Chinese Traditional Tea Culture @liuboxi-blog - Tumblr Blog

Chaoyu Chen, Lei Huang, and me.

To all my followers and my friends:

My friends, thank you for your encourage and love during these 3 months. Without your encourage, I can't keep writing my blogs. Your love is my power, and is the reason why I keep updating. I don't want to say goodbye to you, my friends. But I can not change the fact. I hope my blogs could let you interest in Chinese tea culture. I hope you can learn something after reading it. Keep learning, and keep going on this way, never give it up. You are not alone, I'm always by your side. Love tea, Love China!

Best wishes

Eddy Liu

Tea Ceremony of Tang Dynasty and Ming dynasty

A friend of mine asked me a question" How did Tang dynasty people drink tea? Did they drink tea in the same way as we do today?" At first, I was confused as well. In my opinion, it would be the same. Because if Tang people drank tea in a totally different way, when did the modern tea ceremony appear at the fist time? All these questions encouraged me to do a deep research about this topic. I found books in library, and information on the internet. One day, an interesting article appeared in front my eyes, because it introduced the way of Tang people drinking tea. Now, I would like to show to you. After reading it, you will know something about tea making process in Tang Dynasty. According to the Cnteainfo Website, it illustrated that:

The cake tea processing method was the major tea manufacturing method in Tang Dynasty. The tea soup cooking with dressings was changed into pure tea brewing because of Lu Yu's advocation after the middle Tang. The plucked tea leaf was steamed in a steamer, ground in a mortar, compressed into cake, dried and strung with rind of reed or bamboo. The cake tea was ground into powder, shifted and cooked in a caldron before drinking.

After reading, we know that Tang people usually drank the cake tea, or we can call it "brick tea". They boiled tea in a big caldron, just like cooking soup. According to my research, they also added ginger into it. At that time ,tea was more like a kind of soup, tea soup. It's really distinct from the modern way of drinking tea, right? So, another question comes after, when did the modern tea ceremony appear at the fist time?

As Ma Weidu, a famous Chinese traditional culture researcher claimed, "the modern tea ceremony can date back Ming Dynasty." Zhu Quan, the 17th son of the founder of Ming Dynasty, was said to be the founder of modern tea ceremony. People didn't brew the tea leaves in tea pot until to Ming Dynasty. Additionally, it explains that why the Japanese tea ceremony is totally different from the Chinese ceremony. Because a lot of Japanese were sent to China in Tang Dynasty, when they returned to Japan, they brought tea and Tang tea ceremony to Japan. That is the origin of Japanese tea ceremony, and they keep this tradition for a millennium.

The pictures is from: http://tea.fjsen.com/file/base/2012/02- 09/a3b4b16cb6ca0026cb626dad5c905d15.jpg

#China #Dynasty #Ming #Tang #tea ceremony

Recommendation of Chinese Tea

Today, I want to recommend a book to you Chinese tea, written by Liu Tong of Peking University. Some of my quotations in my recent paper are from this fantastic book.

As we know, China is world renowned as the homeland of tea planting, production and drinking. According to translator Yue Liwei's words, "In this illustrated introduction Liu Tong provides a fascinating insight into the ancient culture of Chinese tea, the trade, tradition, literature, philosophy, and ceremony associated with tea in China, and its popularization around the world." This book was written briefly, and precisely. People can feel the writer's passion for tea, and his deep understanding of Chinese tea culture. In this book, author introduces the long history of Chinese drinking tea, also he took pains to describe the spread of tea from China. A lot of delicate color pictures were shown in this book, and it can not make you bored. After reading Chinese tea, I have a deeper understanding about tea and tea culture. I was moved by the toil of tea pickers and tea makers. I knew the tears and sweat behind every cup of tea.

In a word, this book will appeal to all those with an interest in Chinese history and culture, and will be thought-provoking reading for the many tea lovers found all over the world. I wish you all enjoy reading this book.

The picture is from: http://i.ebayimg.com/t/Chinese-

Tea-Tong-Liu-2012-Paperback/00/$(KGrHqR,

!qQE+n(Q,wdbBP9i9hMUFg~~_32.JPG?set_id=89040003C1

#chinese tea #Liu tong #recommendation

A Interview with My Friend Chaoyu Chen

Chaoyu Chen is my older brother rather than my friend. We have the same hobby, drinking tea. He is also one of my best "tea mates". We also drink tea together. In most cases, I make tea for him, because he is too lazy to make tea. On November 29, I give him a interview about Chinese tea culture. These are our conversation below. I would like to post it on my Tumblr, and share with my friends.

Me: Chaoyu, to begin, I would like to ask you a question. Why do you like drinking tea?

Chaoyu: Ha~ This is a good question。 I think I like the feeling that warm tea goes down through your body, especially in winter. Nothing is better than drinking some ups of hot tea during a freezing cold day.

Me: Anything else?

Chaoyu: Otherwise, drinking tea can make me calm down, and think over problems in front of me or examine myself.

Me: You means drinking tea can help you to meditate and introspect yourself, right?

Chaoyu: Yes! That's what I mean.

Me: I have another question to you that is, what's your impression with the Chinese tea culture and what the difference between the Western tea culture or tradition?

Chaoyu: Oh, this question seems like more sophisticated. Let me see. First, in my opinion, Chinese tea culture is a very significant part of our Chinese traditional culture. It includes so many aspects of Chinese culture such as, Zen, Chinese philosophy, poetry, traditional panting and calligraphy. In China, drinking tea is not only a simple action or behavior, and it is more like a kind of ceremony or a conversation with nature. The second question... honestly speaking, I really do not know a lot about the Western tea culture. What I only know is that the Westerns would like to add sugar and milk into their tea. I have tried that way of drinking tea, but I didn't get used to it.

Me: Chaoyu, do you konw that recently, I'm writing a paper about offering the Chinese tea culture class in universities cross the U.S. What do you think about my idea?

Chaoyu: Only one word, Sucks! Hahahahah~

Me: What????

Chaoyu: I'm kidding. I definitely agree with your idea. I think it's the time let Americans know how glory our culture is. I get your back, Jack!

Me: Thank you, my friend.

#interview #tea #culture #my friend

Lu Tong's Seven Bowls of Tea

Today, I want to introduce you a famous and important tea poetry, Lu Tong's seven bowls of tea to you. This poetry is mainly about the poet's feeling after drinking seven bowls of tea. I like his lines, and the way he used to describe that subtle moment. After reading this poetry, people can feel what poem felt. Why I say this poetry is important？First, this poetry is definitely the best description of the happiness after drinking tea. Second, it was written by the most famous figure in the history of tea Lu Tong. I would like to give a short introduction to this fabulous poet Lu Tong. Lu Tong was a rally great figure in the history of tea, a poet who is said to have loved tea as much as life itself. Most of his poetry was devoted to tea and tea ceremony. His passion for tea can be gauged from a line in one of his poems: "I care not a jot for immortal life , but only for the taste of tea." Every time, when I read this poetry, I just can not wait to drink a cup of tea. That kind of subtle happiness can not be felt by guys who never drink tea. If you want to try, please drink seven bowls of tea. Then you reread this poetry, and check that if this description is close to your real feeling. That is my suggestion. Believe me!

Lu Tong's Seven Bowls of Tea

The first bowl moistens my lips and throat;

The second bowl breaks my loneliness;

The third bowl searches my barren entrails but to find

Therein some five thousand scrolls;

The fourth bowl raises a slight perspiration

And all life's inequities pass out through my pores;

The fifth bowl purifies my flesh and bones;

The sixth bowl calls me to the immortals.

The seventh bowl could not be drunk,

only the breath of the cool wind raises in my sleeves.

Where is Penglai Island, Yuchuanzi wishes to ride on this sweet breeze and go back.

This poem is found from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lu_Tong

The picture is from:http://bp0.blogger.com/_mXNdewQAI8Y/S

A6Wm6MtTXI/\AAAAAAAAAgI/kY3OIgq_F1w/s1600/fig1taoist.png

#Poetry #Tea #Lu Tong #Seven Bowls of tea

How to correctly brew Chinese tea？

#tea #brew #How to

Response to the Article“ The Claim: Drinking Tea Can Lower Your Levels of Iron”

The article "The Claim: Drinking Tea Can Lower Your Levels of Iron", written by Anahad O'Connor, argues that drinking tea can not lower people's internal levels of iron.

In fact, drinking tea could block the body's absorption of dietary iron. But compared with the excess iron people get everyday, a daily cup or two of coffee or tea is unlikely to lead to low levels of iron. In my point of view, I totally agree with this opinion. Because most of people, they always drink tea in the afternoon. They don't drink it during a meal. Everything has its advantage and deficiency, and we should analyze the problem relatively. Drinking tea also can clean the intestinal tract, eliminate body junk and relieve fatigue, not only influence the iron absorption.

I'm a crazy fan of drinking tea. This Friday night, I drank tea from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. with my tea friends. I cannot live my life without tea. Even though when I went to the hospital for medical checks, the test showed that my level of iron was normal. So, just drink the tea as usual and never worry about that. Please remember: tea is the good partner in our lives.

The article is from:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/30/health/30real.html?ref=tea&_r=0

The picture is from:

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/06/29/health/30real-190.jpg

#Iron #Tea #Absorption

Some Tips on Drinking Tea

I've already drunk tea for 3 years, since I graduated from the middle school. In these 3 years, I summarize some tips on drinking tea for example: how to choose a better tea set, how to make tea smell allure, what kinds of music should be played while drinking tea and how to tell the difference between the good tea and the bad tea.

1. I'd like to use the glass tea set better than the other kinds of tea sets, such as, porcelain ones or the purple sand pot. The first and the most important advantage is that the glass tea set is lighter and easy to clean. Also, you could buy it everywhere and do not worry about breaking up, because it has a low price than the others. Moreover, I could see the color of the tea and tea leaves dancing in the cup. To most of the tea lovers, the color of the tea is a significant standard to judge the good tea and the bad tea. So, the glass tea set is chose by most of tea lovers.

2. If you want your tea have a better flavor or aroma, you would know your tea first. Some kinds of tea, such as high grade green tea can't be brewed with boiling water. It will damage the nutrition and flavor of the green tea, because the green tea is very tender. You'd better brew it with 80 degrees centigrade.

3. When drinking tea, I prefer the Chinese classical music to other types of music. Chinese zither, lute or bamboo flute music are good choices for tea enjoying. Ambush, an ancient Chinese lute music in China, is my favorite song. I highly recommend you to listen to this song while drinking tea. It will bring you a very Chinese style vibe to enjoy the tea.

4 Don't buy the tea with delicate packaging. The more delicate packaging it has, the more pollution it would get. Because in the packaging process, the tea leaves have to be handled by a lot of machines. We can not grantee that there is no pollution during this progress. So you'd better choose the loose-leaf tea than the good looking one.

The picture is from:

http://kaleidoscope.culturalchina.com/chinaWH

/upload/Image/171.jpg

#Tea #Tea Set #Tip #Tea lovers #Music

How to make Chinese tea

Tea sets

Tea pot- Yixing purple sand pot is known as the best tea pot for making tea with, because of its very tiny holes suitable for brewing tea.

Tea spoon-Tea spoon is generally made of bamboo, is used for removing the tea leaves from the tea jar.

Tea cups-There are so many kinds of tea cups made in different material, such as, purple sand, ceramics and glass. You can choose the appropriate cups depending on what kind of tea you make. By the way, the Chinese tea cup is totally distinct from the Western one, it is small without handle.

Tea boat-It is used for laying the tea pot and tea cups. The first rinse of water would be poured into the tea boat. This water can also be used for rinsing tea cups.

Tea sea-It is used for storing the tea, pouring tea into others cups.

1 Take appropriate amount of tea leaves from tea jar with tea spoon. Then, put it into the cleaned tea pot.

2 Pour some hot water into tea pot, then quickly power it out. The water is used to rinse tea leaves in order to wash off the ash on it.

3 Pour some hot water again and wait for 2 or 3 minutes. At that time, you need to put the filter on the top of the tea sea in order to make the tea cleaner.

4 Pour tea into your friends' tea cups. Then, you can enjoy it. By the way, before drinking, don't forget to smile the aroma of tea.

This is a video of teaching you to make Chinese tea on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Z9dFef_VGQ&feature=related

The picture are form:

http://www.zisha520.com/attachment/product/2008-10/b326ec17be628773f2385bec795c27ee1225155634.jpg

http://www.chinahighlights.com/image/travelguide/article

/tea-spoon.jpg

https://encryptedtbn0.gstatic.com/imagesq=tbn:ANd9GcR24x

EgbJYJ8hXZAKVWAAOB7LkMSe9ntm2sqpfHUUzRPLXA2t5Y-g

#Chinese tea #Making tea #Tea sets #Introdution

Tea and Painting

Tea and Chinese painting are two important and indispensable things in the long history of China. We Chinese have distinct ways of painting and drinking tea from the Western. In China, brush and ink are major languages for modeling in Chinese painting, and most of Chinese painting are black and white. We Chinese prefer the landscape painting; woods, waterfall and river are the most common elements appear in the paintings. In my point of view, perhaps traditional Chinese landscape paintings tell what a lofty place people give to the nature in our minds. We see the picture in poems and we see the poems in picture. Today, I wanna introduce two famous Chinese painting about tea to you ,they all masterpieces in Chinese art history.

1 Han Xizai Evening Banquet

Han Xizai was a nobleman in Southern Tang Dynasty (937-945). This painting is a millstone in Chinese art history, turning the way the serial scroll to depict the practice to play the feast Han Xizai home scene. You can see the tea pot, tea cups and tea cakes on the table. From this painting, we know that drinking tea, this customs, can be traced back to over one thousand years ago.

2 Tea Party In Hui Hills

This painting was painted by the most famous calligrapher and artist Wen Zhengming in Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). It depicts that Wen Zhengming and his four friends had a trip to Hui Hills, the scene of drinking tea, chatting and writing poems. At that time, the artists always invented his friends to a tea party, especially in spring, enjoying the beautiful scenery.

The pictures are from:

http://www.woosee.com/zhongguotea/chayidongxi/meishu

/image048.gif

http://s8.sinaimg.cn/middle/74cceddcgaa77c408a707&690

http://a3.att.hudong.com/05/98/300000635026127200985

305711.jpg

#Tea #Painting #Tea Culture

My Favorite Three Kinds of Tea

China has a long history of planting and drinking tea, and there are more than thousand kinds of distinct teas in China. They are basically divided into six groups, black tea, green tea, white tea, yellow tea, oolong tea and dark green tea. The standard of classification depends on the different fermenting degrees and the making process. For example, the green tea is not fermented tea, is China's major tea, the oolong tea is semi-fermented tea and the black tea is fully fermented tea. Now, I think you've already had a basic impression and understanding of Chinese tea, and I will introduce three kinds of tea to you, Pu'er, Tieguanyin and Longjing.

Pu'er tea: Pu'er is a kind of fully fermented tea which is produced in Pu'er city, Yunnan Province. The tea makers always press the Pu'er tea leaves into tea brick, because the brick tea is easier to storage and transport than the loose-leave tea. Different from other teas in China, the longer the Pu'er tea is preserved, the better the tea tastes. So some good and long-preserved Pu'er teas may have a taste of earth.

Longjing tea: Longjing (Dragon Well) is produced at Longjing Village near West Lake, in Hangzhou , Zhejiang province. Because of its mellow taste, green color and beautiful shape, Longjing becomes the most famous green tea in China. When I was 12 years old, my parents and I had a trip to West lake, where we tasted the authentic Longjing tea. From then on, I became a big fan of Longjing tea.

Tieguanyin tea: Tieguanyin is produced in Southern Fujian Province which is a kind of semi-fermented tea. After being steeped in water, it will give out a natural fragrance of orchids. This is the reason why I like it.

The pictures are from:

http://www.tjjd.net/uploadfile/2012421163371.jpg

http://www.txpe.com.cn/UploadFiles/2012/1/2012

01191528416999.jpg

http://image.cn.made-inchina.com/2f0j01aBmtpkqGI

Yrg/%E5%AE%89%E6%BA%AA%E4%B9%8C%E9%BE

%99%E9%93%81%E8%A7%82%E9%9F%B3%EF%BC

%8800014%EF%BC%89.jpg

#Longjing #Tieguanyin #Pu'er #Chinese tea #My favorite

Controversies about Tea

1:Drink tea before meals or after meals?

Someone always can't make sure when is the best time to drink tea, before a meal or after. The correct answer is neither, because if you drink tea immediately after a meal, the tea will dilute your gastric juices and disrupt digestion. If you drink it before a meal, it will stimulate your stomach and cause discomfort. So the best time to drink tea is 1 or 2 hours after a meal.

2:Drink black tea or green tea before sleeping?

The first thing I would like to tell you is that it's better not drink tea before sleeping。If you really want to drink tea, I recommend you drinking black tea instead of green tea, because black tea is fermented tea, low tea polyphenols (the antioxidants in tea) in it, so it will not effect your rest. By the way, you could drink black tea at least 2 hours before going to bed.

3: Could we drink the the tea which has been brewed the day before?

No, we can not drink the tea brewed the day before, "because there are a great deal of bacteria bred and multiplied in it, especially when it has been stale but you can't find out."

4:Use tea bags or tea-leaves to make tea?

Tea bags were invented for easy brewing and portability. If you want to drink the better tasting tea, you'd better make tea with tea leaves. Also, the tea leaves may have less pollution than the tea bag, because they don't have industrial packaging.

5: Use clay pots or glass pots to make tea?

Different teas call for different pots, you should decide the tea set by the characteristic of tea. Clay pots have better aeration than glass pots, but you can't see the color of the tea and appreciate the tea leaves' dance, floating up and down in the apparent glass cup. Generally speaking, we use glass to brew the green tea and black tea, because of their attractive color. If you brew the oolong tea or Pu'er tea( a kind of completely fermented tea which grow in Yunnan Province, China), you need to choose the clay pot instead.

Pictures are from：

http://img00.hc360.com/gift/201101/201101051619228865.jpg

http://img04.taobaocdn.com/imgextra/i4/52002284/

T2dT8vXjXMXXXXXXXX_!!52002284.jpg

http://www.cluyu.cn/admin/productfile/2007910174417.jpg

#tea #controversies #black tea #green tea

Description and Analysis of Lipton

If someone asks me which is the biggest and the most famous tea company in the world, "Lipton", I would tell you this name without any doubt. When you go to a restaurant, supermarket, even on the plane, you could see the Lipton's striking yellow label everywhere.

As we know, tea was once an expensive drink in the past, only the wealthy and the noble could afford to enjoy it. In 1880, 40-year-old, Sir Thomas Lipton wanted to break this situation and let common people also afford to drink good quality tea. So he began by purchasing tea garden in Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, then arranged packaging and shipping at low costs to sell his tea directly from the tea garden to the tea pot. In 1893, Thomas Lipton established the Thomas J Lipton Co. and set his factory in Hoboken, New Jersey. Now, this yellow label tea are sold in more than 150 countries. Summary(Lipton website)

In my point of view, the success of Lipton results from the impressive and striking yellow label. Matching the yellow setting with the striking red words, this color assortment leaves a deep impression to people who see it for the first time. The slogan is also unique and meaningful "From the tea garden to the tea pot", it suggests the fresh and pollution-free characteristics.

This is a short description and analysis of Lipton company. If you want to know more about this company you can log in http://www.liptontea.com/

The pictures are from:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_TyHyXT0yYFM/RtXyW-UDWTI/AAAAAAAAAgw/_TdLCCx1Xqc/s400/006075.jpg

http://d.hiphotos.baidu.com/baike/s%3D220/sign=

b6599f933af33a879a6d0718f65d1018/e61190ef

76c6a7efad7bb485fdfaaf51f3de6637.jpg

#Limton #Description #Tea #Yellow lable

Rhetorical Precis

In the news "Really?:Adding Milk to Tea Destroys its Antioxidants"(2012), Anahad O’Connor claims that adding dairy products and soy milk, protein-rich additives, to tea can counteract favorable health effects of tea on vascular function. Anahad supports his opinion by showing a study published in European Heart Journey which indicates that adding dairy products completely blunted the effects of tea, but drinking tea without additives could significantly improved the arterial function. This conclusion is same as the result of experiment performed on mice. His purposes are to correct the wrong way of the common drinking tea and show people the healthiest way of preparing tea. He seems to be talking to the people who love tea ,but do not know the right way of drinking it.

When I finished reading this news, I felt shocked, because it means that I always drink tea in a wrong way. I like drinking milk tea very much, I never think about that adding the milk into the tea would decrease the effects of tea. In the future, when I drink tea, I prefer to add nothing into it.

Original Text: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/17/really-adding-milk-to-tea-destroys-its-antioxidants/?ref=tea

Picture: http://delicious-cooks.com/data_images/recipes_01/russian-tea-mix-orange-spiced-tea/russian-tea-mix-orange-spiced-tea-01.jpg

#Rhetorical Precis #Tea #Milk #Additive

Introduction

Hello, my friends.

Welcome to the world of tea. This blog is mainly about the basic introduction of Chinese tea culture including the ceremony of making tea, the history of Chinese people drinking tea, literature and poems of praising tea, and the features or benifits of various tea. Chinese people has been drinking tea at least for 2000 years and Chinese people even regard tea as one of the most indispensable necessities of daily life. There are tremendous amounts of artworks, literature, and intriguing fairy tales relating to the tea. In China, everyone loves drinking tea,regardless of their nationality. Han people like drinking tea, Tibetan people love drinking tea, the rich like drinking tea,and even the common people love drinking tea.

As we know, besides the Chinese, many other nationalities also enjoy drinking tea. But do you know the difference between Western and Eastern styles of both preparing and drinking tea? Moreover, do you know the difference between Chinese tea ceremony and Japanese "Sadou"? If you wanna know more about China and Chinese culture, please follow my blog. And I will show you the most interesting and attractive essence of Chinese tea culture. So, it's the time to say "Open Seasame", because we're already in front of the gate accessing to the summit of glorious tea culture.

I'm ready. How about you?

The picture is from:

http://www.51qe.cn/baojian/UploadFiles_4428/

201206/2012060410225712.jpg

#Blog #Introduction #Tea #Chinese tea culture

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