Chinese Tea—中国茶


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分类: 中国文化*Chinese-Culture |
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It can be said that the Chinese tea lore places an emphasis on spirit and makes light of form. It also has different representations at different historical stages. Teas are also different but all embody the tea spirit of "clearness, respect, joy and truthfulness".
Drinking tea - Tea is taken as a
beverage to quench thirst.
Tasting tea - Emphasis is placed on the color, fragrance and flavor
of tea, water quality and tea set. When taking tea, the taster
should also be able to savor tea carefully.
Tea art - Attention is paid to environment, atmosphere, music,
infusing techniques and interpersonal relationships.
The highest ambit—— tea lore - Philosophy, ethics and morality are
blended into tea activity. People cultivate their morality and mind
and savor the life through tasting tea, thereby attaining enjoyment
of spirit.
Clearness - It is namely cleanness, incorruptness, quietness and
loneliness. The essence of tea art not only seeks the cleanness of
the appearance of things, but also pursues the loneliness,
tranquility, incorruptness and shame awareness of the mind. In a
still ambit, only through drinking clear and pure tea soup can one
appreciate the profoundness of drinking tea.
Respect - Respect is the root of everything on earth and the way of
having no enemies. People should show respect for others and be
cautious themselves.
Joy - The meaning of harmony lies in form and method and that of
joy is in spirit and affection. Sipping bitterness and swallowing
sweetness when drinking tea can enlighten the spice of life and
cultivate a broad mind and a far sight so that the disputes between
others and self disappear. The spirit of joy lies in that people is
not pretentious and haughty, dwell in mildness and nurture
courteous conduct.
Truthfulness - It is namely truth and genuine knowledge. The
supreme good is the whole formed by combination of truth and
genunine knowledge. The ambit of supreme good is to retain nature,
remove material desire without being tempted by advantages and
disadvantages, study the physical world to gain knowledge and
continually seek after improvements. In another word, people should
use scientific methods to seek the complete sincerity of
everything. The essence of drinking tea lies in enlightening
capacity and conscience so that everyone can live a simple life to
express their ambition and handle matters thriftily and virtuously
in daily life, thus attaining the ambit of truth, good and
beauty.
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In the early 17th century, the Dutch
East India Company introduced Chinese tea for the first time to
Europe. By the mid-17th century, afternoon tea had become a
standard ritual of the British nobility.
Chinese people are believed to have
enjoyed tea drinking for more than 4,000 years. Legend has it that
Yan Di, one of three rulers in ancient times, tasted all kinds of
herbs to find medical cures. One day,as he was being poisoned by
some herb he had ingested; a drop of water from a tea tree dripped
into his mouth and he was saved. For a long time, tea was used as
an herbal medicine. During the Western Zhou Dynasty, tea was a
religious offering. During the Spring and Autumn Period, people ate
fresh tea leaves as vegetables. With the popularization of Buddhism
from the Three Kingdoms to the Northern and Southern Dynasties,
tea's refreshing effect made it a favorite among monks in Za-Zen
meditation.
Chinese tea as a drink prospered during the Tang Dynasty, and tea
shops became popular. A major event of this time was the completion
of Tea Classics, the cornerstone of Chinese tea culture, by Lu Yu,
Tea Sage of China,. This little book details rules concerning
various aspects of tea, such as growth areas for tea trees, wares
and skills for processing tea, tea tasting, the history of Chinese
tea and quotations from other records, comments on tea from various
places, and notes on what occasions tea wares should be complete
and when some wares could be omitted.
How Chinese tea is made
Tea is made from the young, tender leaves of the tea tree. The
differences among the many kinds of tea available are based on the
particular methods used to process the leaves. The key to the whole
process is the roasting and fermentation. Through fermentation, the
originally deep green leaves become reddish-brown in color. The
longer the fermentation, the darker the color. Depending on the
length of the roasting and degree of fermentation, the fragrance
can range from floral, to fruity, to malty.
Cultivating teapots
The proportion of tea leaves to water also depends on the kind of
tea leaves used. The teapot may be filled from one-quarter to
three-quarters full with tea leaves, depending mainly on how
tightly curled the tea leaves are as a result of the rolling and
roasting processes. The teapot is then filled with water. Steeping
time starts at one minute, but varies from tea to tea. The time
required for subsequent brews from the same leaves must be
proportionally lengthened. The best kind of teapot to use for most
fermented teas is a purple clay ceramic pot. The size of the pot
should be in correct proportion to the size of the cups. Ideally,
the cups should have white interiors, to facilitate accurate
assessment of the color of the tea.
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Types of tea
Chinese tea may be classified into five types of teas according to
the different methods by which it is processed.
Green tea
Green tea is the variety which keeps the original colour of the tea
leaves without fermentation during processing. This category
consists mainly of Longjing tea of Zhejiang Province, Maofeng of
Huangshan Mountain in Anhui Province and Biluochun produced in
Jiangsu.
Black tea
Black tea, known as "red tea" (hong cha) in China, is the category
which is fermented before baking; it is a later variety developed
on the basis of the green tea. The best brands of black tea are
Qihong of Anhui , Dianhong of Yunnan, Suhong of Jiangsu, Chuanhong
of Sichuan and Huhong of Hunan.
Oolong tea
This represents a variety half way between the green and the black
teas, being made after partial fermentation. Also called blue tea,
it is an unfermentated tea. It is a tea category with unique and
distinctive characteristics among the several tea categories. The
Wulong tea, which blends the production of green tea and black tea
together, has a quality between green tea and black tea. It not
only has the thick and fresh flavor of black tea, but also has the
pleasant fragrance of green tea. It enjoys a good reputation as
green leaves with red edge. The pharmacological effects of the
Oolong tea are profoundly manifested in decomposing fat, reducing
weight and keeping fit, etc. It is a specialty from the provinces
on China's southeast coast: Fujian, Guangdong and
Taiwan.