The tea ceremony is the combination of tea art and spirit, and the spirit is expressed 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 focuses on the beauty of the five realms, namely tea leaves, tea water, heat, tea sets, and environment.
The tea ceremony must follow certain rules. In the Tang Dynasty, in order to overcome nine difficulties, they were making, distinguishing, utensils, fire, water, broiling, mincing, boiling and drinking. In the Song Dynasty, there were three points and three points for tea tasting. The "three points" were new tea, sweet springs, and clean utensils. Good weather was one, and elegant guests with similar tastes were one.
There are two specific forms of Chinese tea ceremony: Sencha. Put the tea powder into the pot and boil it with water. Sencha tea in the Tang Dynasty was the earliest artistic form of tea tasting.
Fighting tea. Ancient literati each brought tea and water, and judged the quality of the tea by comparing the flowers of the tea, noodle soup, and tasting the tea soup. Tea fighting, also known as tea fighting, flourished in the late Tang Dynasty and flourished in the Song Dynasty. It was first popular in Jianzhou, Fujian. Tea fighting is the highest expression of the ancient art of tea tasting.
Gongfu tea. Gongfu tea, which has been popular in some areas since the Qing Dynasty, is the lingering influence of the art of tea tasting since the Tang and Song Dynasties. Gongfu tea in the Qing Dynasty was popular in Tingzhou, Zhangzhou, Quanzhou in Fujian and Chaozhou in Guangdong. Gongfu tea pays attention to the time of drinking.
Buddhism played a very important role in the development of Chinese tea ceremony.
The "Fengshi Hearing and Seeing Record" of the Tang Dynasty records: "Those who learn Zen do not sleep and do not eat late at night, but they are allowed to drink tea. People have their own thoughts and cook and drink everywhere. From then on, they follow suit. It became a custom. "The poet Du Mu of the Tang Dynasty said: "Today, the silk on the temples is falling, the tea smoke is blowing and the flowers are falling in the wind." It vividly describes the leisurely and elegant scene of the old monk making tea.
Drinking tea became popular in temples of all sizes, and monks intensified their research on tea harvesting. As a result, tea became famous in temples in famous mountains and rivers in the past dynasties.
For example, Biluochun is produced in Biluofeng in Dongting Mountain, Jiangsu Province. It was originally called "Shuiyue Tea" and was first made by monks from Shuiyueyuan of Dongting Mountain. Wuyi rock tea is the best made by the Zen monks of Wuyi Temple. Junshan Silver Needle is produced in Junshan Baihe Temple.
The combination of tea drinking and Buddhism has greatly promoted the development of tea culture. Ancient books record that ancient temples in the Tang and Song Dynasties had "tea halls" and "tea houses" where monks discussed Buddhism. Zen practice, discuss sutras and treatises, entertain benefactors and guests, and sip fragrant tea.
While advocating tea drinking and growing tea, the temple also integrates Buddhist rules, drinking tea and reading scriptures with Buddhist philosophy and life concepts. From this the "Cha Zen One" was born.
Tea and Buddhism are connected in a way that is experienced by the subject, and cannot be tasted deeply. When drinking tea, you need to be calm and pay attention to sipping in an orderly manner in order to achieve tranquility, purity and ease in the environment and mood.
In the development process of Chinese tea ceremony, many tea works have emerged. From Lu Yu's "Tea Classic" in the Tang Dynasty to Cheng Yuting's "Anhui Tea Slips" in the late Qing Dynasty, there are more than 100 kinds of monographs. Including tea methods, miscellaneous notes, tea recipes, tea records, tea classics, sencha tea tasting, water products, tea taxes, tea treatises, tea history, tea notes, tea collections, tea books, tea books, tea examinations, tea descriptions, tea Debate, tea affairs, tea formula, tea appointment, tea balance, tea hall, tea ride, tea talk, tea pod, tea talk, etc.
The world’s first monograph on tea was The Book of Tea written by Lu Yu in the Tang Dynasty. Lu Yu, who was famous for his illness, carefully summarized and studied the tea production experience of his predecessors and that time, and completed the original work "Tea Classic". Therefore, he is revered as the tea god and tea fairy. The Book of Tea systematically summarized the tea picking and drinking experience at that time, comprehensively discussed various issues related to the origin, production, and drinking of tea, spread scientific knowledge of the tea industry, promoted the development of tea production, and opened the door to the Chinese tea ceremony. First of all.
Since Lu Yu wrote The Book of Tea, tea monographs have been published one after another, further promoting the development of tea in China. Representative works include "Tea Records" by Cai Xiang of the Song Dynasty, "Daguan Tea Theory" by Zhao Ji, Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty, "Tea Book" written by Qian Chunnian and Xiao Gu Yuanqing of the Ming Dynasty, "Tea Records" by Zhang Yuan, "History of Tea" by Liu Yuanchang of the Qing Dynasty, etc. .
Tea culture is an important part of Chinese traditional culture. With the development and progress of society, tea not only plays a very good role in the economy and becomes a necessity in people's lives, but also gradually forms a dazzling tea culture and becomes a pearl of social spiritual civilization.
The emergence of tea culture has brought human spirit and wisdom to a higher level. Tea has a profound relationship with culture, covering a wide range of areas and rich in content. There is both a manifestation of spiritual civilization and an extension of ideology. Undoubtedly, it is beneficial to improve people's cultural accomplishment and art appreciation level.
1. Tea books
my country’s long history of tea industry has created tea industry science and technology for mankind, and has also accumulated the richest tea industry historical documents for the world. Among the vast cultural classics, there are not only books devoted to tea, but also a large amount of information about tea affairs, tea history, tea methods and tea production technology in historical books, local chronicles, notes, miscellaneous examinations and ancient calligraphy books. content.
2. Tea journals
Tea journals refer to continuous tea professional publications with fixed names, sequential numbers by volume, issue or year and month, and in volumes. According to incomplete statistics, there are 22 types of tea journals in my country after reorganization, and their number is unmatched by other tea-producing countries.
3. Tea and weddings
The relationship between tea and weddings, simply put, is the application and absorption of tea or tea culture as part of the etiquette in weddings. In fact, the infiltration or absorption of tea culture into weddings is related to the custom of drinking tea and the etiquette of entertaining guests with tea in my country. Because a wedding is not only a form of announcing to the society or asking the society to recognize the marriage relationship, it is actually a "reception" held for the bride and groom to recognize their relatives and friends through a banquet. Therefore, a happy wedding day is usually a day when the close relatives and friends of the two families get together, and guests come to offer tea. In this way, weddings will naturally become inseparable from tea. Therefore, from this perspective, the connection between tea and weddings can be traced back to the era when tea drinking became popular in my country. However, what I want to talk about here is not the use of tea to entertain guests during the wedding process, but the various etiquette and customs that directly use tea as a ceremony during the wedding.
4. Tea and Sacrifice
Our ancestors do not seem to have done any special research on when tea was used as a sacrifice. It is generally believed that the utilization of tea ranges from medicinal use to drinking, and from drinking to derived a series of tea cultural phenomena. This means that only after tea became a daily necessities, was it gradually used or absorbed into our country's rituals, including funerals. The ancient burial utensils used in burials in my country are called "death utensils" in "Shiming", and they are mainly items that "help life and death, and commemorate the deceased." As for the sacrificial rituals, as Ruan Luoqi of the Eastern Han Dynasty recited in his lament poem: "The fine food is not prepared, and the wine cup is filled with wine." These are the things that the deceased enjoyed and liked most during his lifetime. From the poem quoted above, it can be roughly seen that tea was not used as a sacrifice in our country during the Eastern Han Dynasty, at least in the north at this time.
5. Tea and Buddhism
Buddhism was founded by Sakyamuni, a prince of the ancient Indian state of Kapilavastu (in present-day Nepal) in the 6th to 5th centuries BC. It was first introduced to our country from the Western Regions. But the official spread of Buddhism in our country only happened in the early Eastern Han Dynasty. It was not until the Wei and Jin Dynasties, especially during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, that it developed significantly. However, it was during the Sui and Tang Dynasties, especially the prosperous Tang Dynasty, that Buddhism, especially the monastery economy, developed significantly.
6. Tea and Poetry
Our country is both the "motherland of tea" and the "country of poetry". Therefore, tea has penetrated into poetry very early, from the earliest appearance of Tea poems (such as Zuo Si's "Poetry of a Beautiful Girl") have lasted for 1,700 years, and numerous poets and writers have created many beautiful tea poems.
7. Tea Songs and Tea Poems Dance
Tea songs and tea dances, like tea and poetry, are a tea cultural phenomenon derived from the main culture of tea production and drinking. Their appearance is not limited to our national songs. In the later stage of the development of dance, tea production and drinking in my country became a regular part of social production and life. According to the existing tea history data, tea became the content of singing, which was first seen in the Western Jin Dynasty. "Chu Ge" of Chu states that "Jianggui Tea Chuo came out of Bashu". The "Cha Chuo" mentioned here refers to tea. In ancient my country, as "Erya" said: "The sound is better than that of Qin Se Rige." "; "Han Shi Zhang Ju" said: "There are chapters and songs and songs", and it is believed that as long as the poems are accompanied by chapters and music, and the sound is like a harp and a harp, then the poems are also songs. In the Song Dynasty, this style of tea songs was passed down from tea poems. There are many such situations. For example, Xiong Fan said in the preface of ten "Tea-picking Songs in the Royal Garden": "In the previous dynasty, Cao Si was granted the title of Xiu Mu, and he called himself a retired scholar. He wrote ten "Tea-picking Songs in the Royal Garden," which were passed down among the people. . The story of Fan Jinfu was also given to the emperor. "The so-called "passing among the people" here means singing among the people.
8. Tea and Opera
Our country is The country that created tea culture is also the only country in the world where the development of tea has produced an independent drama - "tea-picking opera". The so-called tea-picking opera is popular in Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi and other provinces. Different types of operas are often distinguished by their place names in different provinces, such as "Northern Guangdong Tea Picking Opera", "Yangxin Tea Picking Opera", "Huangmei Tea Picking Opera" and "Qichun Tea Picking Opera" in Hubei. Etc. This kind of opera is more common in Jiangxi, and there are many types of operas. For example, Jiangxi tea-picking opera includes "Gannan tea-picking opera", "Fuzhou tea-picking opera", "Nanchang tea-picking opera", "Wuning tea-picking opera" and "Ji'an tea-picking opera". " etc. Although these dramas have many names, their formation time was roughly from the mid-Qing Dynasty to the late Qing Dynasty.
9. Tea and Fine Arts
Fine Arts It is a kind of "plastic art", which is an art that creates visual images through composition, modeling, color and other means. Therefore, its scope or content includes not only paintings and sculptures as generally considered, but also architecture.
10. Tea and couplets
Tea couplets are a dazzling flower in the treasure house of couplets in my country. There is no limit on the number of words, but they must be neat and balanced. It is the evolution of the form of poetry. In our country, wherever there is a "Tea Friendship" place, such as on the doorways or stone pillars of teahouses, teahouses, teahouses, teahouses, on the walls of halls where tea ceremonies, tea art, and tea ceremonies are performed, and even in In the living rooms of tea drinkers, tea couplets with tea affairs as the content can often be seen hanging. When people see it, it not only has the beauty of simplicity and elegance, but also has a sense of "righteousness" and noble sentiments. It can also bring associations to people and increase the interest of drinking tea.
11. Tea proverbs
Tea proverbs are another cultural phenomenon derived from the development of tea culture in my country. The so-called "proverb", in the words of Xu Shen's "Shuowen Jiezi", "proverb: rumor"; that is, it refers to a kind of common saying that is easy to speak, easy to remember and rich in philosophy that is passed down orally among the masses. Tea proverbs, in terms of their content or nature, generally fall into two categories: tea drinking and tea production. In other words, tea proverbs mainly come from the practice of tea drinking and production. They are a summary or expression of the experience of tea drinking and production, and are preserved and spread through oral transmission and memorization in the form of proverbs. Therefore, tea proverbs are not only a precious heritage of our country's tea science or tea culture, but also a beautiful flower in our country's folk literature, not only from a creative or literary perspective.