Tea soup to the white for the expensive, black tealight for the best, the ancients drink tea what to pay attention to?

Tea culture in China has a long history, since the Han Dynasty, tea will be more formal in the life of the Chinese. Only the Han, Tang, Song period and the method of drinking tea is different from the present, now we have the method of tea brewing, was formed in the Yuan and Ming dynasties.

However, no matter which era, drinking tea is inseparable from water. The merit of the water will also have an impact on the flavor of the tea. Drinking tea is supposed to drink the flavor, the great cultural scholar and unlucky emperor Song Huizong Zhao Ji in the "Daguan Tea Theory", "Fu tea, to taste," said this is the truth. To the Ming Dynasty, the playwright Zhang Dafu in the "Plum Blossom Hall" said, "tea must be sent to the water, eight points of the tea, meet ten of the water, the tea is also very carry on; eight points of the water, try to ten of the tea, tea is only eight points of the ear", and even the importance of the water quality is listed in the tea on top of the tea, which shows that ancient people attach importance to tea drinking water.

China is the hometown of tea, after a long historical trek, tea has taken root in the world, and become one of the three major non-alcoholic beverages popular in the world. For the Chinese, tea is not only a beverage,? it is more of a spiritual support. But the tea tasting, cooking and brewing can not be separated from its apparatus.

Focus on the art of tea itself is also an important manifestation of the way the Chinese people pay attention to tea, to drink good tea is inseparable from the corresponding tea set, the main types of tea sets are bamboo tea sets, metal tea sets, pottery tea sets, lacquer tea sets, porcelain tea sets, enamel tea sets, glass tea sets, stone tea sets. The size of the tea set is appropriate, the size of the tea set should be compatible with the type of tea, with the appropriate color, the color of the tea set appearance, should be matched with the color of the tea.

Ancient tea requirements include three aspects, namely, natural, interpersonal, and the condition of the tea itself. As a beverage, strive for tea quality, water quality is pure, I am afraid that the most basic requirements, any beverage is not so. However, tea but the natural environment, interpersonal relationships have quite high requirements, it is as an art, a cultivation of the key.

? So, how much do ancient people drink tea?

1, Wei Jin and North and South Dynasties, drinking tea is "spicy soup"

It is said that the history of tea in China from the period of Shennong has begun, the Warring States period of the "Er Ya", there are records of tea, its "wood" article, talking about "bitter tea," "bitter tea! "

But the real origin of the history of tea in China, so far there are still many different opinions, controversy has not been determined, roughly speaking, there are the pre-Qin said, said the Western Han Dynasty, said the Three Kingdoms.

Tea to cultural appearance, is in the two Jin and North and South Dynasties, the earliest preference for tea is mostly literati.

Western Han Dynasty, the wind of drinking tea has gradually emerged, scholar Wang Bao in the "boy about", wrote "cooking tea all set" "Wuyang buy tea". At the same time in the Mawangdui Han Tomb, unearthed a bamboo container in its labeling plate written in the word "Catalpa", which is a tea utensil. The Western Han Dynasty also named the county of origin of tea "Tuling", that is, Chaling in Hunan Province.

However, during the Qin and Han dynasties, tea was not a daily drink for the common people, but was more often found at people's bedsides for its medicinal effects.

The medical value of tea was documented in the Eastern Han Dynasty by Hua Tuo, who wrote in his book "The Book of Food" that "Bitter tea, when eaten over a long period of time, is good for the soul". This is similar to Coca-Cola, which started out as a headache remedy before evolving into a beverage.

Later, the prototype of decoction tea appeared in folklore, i.e. congee tea. According to Guangya, an account by Zhang Zhi, a native of Wei in the Three Kingdoms period, Sichuanese people picked leaves of a certain tree, made the old leaves into the shape of a cake, and then put thick rice syrup on top. When drinking it, they first soak it in rice soup, then bake it with flameless charcoal fire to make it dry and turn red, and then pound it into crushed pieces and put it into a porcelain pot and fill it with boiling water to drink. Some also add green onions, ginger and oranges to harmonize the bitter and astringent taste.

This tea is not the same as what we drink now, it is more like a kind of spicy soup and other food, like to drink will feel the flavor is quite acidic, do not like to drink the people will find it difficult to swallow. Lu Yu, the saint of tea in the Tang Dynasty, spit this "hot soup": "with onions, ginger, dates, orange peel, cornelian cherry, mint and other boiled hundreds of boiled, or Yang make slippery, or boiled to remove the froth, the ditch between the discarded water also!

Six Dynasties period, congee tea has become a popular drink in the South, Wu Sun Hao often at banquets to tea instead of wine, Huan Wen also used tea banquets to boast their own frugality. But in the face of congee tea, guests from the north is unacceptable, are generally drinking cow's milk-based drinks, and mocked the tea as "cheese slave".

2, the Tang Dynasty decoction

The Tang Dynasty, the Chinese began to use the decoction method of drinking tea. Because of the emergence of the decoction, the tea drinking style only to prevail in the north and south of the Yangtze River, "Kaiyuan, Tianbao, slightly between the tea, to the German, Dali Sui more, after the build after the full carry on". After the Tang Dynasty, tea has entered the folk, become the most popular drink.

And the change in the fate of tea, thanks to the tea sage Lu Yu. "Since Lu Yu was born on earth, the human phase of learning spring tea." Lu Yu authored three volumes of the Tea Scriptures, a detailed discussion of the tea ceremony. He advocated drinking tea cakes crushed from the end of the tea, tea to the size of a grain of rice is appropriate. First of all, pan-fried tea before baking tea, cake tea with high temperature "to hold to force the fire", and often turn, "repeatedly turn it right", otherwise it will be "hot and cool uneven", baked to cake tea was "Toad back" shape for the right amount. Baked tea should be wrapped while hot, so as not to lose the aroma, to the cake tea cooling and then research into fine powder.

At the same time, the fresh mountain water in the tea kettle boil, when the water to the "fish eye" bubbles, "micro sound", that is, "a boil", add an appropriate amount of salt to taste, and Remove floating on the surface, like "black mica" of the water film, otherwise "drink it is not the flavor".

Then continue to boil to the edge of the water bubbles such as "springs of pearls", that is, "two boiling", first in the kettle scooped out a ladle of water, and then a bamboo bamboo in the boiling water while stirring the side of the tea into the crushed.

So burned to the kettle of tea bubbles such as "waves and drums", that is, "three boiling", add into the "two boiling" scooped out of the ladle of water, so that the boiling is temporarily stopped to "Yuk its Hua", so that the tea soup is considered to be well fried, can be scooped out to drink.

Why is it said that the introduction of the "Tea Scripture" marks the birth of the Chinese tea ceremony? Because the decoction method enables the earliest artwork drink in the tea ceremony to be formed. Decoction of tea, in addition to pay attention to the "fire", but also pay attention to the decoction of water to what extent appropriate "soup". Identify the soup, one is to see how many bubbles and the size of the boiling water, the second is to listen to the sound of boiling water.

Water should be boiled, but not too old, otherwise it will destroy the good spring water contains beneficial ingredients. With this "old soup" bubble tea, will make the tea color is not sharp, flavor is not mellow and blunt feeling. Some of the senior green tea is more taboo tea water is too hot, too hot will be tender tea buds soaked, and the destruction of tea in the beneficial components, is not conducive to drinking tea health.

The water temperature is too low water tea, tea leaves will make a variety of active ingredients in the leaching is not fast, incomplete, with this "tender soup" of tea, taste thin, soup color is poor.

Lu Yu also advocates, drink tea while hot even drink, because "heavy cloudy condensation under the essence of floating on it", tea once cold, "the elite with the gas and exhaustion, drinking and sipping is not consumed is also carried out. In addition, when drinking tea scooped out of the first bowl of tea for the best, known as "timeless", and then in descending order, to the fourth, five bowls later, the tea flavor has been gone. The Dream of the Red Chamber" said, "a cup for the product, two cups is to quench the thirst, three cups is to drink cattle.

After Lu Yu, the decoction of tea continued to be carried forward, Fei Wen compiled "tea", Zhang Yixin compiled "decoction of tea water record", Wen Tingyun compiled "picking tea record", Kyauk Ran, Tonglong made tea songs, to help, so that China's decoction of tea is increasingly mature, the tea art with the preparation of the ware, water, fire, waiting for the soup, the practice of the tea of the five major fixed links. Nowadays, the Japanese Sencha Ceremony has retained the essence of the Chinese Sencha Ceremony and made innovations based on it.

3, Song Dynasty tea method

Late Tang Dynasty, the Tang people invented a "tea method", that is, using a small spoon to the tea into several bowls, rushing into the boiling water while rushing while quickly stirring, so that the tea with the boiling water to fully mix the tea. Point out of the tea soup, the top will be a layer of milky white foam, to foam white, long gathering not scattered for the best. When you look at the boiled tea, you can evaluate the level of the tea maker's tea skills. Point tea method can play the characteristics of the end of the tea, coupled with the injection of water to pay attention to the flow of water, the amount of water, the point of control of the water, there are quite a lot to pay attention to show off the skills.

However, the "point of tea method" in the Song Dynasty to become the mainstream way of drinking tea.

Song Dynasty people pay special attention to the tea cake, the flavor of the pursuit of "sweet and heavy slippery", do not like the tea bitter and astringent original flavor, and tea color "pure white for the upper true". In order to make the ideal tea cake, they strive for excellence in the process. First of all, select raw materials, only to take the selection of tea tea heart one, impregnated with spring water, and then steamed on the pot, and then a small press to remove the water, large press to squeeze the tea juice, in order to color white taste sweet; squeezed, the tea will be placed in a basin to grind, a good tea cake is generally to grind for more than a day, and so on, until the basin of the paste uniform slippery and delicate, and then added to the spices such as lobster brain and on the rice boiled into a thin gruel, and kneaded into tea cakes.

The tea cakes made with so much effort are like buttermilk because of the starch, and taste sweet because of the spices, which is very different from the salty tea under the previous congee tea method.

Tea masters of the tea ceremony made tea cakes, the price is comparable to the school district, Song Renzong Cai Xiang made "small dragon group" a catty sold gold two, but also very difficult to buy, people said "gold can be, and tea can not be obtained". Song Huizong, Zheng Kewin with "silver water buds" made "dragon ball wins the snow", each cake is not only sold for 40,000 money, but also need to limit the sale of number.

The people of the time for the point of tea is also very careful, first of all, to dry the tea cake, hammer broken, and then use the tea mill finely crushed into tea, tea mill the smaller the better. Subsequently, the tea powder will be poured into the sieve of the tea Luo, sieve the fine tea powder in the tea canister, in order to prepare for drinking. Next, first bake the tea calendars hot, this is to avoid boiling water into the cold tea calendars cool down to affect the taste. After the tea calendars have been heated, use a small, long-handled spoon to scoop the tea from the tea canister and place it in the calendars, pour in a little boiling water to mix the tea, and then fill a long-spouted teapot with water, while stirring with chopsticks, a long-handled spoon, or a brush (a rounded bamboo brush). After stirring, more water is poured in, and the water is brought to a boil at the beginning of the day, when "the eyes of the crab have passed through the eyes of the fish, and the wind is blowing like the wind of a pine tree".

The last step is to adjust the tea, must be "first stirring the tea paste, and gradually increase the impact of boiling, light hand brush heavy, finger around the wrist suspension" to achieve "up and down through, such as the fermentation of the surface. Sparse star bright moon, brilliant and born", until the tea surface silver light surging, is considered a good point of a tea.

Because the tea pointing technique is too delicate, is a real technical work, so the Song Dynasty, rich and idle people often to "fight tea" for fun, than to test the highs and lows, the rules are more than one **** bucket or two people caught on the "fight", three fights two wins. Fighting tea mainly consider the degree of integration of tea and water, stirring the tea rotation, the first in the tealight left traces on the counting loss. Tea color is pure white, than the fight is held in the black marigolds in the most obvious, so Fujian Jianyang Jian kiln produced the most popular black marigolds at that time. Su Shi, Su Zhe brothers like to fight with people tea, but also specialize in writing poems about tea fighting.

4, Yuan and Ming no longer pay attention to the tea method

To the Yuan Dynasty, with the expansion of the tea-drinking community, the country is not too much to pay attention to the tea ceremony, after all, the tea is too time-consuming and energy-consuming, not as good as the tea leaves directly with the water to drink. Since then, the Chinese people will be in the tea after picking tea leaves roasted, directly in the teapot tea to drink, tea is no longer mixed with starch, spices, and no longer make cakes, grinding end. With the end of the tea along with the disappearance of a series of complex tea used to make the end of the tea, only the long-spouted teapot filled with boiling water into a teapot, continue to be used by the people.

The Ming emperors liked to drink tea, and during the Hongwu years, the court advocated frugality and banned the production of high-grade tea cakes, which basically unified the loose tea. Since we all make tea to drink, then the teapot process will evolve with the times. Because of the permeability of purple sand suitable for tea, a new tea culture became popular, from then on, purple sand in the Ming Dynasty rose, from the emperor to the people like. This kind of pot is also easy to carry, the literati liked it, and it has been popular until today.

By the porridge tea, fried tea, point tea to bubble tea, a small change in the way of drinking tea is reflected in the transformation of the ancient way of life. However, in the modern world, there are still many people who insist on drinking tea in the old way, such as decoction tea, point tea.

In fact, the tea ceremony is life, from a leaf of tea to a cup, a table, to a room, a city, a country, tea is integrated into the human way of life.

Drinking tea this thing, the ancients played it to the wind and water, only today, people pursue simplicity and efficiency, between the pace of rush, we get a lot, but also lost a lot.

Wish everyone would leave a little time for themselves to go to tea, to painting and calligraphy, or to do some small things, the heart of the traditional desire to find back.

References:

1, Lu Yu, "Tea Scripture"

2, Chen Xiangbai, "Chinese Tea Culture"

3, Yu Yue, "Chinese Tea Culture from the book"

4, Chen Wenhua, "Chinese Tea Culture"