Chinese Tea Culture China, the hometown of tea, has along history of tea and tea culture. It's said that Chinese people have beendrinking tea as early as Shen Nong tasted hundreds of herbs(Shen Nong is alegandary ancestor of Chinese who tasted herbs to find eatable food forpeople). According to medical science, teacan quench one's thirst,help to digestand refresh one's spirit. Thus, tea has been closely associated with Chinesepeople's daily lives and tea culture became an important part of Chineseculture. As early as the opening of Silk Road,tea has been exported to the west. To a certain extent, westerners getacquitained with Chinese culture since they knew Chinese tea. The Chinese tea is produced inthe south of Qinling-Huaihe, with many kinds such as green tea, the black tea,oolong tea, scented tea and so on. As tea has rooted in Chinese people’sdaily lives, tea culture has developed steps by steps. Tea Classics, written byLu Yu-- the sage of tea, is the first monograph on tea, which expoundedincisively about tea’s origin, nature, manufacture, producing areas anddrinking manners. As Chinese culture having endlesswisdom, tea culture has great wisdom, too. It is reflected as followingaspects: Firstly, tea is a kind of artwork that shows refined color, delicate fragrance and great taste. Secondly, tea sets are exquisitecrafts that reflect people’s simple and elegant taste, reserved and cultivatedcharacters. Zi-sha-hu(紫砂壶)and china are typical and populartea sets in China. Thirdly, for Chinese people,drinking tea is a kind of esthetic and art-valued enjoyment. It requires timeand patience to brew and savor quietly. The pace is slow, calm and tranquil.Gongfu tea is a glimpse of the elegance and art of it. Fourthly, talking about teaculture, teahouse can’t be ignored, which playing an important role inpromoting the development of folk art. In Ming dynasty, teahouse is a place forscholars to taste tea, to hum verses and to draw paintings. Later, it becamerecreation place for ordinary people. Nowadays, there are many music saloon andopera saloon. Laoshe’s famous work—Teahouse, is a mirror of Chinese’sdaily lives and historical changes of that age, reflecting earthly philosophy.Now in Beijing,there’s a popular teahouse named as Laoshe Teahouse. Besides, tea held with big bowlin street is another picture to show tea culture, which is simple and fresh. Inancient times, travelers would feel refreshed and warm as at home when theydrunk bowls of that tea after a long-time wandering. Nowadays, many peoplestill like to taste the tea in street,too. In daily lives, making andsevering tea is a matter to show respect, to say thank-you, to apologize or tocongratulate. It plays a role to create and deepen relationship among people.In my eyes, savoring tea is an art to snatch a little leisure from a busy life.It can help us relieve worries, obtain peace in heart and cultivate our moralcharacters. In modern society, tea culturerelaxes people’s lives, enriches folk art and promotes the trade of tea. Ibelieve tea culture and its wisdom will be known and appreciated by more andmore foreigners, to promote international culture exchanges.
Publish on 05/16/2014 by sammi, 1201 hits. |