Why did the Japanese tea ceremony last so long? China tea ceremony is rarely said?

People in China always drink tea-good tea, not seeking the Tao.

Recently, several articles about "Enshi Yulu" have been pushed one after another, and some acquaintances invited me to watch the tea ceremony. It is said that they are from Japan, and the high-end products are unbelievable. I waved my hand and said, "laity is not elegant." Give it up.

The word "Tao" is a very high word in the traditional culture of China, such as Heaven, Humanism and Tunnel. This word represents the ultimate law and truth of all things, so unlike the Japanese "tea ceremony" and "kendo", it is difficult for China people to develop a skill to the extreme and call it "Tao". China tea has always had its own characteristics.

The mental process of our ancestors drinking tea was used as medicine in ancient times, and it was eaten as a dish in Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties. It was not until the Han Dynasty that it was given the concept of culture and the function of daily drinking. During the Three Kingdoms and the Jin Dynasty, the concept of "replacing wine with tea" was put forward. Like wine, tea has become two equal drinks. Since the Song Dynasty, there has been a saying that "tea is no different from rice and salt", and it is often said in Yuanqu: "Seven things to open the door in the morning, rice, oil, salt, sauce and vinegar tea." Therefore, tea has always been the daily necessities of China people, and there are not so many vessel requirements and action specifications. I remember being lucky enough to know about Japanese tea ceremony, and I found that the height of hand-held tools was strictly regulated, which made me feel a little dumbfounded. This ritualized process is really not the tea culture of China people. I want to drink tea when I am thirsty, and I am not so busy and in a good mood, so I am willing to sit down and make myself a pot of tea, soak it slowly and drink it slowly. This is a quiet and comfortable state. Drink alone when no one is with you, do whatever you want when you are free, drink together when someone is with you, say whatever you want, and drink tea quietly when there is nothing to talk about. If we have to talk about it, China people's tea ceremony must be rooted in life, which is the right way.

Taste tea and evaluate its taste and quality.

Of course, you can also say that Japan brought tea culture back to its own country from the Tang and Song Dynasties and carried it forward. However, according to the written records left at that time, tea culture is not only a gesture when making tea and a simple ceremony when pouring tea with boiling water. For example, in the Song Dynasty, when tea culture was once popular, there were many emperors, generals and literati. Song Huizong and Evonne wrote Daguan Tea Classic, Cai Xiang wrote Tea Book and Huang Ru wrote Tea Tasting Book. Some literati are more popular with the life interest of fighting tea, and the wind of fighting tea is extremely prosperous in the Song Dynasty.

King tea storm

Fighting tea-that is, the advantages and disadvantages of competing tea, also known as fighting tea and fighting tea. It began in the Tang Dynasty and flourished in the Song Dynasty. This is an elegant play by the rich and idle people in ancient times. It has a strong winning and losing color, interesting and challenging.

When it comes to tea art in Song Dynasty, we have to say that there was an emperor, Song Huizong. The emperor, who is known as "everything can be done, but he can't be your ear alone", is good at tea art and has ordered tea for his subordinates many times. Cai Jing's Taiqing Floor Banquet records that he "took care of Xige, personally made tea, and gave it around". According to the Record of Tribute Tea in Xuanhe Beiyuan, during Zheng and Xuanhe years, a large number of famous tribute teas such as Yuqing Qingyun, Ruiyun Xianglong and so on were also produced and supplied to Beiyuan.

Evonne, Song Huizong

The eleventh son of Song Huizong, Evonne and Song Shenzong, and the eighth emperor of the Song Dynasty, was quite open-minded in the early days of his rule. After being induced by Cai Jing and other ministers, the political situation plummeted. After 25 years in office, he was captured and tortured, and died at the age of 54. He created his own calligraphy font, which was called "thin gold body" by later generations. He loves painting flowers and birds, and he has become a "courtyard style". He is a rare artistic genius and all-rounder in ancient times.

Choosing the wrong major and entering the wrong profession is a very sad thing. This, Song Huizong must also feel the same way. Evonne is a master of calligraphy and painting. He was supposed to be a professor in the literature department of Peking University, but somehow he became emperor. Letting young artists govern the country is doomed to govern the country.

Choose the wrong major and enter the wrong business.

However, the gloomy performance shows other aspects. Song Huizong made great contributions to China's tea affairs, not only wrote Daguan Tea Theory, one of the classics of China's tea books, which was quoted by tea people in past dynasties; It also greatly promoted the popular "tea fighting" activity at that time.

Song Huizong and Zhao Ji on Daguan Tea

The "Map of Wen Hui" in Evonne, Song Huizong recorded the activity of "fighting tea".

During Tomb-Sweeping Day every year, fresh tea comes first, which is most suitable for fighting tea. The ancients competed for tea, or a dozen people, or five or six people, mostly celebrities and elegant people, as well as shopkeepers and neighbors, and watched it as lively as watching a ball game today. The contents of tea fighting include: one bucket of soup-colored tea and two buckets of water marks; Give tea-related stories and recite poems to make tea fights; And the most important thing is the taste of tea and tea.

Flowchart of ancient tea fighting

Ancient tea fighting scene

Tea white Xi

Tea Hundred Drama and Tea Hundred Drama began to appear in the Tang Dynasty. Liu Yuxi described in "Xishan Lan Ruo Tea Song": "The shower enters the tripod to loosen, and the white clouds are full of flowers." Also known as Pink Tea, Shuidanqing, Tangxi and Tea Opera. , an ancient tea ceremony, can make the veins of tea soup form objects. Its characteristic is that only tea and water are used, and no other raw materials are used to express words and images in tea soup.

Song Huizong not only wrote "Daguan Tea Theory" to discuss the ordering and distribution of tea, but also personally hosted a banquet for the minister to make tea. In the Song Dynasty, Wen Qing had three treasures, so drinking tea and writing lyrics were very troublesome. Lu You, Li Qingzhao, Yang Wanli and Su Shi all like to divide tea, leaving many poems describing the division of tea. Lu You described the scene of dividing tea in "The First Night of Spring Rain in Lin 'an": "Short paper is inclined to be grass, and the window is cleared to divide tea." "Qing Louis Yu Ming Tea Hundred Plays" contains: "Tea flourished in the Tang Dynasty. Recently, some people used a soup knife to make soup veins into objects with clever techniques. Animals, insects, fish, flowers and plants are all exquisite and picturesque. But after a while, it will disappear. This change of tea is also called tea. "Ordering tea requires' beating', that is, using tools to beat the tea soup evenly and finely. Song people compete for tea, just look at the color of this bubble, pure white for the top, blue and white for the bottom, and gray for the bottom. Separating tea is an upgraded version of the skill of "ordering tea", that is, not only the surface of tea soup should be foamed, but also the foam should form an abstract "object image", which requires "exquisiteness and picturesque". Different from the Japanese tea ceremony, even with such exquisite tea-dividing skills, the Song people did not pursue the beauty and exquisiteness of utensils throughout the Song Dynasty. " Small stone Joan Hinton leaves taste at first, and new purple mud blooms in spring. How beautiful! Write the style of Jianzhan with the word "purple mud". Regrettably, since the Yuan Dynasty, tea-sharing has gradually declined, and there has been no detailed literature record since the Qing Dynasty.

Tea map of Zhang Shiqing tomb

Tea-ordering pictures in murals

Ancient literati's tea-sharing map

Modern Tea Hundred Opera was initially restored in Wuyishan in 2009 and included in the intangible cultural heritage of Wuyishan, but it is not known whether it is consistent with ancient times.

Wuyishan modern tea hundred plays

Tea fighting began in the Tang Dynasty and flourished in the Song Dynasty. Based on the steaming tea technology at that time, the tea culture derived from it was widely circulated in Japan and became one of the Japanese technologies. However, due to the maturity of fried green tea technology, we gradually lost the prosperity of tea fighting, which is mainly steamed green tea. Today, there are only a few kinds of Enshi Youlu tea, and the tea-making technology left over from the Tang and Song Dynasties is still preserved. In contrast, it is embarrassing. However, even though the ancient people were highly skilled, for China people, whether they were competing for tea or not, drinking tea would ultimately depend on the taste. Now there is only formal tea that looks like a cup of tea, but it seems redundant.

Enshi yulucha

It is precisely because learning is hard to find that it is inevitable to fall into arty. But if you just like tea, have tea. When making clear soup, drink as much as you want, and it will be as comfortable to drink in your stomach. Perhaps because of the long journey, I have always been simple and serious with the true meaning of the ancients, but tea is just tea, which will not rob you of your life or give you more.

In my opinion, people who talk about tea ceremony in Kan Kan just want to sell you tea;

People in China always drink good tea.

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Text | Xiao Li

Figure & Editor | Dear Son