The tea ceremony is a way to appreciate the beauty of tea.
A kind of life art of cooking and drinking tea, a kind of life etiquette using tea as a matchmaker, and a way of life using tea to cultivate one's body. Through making tea, appreciating tea, smelling tea, and drinking tea, it enhances friendship, cultivates virtue, learns etiquette, and appreciates traditional virtues. It is a very beneficial harmonious ritual. Drinking tea can calm the mind and spirit, help cultivate your mood and get rid of distracting thoughts.
The spirit of tea ceremony is the core of tea culture. The tea ceremony is known as the incarnation of Taoism.
Tea ceremony culture originated in China, was introduced to Japan and Korea during the Southern Song Dynasty, and declined in China after the Yuan Dynasty.
The tea ceremony originated in China.
At least in the Tang Dynasty or before the Tang Dynasty, the Chinese were the first people in the world to use tea drinking as a way to cultivate their moral character.
(Meaning: Tea drinking, drinking tea and other tea ceremonies were widely promoted and became popular. There were no princes, nobles or courtiers who did not drink tea.) This is the earliest record of the tea ceremony in existing literature.
The earliest and most complete tea ceremony process is the Sencha Tea Ceremony created by Lu Yu in the Tang Dynasty. In "Preface to the Tea Banquet on March 3", Lu Wen gave a very vivid description of the elegant atmosphere of the tea banquet and the wonderful charm of tea tasting.
During the Tang and Song Dynasties, people were very particular about the tea drinking environment, etiquette, operation methods and other tea drinking rituals. There were some established rules and rituals. Tea banquets included palace tea banquets, They are divided into temple tea banquets and literati tea banquets. He also has a profound understanding of the role of tea in cultivating one's character.
In the second year of Shaoxi in the Southern Song Dynasty (AD 1191), the Japanese monk Rong Xi brought tea seeds back to Japan from China. From then on, Japan began to plant tea all over the country.
At the end of the Southern Song Dynasty (1259 AD), the Japanese Zen Master Nanpu Shoming came to Jingshan Temple in Yuhang County, Zhejiang Province, China to learn Buddhist scriptures. He exchanged the tea ceremony of the temple and introduced the Chinese tea ceremony to Japan for the first time. The earliest disseminator of Chinese tea ceremony in Japan. Japan's "Leiju Mingwu Kao" has a clear record of this: "The beginning of the tea ceremony was built in front of Zhengyuan Chongfu Temple. Nanpu Zhaoming was introduced from the Song Dynasty." Japan's "Biography of Eminent Monks of the Dynasty" also has: "Nanpu Zhaoming returned from the Song Dynasty. country, bringing the tea table and tea utensils to Chongfu Temple."
It was not until Japan's Toyotomi Hideyoshi era (1536-1598 AD, equivalent to the middle and late Ming Dynasty in my country) that Sen no Rikyu became a Japanese tea ceremony monk, and he raised the banner of "tea ceremony" high and According to the Book of Songs, the four rules of the tea ceremony are summarized: "harmony, respect, purity, and silence." Obviously, this basic theory was influenced by the essence of the Chinese tea ceremony, and its main ritual framework and specifications still originated from China.
The tea ceremony in China appeared very early, but unfortunately, although China proposed the concept of "tea ceremony" very early and continued to practice and explore in this field, it has not been able to use the name of "tea ceremony" clearly. To develop this cause, tea ceremony etiquette with traditional significance has not been standardized.
The Chinese tea ceremony can be said to emphasize spirit over form. Some scholars believe that necessary rituals are more important to the banner of "tea ceremony". If there are no rituals, just claiming to have "tea ceremony", although it cannot be said that it is impossible, if tea can be praised, it seems to be a generalization. In the end, "the Tao can be Tao, but it is very Tao".
Making tea is a very simple matter. It only requires two actions: put the tea leaves and pour the water. But in the tea ceremony, the set of rituals is too complicated or too elaborate. Ordinary people will definitely not make this small daily thing so complicated.
In fact, the Chinese tea ceremony is not just satisfied with the invention and ritual specifications of using tea to cultivate the body and mind. Instead, it boldly explores the true meaning of tea on human health and creatively combines tea with traditional Chinese medicine and other kinds of tea. The organic combination of natural raw materials greatly enhances the role of tea in medical care and gives it a greater space for development. This is the most practical aspect of the Chinese tea ceremony, and it has been favored for thousands of years. The charm that people value and love.
The way of drinking tea in the Tang Dynasty and the tea soup in the Tang Dynasty are completely different from our concepts today.
For tea drinking in the Tang Dynasty, tea cakes were chopped into powder and passed through "Luo" ("Luo" means sieve. "Chaluo" is a tea set specially used to sift tea powder) Then add boiling water and cook it into a paste. At the same time, add salt, onion, ginger, orange peel, mint, etc. to it, which is similar to a terrible "spicy soup". This "tea soup", which has a completely strange smell and is almost unpalatable to anyone even thinking about it, can refresh your mind and prevent you from dozing off.
The tea ceremony of the Tang Dynasty was passed down to later generations, and was completely wiped out in China after a hundred years of rule by the Yuan Dynasty. On the contrary, Japanese tea ceremony retains part of the content of the tea ceremony of the Tang Dynasty.
The tea brewing method that emerged in the Yuan Dynasty has been passed down to this day, but there is no "Tao" component here. The so-called "tea ceremony" and "tea culture" that are popular in China today, the so-called "tea ceremony thought of 'diligence, simplicity and tranquility'", as well as many pretentious gestures.
Therefore, although the word "tea ceremony" has been used for more than a thousand years since the Tang Dynasty, it has not been used in reference books such as "Xinhua Dictionary", "Cihai" and "Etymology". entry.
The tea ceremony belongs to Eastern culture.
The difference between Eastern culture and Western culture is that Eastern culture often does not have a scientific and accurate definition, but relies on individuals to get close to and understand it based on their own understanding.
Tea ceremony is a performance art that expresses certain etiquette, character, artistic conception, aesthetic views and spiritual thoughts through tea tasting activities. It is a combination of tea art and spirit, and expresses spirit through tea art. It flourished in the Tang Dynasty of China, flourished in the Song and Ming Dynasties, and declined in the Qing Dynasty. The main content of the Chinese tea ceremony pays attention to the beauty of the five realms, namely tea leaves, tea water, heat, tea sets, and environment, as well as emotional and other conditions, in order to achieve the highest enjoyment of "taste" and "heart". Known as an aesthetic religion, the Japanese tea ceremony, with harmony, respect, purity, and silence as its basic spirits, inherits the legacy of the Tang and Song Dynasties.
Dig deeply into the connotation of Chinese culture, conduct in-depth research and explore the renaissance of Chinese culture. Tea culture belongs to the category of Chinese culture, which means that every detail of tea tasting is regulated by etiquette, paying attention to tea leaves, tea water, heat, tea sets, environment, and the beauty of the artistic conception formed together with the drinker's cultivation and emotions.