唐代茶文化探究

A Study of Tea-drinking Culture in the Tang Dynasty

在悠久的人類生活歷程中，茶之清香、高雅已成為中國文化中不可缺少之一環。茶所累積的精神財富如茶道、茶藝、茶禮、茶俗等，也早已成為人們生活中的文化象徵。唐代在中國飲茶文化發展史上，具有極重要地位。中唐以前，國富民強，成為茶飲文化極為有利的發展條件，佛、道二教對於茶飲亦十分鼓勵。根據考證，陸羽之《茶經》可謂中國第一部茶書，對茶之起源傳說、採摘、加工、煮烹、品飲之法，以及水質、茶器之講求，相關之文化習俗，有系統的作了全面之總結。從而使茶學昇華至嶄新學科。其後，隨著茶葉生產的普及，茶之製造與茶飲不斷研發，逐漸發展成一套完整的技藝。 唐代茶之品飲，從團茶、藥用走向散茶、飲茗，完整地具備了發展茶文化之重要因素。唐代對煮茶法，技藝十分講究，陸羽《茶經》中五之煮、六之飲都是論述煮茶之品飲技藝，於茶葉、茶水、茶溫、茶器頗有講求。陸羽之後提倡品茶精神意境則是陸羽好友皎然。講求品茗之意境，以幽雅自然之境，邀三兩知己好友，品新茶嫩芽，伴著茶香，吟松風明月、或古木茅舍，是為「茶道」也。茶道文化絕非孤立之產物，它是在茶文化基礎上，脫穎出來的一種次生文化，是茶葉和精神文化的集中體現。

The lofty and the delicate fragrance of the tea has become an essential part of daily life in Chinese culture. Much of the spiritual wealth accumulated by the tea like tea techniques, the tea art, the tea etiquette, and the tea custom are evolving into the cultural token in our lives. The Tang Dynasty tea-drinking marks a very important milestone in the Chinese tea history. The overall nation's wealth before the middle of the Tang Dynasty and the prosperous economic status have created a favorable development environment for tea culture. The Buddhism and the Taoism also offer a positive support to the tea culture. "The Book of Tea" (Ch'a Ching) authored by Lu Yu is, perhaps, the first , Chinese tea book. Topics like the fable of the tea, tea-picks, the processing, boiling, drinking styles, the water quality, as well as the tea set and other tea-related custom have been extensively discussed in the book. These efforts help sublimated the tea study to a brand-new discipline. With the increasing popularity of tea production and manufacturing and the unceasing research and development in tea drinking, a complete set of tea techniques was eventually developed in the Tang Dynasty. The tea-drinking in the Tang Dynasty, from the group, medical purpose tea-drinking to individual tea-drinking, possess the important attributes to successfully develop the tea culture in all aspects. The Tang Dynasty puts much emphasis on tea techniques. The five boils-and-six drinks technique describes in Lu-Yu's "the Book of Tea" is one of the typical examples among them. All these techniques share and emphasize on the same common characteristics: the tea leaves, the water, the temperature, and the container. Chiao-jen, a good friend of Lu-Yu is, perhaps, the greatest promoter to value mental status of tea-drinking. "Cha-Do" means tea-drinking with couple of good friends in a natural, elegant place with the delicate fragrance of new, tender tea leaves and fresh air while reciting the beautiful poems. Cha-Do culture is not produced from isolation. It is obviously an evolved secondary culture which is manifested by the tea and the spiritual tea culture.