji's "Yulu tea" are both famous teas in Japan, which can be said to have a long history.
Rong's contribution to Japanese tea ceremony not only brought back tea seeds, but also wrote a book "Eating Tea for Health", which can be said to be a theoretical pioneer of Japanese tea science. At the beginning, he said: "Tea is also a panacea for health and a magical skill to prolong life. Born in the valley, its god, people adopt it, and people live long. "
Zen master Rong even talked about tea wonderfully, saying that as long as there is a valley where tea can be grown, there must be a god guarding the place, and those who can pick tea and eat it will live a long life. He not only believes in this, but also practices it. At that time, he personally cured General Shuiben's diabetes with tea.
Master Rong said to him, "This tea is really expensive! Go to heaven and learn from others! Every medicine is a medicine for one disease and tea is a medicine for all diseases. "
Since then, drinking tea has become a major trend in Japan, but at this time, Japanese tea ceremony is only popular in temples and has a medicinal tendency. It was not until 400 years later that Mori Noriky proposed "quiet and quiet" that the tea ceremony was fully prepared.
Master Minghui, a famous Japanese monk, also advocated that tea has ten virtues. We can refer to the above ten virtues of Liu Zhende:
First, it's in the intensive care unit. Second, parents are filial.
Third, the devil surrendered. Fourth, sleep is self-removing.
Fifth, the five internal organs regulate interests. Six, no disease and no disaster.
Seven, friends and harmony. Eight, cultivate one's morality.
Nine, the troubles are reduced. Ten, the dying is not chaotic.
Although the ten virtues of Ming Hui people are religious, they are inevitably metaphysical, and many of them are "taken for granted".
In modern times, the study of tea is more scientific and its efficacy is more clear. In addition to the efficacy known by the ancients, it also has the function of preventing scurvy and cancer, and can also treat diabetes, gastroenteritis, icteric hepatitis, dermatosis, hypertension, arteriosclerosis and so on. And even prevent radiation damage!
Drinking tea is so effective that people who don't drink tea lose a lot.
However, if people who drink tea always think about efficacy, the realm will be low, and the benefits that tea brings to our body and mind can be said to be "the rest." As Suzuki Teitaro Daisetz said: "The reason why tea and Zen are interlinked is all in a pure word." A pure heart is best to drink pure tea.
Huang Tingjian once wrote "Tea House inscription" on a tea house, which is a sentence I often write on the teapot:
Chu Yun cleared away, and Yan Xueshan flew.
Rivers and lakes return to dreams and get rid of machines from now on.