In the upsurge of cultural exchange in the world today, tea culture, which represents oriental civilization, has attracted more and more attention. Tea culture has not only been revived and popularized in China, Japan and South Korea, but also in western countries such as Europe and America, when people realize that drinking tea is good for their health, they become more and more interested in tea culture, and gradually integrate into their lives and influence their lifestyles. Tea culture has increasingly become an international cultural exchange activity that transcends national boundaries, nationalities and religious beliefs, and has become another bridge connecting and communicating eastern and western cultures.
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China is recognized as the first country to discover and utilize tea, and also the first country to breed tea culture. Tea culture is a wonderful flower in China traditional culture garden, with a long history, colorful and profound, and its development process is almost as long as the ancient history of China. 1200 years ago, Lu Yu of Cha Sheng wrote a classic of world history, tea science and tea culture. It is mentioned in the book that "tea is a drink, which originated from Shennong and was heard in Duke Zhou of Lu". Lu Yu is based on a book called Shennong's Classic, which records: "Drinking tea for a long time makes you feel happy", that is, drinking tea often can make people full of energy and feel comfortable. This book has not been handed down. Shennong is a legendary figure, which is recorded in ancient books of pre-Qin and Han dynasties. According to legend, Shennong was a tribal leader in the transitional period from hunting to farming in primitive society in China five thousand years ago. He was honored as the ancestor of China's agricultural medicine by his exploration of food sources, medicine, mountains, plants and sexual taste. Two thousand years ago, the miscellaneous book Huai Nan Zi edited by Liu An, the grandson of Emperor Gaozu, recorded: "In ancient times, people drank water like grass, gathered the fruits of trees and ate the flesh of flies, which made them sick and injured. So Shennong began to teach the people to sow grain, and the land should be moist and fertile. The taste of herbs and the ups and downs of springs make people know what to avoid. At this time, I encountered 70 poisons a day. " It is said that Duke Zhou of Lu collected the ancient tea word "Bitter Tea" for the first time according to Erya, the oldest dictionary in China. It is to borrow the word Jia to name the tea that people in Bashu area call "bitter tea". According to legend, the earliest editor of Erya was Duke Zhou (Ming Dan,), a sage who assisted two generations of Zhou kings. After the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, this book was supplemented one after another, and was officially written in the early years of the Western Han Dynasty around 200 BC. Fortunately, it has been handed down from generation to generation, but the explanation is very brief. In the Jin Dynasty in 300 AD, Guo Pu, a philologist, annotated the book, in which the description of tea was like this; "Trees are as small as masts, born in winter, and leaves can be used to cook soup. Today, early harvesters are tea, late harvesters are tea, and one is bitter tea. " Guo Pu read widely, but after all, he was not a tea man. He described the general shrub tea tree, and Lu Yu's Tea Classic mentioned a big tea tree that was one foot, two feet or even dozens of feet, or even two people folded together. Such a thick ancient tea tree can still be seen in China and Yunnan. Tea trees are evergreen all the year round, with deep roots and luxuriant leaves. They are fragrant in autumn and have white flowers, which are simple and lovely. Shennong noticed when he tasted a hundred herbs, which seems to be reasonable. When the Book of Tea opened, it said, "Southern tea makers are the best!" The word "home" contains multiple compliments. The image of tea tree is very beautiful. Drinking tea makes people feel comfortable physically and mentally, and also helps to maintain health and nourish the heart. This is why there are many foods that are beneficial to people, but tea is particularly popular and has developed into a tea ceremony culture with a long history.
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The utilization of tea has been edible, medicinal and drinking for thousands of years, and several utilization methods coexist at the same time. Since ancient times, there has been a saying in China that "medicine and food are of the same origin" and "diet is of the same clan". Pay attention to adjusting diet to adapt to the changes of natural seasons and adjust physical discomfort. Ten Classics of Shennong is probably a book about dietotherapy. Guo Pu said that tea can be boiled into soup, which is an early way of utilization. "Soup" is a kind of thick soup porridge food that cooks meat, vegetables, grain and seasonings into a pot, and can also be used as a staple food. The ancients paid attention to the blending of five flavors of food, with salt as the main ingredient, the sour taste of plum, the sweet taste of jujube and the bitter taste of bitter vegetables. Tea was also regarded as a bitter seasoning food. Among the "Seven Things" in the Book of Tea, there are examples of taking tea as a dish, cooking porridge with tea, using tea as medicine, and cooking tea with ginger, onion and orange. In the Tang Dynasty, Lu Yu despised people for mixing tea with other things and thought that they should only be poured into ditches. Lu Yu advocates green tea. The unique taste and efficacy of tea can only be fully displayed in clear drinking. Lu Yu said in the Book of Tea that drinking water is enough to quench your thirst. To get rid of troubles, you have to drink; If you want to refresh yourself, you should drink tea. If you have a headache, thirst, dry eyes, chest tightness, weakness of limbs and joint discomfort, drinking four or five mouthfuls of tea can rival the fairy water. However, the quality of tea is so poor that it tastes unbearable. In ancient times, the lower class people put ginger and salt in their tea to cook, which is not unrelated to the poor quality of the tea they drink. Therefore, it is necessary to improve the production and processing of tea and improve the quality of tea to popularize tea. Therefore, Lu Yu introduced the tools and skills of picking tea in Tea Classic, and summarized the skills of making tea and drinking tea. A great contribution of Lu Yu's Tea Classic is to standardize the production and processing of tea, make the way of drinking tea clearly mainstream, and promote a leap in the history of tea production and consumption. In the Tang Dynasty, there were many processing forms, such as coarse tea, loose tea, unfinished tea and cake tea, and processing methods such as baking, baking, steaming and frying were all applied. However, Chaze, as a mass-produced commodity, is cake tea, which is probably related to the convenience of transportation and preservation and the difficulty of deterioration. The category of cake tea is monotonous, which can't fully reflect the true color, fragrance and shape of tea. In the Song Dynasty, with the improvement of tea storage methods and the southward movement of the Song capital, the production of loose tea gradually expanded and developed. In the Ming Dynasty, making loose tea became the mainstream, and tribute tea also turned cake tea into bud tea. As a result, famous teas from all over the world stand out, and various processed teas emerge one after another. The way of drinking tea has also changed from cooking to simple brewing, which has driven another leap in tea production and consumption.
At present, there are thousands of famous teas in China, among which 20 1 species is recorded in China Tea Classic, which belongs to six categories, namely green tea, black tea, green tea (oolong tea), white tea, yellow tea and black tea, all in six colors. Formally. Strip, flat, round, thin and pointed can be used. Among them, there are 0/38 kinds of green tea, 0/3 kinds of oolong tea and 8 kinds of black tea. According to the tradition of China. Color and taste are related to performance, such as black tea (fully fermented tea); Red color, warm nature, sweet taste, warm stomach and soothe the nerves; Green tea (non-fermented tea, green in color, sweet and bitter in taste, slightly cold in nature, clearing away heat and improving eyesight; Oolong tea (semi-fermented tea) is orange-yellow in color and tastes between red and green tea. In addition, there are reprocessed teas; Scented tea, pressed tea, health tea, fruit tea, instant tea, beverage tea, etc. , each has its own sexual and taste characteristics.
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The popularity of tea drinking and the improvement of tea quality provide a material basis for the emergence of tea ceremony, but the formation of tea ceremony has an interactive process between tea and people, matter and spirit. Tea brings people physical and mental comfort, and people inject thoughts and feelings into tea. Thus, tea drinking skills are constantly improved, tea drinking activities are enriched, and even the artistic conception of tea drinking is created, so that tea drinking is improved from material enjoyment to spiritual enjoyment, and tea ceremony is born. In this regard, Wu Juenong's "Tea Classic Review" put it well: "People drink tea ... one is to regard tea as a necessity, and even every meal is indispensable. It is passed down from generation to generation because of physiological needs. Another is to regard tea as a precious and noble drink. Drinking tea is a kind of spiritual enjoyment, an art and a means of self-cultivation. That makes sense. Physiological function is closely related to mental function. Lu Yu, the author of the Book of Tea, can be said to be a representative figure who emphasizes spiritual effects. "
In the history of our country. People of different classes form tea culture circles of different colors. The first is the court tea culture. According to the records of Huayang Guozhi, which is often written by Jin people, after the destruction of Bashu and other forces, Ganba was sealed. From then on, the tea produced in Bashu area was presented to the court together with other local products. Gu, a scholar in Qing Dynasty, also mentioned in Records of the Day that "after Qin people took Shu, they only drank tea". In the Tang and Song Dynasties, tribute tea reached its peak, from production, production, transportation and storage to drinking, ancestor worship, banquet and gift, forming a complete and strict management system and becoming an important part of court culture. Lu Tong has a poem: "The son of heaven must taste Yangxian tea, and a hundred herbs dare not open first." Song Huizong is not only good at tasting tea, ordering tea and fighting tea, but also personally wrote a book on tea science, Daguan Tea Theory. There is no doubt that tribute tea is a superior product and is cherished by the royal family. Palace tea culture often pursues perfection, but objectively promotes the improvement of tea art level. It influenced the official and scholar-bureaucrat classes, which were dominated by literati, and hit it off with tea, forming the literati tea culture circle. Scholars drink tea, and tea helps them think and complement each other. Scholars have greatly enriched tea drinking activities with their poems, essays, books and paintings. They are also knowledgeable. They know Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, which have injected profound ideological connotation into tea ceremony and played a leading role in the promotion and development of tea culture. Lu Yu herself should be a geisha in the literati tea culture circle.
When tea is introduced into Buddhist temples, it has a special affinity. The earliest record of Buddhist tea drinking in the Book of Tea can be traced back to the Jin Dynasty. Dunhuang people practice in Zhaode Temple in Henan. They meditate all day, stay up all day, and are not afraid of cold and heat. They only take a few pills and drink several bowls of tea every day. At first, monks drank tea for health preservation, and the rise of Zen gave tea a new connotation. The faint and thoughtful tea nature naturally blends with the Zen intention of meditation, and Zen enters the tea, creating the artistic conception of "tea Zen blindly" through tea. Tea drinking in the temple spread from the south where tea is produced to the north where tea is not produced, and from the inside to the outside of the temple. Monks are not only consumers but also producers of tea. Temples are good at tea art, and famous teas come forth in large numbers, which greatly promotes the development of tea drinking. In contrast, Taoism has a small number of people, but it has a great influence on tea culture. Among the early tea drinkers listed in The Book of Tea, there were immortal Qiu Zi, Huang Shanjun and Taoism whose ancestors were the great thinker Lao Zi, and outstanding scholars, doctors and tea people such as Ge Hong, Tao Hongjing and Sun Siyi were produced. Taoist thought is above things, advocating nature, being good at keeping in good health, pursuing immortality, treating tea and fairy medicine equally, saying that bitter tea can change the body and improve the identity of tea.
Tea drinking initially spread from the folk in tea-producing areas to the upper classes of society, forming tea culture circles such as courts, scribes, monks and Taoists. In turn, drinking tea from the upper classes led citizens to follow suit. By the Tang Dynasty, drinking tea in cities had become a grand occasion of "drinking more than houses". In the Song Dynasty, tea was included in the seven things to open the door, "rice, oil, salt, sauce and vinegar tea". Although folk tea drinking is not as elegant as the upper class, it is also rich and colorful, and "guests come to worship tea" has become a common practice in people's homes. After the Tang and Song Dynasties, tea shops, teahouses, teahouses, tea gardens and tea rooms of different scales and levels rose, spreading from cities to villages and towns, forming a major feature of China teahouse culture. In the vast rural tea-producing areas, tea farmers produce and sell themselves. They know and love tea and have special feelings for it. In their working life, many touching tea songs and teamo have been produced, and many beautiful fairy tales have been circulated. There are many lively tea-drinking ceremonies and customs in China, such as taking tea as a gift for engagement and marriage, symbolizing the purity of love and growing old together; When a child is born at full moon, he washes his hair with tea soup in order to open his wisdom early and live a long life. The "three teas" of the Bai nationality in Dali, Yunnan Province, with bitter taste and sweet aftertaste, contain life philosophy. The Naxi people living at the border of Sichuan and Yunnan, with a small number, created their own hieroglyphic "Dongba" in the 1 1 century, including three beautiful tea characters. Folk tea drinking habits are full of bioethics, which are reflected in China's notes and novels.
With the development of history, some connotations of tea culture formed in ancient times have disappeared, some have changed, some have been preserved and inherited, and some have been newly produced, which has played a very good role in promoting social life and culture. Today, we summarize the connotation of China tea culture, at least the following many:
Take tea as a gift, tea as a friendship, tea as a custom, tea as a substitute for wine, tea as an inspiration, tea as a medium, tea as a sacrifice, tea as a Zen, tea as a poem, tea as a painting, tea as a song and dance, tea as a performance, tea as a leisure, tea as a health care, tea as a dish, tea as a food, tea as a feast and tea as a medicine.
The above connotations can be summarized into three types of functions. First, by perfecting the skill of using tea and creating the artistic conception of drinking tea, people can enjoy material beauty and spiritual beauty, which can be called the artistic ability of tea culture, or tea art; Second, borrowing tea as etiquette, harmonizing interpersonal relationships, advocating virtue and promoting moral fashion can be called the virtue of tea culture, or cha de; Third, borrow tea to cultivate self-cultivation, enlighten wisdom, be beneficial to thinking, be indifferent to ambition, and be quiet and far-reaching. This can be called the Zen ability of tea culture, or tea Zen. In the actual activities of tea culture, these connotations and functions are often blended together, not completely separated.
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Finally, discuss the inner spirit of tea culture. It is self-evident that China tea culture is influenced by the traditional cultures of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. Cha Sheng Lu Yu, a master of tea culture in China, was born in Buddhism and studied Confucianism assiduously. He has been friends with scholars and monks all his life, and the tea classics are permeated with tea ceremony ideas everywhere. The first chapter of the Book of Tea mentioned "diligence and thrift", saying that good tea is most suitable for cultured people to drink, and also put forward principles for the vast number of tea people and tea lovers. The word "frugality" is concise and to the point, which comes from the thought of "prudence is frugal, but perseverance is constant" in Zhouyi Zhuan. Lu Yu carved three words on the tripod he designed: "On the top of the ridge, the lower half is separated", "The five elements in the body can cure all diseases" and "The Holy Tang will destroy Hu Zhu next year". The first sentence, taken from the name of gossip, stands for water, fire and wind, which means that only by mastering water, fire and wind well and coordinating them can we make good tea. Wind energy can put out fire, but it can also ignite, water can put out fire, and fire can also boil water, which embodies the principle that things promote each other. The second sentence is taken from the theory of five elements, saying that the human body needs the coordination of five internal organs to avoid getting sick. So the five flavors of sweet, sour, bitter, spicy and salty should be balanced. Tea tastes bitter, which is one of the five flavors. Suffering is beneficial to the heart, indispensable, and of course not excessive. Five lines of gossip of Yin and Yang originated from the ancient and profound Taiji culture in China. The third sentence shows that Ding was built in the second year after the Anshi Rebellion was put down, which shows that Lu Yu is also a patriot who cares about national security. Lu Yu also used the shape of a teapot to compare Confucian maxims of governing the country, such as "being right", "being far away" and "keeping the middle". The 48 historical materials collected by Lu Yu in the "Seven Things" in the Book of Tea not only contain the connotation of tea culture, but also embody the spirit of tea ceremony. Lu Yu is worthy of being a master of "teaching in tea" and "entertaining education". Besides Lu Yu, many tea men and tea men in the past dynasties also endowed China with excellent ideological connotation of tea ceremony. Many artistic, ethical and philosophical essences contained in tea culture were inherited by later generations of tea people. Contemporary China tea men Wu Juenong, Wang Zenong, Zhuang Wan Fang, Chen Xun and Liang Qian are outstanding representatives. Wu Juenong is also called contemporary Cha Sheng. In his later years, he also edited and published an epoch-making and summative work on tea studies, Tea Classic Review.
Mr. Zhuang Wanfang, who lives in Hangzhou, has been committed to promoting China tea culture. The four principles of "honesty, beauty, harmony and respect-honesty and morality, beauty and true entertainment, honesty and respect" advocated by him in cha de, China are still recited by tea people at home and abroad. In his later years, he often mentioned the nine-character formula of "Heaven and earth are you and me, yesterday, today and tomorrow", which is actually a summary of China's traditional culture of harmony, interpersonal harmony and self-improvement. It can be interpreted as: everyone has the desire to pursue a better life, and people live between heaven and earth. To deal with the relationship between man and nature, we can obtain living resources from nature, but we cannot destroy the ecological environment; When people live in society, they should deal with the relationship between good people, get along well and help each other. Living in the long river of history, people should handle the relationship between inheritance and development, learn from history, sum up experience, inherit outstanding cultural achievements and create a better future. This reflects the inherent ideological spirit of China traditional culture, and also conforms to the common desire of tea lovers and tea lovers. Let's forge ahead into the future and create a bright future for tea culture.