Occasionally, I was flipping through a magazine and saw an article called "Man among the Grass and Trees", which talked about tea in the Chaoshan area. The article said that tea was called "tea" only after Lu Yu, which means: people among the grass and trees. I recall that when I was learning calligraphy, I saw the appearance of the character "tea" in various generations. It is the same as the current simplified character "tea", with grass on the top and trees on the bottom, with a human character in the middle. From this point of view, the original intention of our ancestors in tea may really be "people among the grass and trees".
I didn’t know much about tea when I was a kid. “Firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce and vinegar tea” are just ordinary things that ordinary people use to entertain guests or for their own use, and they are not necessary. Anyone who doesn’t have tea will be in a situation where they can’t live. , it seems that it is a compliment to put it on par with the other six things in the "Seven Things to Do to Open the Door". Moreover, we do not produce tea there, and we have never heard of names such as Tieguanyin, Biluochun, and Dahongpao, let alone experienced them. My impression is only tea or scented tea. Tea is made from broken leaves. The better ones are neater and cleaner; the worse ones are hard stems and residue. When brewed, the color is red and the taste is strong. Those who don't drink it often can easily get drunk. Scented tea is roughly jasmine tea, which is of better quality. The dark brown tea leaves are dotted with yellow and white jasmine petals. The smell is fresh and fragrant, and the tea soup is rosy and bright. It is considered the top grade for concierges. The tea set is a porcelain teapot and several porcelain tea bowls. The teapot has a thin mouth and a bulging belly, and the tea bowls have ear-shaped handles. For a more luxurious touch, there is an enamel tea tray with red patterns on a white background and two goldfish swimming leisurely in the water. But even so simple, it is often dilapidated and old: there is a gap in the spout, and there are not many ears left in the teacup. Look inside the teapot, and you can see the dark brown rust accumulated over many years, and it seems that it will never be washed. It seems clean. The iron kettle for boiling water is also suitable. The body of the pot is a cone with a round bottom and a top, and a semicircular handle. Except for the slight metallic color at the handle due to frequent rubbing, the entire pot is as black as charcoal, making it difficult to imagine that it is made of cast iron. When boiling water, just place three bricks in a convenient place in the yard, squat the pot filled with water, add firewood under it, start a fire, and then watch the red flames and blue-white smoke tightly wrap the iron pot up to the mouth of the pot White gas began to spray, the lid of the pot opened and closed, making a crackling sound. He quickly pulled out the firewood, wrapped a towel around the handle, poured boiling water into the teapot, which was rinsed and waiting quietly with tea leaves.
Northern villages are not particular about tea, and there are no various rituals. Drinking tea is just drinking tea, there is no concept of tasting it, although it is not just for quenching thirst. When it’s cold, everyone drinks it, holding it in their hands to warm their hands, and drinking it into their stomachs to warm their stomachs; when it’s hot, drink it, and after a few cups of boiling tea, you’ll feel the dense sweat beads on your chest and back, which is extremely refreshing; drink it when there are many people , the sea and the sky are vast throughout the ages, it can relieve boredom; drinking quietly alone, the tea state changes into a Zen state. In addition, when guests come to the door, they must make tea as a courtesy, regardless of their relative status, the spout of the pot should not be facing the guest, and there is also the etiquette of "full of wine and light tea". From a metaphysical point of view, all these can be called indigenous tea culture. The water and soil on one side nourish one's people, and the water and soil on one side nourish one's culture. This can be regarded as a glimpse.
When I was a child, I didn’t talk about drinking tea. I just drank a cup with the adults. After drinking it, I had to talk about the taste as "tired" or "spicy". The adults laughed after hearing this. . Later, I learned more about tea and learned that tea culture is also a traditional Chinese culture. Drinking tea has many health benefits. However, because of low blood sugar, I often stay away from tea. But finally started drinking some green tea. Pour boiling water into a glass and watch the tea leaves gradually stretch into pieces of green and fresh buds, dyeing a glass of water green, and you will feel happy in your heart. Sip slowly, the aroma starts from your mouth and nose, spreads in your heart, and finally spreads everywhere, and then you realize the beauty of tea.
I got the chance to go to Fujian. I first went to Xiamen and heard the locals joke about themselves, "men are like grass and women are like birds." Why? Just as northerners are addicted to wine, Xiamen people are addicted to tea. "Every morning when I wake up, I drink tea with my dad for fifteen minutes before eating." The young man who made fun of himself said. He carries a travel bag with him and a thermos cup on one side. From time to time he takes it out and pours a small drink, saying it is Tieguanyin. “Xiamen people love to drink Tieguanyin, and I regard Tieguanyin as my life,” he said. Sure enough, when he was walking on Gulangyu Island, he reached a place where tea smoke was curling up. He sat down and said, "Let's have a drink first. We don't care if the sky falls right now!" From this, he knew that the reason why most people in Xiamen are thin is tea. , know the power of tea to cut fat and scrape oil. Then go to Wuyi Mountain, where people treat guests with home-style tea ceremonies. The tea set is very simple, but for northerners it is very complicated: a cup to hold water (to adjust the water temperature), a tea cup to make tea, a fair cup to hold tea soup, and then small tea cups. cup.
While the host was explaining the local tea tradition to us, he skillfully made tea for us. These tea sets are usually soaked in clean water, but now they are taken out one by one with special clips and placed on the bamboo tea tray. When the water is boiling, clean the tea set with boiling water, put the tea in a cup, pour water into the cup, strain the tea soup into a fair cup, and then fill the tea cup one by one. This time it was just for washing the tea, not for drinking, the tea soup was poured onto the tea pet. She was not busy making tea, she lifted the lid of the tea cup and let us smell the aroma of the tea. Then the same procedure was repeated for the first time, except that each person ordered half a cup or more of tea in the tea cup in front of them. She first picked it up with one hand, guarded it with the other hand, took a small sip, and then "hiss," "ss," "ss," "We here drink tea, and one cup should be divided into three sips. For tasting, you have to sip the tea three times in your mouth. "You have to sip loudly to show how good you are at tasting tea."
Actually, these homely ways of drinking tea are not considered. The Kung Fu tea ceremony is very different from the Japanese tea ceremony. The Kung Fu tea ceremony pays more attention to the procedures and is more cumbersome. The Japanese tea ceremony takes Kung Fu tea to the extreme and is almost "morbid". Therefore, the natural tea-drinking habit formed over time is more attractive to me. It is like freehand brushwork with splashing ink, which makes people relaxed and relaxed, while Kung Fu tea is like a lady with fine brushwork. It is okay to enjoy it occasionally, but it is afraid of breaking the spirit if you play with it all day long.
After seeing the most authentic tea ceremony here, we went to Wuyi Mountain to see the tea gardens. Tea picking in tea gardens has only been seen on TV. The real tea gardens are not that beautiful. Perhaps it is due to the season. The tea trees are not lush and there are not many buds and leaves. At a glance, they are similar to the holly common in the north, except that the leaves are narrow. Smaller. But standing in the vast tea garden, seeing white clouds rising from the sky and the wind blowing under my sleeves, it is a unique experience. Seeing the rugged mountains, the sky high and the clouds vast, and the tourists dotted among them, they look like grass and grass. I can't help but feel that in the vast universe, what is not so small that it can be ignored.
I also remembered the scene when I was a kid when I was boiling water to make tea. The black kettle was filled with the embers from the burning of thousands of plants and trees. We call it "pot ash", and the Fang family calls it "ash at the bottom of the pot". "Baicao Shuang", in fact, the water we usually drink is soaked in the spirit of plants and trees. Using it to make tea can also obtain the bones and blood of plants and trees. Our daily life, and even rising to the spiritual realm of culture, have received so many benefits from plants and trees.
I have been drinking tea for more than ten years and have been exposed to some methods of playing with tea, but I don’t really understand tea myself. Perhaps the tea ceremony is the Tao of Zen and the Way of Heaven. A person may not be able to suddenly gain enlightenment after a lifetime of studying, practicing, and comprehending. Therefore, there is no need to be limited to it. Drinking tea is drinking tea, whether it is to quench your thirst or to comment on it, the way of heaven may be like the way of Buddha, "If you see me with form and seek me with sound, you will follow the wrong path and cannot see the Tathagata." Therefore, if you want to understand the truth, don’t get carried away and put down what is on your mind first. Maybe one day, holding tea in your hand, you will suddenly be blessed and realize: What is tea? It's just people among the grass and trees.