Tea in China

As for tea, China has tea art or Chayi, similar to Japanese tea ceremony or Sado. It is the professional show of Chinese tea culture and the way for making and drinking tea. It also has a long history.

Initially, Chinese tea art was originated from Tang Dynasty. Tea art consists of the skills for judging and commenting tea, the artistic procedures for making tea and the atmosphere for enjoying tea. It is the show of the ways of making tea and the soul enjoyment. The way for making tea generally include: tea selection, water selection, tea-making technique, tea-china selection and the environmental refinement. The background of tea art is also very important, because it usually the best way to show the deep thought of tea culture. Generally, the classical background music played with Chinese classical instruments like Chinese guzhen, flute, xiao and xiong and so on is available in tea art in order to give the drinkers or watchers the enjoyment of traditional aesthetics and Zen philosophy or give the tasters the quite environment like they stay in deep mountains or natural environment without the noise of the society and the anxiety of the soul. Tea in common life is widely used for both keeping fit and spiritual improvement. During the tea drinking, a real drinker is strict about the usage of water, tea type and utensils as well as the atmosphere selection. Drinking tea traditionally can raise personal morality and help to harmonize the interpersonal relations. Tea drinkers usually like making friends and showing their personalities by virtue of drinking tea.

Anciently, drinking tea was the best way for learners to inspire themselves; Taoists used to drink tea for self-cultivation and keeping the oneness of soul and body; Buddhists used to drink tea for understanding deeply on Zen. Drinking tea also can judge a person’s character and level of moral. Drinking tea emphasizes on the feeling of objective environment and inner heart. In a word, understandably, drinking tea is the show of elegance, personality, status, educational background, religious belief and cultural pursuit. It is a systematic subject for further and careful research. Chinese culture learner always spends a lot of time in researching Chinese tea art and its humanistic history. Currently, in China, there is a themed museum named China Tea Museum which is located in Hangzhou. Visitors over here can concentratively see a lot of collections connected with Chinese tea history and tea culture.