Lu Yu's "Tea Classic" is the world's first systematic monograph on tea science, which not only summarizes the tea production and the circulation of tea culture from ancient times to the Tang Dynasty, but also strives to justify the name of tea and help tea to flourish. More than a thousand years have passed, tea has entered thousands of households, tea culture is also colorful, drinking water thinking about the source, can the tea sutra still bring us some enlightenment?
Mr. Zhou Chonglin, a well-known tea culture author, has spent many years accumulating and understanding, as well as paying tribute to the many versions that have been handed down, into the book "The Basics of Tea: The Revelation of Lu Yu Tea Classic" and shared it with everyone.
My good friend Wang Ming said that drinking tea like reading, there are teas that must be drunk and books that must be read, which is for the Tea Classic. It is precisely because there are a large number of people like Wang Ming who are both good at tea and like to read, that I feel the need to reinterpret the Tea Sutra. Sincerely, "The Basics of Tea" is the one that I have been writing for the longest time, the most expensive, and the most energy-draining.
It took a long time to first read the books of the predecessors, and then to select the most appropriate word in each edition, and finally to give these expressions of contemporary power, which effectively avoided personal arrogance and deception.
When I wrote this book, I had a strong sense of mission to continue to study for the sake of the saints. It wasn't until I finished correcting the manuscript and taking notes that I understood what the tea ceremony that Lu Yu preached in the Tea Sutra was.
Is there a tea ceremony in the Tea Sutra, and what is the tea ceremony that you have realized?
Lu Yu did not directly tell the world what is the tea ceremony?
But by studying the Tea Sutra, you can understand the tea ceremony.
My feeling is,
The purpose of the tea ceremony is to become an artist yourself,
Instead of brewing tea into art.
Only by becoming an artist first can the tea ceremony become an art.
In other words, man is the end, not the means.
In the current daily tea drinking behavior, the tea ceremony is reduced to a kind of performance art, and tea soup is only a means of getting close to people.
But in Lu Yu's time, his tea ceremony and Yan Zhenqing's calligraphy were on a par with the art of Yan Zhenqing, and Lu Yu was certainly a great artist like Yan Zhenqing.
You say you read a lot of versions of the Tea Sutra? Can you elaborate?
Only briefly. There are mainly Song Baichuan Xuehai Ben, Ming Wu Dan Inscribed Ben, Ming Yu Ming Tang Ben, Ming Zheng Si Ben, Qing Plant Names and True Pictures Kao Chang Edition, Republic of China Zhang Zongxiang School Sayings Qi Ben, re-engraving "Lu Zi Tea Classic", Deng Naipeng "Tea Classic Commentary", Zhang Fangci and other "Tea Classics Translation", Fu Shuqin, Ouyang Xun "Lu Yu Tea Classics Translation Notes", Cai Jiade, Lü Weixin "Tea Classics Translation", Wu Juenong edited "Tea Classics Commentary", Zhou Jingmin "Lu Yu Tea Classics Annotations" Zhang Xunqi "Tea Words and Tea Classics", Zhang Hongyong edited Lu Yu Quanshu, Lin Ruixuan "Lu Yu Tea Classics Lecture", Cheng Qikun et al. "Interpretation and Point School of Lu Yu Tea Classics", Shen Dongmei's "Notes on the Tea Classics", Fang Jian's "Correction of the Complete Collection of Chinese Tea Books", Qiu Jiping's "Illustrations of the Tea Classics", Zhou Zhigang's "Lu Yu Chronology", Yang Duojie's "New Interpretation of the Tea Classics", Wu Maoqi and other "Interpretation of the Tea Classics".
Overseas are the Zen master Daidian "Tea Sutra", Springfield Naganian's "Tea Ware Illustration", Ouchi Shirayuki's "Tea Sutra", Fujimon Takashi's "Tea Classic", Morioka's "Tea Sutra Commentary", Aoki Masao's "Chinese Tea Book", Bumu Shiobi's "Detailed Explanation of the Tea Sutra", Narita Shigeyuki's "Tea Saint Lu Yu", william H. Ukers. ALL About Tea 、The Class of Tea。
What are the characteristics of the weekly version of the Tea Classic?
I just cited the part, and there are more that have been turned over.
With the nourishment of the previous version, the latecomers are more confident.
The characteristics of the weekly version of the Tea Sutra are:
Word pairs, sound complete, meaning correct.
New fine school, the translation is plain as words.
Phonetic annotations, reading without stress.
Copy the Tea Classic, the words are correct.
Read the Tea Sutra, the sound is complete.
Teach the Tea Sutra, meaning righteousness.
Enlightenment of the Tea Sutra, no obstacles.
There is already a copy of the Tea Sutra, do I need to buy another one? Of the many versions that have survived today, do you think there are many fallacies?
Read more and compare more to find the answer you are looking for. The first "Tea Classic" I read was published by the Workers' Publishing House, and if it were not for the fact that I later read Shen Dongmei's version, my understanding of the "Tea Classic" is estimated to still be in the interpretation of that book.
Most of the so-called fallacies are caused by different versions of transcription, and some of them are due to ignorance. Some places are very difficult to explain, such as the fifth chapter's understanding of "lacquer beads", which has been difficult for the commentators of the past. When the Japanese Zen master dai-chan and Aoki Masao read "lacquer beads", they both shook their heads and said they didn't understand.
"If it is a lacquer bead, the strong man will take it, and he cannot stop at his finger." What exactly is this "lacquer bead"? Wu Juenong thought it was a lacquer bead, but what it was, there was no further explanation. Zhang Fangci thought it was a sumac tree, and Shen Dongmei agreed, but it was still not easy to understand. Sumac seeds are unplayable, and many people are allergic to sumac.
I think lacquer beads should be beads made of lacquer. There is also "ráng mushroom) bone also" below, which makes more sense. Tea without stems, balls made of sap, grass without bones, the same thing. "Branch" is "窠", meaning empty.
The other is to choose the right word. Choose the most appropriate statement from the interpretations of various families to benefit the public. Many versions of the Tea Sutra are written as 箄, but when read (pái), it refers to a large raft. When pronounced bēi, it refers to a type of bamboo fishing gear. It doesn't make sense to put it here. There are also some circulation versions written as "箪", which is also wrong. Fu Shuqin and Ouyang Xun believed that 箄 was a mistake in the transcribing of 箅 (bì). Grate, bamboo drawer in a steamer. The posterior refers to an appliance that has a gap and can act as a spacer. "Explanation of words": 箅, so the person who covers the bottom of the book is also. "The New Language of the World, SuiHui": Cooking forgets the basket, and the rice falls into the kettle.
If the fire dries, stop with the heat of the air. The following books of the Hyakukawa Gakukai are all "familiar" characters. But do you really want to bake the tea cake? Does this make sense? Considering that the traditional character for heat, "hot", is very close to "cooked", Fu Shuqin and Ouyang Xun speculated that the possibility of copying mistakes was extremely high, and I followed it. The heat is also closer to the original meaning, and there is no toad back when it is cooked. The scone behavior is repeated, similar to our grilling today. Of course, it also makes sense to use "cooked", after all, there is "raw" as a description and comparison.
Others, some words cannot be simplified at will. "薹" is not "臺", can not be reduced to "Taiwan", onion is the green onion bone.
Of course, I will also have what others think is wrong, knowledge is to form true knowledge in the midst of difficulties. Everyone found out and told me that I corrected it when it was republished.
What does tea people often mean by "fine practice and frugality"?
"Frugal virtue" is easy for everyone to explain, from the "Zhou Yi" "no" gua, "a gentleman with frugal virtue to overcome difficulties, not to honor lu". Zhuge Kongming said, "The journey of a husband and a gentleman is to cultivate oneself quietly and cultivate virtue through frugality." ”
But what is "Jingxing"? Before everyone did not make it clear, the explanation given by the weekly version of the "Tea Classic" is that "jingxing" is "xingjing", from "Yanzi Spring and Autumn", referring to the purity of the heart.
The combination of "fine practice and frugal virtue" is to cultivate the body with cleanliness and self-cultivation, which is the tea of the gentleman.
What does it mean that the "sutra" of the Tea Sutra is not a "classic"?
When we talk about Lu Yu today, we must not only see the tea, but also see more. In the past, too much emphasis was placed on tea, and many things other than tea were often ignored. For example, this "sutra" of the Tea Sutra. Zhang Xuecheng said, Lu Yu, how can you write a book about playing tea called the "Tea Classic"?
The "Classic" of the Tea Classic was not the "Classic" of the "Classic" in the popular sense today, nor was it the "Classic" of the "Subset of the History of the Classics", Lu Yu's "Tea Classic" according to the understanding at that time should be the "Classic" of "Brokerage", and "Brokerage" is the meaning of arrangement. The "Tea Sutra" is to make tea orderly. The original meaning of the warp is the warp, we often say that the longitude and latitude, refers to the warp and the weft, the line is done, to the loom swing, the horizontal is the warp, the vertical is the weft, now introduce a place, often say how much longitude and latitude, is to determine the location.
Longitude and latitude naturally refer to the order of all things in heaven and earth, and in ancient China, it was especially used to refer to the governance of the world. However, just like the Six Books, it was not a "sutra" at the beginning, but from the time of Confucius he became a "jing".
In later generations, people continued to superimpose, and the Nine Classics, the Thirteen Classics, and so on appeared. Today, when we look at this "Tea Classic" of the Tang Dynasty, we only know its classic side, and its "brokerage" side has been forgotten, so we should point it out in particular.
Source: Tea Ceremony Media