East Pavilion Tea Feast
[Tang] Bao Junhui
Idle towards Xiao out of the curtain, tea feast East Pavilion look around.
Looking at the mountains of the city in the distance, listening to the sound of the strings and pipes.
The hedge leads to the new green of the swamp, and the low eaves of the hibiscus want to spit red.
Sitting here for a long time, there is infinite pleasure, and more pity fanned up the breeze.
One
Some time ago, I went to the home of Mr. Zhao Heng, the former editor-in-chief of Beijing Yanshan Publishing House, to visit the door and chatted about the old literati collections in small talk. In Heng Weng's masterpiece "Old People and Old Things", there is an article "The Last Glimpse of the Literati's Elegant Collection", which I have carefully read for a long time. But the so-called "paper to finally feel shallow", this time listening to the old gentleman to talk about it, I am even more yearning for the old literati collection.
Yaji is a way of gathering Chinese literati for thousands of years. To this day, there are still many collections of ancient art that people talk about. For example, the Liang garden collection of the Han Dynasty, the Jingu Garden collection of the Western Jin Dynasty, the Lanting Collection of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and the West Garden Collection of the Song Dynasty. According to Heng Weng's summary, the first condition for holding the anagram is to agree on a clear theme. In other words, Unlike ordinary remote banquet drinking, there must always be a reason, in general, it is impossible to escape the eight words of piano, chess, book, painting, poetry, wine, flower, and tea.
[Song] Zhao Tuo's "Wenhui Diagram" (partial)
The old collections still have some shadows in life today. Danqing qiqi can be called pen gathering; chess friends can be called chess games; drinking tea and sipping tea can be called tea parties. Speaking of the word "tea party", it is actually a relatively recent statement. In the Tang Dynasty, it was rarely called "tea party", but mostly called "tea banquet". This is a canonical term for a tea-themed gathering.
Among the tea poems of the Tang Dynasty, there are several poems with the title of "Tea Banquet", among which Bao Junhui's "Dongting Tea Banquet" has some rare features. To sum up, one is that the author is rare, the second is that the content is rare, and the third is that the intention is rare, so this tea poem has also become an important material for understanding the Tea Collection of the Tang Dynasty.
Two
Bao Junhui (鲍君徽), courtesy name Wenji, is the daughter of Bao Zhengjun. The female poets of the Tang Dynasty did not have the celebrities of the Founding Sect, nor did they lead the way, and even the poems of these female poets were rarely sung and famous passages that have been passed down through the ages. However, as a cluster of strange flowers in the hundred flower gardens of Tang Dynasty poetry, it is fascinating with its unique fragrance.
Portrait of Bao Junhui
Of the nearly 50,000 Surviving Tang poems, nearly 700 are written by female poets. Among the more than 2,000 poets recorded in the Quan Tang Poems, there are more than 120 female poets with names and deeds to be examined. Among the female poets, there are empresses, princesses, concubines, and palace eunuchs who live in the palace, there are also famous ladies who are waiting for the words, there are women who guard empty houses alone, there are nuns and Taoists who are far away from the world, and even there are singers who live at the lowest level of society. In addition, there were also a group of female poets who wrote full-time in the court of the Tang Dynasty, who accompanied the emperor in the court to feast and give poetry, sing and sing, leaving behind many good stories in the poetry world. Bao Junhui, the author of "Dongting Tea Banquet", is a female poet of the court.
Although there are many tea poems in the Tang Dynasty, there are very few female writers, which is the first rare point of this poem.
In the Quan Tang Poems, Bao Junhui's biography records:
Bao Junhui, ziwen ji. Bao Zhengjun daughter. Good poetry, on a par with the Five Song Dynasties of Shanggong. Emperor Dezong was summoned to the palace and made peace with his attendants, and the reward was very generous.
The "Five Song" mentioned here are the five sisters of the Song clan who were famous for their poetry at that time. Song Tingfen of Beizhou was a descendant of the great poet Song Zhiwen. He had five daughters, namely Ruohua, Ruozhao, Ruolun, Ruoxian and Ruoxun, and they were said in the Old Book of Tang and the Descendants of concubines that they were "all intelligent and beneficial, and Tingfen began to teach the art of scripture, and even if the lessons were given poetry, they could all belong to the literature before they were older." In other words, the five Sisters of the Song Clan are all extremely intelligent and well-educated talented women. Among the five, Ruo Hua and Ruo Zhao were "Wen Yougao", and Ruo Hua composed ten articles of the Female Analects, and Ruo Zhao's annotations were greatly enhanced.
In the fourth year of Emperor Dezong of Tang 's reign ( 788 ) , Zhaoyi Jiedu had Li Baozhen recommend the five sisters of the Song clan to the emperor. Emperor Dezong personally tested the talents of the five sisters, "trying to be endowed with poetry" and "asking about the great righteousness in the history of the scriptures", the five sisters of the Song clan answered like a stream, and Tang Dezong could not help but "deeply appreciate and sigh". Since then, the five members of the Song clan have been left in the palace and joined the daily poetry meeting of the court, and the world has collectively called the "Five Song Dynasties". The Quan Tang Poetry mentions that "it is on a par with the Five Song Dynasties of Shanggong", which is a great affirmation of Bao Junhui's poetry level.
Quan Tang Poetry
Bao Junhui entered the palace because of her talent, which can be described as a step to the heavens, but she is not a woman who loves vanity, and she does not have nostalgia for court life. Only a hundred days after she entered the palace, she asked to return home in the name of her elderly mother. From the Quan Tang Wen's collection of her "Beggars and Returns", we can learn more about the female poet's family situation and personal ethics.
Bao Junhui first said, "Young Fresh Kunji, Long Lost Chun Ting, No Chicken Meal in the Room, And The Mother of The White in the Hall." Kunji is a brother. Tsubaki, referring to the father. It can be seen from this that Bao Junhui's family is poor, she herself lacks brothers to protect her, and after her father's death, only the old mother is left in the family. Although "fortunate to meet The Saint Ming, the edict of the courtiers, the imperial court of one person, for more than a hundred days, the words of the literary dance, the upper with the joy of the saints, the pipe waving, and the lower with the promotion of the courtiers's genghe", but the prosperity and glory in front of her did not make her addicted. Bao Junhui then said, "But if the old mother does not hear it, how can the children be ashamed of it?" A subject thinks, a hundred knots in the intestines... Be blessed to return home for the will of the will. She was not as determined as shanggong Wusong to "learn to be famous", but she was bent on returning to her family and adopting her mother.
Finally, Bao Junhui added a crucial sentence, that is, "then the old mother will be born in the rest of the day, that is, the gift of His Majesty's day." Reasonable and sincere, Emperor Dezong had no choice but to let Bao Junhui return to his adoptive mother. In this regard, Bao Junhui was much wiser than the five sisters of the Song clan. She knows very well that the companion is like a companion of the tiger, and the wealth and glory and fame are just floating clouds. The woman is in the deep palace, and being favored is the beginning of the taboo. The "Shanggong Five Song Dynasties" remained in the palace, but it was difficult to get a good ending. As a civilian talented woman, Bao Junhui saw more far than the "Five Songs of the Shang Palace".
Three
Bao Junhui's "Begging for Refuge" can also be used as an important reference for interpreting the poem "Dongting Tea Banquet". First of all, since the Bao family is poor to the point of "no chicken in the room", it is naturally impossible to have the spare strength to participate in or hold a tea feast. In other words, the content of Bao Junhui's tea poem must record the scene of the palace tea banquet. This is the rare feature of the content of this tea poem.
Most of the tea banquets in Tang Dynasty poetry were elegant gathering activities of the literati. For example, the poet Qian Qi during the Tang Dynasty once wrote a seven-sentence poem "Tea Feast with Zhao Ju", which can be called a classic in tea poetry, and the original text is copied as follows:
Takeshita forgot to say to the purple tea, Quansheng Yuke drunk Liu Xia.
The dust washed away, and the sound of a tree cicada was oblique.
Li Jiayou, another poet of the Tang Dynasty, once wrote "Qiu Xiao Zhaoyin Temple Dongfeng Tea Feast Sent to Brother Yan Bojun Gui Jiangzhou", which has two sentences in the poem: "Fortunately, there are tea fragrances to leave children, and it is not enough to send autumn grass to Wang Sun". It can be seen that in the Tang Dynasty, the send-off of the literati could also be made into a tea banquet.
[Ming] Ding Yunpeng's "Yuchuan Boiling Tea Map", the Palace Museum collection
In addition to poetry, there is also text. The Tang Dynasty poet Lü Wen, who lived a little later than Qian Qi, was a scholar in the fourteenth year of Tang Zhenyuan (798), and the following year he was also a scholar of erudition and a scholar of the Xiandian School. Lü Wen mentioned in the article "Preface to the Tea Feast on the Third day of March":
March 3rd, the day of Shangmi's drinking. The sons agreed to drink tea instead. It is a flower building, a garden of shade, a breeze that chases people, and the sun is still happy. Lying on the green mist, sitting on the incense stick, idle warbler near the seat and not flying, red buds whisking clothes but not scattered, but the order to drink incense foam, floating cup, Yin condensed amber color. Not intoxicating, slightly aware of clear thoughts, although the five clouds of fairy pulp, no compound also...
Zen drinking is a folk activity during the third month of the lunar calendar. Originally, it was a drink, but this time everyone proposed to "drink tea and substitute". It can be seen that the tea banquet can also be an improvement of the wine banquet. Tea is different from wine, although "not intoxicating", but it can "slightly perceive and clear". The sense of spiritual pleasure brought about by drinking tea, the poet feels that it is "five clouds of fairy pulp" is also incomparable.
Quan Tang Wen
Qian Qi, Lü Wen and others are all from the imperial examination, although we have not caught up with the imperial examination, but the examinations of all sizes can be regarded as catching up with a lot. Whether it is the middle school entrance examination, the college entrance examination or the graduate school entrance examination, which one dares to drink drunk every day during the preparation period? Or do you break into the exam room drunk?
Of course not.
On the contrary, when picking up the lights at night, we often brew a cup of fragrant tea, which not only relieves fatigue, but also refreshes the mind. Of course, we can now also opt for coffee or even cigarettes. But you know, in the Tang Dynasty, whether it was coffee or tobacco, it was not yet introduced to China, and the most popular drink for students was tea. The imperial examination system made the intellectual class more inclined to choose a binding drink - tea. In the activities of the literati of the Tang Dynasty, the figure of the tea banquet began to appear, and it was naturally reasonable.
The poems of Qian Qi and others have given us a better understanding of the tea banquet of the literati of the Tang Dynasty. However, the inner court palace is heavy, the taboo is strict, and the secrets are very well known. How was the Tang Dynasty court tea banquet held, and what are the unique features? The answers to these questions must be found in this "Dongting Tea Feast".
Four
The first part, "Idle Towards Dawn Out of the Curtain, Tea Feast East Pavilion Look Around", is about time and place.
Idle Dynasty can be understood as a leisurely morning. Xiang Xiao is in the direction of morning light. It can be seen that this court tea banquet in the Tang Dynasty was held in a calm and leisurely morning. The female poet stepped out of the curtain curtain tent and came to the east pavilion.
In ancient times, there was no pavilion, and only in the Qin and Han dynasties did it take ten miles as a pavilion, and then set up a pavilion as a post station, like building a pavilion in the courtyard now, which was only started during the Six Dynasties. For example, the new pavilion in jiankang city in the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the orchid pavilion in Wang Xizhi's elegant collection cannot be regarded as the old postal pavilion.
Lanting
It is worth noting that any place where the pavilion is placed in the traditional garden must be the best location for the scenery. For example, the East Pavilion, where the tea banquet is held, is where the view is wide and you can enjoy the scenery from afar. In fact, the responsibility of the pavilion is to silently tell the visitors: stop, don't go, the scenery here is very good, please enjoy it. The pace is too fast, you can't see the scenery in the garden, the pace is too fast, and you can't see the scenery of life, which is the wisdom and philosophy contained in Chinese architecture.
The second part, "Looking at the Mountains of the City in the Distance, Listening to the Sound of the Strings and Waters", is about sight and hearing.
The view of the East Pavilion is very good, and you can overlook the city and the mountains in the distance. Therefore, the enjoyment of this tea feast begins with the sight rather than the taste. Nowadays, we drink far more good tea than the ancients, but the visual enjoyment is much inferior. I live in the southern suburbs of Beijing, a high-rise tower, and when choosing the apartment type, I deliberately chose a high-rise house with a wide view. The living room window faces northwest, just in time to see Beijing's West Mountain. Although it is not possible to look around like the East Pavilion, I have retained a window where I can overlook it from afar, and I unconsciously appreciate the subtle changes in the mountains of the four seasons. When I drink tea, I also have the luxury of "overlooking the city and the mountains", which is probably a special benefit for suburban people, right?
At the tea banquet, there is not only a visual beauty, but also an auditory enjoyment. The pavilion was so small that it was naturally impossible to hold so many people. So the organizers arranged for the musicians to play from a distance. The melodious music enters the East Pavilion across the water, adding three points to the tea feast. First the scenery in the distance, and then the music on the side of the pavilion, the author is like a documentary director, showing us the scene of the tea party with a long lens from far and near.
The third part, "The Hedge Leads to the New Green, and the Hibiscus Low Eaves Want to Spit Red", is about strange flowers and grasses.
The hedge is a deep bamboo forest. In the Tang Dynasty Wang Wei's "Zhuliguan", there are two sentences: "Sitting alone in the fence, playing the piano and shouting for a long time". Hibiscus, that is, fragrant flowers. In the Yuan Dynasty, Guan Hanqing had a famous saying that "Fang Jin has no end, Zhen Song is resistant to cold". The description of both hints at the elegance of the surroundings of the East Pavilion. The best decoration at the Tea Feast of the Tang Dynasty is not gold and silver ornaments, not Aya luo satin, not antiques, but natural flowers and plants.
[Ming] Wen Zhengming's "Huishan Tea Party Map" (partial), collection of the Palace Museum
In fact, everyone can have a lot of dialogue with nature. I think the so-called aesthetics of life is really not necessarily to collect expensive works of art or to watch sophisticated art performances. Artwork does not necessarily equal beauty. Artistic performance does not necessarily equal beauty. Nature is the real beauty. Having the opportunity to go to the park downstairs is also a kind of closeness to nature. Nature can really heal us, make us feel relaxed and find ourselves.
In the early morning of the weekend, use a thermos cup to stuff a pot of cooked Pu'er, take two Heaven and Earth cups straight to the park. If you set up a tea cup on the stone table in the small pavilion and enjoy the scenery, the taste of the tea soup will definitely add points.
The fourth part, "Sitting here for a long time, infinite pleasure, more pity to fan the breeze", is about the unfinished business.
Xing, pronounced tongxing here, is interpreted as interest or interest. Although the tea banquet time is not short, the female poet Bao Junhui has no intention of getting tired, but has aroused infinite interest. Tuan Fan in hand, sending a gentle breeze, the lens of the entire tea feast is fixed here, giving readers unlimited reverie.
Why does a tea party make people have the beautiful feeling of "sitting here for a long time"? Because this tea feast takes care of people's five senses: overlooking the city in the distance, it is the enjoyment of vision; listening to the string pipe is the enjoyment of hearing; exotic flowers and grasses are the enjoyment of smell; sweet tea soup is the enjoyment of taste; Tuan Fan Breeze is the enjoyment of touch. Bao Junhui's Dongting Tea Banquet is a comprehensive collection of sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch.
Don't look at it as a court tea banquet, but you can't see the slightest extravagance. The full text of the tea poem does not reveal the luxury of the tea utensils, nor does it highlight the preciousness of the tea leaves, but focuses on the charm of the beauty of nature. Whether it is a mountain or a ghost, you don't need to spend money, as long as you have a mentality of discovering beautiful things, you can enjoy it. The whole tea banquet practiced Lu Yu's aesthetic concept of tea science of "fine practice and frugality". This is the rare point of the meaning of this tea poem.
(This article is excerpted from "The Taste of Tea - A New Interpretation of Tea Poetry in the Tang Dynasty", the title is prepared by the editor)