Bamboo leaf green
Text/Law Weizhang
My hometown also produces tea, that tea has no name, just called tea, in the spring season, go to the mountains to pick, bake it with the soil method, put it in a snakeskin bag, come to the guest, grab a handful into the wide-mouthed porcelain cup, brew it drankly, and say warmly: "Drink tea." ”
Drinking tea is an adult's business, just like drinking wine, it is a proof of age and experience. In an era when nothing is lacking, it also becomes proof of identity. When I was in my hometown, I was too young to touch that porcelain cup. When I also earned the qualification, I was already out of town.
The first tea I drank was bamboo leaf green.
After graduating from university, he was assigned to teach in a remote coal mine middle school, where teachers and junior college students were already rare, and now suddenly a few undergraduates, in the eyes of the principal, not only his subordinates, but also his distinguished guests, soon after the start of school, he invited a few new recruits to his house for dinner.
Beckoning us to sit on the artificial leather sofa, he went into the back room, groped for a long time, took out a dark purple iron box, thought it was a snack, but the result was not, it was tea, said that it was sent by one of his students, said that the student was also a bachelor's degree, very present, and has become a deputy section chief in a certain department in a certain place.
The principal's wife washed out a few glasses and placed them in front of us, and the headmaster threw them into the box. He had a thick thumb and a careful toss, waiting to put it into the cup like salt before he could see the appearance of the tea.
Flat, thin and pitiful. It reminds me of the early spring in my hometown, waking up one night with mountains full of young shoots. However, the young buds floated with yellow light, but the tea leaves were green and emerald, like jewels.
For that meal, the principal paid for chicken, duck and fish meat, a large table, he did not care, because in his opinion, our real distinguished treatment is to drink his kind of tea, he said, this tea, produced in Emei Mountain in western Sichuan, is called Zhuyeqing.
This is the first time I know that tea, like people, has names.
Once a name is there, it is not only a symbol, but also an expression of character, and implies a certain destiny. Zhuyeqing, good name! Zhang Jie of the West China Metropolis Daily said that Zhuyeqing has a few words and "good looks". She saw the look and color in it.
At the same time, the name of this tea is naturally associated with another plant endowed with high quality and touches; A "qing" character is an oath of texture, but also a resistance to time, and is naturally connected with Chinese traditional culture.
The "Tao" in traditional culture, the unity of heaven and man, the coexistence of things and me, people and all things, you have me, I have you, all the growth of life is the growth of "me", therefore, nothing can be defeated by time.
Hegel, Heidegger, Thoreau and other Western philosophers all believe that the emergence of world civilization, following the trajectory of the sun, begins in the East and originates from China, and the overall view of Chinese civilization will become a good medicine to save Western civilization from decline. This can be interpreted in many areas, including in the bamboo leaf green tea of the same name as the wine.
Zhuyeqing, rich in content, beautiful syllables, no wonder the first time I heard it, I liked this name, and then I found that I like a person and a thing, first of all, it starts with the name. Of course, this is inevitable risk, and the ruins buried under a good name often blow my instincts. But for Zhuyeqing, I have never been disappointed.
The posture of standing in the water is a waking posture, the fragrance of the water and wood essence, slowly unfolding, soft and infiltrate, the tenderness hidden in the fragrance, is specially preserved in the production, not without proudly prompting its appearance. Bamboo leaves and green are all Mingqian tea.
Actually, I don't pay any attention to drinking tea. I am also very disgusted by the over-interpretation of the tea and the red tape when brewing tea. There was an experience in this.
It was ten years ago, I went to Guangdong to participate in a collection organized by the China Writers Association, arrived the next day, busy with visits, after visiting and discussing, there were too many people who could talk, and I said that I ate very late, and the place to eat was quite far from my residence, and it was past ten o'clock at night, and I was so tired that I wanted to go back to the hotel, it would take almost an hour. Who knew that a local writer here had to invite him to the tea house to drink the tea she brought with her.
Said that the leader of the team was moved, so I had to go. And the tea house is a long way from the residence. She personally sat in front of the case, started brewing tea from that year, and pushed forward year by year, saying that she would brew until the seventies of the last century. Oh, my God! A writer in Beijing and I went to play Gomoku next to us, and the waiters in the tea house brought us the freshly brewed tea endlessly, drank it all the time, cried and laughed, and when it was delivered again, it was like drinking wine, shouting "dry", and it was dry.
More than two hours passed, and it was almost one o'clock in the morning, but the people in front of the tea case were still so enthusiastic, and the Beijing writer raised his cup and questioned me as the host: "You brewed until five years ago, I endured; Ten years ago, I endured; Twenty years ago, I put up with it. Maybe it's not funny, do you have to make me unbearable? "Laughing, laughing to tears.
Although I laughed, I also saw the truth. Tea becomes a concept, and people are kidnapped by concepts and become vassals. And many times, tea tasting has lost its true meaning and has become self-exaggerated.
Zhuyeqing does not have these bad tempers. Although there is also a set of procedures such as warming the cup and smelling incense, they are all close to the word tea. I think that's also the reason for naming. Bamboo, leaves, green, every word is clear and simple, is to remind you, get rid of the glitz, return to yourself.
In the sixties, confused Westerners rose up a huge movement, the purpose of which was to "discover spirituality in daily life". I think if they knew about the "oriental leaves" of bamboo leaf green, they probably wouldn't have made things so cumbersome.
This is not a speculation, but once talked to a Chinese-American who teaches Chinese at a university in Chicago, and he said that when he talked about Chinese names for plants, even translated titles, such as forget-me-not, poppy, and flower, American students were very fascinated.
In these names, there is heaven, there is earth, there is someone, there is me, "I" is the whole and the part, this restrained and open oriental aesthetics, including the implied view of the future, morality and world view, all constitute a permanent charm through time and space, always in the mind, can naturally cultivate self-cultivation.
He regretted not talking about bamboo leaf green - we were drinking bamboo leaf green. But I believe that when he returns to the United States and goes to the podium again, he will definitely tell Zhuyeqing to his students.
Although tea is produced in my hometown, I have never picked it. Unexpectedly, in this year's good spring light, I had the opportunity to follow a group of literary friends and poets to the birthplace of Zhuyeqing, and personally picked the hairy shoots into the exquisite rattan tea basket. The mountains stretch and the air is clear, and when you look up, the golden peak of Mount Emei is faintly visible.
Our gang can pick out handsome guys and beauties from the tide of people, and we can also pick typos from the full article, but we can't see the vertical buds from the tea tree. Finally saw one, excitedly picked it, saw another grain, picked it again, and so after five minutes, ten minutes, looking back at the tea basket, it was rare, equal to nothing.
Only then did I truly understand that tea picking is not romantic, it is a hard job. At the same time, as the saying goes, seventy-two lines make a champion, you will write articles, others will pick tea, and the chicken pecking rice like hands together, it is not a day's work.
At first, more than ten people said that there were also laughter, but then their voices lowered, and they only heard the slight sound of heaven. It's too hot, right? The April sun, unobstructed, falls from nine days, tea trees are lower than the waist, and people are directly shining from top to bottom.
But I feel that it is no longer noisy, not hot, but "melting" in. One grain, one grain, one grain, the mind thus becomes focused and serene.
At that moment, I deeply felt my own tranquility. After living all these years, I have learned how precious tranquility is, which is the luxury of life. The tranquility is expansive, vast to the vast, and the undulating mountains and rivers become one. This is the magic of manual labor.
I remember going to Chaozhou a few months ago, there was a craftsman who made copper pots, a friend of mine booked one from him, four years later, by the way to get it, he flipped through the book, said no, it will have to wait another two years. Time was there for him, and it became amazing. He lived like the ancients and lived like a childhood.
I asked him: At your pace, is the business done? He replied: I don't do business, I only work. The friends listened, shook their heads and said: The realm of two people, high judgment. This is right, and I can only admit it. With this experience of picking tea, I feel that the copper pot maker is a recluse.
In the past, I drank tea, I drank it indiscriminately, and probably not in the future, I probably have a choice.
—— With Zhuyeqing, everything has become different.
Image source: Mi Hao/Photo
This article is selected from the July 17, 2023 issue of Culture and Art Daily
Responsible | Wang Yuemei
Audit | Wu Hanxing
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