User:BoyaJia666/Chinese Tea Culture

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Chinese tea culture (zhōngguó chá wénhuà, 'Chinese tea culture') includes all facets of tea, both physical and spiritual, that significantly influenced Chinese culture throughout history. Physically, it consists of the history of tea cultivation, brewing, serving techniques, methods of consumption, arts, and the tea ceremony. Tea culture is to take tea as a carrier, and through this carrier to spread various arts. Tea culture is an integral part of the excellent traditional Chinese culture, and its content is very rich. Tea culture is the organic fusion of tea and culture, which contains and embodies the manifestation of a certain period of material and spiritual civilization. Tea culture is the combination of tea art and spirit, and the expression of tea art through Spirituality. It emerged in China in the Tang Dynasty, flourished in the Song and Ming Dynasties, and declined in the Qing Dynasty.

Tea culture in China was the source of influence on tea cultures in neighboring East Asian countries such as Japan and Korea since the ancient and medieval times, with each country developing a slightly different form of tea ceremony throughout the history; nevertheless, this difference is small when compared to countries that were late adopters to tea, such as the United Kingdom, United States, and Russia, who have developed vastly divergent tea cultures from China, especially in terms of preparation, taste, and occasion when it is consumed. Tea is still consumed regularly, both on casual and formal occasions in modern China. In addition to being a popular beverage, it is used as an integral ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine as well as in Chinese cuisine.

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Tea Culture Spiritual Connotation

The spirit of the tea ceremony is the core of the tea culture. The connotation of the spirit of tea ceremony is harmony, peace, happiness and truthfulness, of which happiness is the most important point. Tea has a health effect, and regular tea drinking can strengthen the body. Physical health is the prerequisite for "pleasure and nourishment", and only by enjoying oneself can one get the sublimation of the realm of life and improve the quality of life. In general, after familiarizing ourselves with the spirit of the tea ceremony, we can better inherit and promote the tea culture.

Tea Drinking Style
China is a big tea country, which pushes the way of drinking tea to the extreme. Drinking tea is a kind of enjoyment, focusing on the process. People in ancient times researched different ways of drinking tea to taste the taste of tea all over.

1. Tang Dynasty boiling tea method

The tea was cooked directly in the kettle. This was the most common tea method in China's Tang Dynasty. Before boiling the tea, crush the tea leaves, boil the water, and put in the seasoning, then sprinkle the tea powder into the pot. When drinking, the tea dregs and tea soup together while hot, called "eat tea." Tang people cooking tea once like to add seasoning to the tea soup, such as salt, onion, ginger or orange peel, and so on.

2. Song Dynasty point tea method

This method of drinking tea was used in the Song Dynasty, and tea people ate from this method. Song Dynasty tea drinking method rose to the height of aesthetics and reached the ultimate. They decorated the tea cake with many dragon and phoenix patterns, very delicate, called "dragon and phoenix group tea." When drinking tea, first, the cake tea is crushed into a fine powder, with boiling water, to brew some tea. To make the tea powder and water into one, with a tea brush quickly hit, the tea and water fully mingle and make a lot of white tea froth. This is where the Japanese matcha ceremony originated.

3. Ming Dynasty Tea Brewing Method

By the Ming Dynasty, the tea-making and drinking method was simplified again and again. Zhu Yuanzhang vigorously promoted loose tea, which led to tea alienation, before only green tea, and then slowly appeared other tea types. The tea brewing method continues today, brewing tea without any seasoning, drinking the original taste of tea, the authentic flavor, while the tea tools and techniques used to brew tea also simplified a lot, more conducive to the spread of tea culture.

Teahouse

Ancient Chinese scholars used the teahouse as a place for sharing ideas. The teahouse was where political allegiances and social rank were said to have been temporarily suspended in favor of honest and rational discourse. It is a paradise for tea lovers, but also a place for people to rest, recreation and socialization. Likewise, the teahouse is a microcosm or window of society, Chinese teahouse has a long history, as early as the Tang Emperor Xuanzong period, only then not called the teahouse called "tea store". The leisurely consumption of tea promoted conviviality and civility among the participants.The teahouse is not only a minor by-product of Chinese tea culture; it offers historical evidence of Chinese tea history. Today, people can also sense a humanistic atmosphere in Beijing's Lao She Teahouse and other East China cities like Hangzhou, Suzhou, Yangzhou, Nanjing, Wuxi, Shaoxing, Shanghai, and other places. The teahouse atmosphere is still dynamic and vigorous.

Teaware
Different tea wares can affect people's expectations of tea. First of all, different teaware will affect how people feel about drinking tea. When tea is drunk with a tea set that looks ornamental, people's mood will become pleasant; when the teaware is not so ornamental, people's pleasure in drinking tea will be reduced. Secondly, the visual effect of the teaware affects people's expectations of the bitterness of the tea. The better the teaware, the more bitter people will think the tea is, and the more bitter the tea is, the better the tea is. So the teaware also influences people's judgment of the value of tea when no price information was provided. The practice of drinking tea was considered to be an expression of personal morality, education, social principles, and status. The price of tea ware varies depending on the material and quality of it. A set of jade tea ware can cost hundreds of thousands dollars whereas a set of low quality tea ware may only cost less than a hundred dollars. Increased enthusiasm for tea drinking led to the greater production of teaware.