Tea is one of the seven things that Chinese people do when they open their doors (firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, tea). It goes without saying that tea plays an important role in people's lives. Drinking tea was very common in ancient China. Chinese tea culture has a long history and is extensive and profound. It not only includes the material culture level, but also contains the profound spiritual civilization level. Lu Yu, the tea sage of the Tang Dynasty, whose The Classic of Tea sounded the clarion call for Chinese tea culture in history. Since then, the spirit of tea has penetrated into the court and society, and penetrated into Chinese poetry, painting, calligraphy, religion, and medicine. Over the past thousands of years, China has not only accumulated a large amount of material culture about tea cultivation and production, but also accumulated rich spiritual culture about tea. This is China's unique tea culture.

China is the hometown of tea and the first country in the world to discover, utilize and cultivate tea trees. China is also the master country of tea ceremony in the world. Any country influenced by Chinese tea culture cannot deny China's status as the master country of tea ceremony, otherwise it will violate the basic civilization of tea ceremony. The origin of tea tree has a history of at least 60,000 to 70,000 years. Tea has been discovered and utilized by humans for about four to five thousand years. Tea has medicinal effects on keeping fit and curing diseases. It is also full of appreciation and can cultivate one's sentiments. Drinking tea and entertaining guests are elegant entertainment and social activities for Chinese people, while sitting in teahouses and tea parties are social group tea activities for Chinese people. Chinese tea art enjoys a high reputation in the world and was introduced to Japan in the Tang Dynasty.

Tea drinking began in China. The tea leaves are brewed with boiled water, followed by nature, drunk elegantly, seeking the inherent taste of tea, focusing on the artistic conception. This is the characteristic of Chinese tea tasting. Tea leaves of the same quality, if used with different water, tea sets or brewing techniques, will have different effects on the tea soup produced. China has been very particular about tea brewing since ancient times and has accumulated rich experience. To brew good tea, you need to understand the characteristics of various types of tea and master scientific brewing techniques so that the inherent qualities of tea can be fully expressed.

When Chinese people drink tea, they pay attention to the word "taste". "Tasting tea" is not only about identifying the quality of tea, but also about reverie and appreciating the fun of drinking tea. Brewing a pot of strong tea in the midst of a busy schedule, choosing a quiet place, and pouring it by yourself can eliminate fatigue, clear away worries, improve thinking, and invigorate the spirit. You can also sip and drink slowly to achieve the enjoyment of beauty and sublimate the spiritual world to a noble artistic realm. The environment for tea tasting generally consists of buildings, gardens, furnishings, tea sets and other factors. Drinking tea requires quietness, freshness, comfort and cleanliness. Chinese gardens are world-famous, and their landscapes are countless. Make use of gardens or natural landscapes, use wood to make pavilions, stools, and set up teahouses to give people a poetic and picturesque atmosphere. It is a place for people to take a break, which is full of interest.

China is a country with ancient civilization and a land of etiquette, which attaches great importance to etiquette. Whenever guests come, the etiquette of making tea and serving tea is essential. When guests come to visit, you can seek advice and choose the tea set that best suits the guest's taste and the best tea set to entertain them. When serving tea to guests, it is also necessary to blend the tea appropriately. When accompanying guests to drink tea, the host should pay attention to the amount of tea remaining in the guests' cups and pots, and generally use tea cups to brew tea. If the guest has drank half of the tea, boiling water should be added as he drinks, so that the concentration of the tea remains basically consistent and the water temperature is appropriate. When drinking tea, it can also be appropriately paired with tea, candies, dishes, etc. to achieve the effect of adjusting taste and snacks.

The content of Chinese tea culture is mainly the embodiment of tea in Chinese spiritual culture. This is a much deeper and broader category than "tea customs" and "tea ceremony", and is also the reason why Chinese tea culture is very different from European, American or Japanese tea culture.

I believe everyone must have heard of the traditional Chinese folk fights of bullfighting, cockfighting, cricket fighting, horse fighting, sheep fighting, and pig fighting, but most of you have never heard of "tea fighting", right? What exactly is "tea fighting"? When and where did tea fighting originate? Who likes tea fighting? What tricks are they fighting for?

Tea fighting, also known as "tea war". Simply put, it is a tea tasting competition, which treats the evaluation of tea quality as a battle. This is a special term used by the ancients to compare the quality of tea. The Song Dynasty Tang Geng's "Tea Fighting Records" said: "In the third month of the second year of Zhenghe, at Renxu, two or three gentlemen made tea with each other in Ji'ao Zhai. I took the water from Longtang and cooked the best tea. I chose one as the best and the other as the second." Zhenghe is the reign name of Huizong of the Song Dynasty, so some people think that tea fighting started during Huizong's time. This statement is a bit arbitrary, because the formation of a trend does not just happen, it must have a historical background for its formation. In fact, according to research, the emergence of tea fighting has a lot to do with tribute tea. The origin of tribute tea can be traced back to more than a thousand years ago, but it was officially listed as an item of tea politics from the Tang Dynasty. At that time, in order to win the favor of the emperor, some dignitaries rushed to offer high-quality tea products and tried every possible means to search for famous teas from various places. Since it is a tribute to the emperor, its quality is of course very important, so we must first compare the quality of the tea. The trend of tea fighting gradually became popular. Based on this, it is inferred that tea fighting should have started in the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties period, and flourished in the Song Dynasty. Fan Zhongyan, a great scholar in the Northern Song Dynasty, described the reasons for the tea fight and the situation of the competition very clearly in the poem "The Song of Tea Fighting with Zhang Min". Especially the last two sentences, "If you win, you will be able to reach the top" and "If you lose, you will be humiliated." The proud look of the winner and the shame of the loser are vividly written. This shows how much people at that time were obsessed with tea fighting. "Ming Yuan Gambling Market" painted by Liu Songnian of the Song Dynasty depicts the scene of tea fights among ordinary people in the market. There are old people, women, children, porters and traders in the picture. Tea contestants carry a complete set of utensils and proudly show off their tea while tasting it.

"Dream of Red Mansions", one of my country's four great classics, mentions tea in more than 260 places, and there are more than ten poems and couplets about tea. Cao Gong, who was charming and experienced his ups and downs, was proficient in music, chess, calligraphy, painting, poetry, wine and tea, and wrote about tea to the extreme. A book that has been "read for ten years and added or deleted five times" devotes an entire chapter to writing about tea, which shows that Mr. Cao attaches great importance to Chinese tea culture. In this book, the main characters Jia Mu, Baoyu, Daiyu, Baochai, Miaoyu, as well as Grandma Liu and others appear together. Miaoyu used "a small cup with a colorful lid from the kiln" and "rainwater from old years" to brew the famous tea "Laojun Mei" that had been "tributed every year" to take care of Taijun and Grandma Liu. The beauty has beautiful tea and beautiful utensils, the Zen hall is filled with laughter and the atmosphere is full of harmony.

Drinking tea can calm the mind and spirit, help cultivate sentiments, and remove distracting thoughts. This is in line with the Eastern philosophy that advocates "quietness and indifference", and is also in line with the "introspective practice" of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. "Tea ceremony" is a life ritual with the theme of tea, and it is also a way of cultivating the body and mind. It cultivates the body and mind by making tea, admiring tea, and tasting tea.

The tea ceremony originated in China. At least in the Tang Dynasty or before the Tang Dynasty, the Chinese were the first in the world to use tea drinking as a way to cultivate one's moral character. There is such a record in the Tang Dynasty's "Fengshi Hearing and Seeing Notes": "The tea ceremony was very popular, and all the princes and scholars drank it." This is the earliest record of the tea ceremony in the existing literature. Tea banquet was a very popular social activity in society at that time. Lu Wen of the Tang Dynasty gave a very vivid description of the elegant atmosphere of the tea banquet and the wonderful charm of tea tasting in "Preface to the Tea Banquet on March 3". During the Tang and Song Dynasties, people were very particular about the environment, etiquette, operation methods and other tea drinking rituals. With some agreed-upon rules and rituals, tea banquets can be divided into palace tea banquets, temple tea banquets and literati tea banquets.

The Chinese tea ceremony preceded Japan by hundreds or even thousands of years. It can be said that the Chinese tea ceremony emphasizes the spirit rather than the form. It has different manifestations in various historical stages. The various teas are also different. Hundreds of flowers bloom, but they all embody the tea ceremony spirit of "purity, respect, pleasure and truth".

What is the tea ceremony? Mr. Wu Juenong believes that the tea ceremony "treats tea as a precious and noble beverage, because tea is a spiritual enjoyment, an art, or a means of self-cultivation."
Mr. Zhuang Wanfang believes that the tea ceremony is a ritual that educates people on etiquette and moral cultivation through drinking tea. Mr. Zhuang Wanfang also summarized the basic spirit of the Chinese tea ceremony as: "Integrity, beauty, harmony, and respect." He explained: "Integrity and thrift educate morality, beauty, truth, integrity, happiness, sincerity, and respect for others."

Mr. Chen Xiangbai believes that Chinese tea ceremony includes seven principles: tea art, tea ethics, tea etiquette, tea philosophy, tea feelings, tea theory, and tea ceremony guidance. The core of the Chinese tea ceremony spirit is harmony. The Chinese tea ceremony is the process of tea that guides individuals to complete character cultivation in the process of enjoying beauty and achieve harmony and happiness for all mankind. Mr. Chen Xiangbai’s theory of tea ceremony can be abbreviated as: “Seven Arts and One Mind”.

Mr. Zhou Zuoren said it more casually. His understanding of the tea ceremony is: "The meaning of the tea ceremony, in ordinary words, can be called taking a break from busy work, having fun in hardship, enjoying beauty and harmony in incomplete reality, and experiencing eternity in a moment."

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