Tea is well known as a daily drink for Chinese. The so-called seven things to open the door "chai rice oil salt sauce vinegar tea", it can be seen that the importance of tea in the Chinese life.
"Tea People, Southern Jiamuya" comes from Lu Yu's "Tea Classic", which summarizes the origin of the tea tree in one sentence.
Tea tree is an excellent evergreen tree species produced in the south. With more and more materials to prove, China is the birthplace of tea plants. At present, in Fengqing County, Yunnan Province, there is an ancient tea tree that is more than 3200 years old, known as the oldest "living fossil" found in the world.
As the hometown of tea, the most comprehensive record of tea is the "Tea Classic" written by Lu Yu, the "Tea Saint".
The "Tea Classic" records: "Tea is to drink, originated from the Shennong clan, smelled by Zhou Lugong." "According to legend, in ancient times, Shennong tasted poisoning by hundreds of herbs, and by chance, he accidentally drank boiling tea tree leaf water and was detoxified. Therefore, the first tea was discovered as an antidote.
In the Western Han Dynasty, tea began to become a drink in people's daily lives. However, unlike the current method of brewing tea, the cooking method was used at that time. The tea balls are first mashed, then placed in a pot, added to boiling water, and finally seasoned with shallots, ginger, salt, tangerine peel, etc.
In the Tang Dynasty, the drinking method that Lu Yu could promote was basically the same as the current method of brewing tea.
With the love of tea, tea began to spread as a commodity. The first form of trade in tea was the tea horse market. In the Tang and Song dynasties, the Central Plains produced tea, but lacked good horses, while there were good foals in the frontier areas, but there was a lack of tea leaves to dissolve greasy meat and fish, and once such a supply and demand relationship was generated, it was derived from the trading exchange of tea and horses.
Gradually, with the improvement of transactions and rules, the Tea Horse Ancient Road came into being. Commodities are no longer a single horse and tea, including medicinal herbs and animal furs. At the same time, the line also extends to countries such as India and Nepal.
With the Japanese monks returning to China after learning the scriptures, bringing back tea planting technology, and Zheng He's western spread of tea to Asia, Europe and other countries, tea is no longer a drink that Chinese enjoy alone, but is gradually loved by more people.
In modern times, whether it is the Japanese tea ceremony that emphasizes "harmony, respect, purity and silence", or the British afternoon tea, which is loved by the British, it has benefited from the spread of Chinese tea at that time.
Tea leaves were brought out of China by fate. However, tea culture has always been deeply rooted in the pen of Chinese literati inkers.
Lu Yu and Lu Tong are known as the confidants of tea, the former wrote the legendary work "Tea Classic", which allowed people to systematically understand the links of tea from planting, picking, making to drinking for the first time; while the latter's "Seven Bowls of Tea Song" described the pleasure of tea drinking with the attitude of "no one before and no one after".
During the Tang Dynasty, the tea industry was greatly developed. This is due to the advent of Lu Yu's Tea Classic. The full text of the Tea Sutra is about 7,000 words, divided into three volumes, the upper, middle and lower volumes, with a total of ten chapters, namely: the source of one; the instrument of the second; the creation of the third; the instrument of the fourth; the boiling of the fifth; the drink of the sixth; the matter of the seven; the out of the eighth; the strategy of the nine; and the diagram of the tenth.
Lu Yu took the original simple tea leaves and formed a systematic tea culture system through his own visits, explorations and research. The "Tea Classic" is the foundation of tea culture left by Lu Yu to the world, which not only laid the status of tea culture in China, but also allowed Lu Yu to get the titles of "Tea Saint" and "Tea God". The Northern Song Dynasty poet Mei Yaochen said: "Since Lu Yu was born in the human world, the human world has learned new tea. ”
In contrast, Lu Yu's book Li said that in the Tang Dynasty, where the literati were born, Lu Tong was remembered by posterity with a tea poem. "Walking Pen Xie Mengzhi Discussing Sending New Tea", also known as "Seven Bowls of Tea Song", vividly describes the fun of drinking tea through smooth comparison writing.
"One bowl of throat kisses, two bowls are broken and lonely."
Three bowls of dry intestines, only five thousand volumes of writing.
Four bowls of light sweat, ordinary life, all scattered to the pores.
Five bowls of muscle and bone clear, six bowls of fairy spirit.
Seven bowls can not eat also, only to feel the two armpits to practice the breeze. ”
Whether it is Bai Juyi, a person who loves tea, accompanied by tea in his later years, or Su Shi, who compares jiaming to a beautiful person, or Chinese literati who love tea and love tea, there are not a few. If you trace back to the source, Lu Yu gave the answer in the "Tea Classic".
"Tea is for use, taste is cold, for drinking, the most suitable for those who practice frugality."
While studying the properties of tea itself, Lu Yu is also well versed in the character of tea and the way of drinking tea. Literati and scholars love tea and praise tea because the tea itself is elegant and vulgar.
Lu Yu said in the "Tea Classic": "Tea is frugal, it should not be wide, and its taste is dim if it is wide." And like a full bowl, sipping half and tasting, it is widespread. Its taste is sweet, and it is also bitter; it is not willing and bitter, and it is also bitter; it is bitter and sweet, and tea is also. ”
This means that the character of the tea itself is frugal, and it is not advisable to add more water, and the taste of the tea will be lighter if the water is more. It's like a full bowl of tea, and the taste will fade until you drink it, let alone add more water? If the taste is sweet, it is a hammer; the taste is not sweet, but bitter, that is the tsu, it is the tsu, when it is drunk, the taste is bitter, and it is the real tea that is swallowed back to sweetness.
The character of tea is like the character of man. If everything is done too full and does not know how to control, it will not be able to show the true "taste of tea". The taste of tea that is first bitter and then sweet also means that life is not satisfactory, and it is the true taste of life to spend time through suffering and finally harvest happiness.
The "person who practices frugality" in the Tea Sutra is the realm pursued by the gentleman who sticks to his heart and is not shaken by worldly material desires. Using tea as a metaphor for oneself is also the reason why tea is particularly respected by literati and scholars.
Tea, a small leaf, drifted from ancient times. After experiencing a complex cooking method, return to the simplest and simplest drinking method, combined with tasteless white water, to brew different tea flavors.
Chinese loves to drink tea and is obsessed with the slightly bitter taste of huigan, which coincides with the introverted and calm Chinese cultural roots. While tasting tea, why not taste life?
Life is like this little cup of tea soup. If there is more water, it is tasteless; if there is less water, it tastes bitter. Only suitable water can brew a good tea aroma. Sipping bitterness and returning to sweetness is also the true taste of life.
Reference Books:
"Chinese Tea Matter" Editor: Luo Jun Publisher: China Textile Publishing House
"Tea Classic, Sencha Taste Long" Editor: Yuli Publisher: Shandong Pictorial Publishing House