I have been preparing for a presentation at our annul Chinese language teachers conference. Reading a few really great books about the history of Chinese Tea: John C Evans’ Tea in China: The History of China’s National Drink (1992); James A. Benn’s Tea in China: A Religious and Cultural History (2015); Bret Hinsch’s The Rise of Tea Culture in China:The Invention of the Individual (2016). Many late nights with cups of tea. And when I read Tang Poet Lu Tong’s stanza, I felt every bit of his sentiment:
【唐 盧仝〈七碗茶歌〉】
一碗喉吻潤。
兩碗破孤悶。
三碗搜枯腸，唯有文字五千卷。
四碗發輕汗，平生不平事，盡向毛孔散。
五碗肌骨清。
六碗通仙靈。
七碗吃不得也，唯覺兩腋習習清風生。
蓬萊山，在何處？
玉川子，乘此清風欲歸去。
The first bowl moistens my lips and throat.
The second bowl banishes my loneliness and melancholy.
The third bowl penetrates my withered entrails.
Finding nothing there except five thousand scrolls of writing.
The fourth bowl raises a light perspiration,
As all the inequities I have suffered in my life
Are flushed out through my pores.
The fifth bowl purifies my flesh and bones.
The sixth bowl allows me to communicate with immortals.
The seven bowl I need not drink,
I am only aware of a pure wind rising beneath my two arms.
The mountains of Penglai, what is this place?
I, Master of the Jade Stream, ride this pure wind and wish to return.
-James, A. Benn, Tea in China (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2015), 14-15.
