Li Fangshun: The goddess tea party under the shadow of the cat - Xiao Qian

To say that Mr. Xiao Qian and the goddess of the tea party, you have to mention Mr. Qian Zhongshu, these two literary circles are contemporaries born in the same year (1910), also studied in the United Kingdom "returnee", but the difference is that one does not like to drink black tea with milk and sugar, but likes to walk around the goddess of the Republic of China "tea party"; and one who loves milk black tea all his life, but does not like to participate in the "tea party".

Knowing that Mr. Xiao Qian did not like to drink black tea and liked to participate in the "tea party" of the goddess of the Republic of China, he accidentally discovered it after reading Mr. Qian Zhongshu's "Cats".

"The guests are together, and someone brings refreshments." Mrs. Li asked Yigu to sit next to him, poured the first cup of tea for herself, and poured the second cup of tea for him, asking him for a few pieces of sugar. Yigu hesitated politely and said, "Thanks, no sugar." Mrs. Lee looked at him, smiled and whispered, "Don't deny that there are female students in your school like you just did, this is not polite!" No sugar, this tea is not good. I simply don't ask you, add milk to you. Yigu thanked God, at this time everyone was busy talking, no one noticed his embarrassment, Mrs. Li's smile and eye expression made him suddenly happy as if his heart was burning something hot. He mechanically adjusted the spoon to the tea, and for a while he didn't hear anything from anyone else. ”

After reading this description in Mr. Qian Zhongshu's "Cat", perhaps everyone will ask, there is no mention of Mr. Xiao Qian's name here, how can it be concluded that Mr. Xiao does not like to drink black tea?

In fact, in the literary circles of the Republic of China period, everyone knows that the "Qi Yigu" in Mr. Qian's "Cat" refers to Mr. Xiao Qian.

It just so happens that Mr. Xiao Qian wrote an essay "Tea in Britain", which has a description: "When I first arrived in England, I was very unaccustomed to putting milk and sugar in tea. At the tea party, when the hostess pours tea, she always has to ask: 'How many sugar cubes?' At the beginning, I always said, 'No, thanks.' But I soon discovered that drinking Ceylon black tea had to be milked with some sugar. Otherwise, when served, the tea is purple, as if it were chicken blood. When you drink it, it is bitter like eating an unripe persimmon. Therefore, Ceylon tea is also known as 'black tea'. ”

I don't know how Mr. Qian knows Mr. Xiao's preference for tea. Indeed, Mr. Xiao Qian does not like to drink black tea, especially not to put milk and sugar in tea.

When he was still in college, Mr. Xiao Qian often participated in the tea party of Lin Huiyin, the goddess of the Republic of China, and later participated in various tea parties during his study in the United Kingdom.

Wen is also related to the profession. Mr. Xiao Qian, who worked in the news reporting of the army, is a legendary and famous journalist who once bathed in the smoke of real guns and cannons on the European battlefield of World War II. He understands the journalistic nature of literature and the literary nature of news, and of course understands the authenticity of news.

Regarding the tea party, Mr. Xiao Qian said: "As a way of socializing, I think that the tea party is not only more economical than the banquet, but also more affordable and elegant. The first is the atmosphere. Friends get together, mainly to recount the past, talk about hearts, and exchange opinions. "This is probably a true portrayal of Mr. Xiao Qian's love to attend the tea party of Lin Huiyin, the goddess of the Republic of China."

Mr. Xiao Qian also has a unique observation and evaluation of the tea party in "Tea in Britain". "Those who went to the tea party did not bury their heads in a snack or hold a cup of beef drink, and the conversation became the center of the activity. Hosting a tea party is truly a dexterous art. It is necessary to be able to elicit a topic of common concern to everyone, and not to let the desktop stick to a topic. When a question is almost discussed, the host will cleverly switch to another material that seems to be related and different, so as to maintain a warm and harmonious atmosphere on the field from beginning to end. After the tea party, everyone seems to be smarter and seems to be more transparent with each other... The tea party is the most entertaining and a great venue for training diplomats. ”

Comparing the tea party with the banquet, Mr. Xiao Qian said: "I have met many people at the banquet who want to talk deeply with them, and they also have a lot to talk about, how can the cups and plates on the table be staggered, steaming, even if it is a neighbor, it is not possible to talk." If there are a few people in the middle, there will be no words except frequent toasts to each other and distant expressions of friendship. I'm especially afraid to go to a drunken party.... ”

It can be seen from this that Mr. Xiao Qian is a very strong advocate of the "tea party", and believes that the host of the "tea party" must be both knowledgeable and have the organizational talent of "dexterous art". Attending a "tea party" not only makes "everyone seem to be smarter", but also "the tea party is the most entertaining and an excellent place to train diplomats." ”

In addition, Mr. Xiao Qian also introduced the "tea party" in British universities, not only the "tea party" of classmates, but also the "tea party" of tutors and professors, such "tea party" invited each other and became "a teaching method", which benefited people a lot!

"The tea party is also the main venue for the interaction between teachers, students and classmates at Cambridge University, and it can be said that it is a teaching method, and each student has his own mentor. My mentor was Deidie Rylands, and he often asked me to tea in his apartment. As we drank tea, we talked about Virginia Woolf or David Lawrence. In those years, in addition to the tea parties of my classmates, I also went to some professors' tea parties from time to time. Among them were Mrs. Robinson, a master of economics, and Joseph Needham, who was studying the history of science in China at the time, and Russell, who went to China in the 1920s to lecture. At such tea parties, other professors were often encountered. After they write down my college, they will also come to ask for an appointment. That's how relationships opened. ”

It is particularly worth mentioning that compared with the literary elites of the "Gengqian Study Abroad" in the last century and his contemporaries, Mr. Xiao Qian noted the important value of Chinese tea in the history of Sino-Western exchanges. "Regarding China's contribution to the world, it is often cited that gunpowder and papermaking are listed," he said. However, in the history of Sino-Western exchanges, tea should occupy its place. ”

In Tea in England, Mr. Shaw also writes: "Tea seems to have been first introduced to Europe by the Portuguese in the early 17th century. In 1600, the English tea merchant Thomas Galway wrote the book Tea and Cultivation, Quality and Virtue. British tea was originally imported from Xiamen by the East India Company. In 1677, a total of five thousand pounds were imported. In the 1640s, the British began experimenting with tea in the Indian colonies. At that time, you may have developed the habit of adding sugar to tea. In 1767, a man named Arthur Young complained in the Farmer's Book that england had spent too much money on tea and sugar, 'enough bread for four million people.' At that time, the consumption of tea and wine was already on a par with each other. In 1800, the British consumed 150,000 tons of sugar, a large part of which was spent on tea. ”

Historically, tea was first introduced to Europe and the United States by the Portuguese from China in the early 17th century, which is one theory; another is that Chinese tea was introduced to Europe by the Dutch East India Company in the early seventeenth century. Speaking of drinking black tea with milk and sugar, Mr. Xiao Qian wrote: "In the 1640s, the British began to try to grow tea in the Indian colonies. At that time, you may have developed the habit of adding sugar to tea. Mr. Xiao Qian's statement is debatable.

Check out a note by the Baker Library, Harvard Business School titled "Rare Photos Capture China's 19th Century Tea Trade":

“In the latter half of the nineteenth century, after decades of false starts and ceaseless experimentation, British entrepreneurs in India and Ceylon, and the Dutch in Java successfully initiated plantation cultivation, pioneered the mechanized processing of black tea, and launched vigorous advertising campaigns to foster corporate sales worldwide. Until the rise of Thomas Lipton and other British companies, which promoted the consumption of teas from colonies of the United Kingdom, teatime was synonymous with the consumption of China teas, regardless of whether it took place in London, Melbourne, St. Petersburg, or Boston (in the second half of the nineteenth century, after nearly a decade of failure and trial and error, British entrepreneurs in India and Ceylon (note: present-day Sri Lanka), as well as the Dutch in the Indonesian island of Java, succeeded in cultivating tea plants and pioneered the mechanization of black tea, Moreover, effective advertising campaigns have been carried out to promote the globalization of tea sales. Until the rise of Thomas Lipton and other British tea companies and the promotion of tea consumption in the British colonies, afternoon and evening tea were synonymous with the consumption of Chinese tea, whether in London, Australia, Melbourne, Australia, St. Petersburg, Russia, or Boston, usa. ）”

Tracing back to history, the British Scotsman Robert Fortune is the world's unanimous recognition of commercial espionage and tea thieves, he sneaked into Xiuning, Anhui, China, and WuyiShan, Fujian Province, from 1848 to 1851 to steal Chinese tea seeds and transport them to the Foothills of the Himalayas on the Indian side with "Huade Box" for successful planting, and then spread to Ceylon to plant and make tea on a large scale, thus opening the Drinking Method of British Black Tea and Sugar and Milk.

Regarding the trade of tea between China and the West, after the British launched the Opium War, Hankou in Hubei once became the world tea trade center. According to Mrs. Lide, a British lady who came to China with her husband to engage in the tea trade in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, "But that was all in 1887, which might almost be called the last year of the great China tea trade of which Hankow had since 1861 been the centre. There was quite a fleet of ocean steamers there even that year to take the tea away; in 1898, barely one for London. English people will not drink China tea. (In 1887, perhaps this year can be called the last year of the great Chinese tea trade, during which Hankou's history as the world's tea trade center since 1861 was declared to be over.) Even in 1887, there were still many fleets to carry tea to Hankou, but by 1898, almost only one ship was transporting tea to London. Britain will not be able to drink Chinese tea. ）”

As for British black tea, that is, Indian and Ceylon black tea or why such black tea should be drunk with sugar and milk, Dr. Sun Yat-sen, who is a medical professional, once said: "The tea industry is planted and manufactured, one of China's important industries, and before this China was the only country in the world to supply the tea industry, and now The Chinese tea industry has been seized by India and Japan, but the quality of Chinese tea is still not unmatched by other countries." Indian tea contains too much tannin acid, Japanese tea does not have the aroma of Chinese tea, the best tea, but can be produced in the home country of tea, that is, China. ”

Mrs. Lide, an Englishman, also wrote in her travelogue in The Secret Realm of tea: "We talked tea at breakfast andtiffinand dinner, and we took it at five and considered its quality. But that would not make the people at home give up Indian tea, with allits tannin and nerve-poisoningqualities.) But this did not make the British at home abandon Indian tea, although Indian tea contains tannic acid, which can lead to neurotoxicity. ）”

Human beings have entered the 21st century, and science has proved that black tea contains the highest tannic acid, reaching 11.76-15.14%, with an average content of 13.36%, followed by oolong tea with an average content of 8.66%, the lowest green tea, the highest content of green tea is 3.11%, and the average content is 2.65%.

Therefore, doctors recommend: if iron deficiency anemia, either do not drink tea, or drink tea after meals, tea can not be drunk with iron-rich foods. It is also possible to add milk to reduce potential side effects, and tannic acid binds to cow's milk proteins rather than proteins in the gut, preventing tannins from interfering with iron absorption. Eating vitamin C-rich foods, such as bell peppers, potatoes, melons, and/or citrus, before or after tea drinking can play a role in neutralizing tannins.

Portrait of Mr. Xiao Qian: "The writer is at home, and there is no flawlessness. Ten years in one swing, five cars of learning. Nian Dengda, famous all over the world. The hope of my hometown, the glory of the motherland. ------------------------