What is the history and culture of the Chinese way of drinking tea?

The Chinese have created various ways of drinking tea, divided by the number of people, including drinking alone, drinking in pairs, drinking together, and drinking together. The ancients said: One person can get the spirit, two people can have the fun, and three people can have the taste. , seven or eight people were serving tea. In fact, drinking together is also very interesting, mainly in the form of tea banquets, tea parties, tea parties, etc. In the Song Dynasty, there were tea-giving, tea-fighting, and tea-sharing games. Public tea facilities mainly include tea stalls, tea rooms and tea houses. Drinking alone, drinking in pairs, tasting and drinking together. Drinking alone, drinking in pairs, tasting and drinking together are the four ways to drink tea. Drinking a cup of tea alone comforts loneliness, refreshes the mind and brings out the charm of tea. Drinking with friends on a cold night and chatting with each other can bring you the joy of tea. "Tea, three wines and four", it is best to drink tea with three people at the same table, so that you can appreciate the delicious taste of tea. Many people gather together to drink, hold tea parties or tea banquets, and drink tea to meet friends. They can also quench thirst, take a nap, socialize and obtain information. Tea has become a popular "public relations drink" here.

Based on the number of people, there are several ways to drink tea: drinking alone, drinking in pairs, drinking together and drinking together.

What does it feel like to drink alone? Li Bai wrote in "Drinking Alone Under the Moon": A pot of wine among the flowers, drinking alone without any blind date. Raise a glass to invite the bright moon, and make three people in the shadows. The moon doesn't know how to drink, and its shadow follows me. For now, the moon will be shadowed, and we must have fun until spring. My singing moon lingers, my dancing shadows are scattered. They make love together when they are awake, but they separate when they are drunk. We will travel together forever, and we will meet each other in Miao Yunhan. Li Bai, who was known as the "Drunken Immortal", could not be calmed down by wine, but instead was stimulated to the point of going crazy. Driven by hallucinations, he drank, sang and danced with the moon and shadows. This is the way of wine. Wine is a manic thing that can make people hallucinate and lose their normal state. If Li Bai substituted tea for wine and drank alone under the moon, what would happen? This will never happen.

Lu Tong, a poet of the mid-Tang Dynasty, wrote a poem "Thank you Meng for his advice and send new tea":

The sun was five feet high and I was sleeping heavily. The general knocked on the door to surprise Duke Zhou.

Kou Yun advised to send the letter, and the white silk was sealed with three seals.

When I opened my mouth to discuss the matter, I read three hundred pieces of the moon in my hand.

When I heard that I entered the mountains during the New Year, I was alarmed by the stinging insects and the spring breeze started to rise.

The emperor must taste Yangxian tea, and the herbs dare not bloom first.

The benevolent wind bears pearl buds secretly, and the golden buds emerge in the early spring.

Picked fresh, roasted, fragrant and wrapped, it is exquisite and not extravagant.

As a supreme being, he is a prince and goes to the mountain people’s house whenever he wants.

Chaimen is closed and there are no ordinary visitors. The gauze hat and halter are fried and eaten by oneself. The green clouds are blown by the wind, and the white flowers float on the surface of the bowl.

One bowl moistens the throat, two bowls relieve the loneliness; three bowls search the dry intestines, but only five thousand volumes of text. Four bowls will cause light sweating, and all the uneven things in life will be dispersed into the pores; five bowls will lighten the muscles and bones, and six bowls will lead to immortal spirits; seven bowls will not be eaten, but you will feel the cool breeze blowing in your two organs. In the Tang Dynasty, tea cakes were made into square, round, bird-shaped, palm-shaped, and flake-shaped molds. The poem describes one type of tribute tea, moon bud flake-shaped. Yangxian tea is a famous tea in the Tang Dynasty, and there are many poems praising Yangxian tea. Yangxian is now Yixing, and Yixing is famous both at home and abroad for its tea and Ziou.

"Zhou Bi" is the best tea poem written. If there is to be a tea poem grand prix, this poem must be the gold medal winner. There are 31 lines in the whole poem, and the writing is natural and free, and it is written in one go. It thoroughly describes the pleasure of drinking tea. The poet was sleeping soundly, and when he saw the arrival of tea, he was excited and grateful. There is a true feeling in tea, and seeing tea is like seeing a friend. Tea is not an ordinary thing, but a carrier of emotions. There is a royal saying in tea: "The emperor must taste Yangxian tea, and the herbs dare not bloom first." This royal saying is very overbearing. But the crime is not in tea, tea is an elegant thing. The poet closed the door and drank the sencha alone, appreciating the steaming water vapor while making the tea with joy, appreciating the white soup noodles in the tea bowl, and using highly sensitive nerves to perceive the effect of drinking tea: one bowl moistens the throat, and the second bowl relieves the pain. After three bowls, I felt like thinking, after four bowls, I broadened my mind, after five bowls, my muscles and bones were lightened, after six bowls, my hands and eyes became clear, and after seven bowls, I felt like I was in heaven... The function of drinking tea is not only to quench thirst and promote body fluids, It is also a high-level spiritual enjoyment: refreshing, enlightening the mind, clearing the mind and... the pleasure is like entering a fairyland. This is the way of tea. Tea made Lu Tong peaceful and indifferent, otherworldly, and wandered into a fairyland; wine made Li Bai crazy, romantic, and drunk into a dreamland. The tea ceremony and the wine ceremony are in opposition but not unified. "Replacing wine with tea" and "drinking tea to relieve oneself" are the victories of the tea ceremony. In the end, the tea ceremony conquered the wine ceremony.

Zhang Yuan's "Tea Records" written around 1595 describes his experience and thoughts about drinking tea. Gu Daqi's preface says: He hid in the valley, doing nothing, and recited hundreds of scholars' sayings every day. Every time I took a break from the Expo, I drank tea from the spring to enjoy myself. After thirty years of constant cold and heat, I was exhausted and thought about it, and I didn't care about the meaning of tea.

This "hermit" had nothing to do and studied hard in the mountains. If he had not amused himself by "drinking alone", how could he have persisted for 30 years? I'm afraid not. Ancient literati often made books as friends and tea as companions. "Tea" should be added after "Qin, Qi, calligraphy and painting". It is precisely because of the extensive participation of literati that it has lasted for more than a thousand years, giving the tea ceremony a strong cultural flavor.

Lu You's "Drawing Water from a Well to Make Tea at Night" and Yang Wanli's "A Boat at the Wujiang River" both describe the fun of drawing water for natural tea, and at the same time express their respective feelings.

Sipping tea alone under the moonlight in front of the window can comfort loneliness and refresh the mind. You can get the charm of tea, but after all, it is not as fun as drinking tea. I have gained something in my heart, and I always want to tell it to Yue? Tell me about it? Then drink, get very drunk, so that you can fall into a trance, enter illusions, and have wild thoughts. Tea is a "realistic" drink. The more you drink it, the clearer you become. The virtual and the real, the yin and the yang are all clear and the boundaries will never be blurred.

If you drink alone by the stove on a cold winter night, you can appreciate the charm of tea, but it will still be a bit deserted. At this moment, an old friend came unexpectedly, and I couldn't help but be overjoyed. Then I sat down on my knees and cooked some tea together. It was snowing heavily outside, the fire was jumping in the house, the tea soup in the cauldron was boiling, the white air was curling up, and the fragrance was overflowing. Feelings can be incorporated into poetry, and this scene can be incorporated into paintings. "Cold Night" by Du Lai, a poet from the Song Dynasty, expresses the enjoyment of drinking tea on a snowy night. The original poem is: On a cold night, guests come to drink tea and wine, and the bamboo stove soup is boiling and the fire is just beginning to turn red. The moon in front of the window is the same, but it is different that there are plum blossoms. The author regards "cold night tea", "moon in front of the window" and "plum blossoms in the snow" as equally elegant events. Drinking good tea with friends on a cold night is in line with the "tea appropriateness" proposed by Feng Kebin of the Ming Dynasty in "Jie Tea Notes": "nothing", "good guest", "sitting quietly", "reciting poems", "Jingshe", "understanding", "appreciation" and other items. If you only drink to quench your thirst, it will lose interest. Literati relied on drinking tea to cultivate themselves and cultivate the gentlemanly demeanor of calmness, elegance, and courtesy.

Three people are a group, and drinking tea together is exactly the meaning of the word "taste". The shape of the word "品" is composed of three characters for "口", which shows that it is the best combination for three people to drink together. Drinking alone is too cold, but drinking together is interesting. The two of them are sitting next to each other, just like singing a duet, either you say it or I sing it. There is no time to breathe, but the three of them drinking together adds a lot of excitement and opens up the dragon gate formation. The topic flows like a stream without interruption. Relatively speaking, it is more leisurely and relaxed, so the tea will naturally be more delicious!

Gathering of many people to drink (referring to more than three people) is another scene, such as tea banquets, tea parties, teahouses, and tea stalls. Especially in teahouses, there are people coming from the south, people going north, dignitaries, traders and pawns, kings, kings, Li Zhao, people from all directions, tea people come and go to quench their thirst, it seems that there is no tea ceremony at all! But compared to the busy thoroughfares, shops and markets, and restaurants, this is a quiet place. Birds of a feather flock together, and people divide into groups. Even when a few close friends share a tea table, you can still sit still and drink good tea in the midst of the bustle, and gain a relaxing and leisurely spiritual enjoyment. Especially the pace of modern life is tense. Find a pleasant teahouse eight hours away, make an appointment with one or two good friends, order a pot of good tea, chat while drinking, lie on a bamboo chair with the legs crossed, your nerves will suddenly relax, and you will feel very good. Comfortable. Although there are many people, everyone has a piece of sky above their head, and no one will hinder anyone. If you drink alcohol, punch and give orders, and make loud noises, once you are drunk and lose your temper, you will get into a fight, which will not only hinder public order, but also harm your personal health. To build a civilized city, gathering people to drink alcohol is not a good idea, but gathering people to drink tea should be strongly encouraged. Although drinking tea together is not as good as drinking alone, drinking in pairs, or tasting tea, tea is a noble drink and a civilized drink, and its benefits cannot be compared with drinking in groups.

The most spectacular gathering was probably a tea party held by Tibetan Lamas in the late Qing Dynasty. A tea party was held at the Kawenbamu Grand Lama Temple, gathering more than 4,000 monks from all over the world. The visiting monks entertained all the monks with tea. The tea ceremony is as follows: Lamas line up in rows, sit in meditation with robes on, and look solemn. The young monks carry out the tea cauldron to make tea. When the water boils, they put in high-quality brick tea. This tea has been crushed and is worth 5 bricks of tea worth 1 tael of silver. Wait for the tea. When the tea is fragrant and fragrant, the young monks drink the tea and distribute it to the monks; the benefactor prostrates himself on the ground and sings hymns; the visiting monks add snacks or cheese to the tea and drink it together. The ceremony is completed.

It is said that each person drank two cups of tea at this tea party, which cost 8,000 cups and cost 50 taels of silver. This matter was found in "Travel Notes on China's Tibet" written by the Portuguese priest Hu Ke in the second year of Xianfeng (1852). Similar records can be found in the book "The People of Tibet" written by the British soldier Charlie Ball.

The large-scale Tibetan Lamaist tea party in the late Qing Dynasty set at least two world records: first, 4,000 people drank tea together, and second, the huge tea cauldron.

The ancients believed that drinking tea is about one person getting the spirit, two people getting the fun, three people getting the taste, and seven or eight people giving the tea. The first three sentences are correct, but the last sentence is unfair and should be changed to "many people benefit". What benefits are gained? The first benefit is to quench thirst, the second benefit is to take a nap, the third benefit is to socialize, and the fourth benefit is to obtain information. Today's political circles, business circles, industrial circles and even ordinary people like to gather for drinks. Tea is the "public relations drink" of today's society. Today's literati live in today's information age. To write, they must enter the public society. Drinking together is a way to understand today's society. This is a good place for all living beings. If we just follow the example of the ancients "drinking alone under the moon" and drink to the fullest, we will become a laggard of the times. If we are separated from the times, the source of creation will be dried up, and there will be nothing to write about. Order tea, share tea, and fight tea. During the Song Dynasty, the urban economy was prosperous, and the tea ceremony developed into a folk and entertainment style. Giving tea by ordering is a folk tea custom, and tea sharing and tea fighting are tea art games.

Compared with the Tang Dynasty, the tea ceremony in the Song Dynasty had more cultural connotations. As far as ancient tea ceremonies are concerned, the Tang Dynasty was frugal, the Ming Dynasty was pragmatic, but the Song Dynasty was fancy. Wu Zimu of the Song Dynasty wrote "Tea Shop" in Volume 16 of "Meng Liang Lu": In alleys and streets, neighbors carry tea bottles along the door to order tea, or look at the sun, and if there is good or bad luck, they order tea for their neighbors and invite them to come and go. Spread the word. There is also a class of street officials and soldiers who serve the mats in front of the shop with tea points and beg for money and things, which is called "dirty tea". The monk Tao Tutuo wanted to make an inscription, so he first handed tea points along the door to get in. of steps. This passage describes the folk tea customs in Lin'an (Hangzhou), the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty. The article talks about three situations: one is the person carrying the tea bottle. The tea vase was a utensil for serving tea in the Song Dynasty. Cai Xiang's "Tea Records" says: The vase should be small to wait for the soup; it is also accurate to order tea and pour the soup. Gold is the best. In the world, it is made of silver, iron, porcelain, or stone. The tea bottle has a mouth and a handle, which is a step forward compared to the Tang Dynasty bowls. To order tea, you pour boiling water into the tea soup, and at the same time use a "tea whisk" or "whisk", that is, use a bamboo brush to stir the thick tea soup. It is required that the soup surface is covered with flowers and no water marks are left on the sides of the tea cup. Carrying a tea bottle in the alleys and walking around the streets will probably give you ordered tea instead of boiling water, because people in the Song Dynasty boiled water instead of tea. When the water boiled to "Lianzhu", they had to put in the tea powder, and then boiled it for a while, until it "drummed". "Tea paste" will be made when it is simmered, and then poured into boiling water, it is ready to drink. The person carrying the tea bottle serves tea along the door, so that neighbors can enjoy the tea immediately without having to do any work themselves. Cooking tea in the Song Dynasty was not that easy. You had to have tea and water, and you had to have some leisure time before you could handle the tea ceremony patiently. The custom of delivering tea at the door is beautiful and enriches the community culture. It will be welcomed by the citizens, just like fast food is welcomed by the citizens today. Carrying tea bottles is one of the seventy-two professions. Do professional tea waiters provide free services? There is no way to verify it.

It is most important for those who carry tea bottles to deliver tea door-to-door on "Shuowang Day". Shuowang Day is the first day of each month in the lunar calendar, and Wangri is the fifteenth day of each month in the lunar calendar. It is the day when three incense sticks are burned in the morning and evening to worship family gods. , Tea was used as a sacrificial offering in the Western Zhou Dynasty. People in Lin'an in the Southern Song Dynasty may have used tea instead of wine. Does the ancient custom still exist? wait for verification. Those who carry tea bottles also play the role of "passing messages" when there are weddings and funerals in the street. Volume 5 "Folk Customs" of "Tokyo Menghua Lu" written by Meng Yuanlao of the Northern Song Dynasty records: There are also people who carry tea bottles, and they serve every day. Neighbors serve tea to each other and inquire about each other's news. Every house that has good fortune or bad luck is always filled with people.

Deng Zhicheng’s annotation goes: Carrying a tea bottle means pretending to be a tea drinker. Ordinarily, on the first day of the month, I communicate with people every day, and may gather favors. It seems that those who carry tea bottles use the opportunity of giving tea to convey information within the community, such as the death of an old man in a certain family, the death of a young man in a certain family, the marriage of a daughter in a certain family, the marriage of a daughter-in-law in a certain family, a birthday party in a certain family, a housewarming in a certain family... these Major events in the community depend on the people carrying the tea bottles to "pass word and exchange", and sometimes they also act as "leaders", collecting money and giving gifts collectively. Those who carry the tea bottles order tea not only deliver tea to thousands of households, but also deliver the spirit of tea: to bring peace and harmony. It is very helpful in connecting emotions and harmonious relationships.

The Tokyo mentioned above, now Kaifeng, was the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty. It shows that the practice of delivering tea at tea vase points has been around as early as the Northern Song Dynasty.

Another way to deliver tea is "dirty tea". The tea delivery person is "Jie Si Ya Bing Bai Si Ren". His status is not noble, but he is higher than ordinary people who spread the banquet upstairs. A piece of paper comes out. Just because they have such a small amount of power, they can use the opportunity of sending tea to rip off the merchants in the market. Monks and Taoists also ordered and sent tea in order to build good relationships, gain fame and reputation, and take the opportunity to do "business" (doing things for others) as a way to advance into the world.

There is another way of ordering and delivering tea in the Southern Song Dynasty Restaurant.

When diners take their seats upstairs, they will be greeted by a waiter offering tea in a bottle. The unique thing is to add seasonal flowers to the cup to enhance the fragrance of the tea, which is called "flower tea".

Order Giving tea is a combination of tea ceremony and folk customs, and is rich in folk color. On the one hand, the literati, dignitaries, and young people of the Song Dynasty inherited the art of drinking from the Tang Dynasty, but on the other hand, they abandoned the basic spirit of the tea ceremony of the Tang Dynasty and turned tea drinking into tea play. They were bored by sharing tea and fighting over tea. of creation.

The tea-sharing game began in the late Northern Song Dynasty. Cai Jing's "Yanfu Palace Qu Banquet" records an incident: In December Guisi of the second year of Xuanhe in the Northern Song Dynasty (1120), Emperor Huizong summoned Prince Zhi Waiting for a banquet at Yanfu Palace, Huizong showed his skill during the banquet: he ordered his attendants to take the tea sets, boil water for tea himself, pour the soup and stir the whisk. The technique was different from the ordinary tea ordering. The surface of the cup was milky white, turning into "sparse stars". "Bright Moon" image. ; This is the weird and tricky tea-sharing game. The lines of the soup pattern and water veins on the noodles that are required to be brushed, the colorful tones of the tea soup, and the changing steam of the heat are all combined into hazy pictures by the tea maker's imagination, like mountains and rivers, clouds and mist, flowers, birds, insects, fish, and forests. Yincaoshe... is called "Water Painting". It is said that monk Fuquan is the best at this. He can even turn the tea soup into a poem. If four cups are lit at the same time, four lines of poetry will be obtained, which can be connected into a quatrain. This expert at dividing tea is quite famous, and donors often ask him to perform to feast their eyes on him. Fuquan arrogantly chanted to himself: "I was born with water in my cup, but I couldn't learn it with all my skill, but I laughed at Lu Hongjian at that time and won a good reputation by making tea." This monk thought so highly of himself that he didn't take Lu Yu, the tea god, into his eyes. With such a social atmosphere, it is no wonder that this monk is boasting.

Poems of Song Dynasty poets about the tea-sharing game include Lu You's "The First Spring Rain in Lin'an": "Low and sloping, leisurely grassing, playing tea-sharing with fine breasts under the clear window", Yang Wanli's "On the Dan'an Seat" The poem "Guanxian Master Divides Tea" is the most vivid and expressive. The poem says:

Dividing tea is as good as sencha, but sencha is not as skillful as dividing tea.

The old Zen of steaming water makes the sound of the spring, and the new jade claws of Yuan Chun are flourishing.

The two meet each other in a strange and strange way, and they are both true, good and imaginary.

They are like catkins traveling in space, and their shadows falling on the cold river can change.

The bottom of the silver vase is still high, and the soup is poured into the calligraphy to show the prostitution. The people of the Song Dynasty were not satisfied with boiling water and beating whisks, but sublimated the tea ceremony into a unique and incredible artistic creation and art appreciation, "dividing" an art category from the tea ceremony that has not been recorded in the history of art. Master Xian was a very accomplished "tea-distributing artist" at that time. With his skillful brushing, he actually formed such a picture on the surface of the cup: clouds in the sky, floating and uncertain; thousands of trees are desolate, and the shadows of the river are changing and unpredictable. . Pour the bottle to order tea, the lines are elegant and unrestrained, the surface of the cup looks like wild grass, and the fonts are vigorous and powerful. Let's call it "tea-sharing painting". There are abstract paintings today, but they are short-lived; there are hazy poems today, but they cannot be printed in type. The Song people's game life is not worth it, but their spirituality in art is admirable. Perhaps they lack the grandeur of the Tang Dynasty artists, but their rich imagination and delicate artistic feeling are no less than their predecessors.

Distributing tea may be too elegant and was not popular in the Song Dynasty. Tea fighting has become a social trend.

Cha fighting, also known as "tea battle", "tea ordering" and "tea test", is a "technical event" in tea ceremony. The main competition is the effect of making tea, ordering tea and whisking: one comparison The color and uniformity of the tea soup surface. The soup noodles are mostly fresh and white, with the best surface shape and color like white rice porridge after condensing into lumps. It is called "cold porridge noodles". The tea powder is evenly distributed in the tea soup noodles, forming "porridge grains"; 2. Check whether there are any water marks at the junction between Tanghua and the inner wall of the cup. If the soup flowers stick to the wall of the cup and spread out, it is called "biting the cup", which is not good. When the water disperses and leaves water marks on the wall of the cup, it is called "cloud foot chaos", which is also not good. Of the two standards, the second is the most important. The rules of the competition are generally best of three games. Whoever has water marks first will lose. Su Dongpo has a poem that goes: "Shaxi Beiyuan is strong and separate, and whoever has the first line of water marks competes first." There are additional standards, which are comparisons. The color, aroma and taste of tea soup. The color is still pure white, followed by blue-white, gray-white, and yellow-white. In order to facilitate color comparison, the popular color of tea cups is black, and black rabbit hair tea cups are commonly used.

Poems describing tea fighting are such as "Fighting for a new fight, praising and attacking, the customs have changed, which can be deeply painful" by Chao Chongzhi of the Northern Song Dynasty. On the one hand, he laments the deterioration of the world, on the other hand, he cannot stop and follows the trend. "Lu Yuanjun Zai sent a daily note on tea" wrote: "I am sick and thirsty, and my hands fry myself, and my hobbies are long and follow the crowd." The great writer Su Dongpo never tired of this, and the poem "Xijiang Moon" said: "Longbao is the best this year." Gulian has precious springs since ancient times, Xueya Shuangjing has scattered immortals, and Miao descendants came from Beiyuan.

The soup is plump and white, and the floating flower milk on the cup is light and round. Who dares to be more beautiful in the world and fight for the red window noodles. After Su Dongpo's beautification, tea fighting became a rather poetic and elegant event.

Cha fighting originated from the previous dynasties and flourished in the Song Dynasty. The reasons are as follows: First, due to the developed urban economy and abundant material life in the Song Dynasty, people stimulated people to further explore tea art, so the tea ceremony became socialized and popular, and Become an entertainment art. Tea fighting was introduced to Japan, and Japanese monks removed the playful side of life and gave it a solemn and serious theme. An almost lengthy process was redesigned to transform the Japanese tea ceremony into what it is today. Discussed earlier in this book. Furthermore, the politics of the Song Dynasty did not focus on openness, but on "internal cultivation." The focus of governing the country was focused on domestic affairs. Although there were external troubles and internal strife, most of the time were "peaceful years". The economy was prosperous, the society was stable, and people were safe and forgot about dangers. Even Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty had time to read "Daguan Tea Theory" and enjoy tea. How much more common people? Therefore, at that time, everyone from the emperors, generals, dignitaries, literati to the ordinary people in the market took tea fighting as their top priority.

Tea delivery, tea sharing, and tea fighting flourished in the Song Dynasty and lasted for two to three hundred years. The Song Dynasty fell to the Yuan Dynasty, and the Mongols took over the Central Plains. Although the nomadic grassland culture failed to replace the agricultural culture of the Central Plains, it was like a scourge that swept through the Central Plains. Mongolians also drink tea, but that's because after eating beef and mutton slices, they have to boil their food with bitter tea juice to remove the smell. They don't understand the tea ceremony, and they are not interested in games such as tea fighting. Emperor Kublai Khan did not appreciate it, so the tea ceremony was naturally ignored. By the Ming Dynasty, tea preparation had changed from sencha to brewed tea, and games such as tea fighting disappeared. Tea banquet, tea talk and tea party are all forms of gathering and drinking evolved from "sencha tea reception". Tea banquets originated from the Wei and Jin Dynasties and flourished in the Tang Dynasty, focusing on banquets; tea parties are tea drinking and conversation, focusing on the word "talk", or "chatting"; tea parties are gatherings over tea, focusing on socializing; tea parties are the last resort The combination of the two has become popular all over the country and is accepted by countries around the world.

One of the virtues of tea is that it can connect emotions and express respect. Over time, this quality evolved into the custom of treating guests with sencha.

According to legend, in the early years of Emperor Shenzong of the Song Dynasty, Su Dongpo was appointed as the general magistrate of Hangzhou. When he visited a certain temple, the old monk did not recognize him. He coldly said "sit" and told the young monk "tea"; He became very popular, became enthusiastic, and upgraded his hospitality. He changed his words to "please sit down," and asked the young monk to "serve tea." Su Dongpo revealed his identity, and the old monk doubled his enthusiasm. The monk "offers fragrant tea". When leaving, the old monk asked for a calligraphy treasure, and Su Dongpo waved a couplet under the soup to ridicule him. The couplet said: "Sit down, please sit down, please sit down; tea, offer tea, offer fragrant tea." Su Dongpo greatly ridiculed the old monk and left behind this famous couplet. To be fair, the old monk did not make any serious mistakes in etiquette. Buddhism is really a quiet place. You come and go, treat everyone as a distinguished guest, and serve fragrant tea. Probably no one has such patience, and there won't be so much fragrant tea in the temple. It's just that the old monk was unlucky and fell into Su Dongpo's hands, becoming the laughingstock of the ages.

This couplet also shows that in China, tea is the first priority in hospitality. If you don’t want to treat everyone equally, you can don’t be disrespectful when it comes to tea. If a stranger asks for a cup of crude tea, it is considered that the other person has fulfilled his duty as a landlord.

If you invite guests to have a drink together, a tea banquet is the best way to do it. When did the tea party start? Some people believe that when the Three Kingdoms were promoted, Sun Hao, the Lord of Wu, hosted a banquet for the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty, and "opened the back door" to the minister Wei Yao: "Secretly giving tea and rice as wine" to avoid being drunk half to death due to the situation. But this is just an episode of a large banquet, not a tea party.

It should be said that the tea banquet originated from the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and flourished in the Tang and Song Dynasties. "Jin Zhongxing Shu" records: When Lu Na was the prefect of Wuxing, General Xie An often wanted to accept him. Na's brother Zichu was surprised that Na was unprepared and did not dare to ask, so he secretly saved food for ten people. Now that An has arrived, all he has set up is tea and fruit. Chu then prepared a sumptuous meal, and all the delicacies must be prepared. When Naian went there, he received his staff of forty and said, "You can't benefit my uncle, so how can you ruin my career." Lu Na's nephew Chu was punished forty because he changed the "tea banquet" to a "wine banquet" without permission. This shows that Lu Na has been treating guests with tea and fruit for a long time. It must have been called a "prime business" for many years. There is a similar record in "Book of Jin": Huan Wen was a shepherd in Yangzhou and was frugal in nature. During every banquet, he only served seven people with cups of tea and fruits. Huan Wen was a famous official in ancient times, and only seven plates of tea and fruit were prepared for the "banquet". Lu Yu advocated "refined practice of frugality" in tea ceremony, which was consistent with Huan Wen's purpose of holding a tea banquet.

Formal records of tea banquets can be found in the mid-Tang Dynasty. "Supplements to Tea Matters" once recorded that Qian Qi, one of the ten talented men in the Dali calendar, named Zhongyi, was a native of Wuxing. He was a Jinshi in the tenth year of Tianbao (751) and had a relationship with Zhao We held a tea party together in a bamboo grove, but it was not like the "Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove" who drank too much. Instead, we used tea instead of wine, so we could get together and talk freely, cleanse our dusty hearts, and talk about the sunset amidst the chirping of cicadas. Down. To remember this event, I wrote a poem "Tea Banquet with Zhao Ju".

In the mid-Tang Dynasty, Huzhou's purple bamboo shoots and Changzhou's Yangxian tea were both listed as tributes. In particular, Gu Zhu's purple bamboo shoots were rated by Lu Yu as the second best tea in the world after Mengding. Every year during the tea-picking season in early spring, the governors of Hu and Changzhou met in Guzhu to jointly hold a tea banquet, inviting celebrities and experts to taste tea and appraise the new tea. One year, Bai Juyi was invited, but he was unable to attend the event due to illness. He finally wrote a poem to lament the event. The title of the poem was "Wen Jia Changzhou Cuihuzhou Tea Mountain Jinghui Pavilion at Night". , surrounded by pearls, green songs and bells. The border between the two states is divided under the plate, and a family springs together in front of the lamp. Qing'e dances to compete for excellence, and purple bamboo shoots taste each other's novelties. I sigh at the flower time, under the north window, the thin yellow wine is good for the sick and sleeping people. This tea banquet is not only for mutual communication and friendship, but also for economic cooperation. Since the governors of the two states are both from the hometown of famous tea, in order to ensure the reputation of the famous tea, improve the quality of the tribute tea, and make the dragon happy, it is necessary to discuss and discuss together. Tea is native to Yunnan and Guizhou, but most famous teas are found in Jiangnan. This is related to the efforts of Jiangnan tea farmers and local officials to create famous brands. Although the tea banquet is held to seek friendship and cooperation, it is not boring. It can be a tea party - chatting while drinking tea, and singing and dancing can be used to promote tea. With such a grand occasion, it's no wonder that Bai Juyi lay down by the north window and sighed to himself.

It should also be mentioned that the poet Lu Wen of the Mid-Tang Dynasty was a native of Tai'an, Shandong Province. He was a Jinshi in the 14th year of Zhenyuan (798) and was a good friend of Liu Zongyuan and Liu Yuxi. He wrote an article "Preface to the Tea Banquet on March 3rd", which said: March 3rd is the day when the Shangsi people drink tea. The scholars agreed to drink tea instead. But he plows the flowers and builds them, loving the shade of the courtyard, where the breeze chases people and the sun shines. Lying down to borrow the green mist, sitting on a flower branch, I heard the orioles approaching the table but not flying away, and the red pistils brushing my clothes but not scattering. It is ordered to drink fragrant foam, float in a cup, and condense the color of amber; it does not make people drunk, but slightly awakens the mind; although the jade dews fairy jelly, there is no need to add it. On the right are the talented men Nanyang Zouzi and Gaoyang Xuhou. They are rewarded with two or three sons in a short while, but they do not speak poetry. The substitution of tea for wine at literati banquets marked a major change in living customs. Needless to say, the tea banquet was a creation of Chinese literati, and its creators included both those who were in official positions and those who were not. The time for this tea banquet was chosen well, March 3rd, the spring was bright and the flowers were in full bloom. The environment is good, people can "lying in the green mist", "sitting on flower branches", "hearing orioles near the table", "red pistils brushing clothes", people have returned to nature. The guests are also good. "Nanyang Zouzi" and "Gaoyang Xuhou" are all scholars, not white men. The tea is cooked well, the tea set is good, and the tea is full of charm. It is "not intoxicating, but slightly refreshing," and it is just the right "poetry". This preface expresses China more vividly than Lu Yu's "The Book of Tea" tea ceremony.

The best way to drink tea when people gather together is to chat. Xu Ciyan, a Ming Dynasty scholar who wrote "Tea Book", said: There are a lot of guests and friends, so it is not enough to drink together; Socializing; only when the hearts are in tune, comfortable with each other, speaking clearly and eloquently, and showing off the body, can we call the children on the bonfire and drink water and order soup. Only drinking tea is worthy of "clear words and eloquence". If you drink alcohol, you can only talk "drink-talk". Drinking will mess up your mind, and you will inevitably become obsessed, lose your mind, and talk illogically. Tea is good for the mind, and it is suitable for drinking and talking. It can be serious or relaxed. In China, there is a saying of "after dinner", which means telling anecdotes that have no major purpose to make people feel relaxed. The British like to chat when they drink afternoon tea, so the novelist Fielding said: "Love and rumors are the best sugar for tea." When friends meet, have something to discuss, or want to chat together, they can "come to my house for tea." Invite.

The emphasis of tea banquet is on feasting, and the emphasis on tea party is on conversation. Tea party is a kind of social gathering.

Poet Qian Qi's poem "The Tea Party with Master Lang in the House of the Grandson" says: I fell in love with my beloved and forgot to return to the gifted scholar's home. Mysterious talk and algae thinking, green tea replaces durian flowers. Look at the cloud rolls from the shore, and hold any scenery in your hands. If Song Qiao meets this, he will no longer be drunk by the flowing clouds. The poet tasted the sweetness of the tea party and talked about literature while sipping tea. When tea is good, the scenery is also good, and the scenery helps tea flourish. From then on, literati gathered at gatherings and replaced wine with tea, "no longer drunk by the clouds".

There were also tea parties in the Song Dynasty. Volume 1 of Zhu Yu's "Pingzhou Ke Tan" says: Tai students have tea parties on every road, and gather tea in the lecture hall every day. All the people come to inquire about news from the countryside. This type of tea party is in the nature of a hometown gathering, where tea is used to bond with fellow villagers, express their friendship and exchange news about their hometown.

Wu Zimu of the Song Dynasty said in the section 19 (Society) of Volume 19 of "Mengliang Lu": There are even those who are good friends with Taoism in the east of the city and the north of the city. They build tea and soup gatherings, and when they meet in various mountain temples, they build gatherings and set up fasting. Tea soup is offered to the public. Temples held fasting meetings, in which rich households used tea soup to help their fortunes. This was called a tea soup meeting, which was actually similar to today's "foundation". Temples used tea soup as an excuse to raise funds to meet the daily expenses of religious activities. Asking for a few "tea soup money" is infinitely more civilized than the local green-skinned villain's unprovoked extortion for "a few drink money". Because tea has ten virtues and its image is beautiful, the part-time salary given to officials in the Song Dynasty was called "tea soup money". The waiter's tip is also called "tea soup money".

After that, the Chinese tea party went abroad and was westernized. In the second chapter of this book, we listed the Cuban tea party, and let’s look at the actual situation of the British tea party. Zhang Deyi's "Miscellaneous Notes of the Envoy" records: Tea parties and dance parties are most popular from March to mid-June every year. This custom has the oldest origin and is practiced by all countries in Europe and America. In ordinary shops, the halls are usually open to prepare for grand gatherings, but if you think it is necessary for official business, it is not necessary. Westerners love luxury, and those who are rich and enjoy company will be happy to do so. When a person's children grow up, even if they are unable to do so, they must still support them reluctantly and set up a society so that they can have friends and interact with each other. Men can visit women, women can find men, and marriage depends on this. Because men and women carefully investigate and find out what they want, they are in harmony with each other, and there are few people who can sing the song of autumn fans. Each club fee ranges from more than a hundred pounds to six or seven hundred pounds, which amounts to two thousand four to five hundred taels of silver. The "oldest" custom of this custom cannot be earlier than the 16th century. In 1607, a Dutch fleet came to Macau from Java to transport green tea. This was the thirty-fifth year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty. It was transferred to Europe in 1610, and the tea-drinking custom spread to British cafes in 1650. In 1657, a British cafe imported green tea and sold it at 6-10 pounds per pound. At that time, was it cheaper to hold a tea party in the UK than a cocktail party? In China, the tea party is an elegant event for literati, with conversation and poetry as the main content. In the British, it has become dancing and marriage. This is due to different cultural backgrounds. However, in China, tea has always been associated with marriage, and the wedding gift is still called "tea ceremony" or "tea service". Although the tea party has been Britishized, the basic purpose of the tea ceremony has not changed. One virtue.

The most spectacular tea party is probably the monks’ tea party at the Kawenbamu Lama Temple in Tibet in the late Qing Dynasty. 4,000 people attended and drank 8,000 cups.

The tea party evolved from the tea party and tea party, and its meaning is: a social gathering where guests are entertained with refreshments. Just drinking tea and talking. Tea parties are popular all over the country for their simplicity and simplicity. As the holiday approaches, leaders prepare a cup of tea and invite all democratic parties and non-party personages to have a discussion. They wish each other good luck and express their wishes to each other, so as to promote a new situation of great unity inside and outside the party and create the great cause of the four modernizations. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council have taken a good lead by introducing Chinese tea ceremony into political life and promoting integrity and fighting corruption. So the tea party replaced the cocktail party and was used in all aspects: promoting business affairs, entertaining foreign guests, celebrating festivals, academic discussions, opening celebrations, signing and laying foundation stones, commending advanced people, seeing off the old and welcoming the new... and so on, which purified the social atmosphere and saved huge amounts of money. expenditure. This style was introduced abroad and was widely welcomed, known as the "teacup and teapot spirit". This is enough to show that even if mankind enters the electronic age, information age, and cosmic age, the Chinese tea ceremony is still the most precious cultural heritage of mankind. The common spiritual wealth of mankind.