The ANCIENT ART of TEA 3rd Proof Berkeley Title: Ancient Art of Tea Job No: CD1010-19/Xiaocui The ART ANCIENT TEA of Discover Happiness and Contentment in a Perfect Cup of Tea WARREN PELTIER Foreword by JOHN T. KIRBY, Ph.D. TuTTle Publishing Tokyo Rutland, Vermont Singapore Published by Tuttle Publishing, an imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd. www.tuttlepublishing.com Copyright © 2011 Warren Peltier Unless otherwise indicated, all photos were taken by Warren Peltier All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Peltier, Warren V. The ancient art of tea : discover the secret of happiness in a perfect cup of tea / Warren V. Peltier ; foreword by John T.Kirby. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4629-0090-9 1. Tea--China--History. 2. Tea--Social aspects--China. 3. Chinese tea ceremony--China. 4. Drinking customs--China. 5. China--Social life and customs. I. Title. GT2907.C6P45 2011 394.1'2--dc22 2010031889 ISBN 978-1-4629-0090-9 Distributed by North America, Latin America & Europe Japan Tuttle Publishing Tuttle Publishing 364 Innovation Drive Yaekari Building, 3rd Floor North Clarendon, VT 05759-9436 U.S.A. 5-4-12 Osaki, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 141 0032 Tel: 1 (802) 773-8930; Fax: 1 (802) 773-6993 Tel: (81) 3 5437-0171; Fax: (81) 3 5437-0755 [email protected] [email protected] www.tuttlepublishing.com www.tuttle.co.jp First edition 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in Singapore TUTTLE PUBLISHING® is a registered trademark of Tuttle Publishing, a division of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd. Table of Contents Preface ............................................15 Zhang You Xin’s Chronicle on Water A Note on the Translations ........16 for Brewing Tea .............................37 The Book.....................................17 Emperor Song Hui Zong Zhao Ji’s Treatise on Water ........................42 A Brief History of Chinese Tea Lu Shu Sheng’s Discourse on Drinking Customs ........................21 Water ............................................43 Zhang Yuan’s Judging Springs and Chapter One Storing Water ...............................43 THE ArT of TEA Luo Lin’s Explanation on Water .....45 The Nature of Tea ...........................24 Zhu Quan’s Discourse on Judging Origins of Tea .................................25 Water ............................................47 The Function of Tea in Society.......29 Xu Ci Xu’s Writings on Choosing The Art of Tea in Ancient Times ....30 Water, Storing Water, and Drawing Water .............................48 Chapter Two Chen Jian’s Amendments WATEr for TEA on Water .......................................50 Importance of Water .......................33 Comments on Water for Tea...........51 Springs as Outlined in the Classic of Modern Reflections on Water .........55 Tea ...............................................36 6 THE ANCIENT ART OF TEA Chapter Three Xu Bo’s Description of Boiling PrEPArING fIrE for TEA Water ............................................74 Heating the Fire ..............................59 Zhu Quan’s Boiling Water Lu Yu’s Discourse on Fire ...............60 Method .........................................75 Tian Yi Heng’s Discourse on Fire ...60 Feng Ke Bin’s Discourse on Xu Ci Shu’s Discourse on Fire.........62 Brewing Tea .................................75 Zhang Yuan’s Discourse on Fire .....62 Chen Jian’s Amendments on Boiling Comments on Fire ..........................63 Water ............................................76 Heating the Water ...........................65 Comments on Boiling Water ...........77 Lu Yu’s Description of the “Three The Modern Method of Boiling Boils” ............................................66 Water for Tea ...............................80 Zhao Ji’s Discourse on Boiling Water ............................................67 Chapter Four Cai Xiang’s Discourse on Boiling THE TAsTE of TEA Water ............................................67 Tang Dynasty ..................................83 Zhang Yuan’s Distinguishing Lu Yu on Tasting Tea ......................83 the Boil .........................................68 Hu Zai’s “Three Don’t Pours” ..........84 Xu Ci Shu’s Description of Utensils The Ming Dynasty and and Boiling Water ........................70 Tasting Tea ..................................86 Huang Long De’s Boiled Water .......72 Feng Ke Bin on “Yi Cha” – Proprieties Luo Lin’s Boil ..................................73 for Tasting Tea .............................87 Lu Shu Sheng’s Boiling and Chen Ji Ru on the Merits of Tasting Pouring Tea..................................74 Tea with Company ......................91 CONTENTS 7 Gu Yuan Qing’s Eight Requisites for Chapter Six Tasting Tea ..................................92 rEfINEmENT IN TEA Lu Shu Sheng’s Description on How Tea Environment and Tea to Taste Tea .................................94 Enjoyment .................................119 Zhang Yuan’s Elaboration on The Teahouse ...............................121 the Merits of Tasting Tea With Tea Master ....................................124 Company ......................................96 Tea Guests .....................................127 Wen Long’s Specified Times for Drinking Tea ................................97 Appendix 1 Ancient Chinese Reckoning Chapter Notes ...............................132 of Time .........................................98 Tea Tasting Environment ............99 Appendix 2 Tea Biographies .............................143 Chapter Five TEA ETIquETTE Appendix 3 The Importance of Etiquette List of Classical Texts ....................147 in Tea .........................................103 Cha Li and Sacrificial Offerings ....105 Appendix 4 Cha Li and Guests .........................107 Original Chinese Texts by Cha Li and Marriage ......................112 Chapter ......................................149 Tea and Other Customs ............116 Further Reading ............................160 Dedication For all who imbibe the spring dew, green nectar may the echoes of the ancients contained here be your inspiration. And especially for Meng-Yao. Special Thanks To Dr. John T. Kirby for encouragement and advice from the very start of this book project. Look how far we’ve come! To my editors at Tuttle, William Notte and Bud Sperry for their tremendous help in refin- ing and crafting this book into literary tea prose. To my agent, Neil Salkind, for his encouragement and help in smoothing out the rough spots. To Dr. Eric Messersmith for his review and endorsement of this book. To my uncle, the late Tom Peltier, for encouragement and help throughout the draft writing of this book. To my tea brother, Wang Yu Long 王裕龍, of Wuyi for his endless instruction on the finer points of picking and production of yancha. To Liu Shan 劉珊, for taking me to the secluded depths of Wuyi mountain, and especially for demonstrating her incredible talent in tasting tea. To Ren Ling Hong 任玲紅 for brewing endless gaiwans of fresh, fragrant yancha. To Mr. Zheng Hong Hui 鄭宏輝 of Wuyi for leading me over narrow mountain paths, through thick bamboo forest to view magnificent century-old laocong (old-growth) Da- hongpao tea trees. To Zheng Hong Ping 鄭紅萍 for warmly welcoming us to her ancient wooden mountain home and especially for the myriad wild-harvested flavorful dishes she cooked for lunch; and for the delicately scented mountain tea, freshly produced. foreword Although the majority of my time is spent teaching “the classics” as they have been understood here in the Western world for the past couple of millennia—i.e. Greek and Latin—these days I find myself saying to my students more and more, “Study China. Learn as much as you can about China. China is your future. No—in fact, China is your present.” It will already be evident to the thoughtful readers of this phenomenal new book that the presence of Chinese culture looms ever larger in Western lives. This book is itself yet another instance of that trend. But as we also see in these pages, China is profoundly a part of our past as well. The reality of this may perhaps not be immediately obvious to all; but anyone, within or without the orbit of Asian culture in its broadest parameters, who is in- terested in the history and legacy of tea, is by that very fact indebted to literally thousands of years of Chinese history, Chinese economics, Chinese art and aesthet- ics, Chinese religion and philosophy, Chinese agronomy and botany, even Chinese politics. All of these aspects of Chinese culture bear specifically and directly upon the development of what we may call “tea culture” in China itself, and thus also in Japan and Korea (to which Chinese tea culture, along with Chinese Buddhism and all other things Chinese, was exported), in the British Empire, and eventually in the Americas. I have at my elbow a cup of tea as I write this. It happens to be a tea that was grown and processed in China. But even a tea from India (or Sri Lanka or Argentina or Hawaii) will have been planted and grown there because of the long heritage and reverence that tea enjoyed first in China. In this sense particularly, China is