Offering tea to guests is a virtue left over from ancient China in the land of rites, and it is a kind of noble etiquette in daily life to offer tea to guests. “山居偏隅竹为邻，客来莫嫌茶当酒” This is a couplet describing how to treat guests with tea. The meaning of the couplet is: I live in seclusion in the mountains, and the bamboo forest next to my residence is my neighbor. When relatives and friends come to visit, please don’t dislike me to treat you with tea instead of alcohol. This group of tea poem written by master Zhu Xi, the famous confucianist honoured as Zhu Zi in Song Dynasty, also known as “Tea Immortal 茶仙“, the couplet was inscribed in front of Sanxian temple in Shuilian cave, Wuyi Mountains. It shows Zhu Xi’s daily life of being close to nature and entertaining guests with tea when he lived in seclusion in Wuyi Mountains. At the same time, his “以茶喻学 analogy of his theory from tasting tea” was brought into full play, and his combination of “tea” and “theory” together created a different spark.
Tea and Alcohol 茶酒 – Wenzhuo Liu
Zhu Xi‘s “以茶喻学 analogy of his theory from tasting tea” advices, studying theory and tasting tea should be specialized in one subject, he was not confused by other popular schools at that time. Like the fried tea method in the Song Dynasty, there is still a legacy of the Tang Dynasty. In the tea soup mixed with ginger, onion, cinnamon, pepper and salt, it is like a hodgepodge that impairs the taste of tea. Zhu Zi said to the students, “如这盏茶，一味是茶，便是真才，有些别底滋味，便是有物夹杂了 if this cup of tea is only tea, then it is a real talent. If there are some other tastes, it is a mixture of things.”. This kind of metaphor is easy to understand and interesting, people have made a thorough study of Neo Confucianism, should pay more attention to one thing, drill deeply and thoroughly, can not be confused by other schools of thought prevailing at that time. Zhu Xi loved tea and bamboo, he spent most of his life in Wuyi Mountains, where the scenery is beautiful and pleasant, he cultivated a tea garden and planted tea by himself. Zhu Xi not only enjoyed and tasted tea, but also planted, prepared, boiled, fighted tea, discussed and chanted tea. Wuyi area is rich in famous tea, such as Wuyi rock tea, Dahongpao, Zhengshan, and Jinjunmei, a new favorite of modern tea circles, are all produced in Wuyi.
Native Countryside Gu Guo 故国 – Wenzhuo Liu
“寒食后，酒醒却咨嗟。休对故人思故国，且将新火试新茶。诗酒趁年华 After the Cold Food festival, when you wake up from a drunken sleep, you will sigh for homesickness. You can only comfort yourself: don’t miss your hometown in front of your old friends. Just light a new fire to cook a cup of new freshly picked tea. When you write poetry and get drunk, you should take advantage of your time.“ By the Tang and Song dynasties‘ customs, two days before the Qingming festival, people started not to fire for the following three days, it is called Cold Food Festival. After the festival, the new lighted fire of elm and willow is called “new fire 新火“, “new tea 新茶” refers to the tea picked before the Qingming Festival. In order to get rid of the pain of homesickness, the poem author Su Shi used boiling tea as a self relief of his homesickness, which not only implies the poet’s difficulty in extricating himself from the depression, but also expresses the poet’s self psychological adjustment. People must be aloof from the world, forget everything in the world, and seize the opportunity to amuse themselves with “poetry and wine 诗酒”.
Native Countryside Gu Guo 故国 – Wenzhuo Liu
Li Qingzhao, a poetess in Song Dynasty wrote “I prefer to taste the strong bitter taste of tea cake after drinking, wake up from a dream is especially suitable for smelling the refreshing fragrance of ambergris incense 酒阑更喜团茶苦，梦断偏宜瑞脑香“. It seems that people in the Song Dynasty enjoyed to taste tea after drinking, “酒渴思茶漫扣门，那知竹里是仙村 because I (Su Shi) was very thirsty after drinking wein and wanted to have some tea at random, no matter who they were, I wanted to knock on the door to ask for one bowl of tea. How I could know, there is the village of immortals in a bamboo forest.”
Immortal Village 仙村 – Wenzhuo Liu
Su Shi had wrote a lot of tea poems and had a pure tea life, separating tea drinking and wine drinking reflects the unique life style and philosophy of literati in Song Dynasty, however, Bai Juyi in Tang dynasty had still a “half sober, half drunk” alcohol and tea complementary life. Bai Juyi moved a large number of tea into the poetry world, which made tea and alcohol keep pace with each other. According to the statistics of some scholars, Bai Juyi has 2800 poems, including 900 poems related to alcohol; while there are eight poems with tea theme and more than 50 poems about tea affairs and tea interests, with a total of more than 60 poems. It can be seen that tea tasting is Bai Juyi’s second hobby after drinking.
Native Countryside Gu Guo 故国 – Wenzhuo Liu
《望江南·超然台作》拼音版 Pin Yin
wàng jiāng nán·chāo rán tái zuò
《望江南·超然台作》
sòng dài·sū shì
宋代·苏轼
chūn wèi lǎo，fēng xì liǔ xié xié。
春未老，风细柳斜斜。
shì shàng chāo rán tái shàng kàn，
试上超然台上看，
bàn háo chūn shuǐ yī chéng huā。
半壕春水一城花。
yān yǔ àn qiān jiā 。
烟雨暗千家。
hán shí hòu ，jiǔ xǐng què zī jiē。
寒食后，酒醒却咨嗟。
xiū duì gù rén sī gù guó，
休对故人思故国，
qiě jiāng xīn huǒ shì xīn chá。
且将新火试新茶。
shī jiǔ chèn nián huá。
诗酒趁年华。