China is the homeland of tea, but there are many opinions about the origin of Chinese tea drinking, some people say that the earliest can be traced back to the ancient period from the Shennong clan, and some people believe that the earliest is in the Warring States period. However, in the historical materials before the Tang Dynasty, there was no such word for tea, but only the word "荼", until Lu Yu wrote the first monograph on tea in human history, the Tea Classic, which said: "Tea people, jiamuye of the south." "It really opened up the tea culture of Chinese."
If I had to ask, "Where did Lu Yu complete the creation of the Tea Classic?" "Probably most people don't know. In fact, Lu Yu lived in seclusion in Jiangnan at that time, and the place where he wrote the book was on the outskirts of Hangzhou, Zhejiang, at the foot of Yuhang Trail Mountain. A spring, a straw hut, a bed, a table and a stool complete this masterpiece of creation. Today, the spring is still in the new grass house, named: Lu Yu Spring, which has become a famous scenic spot in Hangzhou. Visitors can not only enjoy the scenery of Lu Yu Spring, but also experience the traditional Chinese way of drinking tea here.
Photographed in March 2021 in Yuhang, Hangzhou, Zhejiang.
In recent years, the domestic tourism industry has developed rapidly, and tourism is no longer a luxury, but has become a part of the lives of chinese people. The mode of tourism has also slowly changed, people have gone from the initial scenic spots, the mode of seeing the scenery, slowly to the direction of in-depth tourism, experience tourism, so Lu Yuquan's tea experience is still loved by many tourists, not only can understand the traditional Chinese culture in the experience, but also harvest a unique way of brewing tea, so that you can be liberated in the urban complicated life, return to authenticity, harvest happiness.
Trail Mountain, famous for its temple, flourished because of tea. One side has good mountains and good water, and it has bred a good tea for the trail mountain. I think the reason why Mr. Lu Lao chose to complete the creation of his "Tea Classic" here is precisely because he valued the good mountains and good water and good tea of Jingshan Mountain. Nowadays, Jingshan Temple and Jingshan Tea have become another golden business card of Hangzhou tourism.
Jingshan Mountain, located about 50 kilometers northwest of Hangzhou City, in the territory of Jingshan Town, Yuhang District, here is the remnant of Tianmu Mountain, the forest coverage rate has reached 70%, is a veritable oxygen bar, known as the back garden of Hangzhou. Our destination today, "Lu Yu Spring", is located at No. 7 Shuangxi Zhuhai Road, Jingshan Town. Walking into the courtyard, what you see is a traditional Chinese courtyard, there are antique buildings, ponds, rockeries, and pavilions, but the older one is the spring, which is said to have been created by Lu Yu in the past when he built a grass hut by the spring.
According to historical records, tea order originated in the Tang Dynasty, and by the Song Dynasty, the entire tea ordering process has been quite perfect and reached its peak, so everyone likes to call it "Song-style tea". If you want to enter Lu Yu Spring to experience some tea, then you have to change into Song style costumes first, and when you walk into the gate of Lu Yu Spring, you also seem to have traveled back to that era.
When everyone is dressed, Lu Yuquan's little sister will first welcome everyone with traditional etiquette. The next step is to take everyone to visit Lu Yu Spring, explain to everyone about its history and how Mr. Lu Yu lived here in seclusion and completed his work in this simple grass house.
After visiting the attractions and learning about this history, the next step is to experience the tea. The little sister will take everyone to another room, there is another little sister at the door holding a roll of paper, spread out and start to read the words on it, this is called "unveiling the tea list", mainly about a certain day of a certain month of a certain year, what are you doing here, etc., this is the traditional Chinese etiquette, feel very good.
After unveiling the tea list, if you want to enter the house, you must also have a special waist plate, which is engraved with the names of some famous literati of the Song Dynasty, such as Su Shi, Du Mu, Ouyang Xiu, etc., which is a representative of identity, and on the back of the waist plate there are two sentences of this celebrity representing poetry.
Once inside, first clean your hands. The ancients didn't have running water, so the more elegant way of washing hands was like this on the picture. You don't have to say that this way of washing your hands is really better than running water. After washing and drying with a cloth, you also need incense, so that you can not only make the hands fragrant, but also have the effect of purification and calming, it is said that the ancients needed to go through this procedure before drinking tea.
Enter the house, find a place to sit down, on each table are a few delicate small bowls, some fruits and refreshments, and the tools for ordering tea today, and there is a small incense burner on the side, wafting smoke. After everyone sits down, another beautiful little sister, as today's explainer, will explain the whole tea process for everyone.
Tea ordering slowly declined after the Song Dynasty, and finally disappeared into the long river of Chinese history. During the Song Dynasty, a Japanese monk came to Jingshan Temple to worship the teacher, and when he returned to China, he brought Chinese tea to Japan, which became the origin of the Japanese tea ceremony and has been used to this day, so the Japanese tea ceremony originated from Jingshan. The tea we see today, in addition to consulting the records of ancient books, also combines the Japanese tea ceremony to restore the Song style tea to the greatest extent.
After the tea order begins, this beautiful young lady from the painting will first demonstrate the process of ordering tea for everyone. Tea is not used tea, but tea powder, the ancients will be the trail camellia with stone grinding into powder, and then filtered with a special sieve, only take the most delicate part, now popular in the world of Japanese matcha is used tea powder.
The bowl used to order tea is also very exquisite, and it must be produced in Jianyang District, Nanping City, Fujian Province. To say that the two years of Jianzhan are not hot, especially the ancient bowl is pursued by countless people, if it is the Song Dynasty, it is worth a lot. The first step in ordering tea is to warm the cup, pour hot water into the cup, then rotate it so that the whole bowl is heated evenly, and finally the water is poured out.
Add 2 tablespoons of ground tea to a heated bowl and pour in hot water. This first time to add water is also very exquisite, the amount of water can not be large, mainly points, and can only be added to the side.
After adding hot water, it is necessary to use this special tea basket to stir in a circular ring in the cup. To complete the order of tea, each step is very important, a step to take the wrong tea is easy to fail, it is difficult to play the tea soup flower (tea foam), the professional term is called "blowing". In the Song Dynasty, the tea fighting was compared to whoever played the tea soup flower for a long time, who won, the professional name is called biting cup.
After the tea foam is made, continue to add water and beat again. Song-style tea is ordered to add water seven times, and the amount of water is gradually increased. After seven times of water injection and blowing, a thick layer of tea foam will be punched out on the top of the tea soup, and the tea below cannot be seen, so that the tea is successful. If you order well enough, the tea foam is thick enough, you can still write and draw on it, the principle is the same as the coffee framer, but Chinese played this more than a thousand years ago.
Finally, you can taste your own handmade tea, which is generally the first time and unforgettable.
After the beautiful little sister demonstration is completed, everyone can start to experience and see if you can make a tea bubble. In fact, under the guidance of the on-site staff, basically everyone completes the order of tea. In the tea party, there is also a game of drumming and passing flowers, tourists who get flowers need to draw on their own tea soup according to the idiom in the instruction card on the table, and then let other friends guess, guess the winner and gifts to take Oh.
Throughout the tea party, everyone had a lot of fun and recorded this unforgettable moment with their mobile phones. Seeing this, do you want to experience it too?