Tea drinking
in Tang Dynasty
The vogue of drinking tea was prosperous as the establishment of Tang
Dynasty. The reasons of the vogue of drinking tea were as below:
First, stable society, developed agriculture and convenient traffic
accelerate the produce and trade of tea.
Second, the Dry Law made tea drinking more popular. Chinese wines were
made with crops, population has a growth in Tang Dynasty and crops were not enough. The
Tang government thus to promulgate a law of wine prohibition. Many wine-drinkers switched
to tea-drinkers because of the Dry Law.
More over, the popularity of poem and the spread of Buddhism
accelerated the vogue of tea.
As tea drinking became more and more popular, the way people drank tea became different.
Before Tang Dynasty, people drank tea roughly. In Tang Dynasty, people became dainty about
tea drinking. It was a big event in the history of tea, and it was mainly because of a
famous poet named Luyu. People before Tang Dynasty drank tea for it's medical effect and
took it as a method for releasing thirsty. They drank tea along with many other things,
such as shallot, ginger, mint, salt and so on. Luyu didn't think it a good way to have tea
like this. In his opinion, tea should be tasted as simple as possible. In the book he
wrote, he advocated a new method, which was called fry and drink.
Luyu's fry and drink is very dainty. He said there are 9 difficulties
while having tea. The first difficulty is selecting; the second is distinguishing; the
third is the instruments; the forth is the charcoal; the fifth is water; the sixth is
baking; the seventh is grinding; the eighth is cooking; the final difficulty is drinking.
Luyu's fry and drink cooks tea as the following procedures: first,
roast tealeaves till they get dry and put into paper bag. After tealeaves got cold, grind
them to powder; second, select water and fuel to cook tea. The best fuel is charcoal or
hardwood, the best water is those from mountain, the second is those from river, the worst
is water from well. The third procedure is to put tea powder into water, which had been
boiled twice. When water was boiled the 3 times, scoop tea into bowls to drink.
Luyu thought the taste is the most important thing, and taste came from
the procedures to cook tea. What he was pursuing is psychological enjoyment out of the tea
itself. Luyu endued tea with cultural sense. After Luyu, this way to drink tea came down
for a long time.
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