Tea literature refers to literary works created with tea as the theme. It includes works where the theme may not necessarily be tea, but as long as there are beautiful passages that eulogize or describe tea, they can all be regarded as tea literature. The content of tea literature includes tea poems, tea lyrics, tea essays, couplets about tea, novels about tea, and so on.
Regarding the works related to tea literature in China, according to statistics, in terms of tea poems and lyrics: there were approximately 500 in the Tang Dynasty, about 1,000 in the Song Dynasty, and another 500 in the Jin, Yuan, Ming, Qing Dynasties and modern times. In total, there are more than 2,000 pieces.
(I) The Earliest Tea Poems and Lyrics in China
According to the compilation in Lu Yu’s “The Classic of Tea”, there were 4 pieces before the Tang Dynasty, but none of the 4 were fully quoted. For example:
In Zhang Zai’s poem “Ascending the Chengdu Tower”:
“I ask where Yangzi’s house is, and I imagine Changqing’s cottage. Cheng and Zhuo accumulated great wealth, and their extravagance was comparable to that of the five marquises. There were continuous riders at the door, and green belts with Wu hooks at their waists. Sumptuous feasts were served at any time, and the hundreds of harmonious flavors were wonderful and unique. Picking autumn oranges in the forest, fishing spring fish by the river. Black seeds surpassed dragon sauce, and fruit dishes were better than crab roe. The fragrant tea surpasses all emotions and spreads its flavor across the nine regions. If life is comfortable, this land can bring joy.”
Sun Chu’s “Song of Produce”:
“The dogwood grows on the top of the fragrant tree, and the carp comes from the spring of the Luo River. White salt comes from the east of the Yellow River, and delicious fermented soybeans come from the deep pool in Lu. Ginger, cinnamon, tea, and tender tea leaves come from Bashu, and pepper, orange, and magnolia come from high mountains. Knotweed and perilla grow in ditches, and refined barnyard grass grows in the middle of the fields.”
Zuo Si’s “Poem of the Beloved Daughters”:
“I have beloved daughters at home, fair and quite fair-skinned. Their pet names are Wansu, and their speech is clear. There is an older sister named Huifang, with eyebrows and eyes as bright as a painting. They gallop and fly in the garden, picking fruits while they are still on the trees. They are greedy for the beauty in the wind and rain, and suddenly go hundreds of times. Their hearts are eager for tea, and they blow on the tripod.”
Wang Wei’s “Miscellaneous Poems”:
“Silently closing the high attic, with few people in the vast hall. Waiting for you but you don’t come back in the end, so I’ll just enjoy tea now.”
● In the Jin Dynasty, there was an important tea ode, namely Du Yu’s “Ode to Tender Tea Leaves”:
“The sacred mountain is the highest among the mountains, where rare products gather. The tender tea leaves grow there, covering the valleys and hills. They receive the nourishment of the fertile soil and the nightfall of the sweet rain. In early autumn, when the farming work takes a short break, people form groups and go to pick and seek them. The water comes from the Min River, drawing the clear stream; the utensils are chosen from simple pottery, coming from the eastern region; pouring it with a gourd ladle, following the example of Duke Liu. When it is first made, the foam floats like beautiful snow, shining like spring blossoms.”
This “Ode to Tender Tea Leaves” is the earliest existing poem-like work that specifically sings about tea affairs. This tea ode and the previous four tea poems constitute the literary foundation of the early ancient Chinese tea culture. From these tea literary works, we can also see the historical facts of the development of China’s tea industry, indicating that in the Han Dynasty, except in Bashu, tea drinking was not yet very popular. By the Three Kingdoms period, although the story of Sun Hao in the Eastern Wu “replacing wine with tea” was widely spread, it only showed that there was also a certain development of the tea industry in the place where Sun Wu was located, but it was not seen in the Central Plains ruled by the State of Wei. By the time of the Four Jin Dynasties, the short-lived reunification brought tea to official families like Zuo Si in the Central Plains. Later, due to the division of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, it was interrupted. It was not until after the Tang Dynasty that the tea industry achieved comprehensive development, and tea literature also had brilliant achievements. The following will take the works and figures of tea literature in various periods after the Tang Dynasty as examples for illustration.
(II) Bai Juyi, the Tea-loving Poet Who Understood the Taste of Tea and the Way of Tea
Bai Juyi was excellent in both poetry and prose, and his poems were especially praised by later generations. He was a master of social realistic poetry in the Mid-Tang Dynasty. Among his more than 2,800 surviving poems, about 60 can be seen with sentences related to tea. His poems mentioned morning tea, afternoon tea, and evening tea, and even after-meal tea and after-sleep tea. It can be said that he couldn’t live without tea all day long. He was a great connoisseur of tea who loved tea and was proficient in the way of tea and could appreciate the taste of tea.
How did Bai Juyi drink tea? In the twelfth year of Yuanhe in the reign of Emperor Xianzong of the Tang Dynasty, Bai Juyi was serving as a military governor in Jiangzhou. Soon after the Qingming Festival, his good friend Li Xuanbu, the prefect of Zhongzhou, sent him new Shu tea before the Cold Food Festival when fire was prohibited. Bai Juyi, who was ill at that time, felt the warmth of friendship and was overjoyed. So he started to grind the tea, measure the water, wait for the fire, and put in the tea powder… He quickly tasted the new tea and wrote the poem “Thanking Li Liuzhonglang for Sending New Shu Tea”.
“Old friendship is all around towards relatives and friends, and the new tea is shared with my sick body. There is a letter on a piece of red paper after sealing, and ten pieces of green buds are the spring tea before the fire. Add a ladle of water to the soup to make it boil like fish eyes, and stir the yellow tea powder with a spoon. Don’t send it to others but send it to me first. It should be because I’m an expert in distinguishing tea.”
The fifth and sixth lines in the poem, “Add a ladle of water to the soup to make it boil like fish eyes, and stir the yellow tea powder with a spoon”, are chanting about the affairs of whisking tea, which is the same as the tea-making method recorded in Lu Yu’s “The Classic of Tea”. And Lu Yu’s “The Classic of Tea – Boiling of Tea” wrote the following passage: “…When the water boils and there are small bubbles like fish eyes with a slight sound, it is the first boiling. When the water boils along the edge like continuous pearls from a spring, it is the second boiling. When the waves are surging and rolling, it is the third boiling. After that, the water is too old and cannot be drunk. At the first boiling, adjust the amount of water and season it with salt. …At the second boiling, take out a ladle of water, and use bamboo chopsticks to stir around the center of the soup, then put the tea powder in the center. After a while, when it looks like surging waves with splashing foam, use the taken-out water to stop it and let it form the essence. …” The so-called “fish eyes” are the first stage of the boiling of the soup. At this time, small bubbles like fish eyes float on the water surface and make a slight sound. Therefore, the “boiling like fish eyes” in Bai’s poem refers to the stage from the first boiling of the soup to a more boiling stage, that is, entering the second and third boiling stages. And “adding a ladle of water to the soup” means, as recorded in the previous “The Classic of Tea”, taking out a ladle of water at the second boiling stage and pouring it in when it is “like surging waves with splashing foam” at the third boiling stage, so that the boiling can be slightly stopped to make it form the essence. The “powder” in “stir the yellow tea powder with a spoon” means grinding the cake tea into powder. The utensil for making powder, according to what is said in “The Classic of Tea – Utensils”, is the “grinder”. “Spoon” refers to the “spoon” for scooping up the powder, which is equivalent to the “scoop” in “The Classic of Tea – Utensils”. “Yellow tea powder” refers to the yellow tea powder. “Stir the yellow tea powder with a spoon” means using a spoon to scoop up the already ground tea powder and put it into the pot to stir, which is equivalent to the meaning of “put the tea powder in the center” in “The Classic of Tea”. Bai Juyi’s way of drinking tea is roughly the same as what is described in “The Classic of Tea”.
From the last two lines of the poem, it can be seen that Bai Juyi was very proud of his ability to distinguish tea. When Bai Juyi drank tea, he was very particular about the selection and configuration of tea, water, and tea utensils, as well as waiting for the right fire and determining the state of the soup. He liked to use mountain spring water for making tea: “I love the newly introduced spring most, which flows clearly and winding around the steps.” However, he didn’t think that only spring water was good. He often chose water according to local conditions. Sometimes he used snow water to make tea: “Chanting poems with white hair, leisurely making tea with snow water.” Sometimes he also felt that making tea with the clean Wei River water was precious: “When the Shu tea arrives, I’m only surprised by its novelty. When it’s boiled with Wei River water, I begin to feel its preciousness.” When Bai Juyi made tea, he always carefully added water with a ladle and quietly waited for the water to boil. When drinking tea, he liked to use white porcelain tea cups and savor it carefully while missing his friends: “…The white porcelain cup is very clean, and the red stove charcoal is burning brightly. The foam makes the yellow tea powder fragrant, and the flowers float when the water boils like fish eyes. When it’s poured out, it has a good color. When swallowed, there is a lingering fragrance. Without seeing Yang Muchao, who would know this taste.” And Bai Juyi’s favorite tea was the “Mengding Tea” produced in Sichuan: “The only thing I know in the music is the clear water, and the old acquaintance in tea is the Mengshan Mountain. Whether poor or prosperous, whether moving or staying, it always accompanies me. Who says I have no virtue now?” Poetry, wine, tea, and the zither added a lot of interest to Bai Juyi’s life.
When Bai Juyi served as the military governor in Jiangzhou, he also opened a garden to plant tea. Jiangzhou was close to Lushan Mountain. Bai Juyi liked the cloud, water, spring, and stones under the Incense Burner Peak between the East and West Woods very much. He once built a thatched cottage here, and the tea garden was beside the cottage. He had a poem “Building a Thatched Cottage under the Incense Burner Peak and Writing Poems to Express My Feelings and Inscribe on the Stone”, with the verse “Building a thatched cottage on the rock, opening a tea garden in the valley”. The poet lived in a thatched cottage on the mountain, opened a tea garden, listened to the flowing springs, admired the white lotuses, drank wine, played the zither, looked up at the sky and sang, feeling comfortable and content.
In the second year of Changqing in the reign of Emperor Muzong of the Tang Dynasty, Bai Juyi was transferred to serve as the prefect of Hangzhou. During his two-year tenure, he loved the beautiful scenery of the West Lake, fragrant tea, and sweet springs. He often invited poet-monks to chant poems and drink tea, leaving a good story of fetching spring water and making tea with the monk Taoguang in the Lingyin Temple. The poet-monk Taoguang and Bai Juyi often had exchanges of poems. Once Bai Juyi invited the monk Taoguang to the city to drink tea with a poem, but Taoguang disliked the noise in the city and replied with a poem to refuse. Bai Juyi had to visit him on the mountain in person and drink tea and chant poems together. The tea-making well in the Lingyin Taoguang Temple in Hangzhou is said to be the place where Bai Juyi made tea in those days.
(III) Lu Tong’s Tea Song Passed Down through the Ages
By the Tang Dynasty, the fashion of drinking tea gradually became popular. More and more people drank tea, and the way of drinking tea became more and more refined. Tea became an indispensable item for many poets and writers when they brewed and accumulated inspiration. As a result, a large number of poems about drinking tea were produced. Among them, the most popular one was Lu Tong’s “Writing a Poem to Thank Meng Jianyi for Sending New Tea”, also known as “The Song of Drinking Tea”.
Lu Tong, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, called himself Yu Chuanzi and was from Fanyang. When he was young, he lived in seclusion on the Shaoshi Mountain. His family was poor, but he studied hard and was unwilling to enter officialdom. He once wrote “The Poem of the Lunar Eclipse”, satirizing the eunuchs’ monopoly of power at that time and arousing the eunuchs’ resentment. During the “Ganlu Incident”, because he stayed overnight at the home of the prime minister Wang Ya, he was killed at the same time as Wang Ya, and he was only about 40 years old when he died.
Lu Tong was obsessed with tea. The poem “Writing a Poem to Thank Meng Jianyi for Sending New Tea” was his impromptu work after tasting the new tea sent by his friend Meng Jianyi, who was an advisory official. He expressed his feelings directly
“The sun is already high in the sky and I’m sleeping soundly. The soldiers knock on the door and wake me up from my dream. They say that the advisory official has sent a letter, with three seals on the white silk obliquely. Opening the letter, I seem to see the face of the advisory official. Reading it, I find three hundred pieces of moon-shaped tea cakes. I hear that in the new year, people went into the mountains. The hibernating insects were awakened and the spring breeze blew. The emperor must taste the Yangxian Tea first, and hundreds of plants dare not bloom before it. The gentle wind secretly forms pearl-like buds, and the golden buds are drawn out in early spring. Pick the fresh ones, bake the fragrant ones, and quickly wrap them up. They are extremely fine and good and luxurious. After the emperor enjoys them, they are for the princes and dukes. Why did they come to my mountain home? I close the thatched door and there are no vulgar guests. Wearing a gauze hat, I boil and drink it by myself. The blue clouds are blown continuously by the wind, and the white flowers float and condense on the surface of the bowl. One bowl moistens the throat. Two bowls relieve loneliness. Three bowls search through the empty mind, and only five thousand volumes of words remain. Four bowls make me sweat slightly. The unfair things in my life are all dissipated through the pores. Five bowls make my muscles and bones clear. Six bowls make me communicate with the immortals. Seven bowls are too much to drink, and I only feel a gentle breeze blowing under my arms. Where is the Penglai Mountain? Yu Chuanzi will ride this gentle breeze and go back. The immortals in the mountains govern the mortal world, with a noble status and separated from the wind and rain. How can I know the lives of hundreds of millions of common people who are suffering on the cliffs. I’ll ask for the common people on behalf of the advisory official. In the end, will they be able to rest?”
The content of this poem can be divided into three parts. At the beginning, it writes about thanking the advisory official for sending the new tea, which is extremely fine, good, and rare. This should be the enjoyment of the emperor, princes, and nobles. How could it come to a mountain hermit’s home? There is a sense of being flattered. In the middle, it describes the feelings of boiling and drinking tea. Because the tea tastes good, he drank seven bowls in a row. When he drank the seventh bowl, he felt a gentle breeze blowing under his arms and felt like a fairy, which was written very romantically. Finally, suddenly, the writing style changed, and it turned to pleading for the common people, hoping that those in high positions who lived a life of luxury would know, when enjoying this extremely fine and good tea, how many tea farmers risked their lives and climbed on the cliffs to pick it. The poet hoped that the hard days of the toiling people would come to an end and they could have a breather. It can be seen that the original intention of the poet in writing this “The Song of Drinking Tea” was not just to boast about the miraculous effects of tea. Behind it, there was a deep sympathy for the tea farmers hidden.
Tea is fragrant, but the tea farmers in the Tang Dynasty were hardworking, and the tribute tea system was a heavy yoke put on the tea farmers by the court. Yuan Gao, a poet in the Mid-Tang Dynasty, when serving as the prefect of Huzhou, was directly responsible for supervising the production of the Guzhu tribute tea. He witnessed with his own eyes the hardships of the tea farmers who endured the hunger and cold in early spring, with men abandoning farming and women abandoning weaving, climbing high mountains and facing deep cliffs to pick the new buds. He also directly witnessed the evil deeds of officials at all levels who forced the tea farmers to hand in the tea like wolves and tigers. Heartbroken, he wrote a long five-character poem “The Poem of the Tea Mountain”. Li Ying, a poet in the Late Tang Dynasty, made a detailed description of the situation where the tribute tea harmed the people in his “The Song of the Tribute Tea Baking on the Tea Mountain”. At that time, it was stipulated that the tribute tea must be delivered to Chang’an before the Qingming Festival
