When it comes to the folk customs of the Song Dynasty, many people think of the world-famous "Qingming River Map", the vivid characters in the pictures and the fireworks of the city well lanes and strangers, all bring people a strong sense of reality and shock. The "Water Margin", one of the four masterpieces written in the historical background of the Northern Song Dynasty, also broadly shows the colorful folk customs and prosperous citizen economy at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty.
Everyone's life is always inseparable from chai rice oil salt sauce vinegar tea. In "Water Margin", there are as many as a dozen descriptions of "tea". Whether it is those "active and rough" jianghu people, or in the "temple high" of the eunuch family, travel, gathering and making friends is always inevitable "drinking tea" this custom habit, although different people's tea drinking habits are very different, but "tea" as a medium, in the communication between people plays an important role.
The tea culture of the Song Dynasty, where leisure and elegance coexisted, tea houses blossomed everywhere
The commodity economy of the Song Dynasty was very prosperous, and the street market was full of liquor stores and restaurants, and countless street stalls, tiles, and hook bars supported the leisure and entertainment life of the ordinary people and scholars of the Song Dynasty. After a busy day of farm work and government affairs, the street market with bright lights at night can also wash away the fatigue and boredom of the body, and people can also immerse themselves in the selflessness of this moment when they look at the streets full of vendors shouting and selling, and the singing and dancing of the fence tiles.
In the Song Dynasty, especially at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, where "Water Margin" was located, the most important thing on the street may be large and small tea houses. At this time, the tea houses provided a rich variety of tea to meet the needs of people from all walks of life, and various tea drinking etiquettes also continued to enrich the entire Chinese tea culture. This kind of tea that can be enjoyed by civilians and scholars has brought tea culture to a strong national nature, and directly promoted the rapid development of mainland tea culture.
And this unfettered tea culture is also reflected in "Water Margin". To say that the most famous tea house in "Water Margin" is the Wang Po Tea House in Yanggu County, which is the place where Ximen Qing came to inquire about the unfamiliar woman's situation many times after he first met Pan Jinlian, and the Wang Po took advantage of Ximen Qing's inquiry and began to sell her own tea.
The four kinds of tea introduced by Wang Po, each with different categories, sounds quite novel. First, it is a plum soup made from plum and tea leaves, a combination of nut preserves and tea leaves, followed by ginger slices, sugar, and tea leaves, and a wide-fried leaf catecha that is brewed after frying and roasting large tea leaves. This kit-chi-chi tea preparation method also reveals the tea drinking habits of the Song people at that time - putting spices.
The tea house run by Wang Po can only be regarded as a small personal tea house, without the blessing of the bookstore and professional tea masters, the business was doomed to be bleak in the environment of the tea houses everywhere at that time. In the "Water Margin", Shi Jin mentions a tea house located at the intersection when Shi Jin is making a big fuss in Shijiazhuang, which is enough to prove that the tea houses are densely distributed. Corresponding to the densely packed tea house, it is worth paying attention to the elegant flow of the time - tea drinking etiquette.
People often use tea at home to entertain guests, and people's identities are different, and the grade of tea they drink is also different. Lin Chong respected Lu Yuhou and was very respectful of him, and when drinking tea, he used the term "worship tea". When Zhao Yuanwai sent Lu Zhishen to Wutai Mountain to become a monk, he also used the honorific word -- worship tea. When Master Li received Song Jiang, Yan Qing, and Chai Jin and his party, he offered the best tea at that time, fragrant tea, which showed that the nobility of tea was different.
3 kinds of tea that were regarded as the best teas during the Song Dynasty
1. Bian Liang chrysanthemum tea
During the Song Dynasty, the eunuchs and nobles preferred chrysanthemums, and at that time, the city of Bieliang was an ocean of chrysanthemums in the autumn, and it was said that the Song Dynasty people at that time loved the large, golden, rich and high-quality Qingchi chrysanthemums, and it is said that at that time it was also used as an imperial product and tribute only for the emperor.
It is recorded that chrysanthemums can help detoxify and reduce fire and relieve fatigue, so spring and summer are more popular, and qingchi chrysanthemums are more nutritious, especially the flavonoid content, which is very suitable for modern people who often drink alcohol and stay up late in spring and summer.
Its flowers are not only huge, but also golden in color, clear in tea soup, dense and thick petals, very in line with people's tastes, elegant taste and rich connotations all highlight the broad tea culture.
2. Pu'er tea
Pu'er tea is produced in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan Province, has a history of more than 1,000 years, it belongs to the fermented tea, which is rich in nutrition, warm taste, sweet and timeless, is the love of the nobility of the Song Dynasty.
3. Wuyi tea
Wuyi tea is produced in wuyi mountain in present-day Fujian Province, which belongs to black tea, with a fragrant aroma and moderate taste, and is the hospitality tea of the celebrities who loved to drink tea at that time.
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