What is the tea ceremony? Tea ceremony is a highly formal way to prepare tea for guests, and experience life from the form of drinking tea, that's all. Japanese tea ceremony originated in China, but it took a different road from Master. It seems that all tea ceremony and ceramics can find another way without exception, which may be the terrible thing about this Japanese apprentice.

The origin of Japanese tea ceremony can be traced back to the sixteenth century, but the introduction of tea was completed by the envoys of the Tang Dynasty. In ancient Japan, there were no native tea trees and there was no habit of drinking tea. Tea has taken root and sprouted in Japan since the envoys of Nara era brought it back to Japan.

The tea party in the Tang Dynasty was like this: a set of tea set, including a copper basin, a kettle, a water tank, a waste water bowl, a basin-type bracket with a bamboo spoon, a pair of clips for holding charcoal and a round bracket for putting the lid of the kettle. Tea is made of tea through frying, fermentation and extrusion. Put the broken tea into a teapot, add water to boil, and then put it into a ceramic teacup. This is the easiest way to eat tea.

In the early days of heian period, the most famous Japanese monk in the Tang Dynasty (767-822 AD, the ancestor of Tiantai Sect in Japan) brought China's tea trees back to Japan and began to plant them in Sakamoto, Feng Jingen. It is said that this is the beginning of tea planting in Japan. During the Kamakura period, the Zen monk Rong studied the processing method of tea in China and brought high-quality tea seeds back to Japan for dissemination. 12 1 1 year, he wrote the first Japanese tea-drinking monograph, Eating Tea for Health.

Tea culture in China comes from the daily customs of ordinary people, while in Japan, on the contrary, tea drinking culture takes a top-down road, just like the capitalist reform in Meiji period. When tea was first introduced to Japan, it was completely a luxury, and only the royal family, nobles and a few senior monks could enjoy it. Tea ceremony is regarded as an elegant and advanced culture limited to the royal family, and its content and form were strongly imitated by the Tang Dynasty. Since the Kamakura era, it has become more and more common to regard tea as a panacea under the influence of eating tea for health preservation. The rapid development of tea planting has also created favorable conditions for tea to enter civilian families. During this period, tea drinking activities began to spread to the people centered on temples.

Different from China's method of fermenting tea, Japanese tea is to dry steamed tea naturally, and the tea ground into powder is called "matcha" (final tea). In Muromachi era, tea farmers in Guinea held tea tasting parties to classify tea, which developed into entertainment for many people to taste tea and developed primitive tea ceremony etiquette. During this period, "fighting tea" with the samurai class as the protagonist became the mainstream of tea culture, with entertainment as the main feature. In the13rd century, the emerging samurai class, with abundant financial resources, often held tea fights to gamble by tasting tea from all over the world, which was extremely luxurious to show off their wealth and expand their contacts. Later, the third generation general of Muromachi shogunate, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, refined the fighting tea, which prepared the conditions for the transition to religious "academy tea". Ashikaga Yoshimasa, the eighth generation general, built a "Tongren Zhai" in Dongshan, Kyoto, where he lived in seclusion. The floor was covered with tatami, one * * *, and four and a half sheets were used. This architectural design in which the whole room is covered with tatami has been used for reference by later generations, forming various "tea rooms". In the past, the tea party was held in a large space, noisy and not polite; Tongren Zhai narrowed and closed the open and unfixed space, creating a stable indoor space for the formation of tea ceremony. This kind of room is called academy-style building, and the tea party held in it is called "academy tea". "Academy Tea" requires absolute silence in the teahouse and concise questions and answers between the host and the guest, thus sweeping away the messy wind of the tea bucket. Academy tea has completed the task of combining foreign Tang culture with Japanese culture, and basically established the current tea ordering procedure of Japanese tea ceremony. In short, by the end of Muromachi era, the birth of tea ceremony was a matter of time.

The founder of Japanese tea ceremony

The concept of tea ceremony was first put forward by the famous temple of Nara in15th century (A.D. 1423- 1502). 1442, 19-year-old Murata Zhuguang came to Kyoto to practice. At that time, the "Khan shower tea party" (a tea party with the theme of bathing in summer) was popular in Nara. For the first time, this tea party adopted a teahouse with simple and rustic pastoral architecture style-Caoan. This quaint style had a profound influence on the later tea ceremony and became a major feature of Japanese tea ceremony. In meditation, Murata Zhuguang integrated his understanding of Zen into drinking tea. He tasted tea in a small teahouse and realized the truth that "Buddhism exists in tea soup" from the melody of Buddhism, which is well known as "Bodhi is not a tree, mirror is not a stage; Nothing, where is the dust? " In this way, Zhuguang Murata created Cao An's unique natural and simple tea ceremony. Because of the admiration for the general's righteous politics, "Cao An Tea" quickly spread throughout Kyoto. Zhuguang advocated that tea people should get rid of the entanglement of desire, understand the inner spirit of tea ceremony through practice, and blindly open up the road of tea meditation. According to the Japanese tea ceremony Nanlu, the standard four and a half tatami tea rooms were decided by pearls, and the niches and floor stoves specially used for tea ceremony activities were also introduced by him. In addition, Zhuguang Murata also reformed the coffee table, tea spoon and vase. Since then, art and religious philosophy have been introduced into the daily activities of drinking tea and have been continuously developed.

Another outstanding tea man after Zhuguang Murata was Takeno Shaonan (A.D. 1502- 1555). He greatly supplemented and perfected the tea ceremony of Murata Zhuguang, and also introduced the theory of chorus into the tea ceremony, which reproduced the unique simple and elegant style of Japanese culture and further nationalized the Japanese tea ceremony.

In Japanese history, it was Richo Morino (A.D. 1522 ~ 1592) who really raised the tea ceremony and tea drinking to the artistic level. His early name was Senno Soueki, and later he was named Xiuji in Juledi, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and changed it to Senoriki. He and Ken Kennei, the originator of Kennei School, are both disciples of Shao Ou. Mori no Rikyū reduced the four and a half tatami in the standard tea room to three or even two, and simplified the interior decoration to the minimum, which made the spiritual world of tea ceremony get rid of the shackles of material factors to the maximum extent, and made the tea ceremony more acceptable to the general public, thus ending the situation in which a hundred schools of thought contended in the Japanese tea ceremony industry in the Middle Ages. At the same time, Xianye Li also restored the tea ceremony from the religious culture of Zen and tea to its original indifferent characteristics. He is not limited to the well-known tea set, but takes daily necessities as tea ceremony utensils, emphasizing body odor and "initial heart"; He also advocated greatly simplifying the prescribed actions of the tea ceremony, abandoning external formal manipulation and focusing on the taste of the tea ceremony. He formulated the "four rules and seven rules" of tea ceremony, which are still in use today. The so-called "four laws" are: harmony, respect, purity and silence. "Harmony" means harmony, which is manifested in the harmony between subject and object; "Respect" means respect, which is manifested in clear relationship between superiors and subordinates and standardized etiquette; "Qing" means clean and quiet, which is manifested in the cleanliness of tea sets in tea rooms and the purity of people's hearts; "Quiet" means concentration and abandoning desire, which is manifested in the quiet atmosphere in the teahouse, the solemn expression of the tea people and the quiet concentration. The so-called "seven laws" are: tea should be strong and light; Pay attention to the heat when cooking tea with charcoal; The temperature of tea should adapt to the season; Flower arrangement should be fresh; Time should be earlier, for example, guests usually arrive fifteen to thirty minutes in advance; Prepare rain gear even if it doesn't rain; Take care of all customers, including guests. From these rules, we can see that Japanese tea ceremony contains many factors such as art, philosophy, morality and ethics. Tea ceremony integrates spiritual cultivation into life interest, cultivates sentiment by dining, ordering tea, appreciating tea sets and talking with people in a quiet and elegant environment, and cultivates perfect consciousness and character of being unpretentious, natural and generous, and leading a totally clean life. At the same time, it also enables people to form the habit of observing rules, earnestly and unconditionally fulfilling social responsibilities and observing social morality in prudent tea ceremony etiquette. Therefore, the Japanese have always regarded tea ceremony as an important means to cultivate self-cultivation and improve cultural quality. It is not difficult to understand why the tea ceremony has such a wide social influence and social foundation in Japan, and it is still popular today.

Schools of Japanese tea ceremony

Today, Dachuan has a deep relationship with Sen no Rikyū, a famous Japanese tea ceremony school, among which Li Qianjia is the most famous and influential. Since Mori Noriky committed suicide by caesarean section under the command of Hideyoshi, thousands of schools have a tendency to be depressed. It was not until the time of Qian Zongdan, the grandson of Mori no Rikyū, that it flourished again, so Qian Zongdan was called "the father of thousands of zhongxing". In Qian Zongdan's later years, after he lived in seclusion, the thousand schools began to split and eventually split into three schools, which is the origin of the "Three Thousand Schools". Here are a few schools:

Biao Qian: one of the thousand schools, the ancestor is Jiangling Zongzuo, the third son of Qian Zongdan. The teahouse in the main hall is the "no trial nunnery". Thousands of people serve the aristocratic class. They have inherited the teahouse and teahouse handed down by Mori Noriky and maintained the orthodox style of casual tea.

Li Ganjia: One of the thousand schools, whose ancestors were the youngest son of Qian Zongdan, the imperial clan of Xianzuo. Li Gan's family is a civilian, who inherited Qian Zongdan's seclusion "Today Temple". Because today's buddhist nun is located inside buddhist nun, it is called Biao Qianjia, and today's buddhist nun is called Li Qianjia.

Thousand Warrior Trail: One of the thousand schools, the ancestor is Weng Zongshou, the second son of Qian Zongdan. Its teahouse in Tang Zong is called "Guan Anxiu", which is the smallest of the "3,000" schools and named after its ancestor's residence, Mushahaoji.

Yauchi school: the ancestor is Yauchi frugality. In those days, Kenichi Nakauchi worked as a teacher with Rixiong Morino in Shaozhou, Wu Ye. The motto of this school is "integrity and purity" and "courtesy and simplicity". Good at academy tea and small teahouse tea.

Yuanzhou School: The ancestor was Yuanzhou Kanghong, who was mainly good at academy tea.

Tea affairs in Japanese tea ceremony

The Japanese pay great attention to form, and the tea ceremony is such a manifestation. They like to prepare food in front of guests, such as teppanyaki, so that guests can not only eat food, but also learn cooking methods, as well as tea ceremony.

Japanese tea people hold tea parties with the mentality of "one session at a time". This word comes from Naoko Inoue, a great tea man at the end of the Edo shogunate. The book wrote: "Tracing back to the source, the tea party will be held for a while. Even if the tea party can be held repeatedly with the host and guest, it cannot reproduce what happened at this moment. Every tea party really comes once in a blue moon for me. Therefore, the host should do everything possible to be affectionate and sincere, and there should be no negligence. Guests must also attend the meeting with the feeling that they will never see each other again in this world, enthusiastically accept every tiny ingenuity of the host, and sincerely greet them. This is: one phase at a time. " This concept of "one session at a time" is essentially the embodiment of the Buddhist concept of "impermanence". The impermanence of Buddhism urges people to value every minute and take every moment seriously. When a tea party is held, the host and guest cherish it very much. They cherish each other's belief of "once in a lifetime" and appreciate that life is fleeting in the world like the foam of tea, which leads to the sound of * * *. Therefore, participants feel closely connected with each other, resulting in a sense of interdependence and life fulfillment. This is a feeling that you can't experience on other occasions outside the tea party.

There are many kinds of tea affairs. In ancient times, there was a saying of "three-time tea", that is, according to the time of three meals, it was divided into morning meeting (morning tea), book meeting (afternoon tea) and night meeting (evening tea); At present, there are seven things about tea, namely morning tea, morning tea, afternoon tea, evening tea, after-dinner tea, special tea and temporary tea. In addition, there are tea events (equivalent to the opening ceremony of Buddhist temples), farewell tea, snow tea, one host and one guest tea, flower tea and moon tea in Kaifeng tea altar. Every tea tasting activity should have a theme, such as someone's wedding, the joy of moving, commemorating his birthday, or celebrating the acquisition of a precious tea set and so on.

Before the tea party, the host must first make sure that the host and guests, that is, the main guests, are generally more distinguished, like Morino Lifu in Toyotomi Hideyoshi. After determining the guest of honor, determine the accompanying guests. These accompanying guests should be familiar with the host and guest and have a certain relationship. After confirming the guests, we will be busy preparing for the tea party. In the meantime, the guests will come to thank them, because the host who is busy with the preparations only needs to receive them at the door. Generally speaking, a tea party lasts four hours. If it is too long, it will easily lead to guest fatigue. If it is too short, you may not understand the true meaning of the tea party. There are two kinds of tea parties: light tea parties (simple tea parties) and formal tea parties, which are also divided into "chief" and "back seat". In order to run a good tea party, the host should run around and buy good tea, good water, camellia, materials for making refreshments and tea food, etc. Before the tea party, the teahouse and teahouse should be cleaned. After the guests arrive in advance, they sit down in the hut of the teahouse to watch the teahouse, understand the owner's intentions, and then sit in the teahouse. This is the so-called "first building". The host began to perform charcoal-adding skills, because the whole tea party had to be charcoal-added three times (cherry charcoal was used in the formal tea party), so this time it was called "initial charcoal". After that, the host brought tea and food, which is called "Shi Huai cuisine" in Japanese (it is said that monks put hot stones in their arms when they are hungry in meditation to reduce their hunger, so it is called). After tea, guests go to the teahouse to rest, which is "neutral" and then enter the teahouse again, which is "back seat". The back seat is the main part of the tea party. In a serious atmosphere, the host orders strong tea for the guests, then adds charcoal (after charcoal) and then orders thin tea. Afterwards, the host and guests said goodbye to each other, and the tea party ended here.

Tea parties are usually recorded, including meetings with the congregation, niche decoration, tea sets, meals, snacks and so on. Sometimes, a summary of the conversation with the congregation and the comments of the recorder are added. This kind of record is called "taking notes". In ancient times, many famous tea party records have been handed down to this day and become precious materials in modern times, such as Matsuya Club, Amano Temple Club, Imai Zongjiu Tea Ceremony and Zongzhan Diary, which are collectively called the four major clubs.

Tea set for Japanese tea ceremony

Speaking of Japanese tea ceremony, tea set is essential. Tea set is one of the most expressive carriers of tea ceremony. It is helpful to create a harmonious atmosphere by emphasizing the adaptation to the same season and the coordination with the layout of the teahouse. There are many kinds of tea sets, including ceramics, lacquerware, iron, bronze, pottery, wood, bamboo and so on. It can be called a tea set, ranging from display racks and tea stoves to teaspoons and wine glasses, but we often say that tea sets refer to tea drinking utensils, including tea bowls, teapots, camellias (pots or tubes for flower arrangement), water fingers (water utensils for washing hands) and teaspoons. Tea set is a kind of ornamental and use utensils, which can be divided into living room utensils (public) and dining table utensils (special). Tea sets in Japanese tea ceremony can be roughly divided into two categories: one is a small pottery jar for making strong tea, which can be divided into Shouchong, Eggplant, Sea Pot and Wen Lin according to different shapes; The other is called "thin tea set". As the name implies, it is made of thin tea and has various shapes. Among all the tea sets, the tea bowl is the most valuable, with a wide variety and exquisite. Tea bowls are generally ceramic products, but also stone products. In a sense, the tea bowl can be regarded as synonymous with the whole tea set. During the Warring States Period, the "Le" tea bowl, designed and directed by Masajiro Morino and made by the famous ceramist Qiao Erlang, can be regarded as the top work of Japanese tea bowls at that time. Unfortunately, the value of Le Tea Bowl in Japan's Warring States Games in the past dynasties has never been high.

The following is a brief introduction of some famous tea sets:

Youle Tea Bowl: It belongs to the category of Dajinghu Tea Bowl, and is named after Ueda Shinbu's younger brother has Lezhai. Known as the curved tea bowl, loquat glaze medicine contains iron.

Daytime tea bowl: produced in Tianmu Mountain, China, hence the name.

Hayakawa, Chile: Ritchie Morino took it from Osaka by the morning express when she held a tea party in Kyoto, so it was named Hayakawa. It belongs to one of the seven famous teas in Li Xiu and is now in Daishan Memorial Hall.

There is nothing in Chile: it's also a Chilean tea bowl, and Wang Ye nobuyuki and Taige series have appeared.

National eggplant: Known as "the first eggplant in the world", it is named after the original national eggplant in Yi Shi.

Benye Temple Wen Lin: Formerly known as Wen Lin, asakura, it was named after it was originally owned by Asakura Yoshikage. Later, it fell into the hands of Nobunaga, who gave it to Benye Temple, hence the name.

The name comes from Fujiwara's chorus Summer Mountain, Green Leaves, Green Leaves,No. 12376; りのぉそざくらよりりららよよよよりらよよよよよよよ12

There is a famous teahouse near the famous Hall 33 in Japan, where you can taste the products.

Very high tea ceremony demonstration.

Mrs Liao, who was educated in Japan, said that if we hadn't experienced this strange tea ware,

Type, I'm afraid it is difficult to explore the connotation of Japanese culture. Because the tea ceremony in Japan is different from our tea.

Drinking tea after meals is the only way to train yourself to reach the realm of "harmony, respect and silence".

If you reach the highest stage, you can even enjoy all kinds of extraordinary and spiritual realms, which is also true.

Japanese aesthetics and etiquette have a wide influence.

At the end of 12, Japanese ancestor Rong put matcha, a special tree species, into it and made it.

The technology of growing fine green tea was introduced to Japan, and the first tea seedling was planted in Ujiyama, near Kyoto.

In fact, until now, this area still produces the best matcha in Japan. Later, Rong Xi encouraged him.

Disciples drink this bubbly and bitter tea as a healthy drink, an anti-hangover agent and a refreshing agent.

/kloc-In the 6th century, Master Morino incorporated Zen into it, which is the beginning of Japanese tea ceremony today.

Making tea is not difficult. What is really difficult is to do it with precision. It's like meditation. Without it,

Some understanding, I am afraid, will never be realized.

The layout of the teahouse advocates simplicity and elegance. On 9 square meters of tatami, people attend tea parties.

People, regardless of rank, sit together and make tea quietly, forgetting secular concerns in silence.

Let the mind live in harmony with nature.

Ironically, however, this simple spirit of not paying attention to luxury, until now,

Instead, it becomes extremely rich and makes you enjoy it. Therefore, cynics deride it as "the beauty of poverty"

study "Japanese craftsmen also took the opportunity to charge higher fees to create better beauty effects.

Tea set As a result, these seemingly uncut tea sets have once again become a show off.

Japanese tea ceremony originated in China, but it has the flavor of the Japanese nation. It has its own formation, development process and unique connotation. Japanese tea ceremony is a comprehensive cultural and artistic activity, which combines daily life behavior with religion, philosophy, ethics and aesthetics. It is not only material enjoyment, but also learning tea ceremony through tea party, cultivating temperament and cultivating people's aesthetic and moral concepts.

The procedures of tea ceremony in Japan are complicated, from the fineness of tea grinding to whether the master's actions are standardized, to show respect for the guests and to embody the spirit of "harmony but difference". Japanese tea ceremony, with the words "harmony, respect, purity and silence", has become a cultural and artistic activity integrating religion, philosophy, ethics and aesthetics. There are two kinds of tea rooms in Japan, and the small tea room can reflect the simple, simple and quiet style better than the big one, so it becomes an authentic tea room. The construction of the teahouse strives to give people a kind, modest and simple feeling, which fully embodies the moral demeanor of the host and guests. (Figure 1)

Japanese tea is also called "Shi Huai". It is said that when the Zen monk meditates late at night, in order to resist the hunger in his stomach, he will heat the small stone, wrap it in a towel and put it in his arms. Tea in the tea ceremony is to prevent strong tea from stimulating the gastric mucosa of guests, and to serve a small amount of food before drinking tea. This shows that the Japanese are meticulous and serious. (Figure 2)

(Figure 3, Figure 4) These two kinds of refreshments are usually held at tea parties in July and August. Due to the hot weather, the name, shape and function of snacks are based on coolness. Of course, one of the wonders is "dripping water between rocks". This is a snack made of pueraria juice. Transparent tableware brings coolness. The green part in the middle represents rocks, and the white part represents water droplets. Its name is even more mysterious.

The "tea room" of Japanese tea ceremony, also known as "this seat" and "teahouse", is the place where tea ceremony is held. Tea rooms in Japan are generally made of bamboo and reeds. The teahouse is generally around 9- 10 square meters, with four and a half tatami. Small and elegant, compact structure, so that the host and guests can have a heart-to-heart conversation. Teahouses are divided into special areas such as bed rooms, guest rooms, pre-ordering, stepping on stoves, etc. There are niches, ground stoves and various wooden windows in the room, and a "water room" is also arranged on one side to store utensils for boiling water, making tea and tasting tea and cleaning utensils. Celebrity calligraphy and painting in the bed, bamboo vase hanging next to it, and flower arrangement in the bottle. The types of flower arrangement vary from season to season.

The tea set of Japanese tea ceremony originated from China, so the tea set of Japanese tea ceremony also originated from China Kung Fu tea set. Its basic tea set, like Chaozhou Kung Fu tea set, is divided into four parts: a cooling furnace and an air furnace for boiling water; Teapots, iron-covered bowls for boiling water; Soup bottles, pots with handles and mouths for making tea, are called "urgent use"; A tea bowl, a porcelain bowl for tea soup.

In addition, there are "tea houses" for grinding tea leaves and "fire sticks" with white charcoal; "water injection" of cold water; A "charcoal basket" filled with white charcoal; The "water turn" for cleaning tea sets; A "incense box" for holding incense; A "tea basket" for stirring when making tea; Bamboo "tea spoon" for taking tea powder; A "tea towel" to wipe the tea bowl; A "teapot" for holding tea powder; A "feather broom" made of three big bird feathers is used for dust removal; A "charcoal bucket" full of charcoal; "ash container" for furnace ash; A "water spoon" used to fetch water, etc.

There are many kinds of utensils for Japanese tea ceremony, not only in size, but also in harmony (Japan), Tang (China) and Korea.