"Xiao Yuan's Sending New Shu Tea"
[Tang] Bai Juyi
Shu tea was sent but surprised by the new, and the water was fried to start with Zhen.
Man Ou seems to be able to play with milk, but the situation is that the spring is deep and thirsty.
01
This poem "Xiao Yuan's Sending New Shu Tea" was written in the fifth year of Tang Xianzong's reign (810). In this year, Bai Juyi was thirty-nine years old, and as a counselor, he lived in Chang'an. According to the traditional historiography, Bai Juyi at this time was an excellent politician.
As an advisor, Bai Juyi during this period wrote many poems reflecting social problems. "Shangyang White-Haired Man" laments the fate of the elderly palace women who have been in the claustrophobic palace for many years and cannot be married. "Xinfeng Folding Arm Weng" is the story of a white-haired old man who evaded military harassment and broke his wrist. "Charcoal Seller" is even more famous, talking about the low-level people who are "worried about charcoal and wish for cold weather". The above poems are all contemporaneous works with "Xiao Yuan's Sending New Shu Tea".
At this time, Bai Juyi was like a current affairs reporter, frequently exposing the dark side of the Tang Empire, using the pen as a sword, like a warrior, it was inevitable that the liver was full of fire. Fortunately, at this time, Xiao Yuan sent a new Shu tea. Such a high-pressure work, if there is no tea company, how can it work? Some people say that drinking tea is a matter for idle people. I want to see that the busier the person, the more seriously they need to drink tea.
Who is Xiao Yuanwai? It may be a mystery for eternity. But it is certain that Xiao Yuanwai is a good friend of Bai Juyi. In the Tang Dynasty, there was no SF, and it was quite difficult to send something. Just as the so-called "thousands of miles to send goose feathers, gifts are light and affectionate", not iron brothers, how can they send tea in thousands of miles? "Xiao Yuan's Sending New Shu Tea" is the earliest tea poem of Bai Juyi in existence. Xiao Yuanwai may be the first person to influence Bai Juyi's tea drinking.
The first sentence, "Shu tea was sent but surprised by the new", is Bai Juyi's first feeling when he "opened the courier".
The word "new" here can be interpreted in two ways, one is "novelty" and the other is "fresh". If it is interpreted as "novelty", it means that Bai Juyi has not seen Much Shu Tea before. At this time, Bai Juyi was thirty-nine years old, and zhongjinshi had been in the official field for a full ten years, and he had never seen the famous Shu tea, which was a bit unspeakable. What's more, the title has already said that what was sent was "New Shu Tea". Therefore, the Shu tea sent by Xiao Yuanwai was too fresh and surprising to Bai Juyi.
"Xiao Yi Earn Lan Ting Tu" (partial)
The Shu tea of the Tang Dynasty was all green tea. If you want to ensure that it is freshly delivered to Bai Juyi in the capital, you must do two things: First, it must be delivered in time, and after it is made, it will not be delayed, and it must be sent directly to Chang'an. Second, it should be delivered quickly, non-stop during express delivery, and starry night.
In the Tang Dynasty, this was quite an extravagant act. Bai Juyi, it is likely that it is not the first time to receive a tea gift, but like such a fresh Shu tea sent by Xiao Yuanwai, Bai Juyi is really the first time to see it, so the poem should use a "surprise" word. Nowadays, this is something that can be done by casually calling a courier, easy to get, do not know how to cherish it, right?
At the same time, Bai Juyi also wrote a "but" in the first sentence. The "but" here is interpreted as only or only. The "surprise" when seeing tea is an instinctive reaction. The distance from Sichuan to Chang'an, the transportation capacity at that time, Bai Juyi knew it. Therefore, although Bai Juyi did not drink it, he also knew that this tea was different.
Therefore, the first verse of the poem, translated into modern Chinese, is to receive the New Shu tea sent by Xiao Yuan, but it feels very fresh. Please note that the definition of tea at this time is based on reason, not from the heart. This paves the way for the turn of events below.
The second sentence, "Wei Shui Frying to Start Jue Zhen", is Bai Juyi's deep feeling after "opening soup and drinking tea". At first, I just felt novel and held the psychology of trying it out. Deliberately find good water, do not live up to Xiao Yuan's painstaking heart. I didn't expect the tea soup to be so delicious. From this moment on, I really knew the preciousness of this tea. From "but shocking" to "first juezhen", unconsciously, Bai Juyi completed a transformation.
"Gong Le Tu" (partial)
The third and fourth sentences can be interpreted together. "Full of milk can be played, the situation is deep in the spring wine thirsty people", the translation is: fun, and wine, really a good cup of tea!
Tea quenches "wine thirst", which is well understood; tea can be "held and played", which is not easy to imagine; as for "full of milk", it is even less related to tea. Once a student even asked me: Teacher, is Bai Juyi drinking milk tea?
In fact, the white substance on the tea soup is tea saponin. Tea saponins, also known as tea saponins, are a class of complex glycoside compounds, which were first isolated from tea seeds by the Japanese scholar Jiro Aoyama in 1931. The characteristics of tea saponins are mainly three: First, the taste is bitter and spicy. The second is that it is difficult to dissolve in cold water, and it is easily soluble in hot water. Third, after its aqueous solution is shaken, it can produce a large number of persistent, soap-like foam-like things. The name tea saponin comes from this. The aqueous solution of tea saponin is actually a tea soup. The Tang Dynasty Sencha Method and the Song Dynasty Tea Method will make the tea soup oscillate, resulting in a persistent white foam. The "full of milk" in Bai Juyi's eyes is actually the role of tea saponin.
"Full of milk can be held and played", is an appreciative vision, but also a state of enjoyment. People who always have a skeptical eye and repeatedly rinse the small foam in the tea soup will not experience the pleasure of drinking tea after all. Knowledge, insight, and common sense are all necessary qualities for tea practitioners, but more importantly, it is a pair of eyes that discover the "beauty of tea", right? "Full of milk can be played", do you understand?
"Lu Yu Cooking Tea Diagram" (partial)
02
Since Xiao Yuanwai, many friends have appeared in Bai Juyi's tea poems because they sent good tea. For example, Li Xuan, who was the assassin of Chungju at the time, sent New Shu tea for Bai Juyi, and thus achieved the famous sentence "Don't send others to send me first, I should be another tea person".
In the third year of Tang Wenzong's reign (838), Bai Juyi wrote a wonderful tea poem "Xie Yang Dongchuan Sends Clothes". The same is to send a gift of thanks, the same is the same seven words, the two poems may wish to enjoy together. Its original text is as follows:
There are few travels with old age, and there are few depressions and letters everywhere. Only the nest brothers do not forget each other, and the spring tea has not been broken to send autumn clothes.
At this time, Bai Juyi was nearly an ancient age, and his mind was lazy and had no intention of socializing. The first two sentences conveniently use the technique of fighting, writing out the loneliness of Bai Juyi's old age. And the overlapping words of "year after year" and "everywhere" describe this state of loneliness that is difficult to discharge.
Yang Dongchuan in the poem, that is, Yang Rushi, because he is the cousin of Mu Chao, and he is also Bai Juyi's brother-in-law, so the poem calls him "Nest Brother". Looking at Bai Juyi's tea poems in his later years, Yang Rushi appeared frequently, such as: "Late Spring Idle Residence Yang Gongbu Sent Poems Yang Changzhou Sent Tea to The Cause of Answering with Long Sentences" (Yamato 8th year, 834), "After the Meeting with Yang Tongzhou Cold Food Qiankeng, Yang Gongbu Wanted to Know That There was a Period of Water Application with the Ministry of Works, RongXi, although he had a lot of feasts and obstructed the humiliation of showing long sentences, he answered it" (Yamato 9th year, 835), "After Sleeping Tea Xing Recalls Yang Tongzhou" (Yamato 9th year, 835), "Yang Liu Shangshu New Granted Dongchuan Festival Envoy, Substitute Wife Drama He Brother and Sister-in-Law Ii Absolute" (Kaicheng First Year, 836) and so on.
After getting good tea in early spring, Yang Dongchuan sent it to Bai Juyi for tasting. But the spring tea had not yet been drunk, and the clothes to be added this autumn were sent again. The friendship between the two can be seen in this small matter.
"Boiling Tea Diagram" (partial)
In the fifth year of Emperor Wuzong of Tang (845), Bai Juyi wrote a seven-sentence tea poem "Idle Sleep", the original text is as follows:
The warm bed lies obliquely on the sun, and the sleep is idle. Two bowls of tea a day, not to mention the Ming Dynasty.
At this time, several years had passed since the writing of the poem "Xie Yang Dongchuan Sends Clothes". Bai Juyi was already a seventy-three-year-old man, and the old friends who drank tea together were afraid that most of them were gone, but in his poems, what they saw was not sadness, or even sighing. Basking in the sun, sleeping lazily, one meal, two bowls of tea... Bai Juyi uses simple and popular words and smooth and gentle sentence patterns, indicating a life attitude of Lotte knowing fate.
The Song Dynasty poet Su Shi, in the "Sacrifice of Liuzi Yuwen", gave Bai Juyi a word that is easy to cause misunderstanding, "customary", but the word "vulgar" here should be interpreted as "popular" rather than "vulgar". For example, this song "Idle Sleep", there is not a single strange word, and anyone can easily read it. However, Bai Juyi's popular style of writing is not really casually written. It is said that someone once read Bai Juyi's poetry manuscript, and there are many circles and deletions on it. It can be seen that this is a popular language that has been repeatedly pondered and tempered. According to the Qing Dynasty Zhao Yi's Oubei Poetry Volume IV, Bai Juyi's poems read as "easy to see, but in fact pure". To a tea drinker like me, Bai Juyi's poems are like white tea with simple craftsmanship, with a rounded vein, a brisk rhythm, and clear words, but they are intriguing and timeless.
The three seven-sentence tea poems span most of Bai Juyi's life from prime to twilight, and also help us outline the role played by tea soup at different life stages.
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