Chapter 370 The So-called 3 Elegance
Su Xing took a quick glance at the scrolling public screen and couldn't help but sigh in his heart.
She calmed herself down and continued, "Let's talk about the three Japanese arts mentioned by this little Tengjun: tea ceremony, incense ceremony, and flower arrangement. These three arts all originated from our China. Is there any objection to this?
First, let's talk about tea culture. Our country is vast and rich in resources, with many kinds of tea. The six major types of tea are divided into countless small branches. Let me give you an example. Chaoshan Kung Fu tea Phoenix Dancong, which is only one type of oolong tea, has 10 major aroma types, more than 80 categories, and more than 200 small aroma types. Different Dancong teas have many different brewing methods, generally emphasizing "Mengchen pot, olive charcoal, Guan Gong patrolling the city, Han Xin inspecting the troops" and so on.
my country's entire tea science system is even more profound and extensive. There are too many types of tea when differentiated from various aspects such as region, craftsmanship, tree tea, shrub tea, and fragrance. Many traditional tea people who have been dealing with tea all their lives cannot clearly say how many kinds of tea there are in my country, and no one dares to say that they can drink all the teas in my country in their lifetime.
What kind of tea does Japan have? They are a tiny country with only a few tea-producing areas, and they can't grow any good tea. Most of their tea is green tea, and their tea-making techniques are all borrowed from my country's tea techniques. For example, Japan's most famous Gyokuro tea is based on the steaming technique of Enshi Gyokuro, but they haven't learned the essence of it.
The tea strands of our Enshi Yu Lu dry tea are tight, fine and uniform, round and smooth, even and straight, shaped like pine needles, with white hairs visible, and the color is lush green. The dry tea has a fresh or chestnut fragrance.
Japan's Gyokuro tea: the tea leaves are flat and straight, dark green and shiny, emerald green or dark green in color, most of the Gyokuro are small and the leaves are not very complete, and the dry tea has a seaweed fragrance.
The temperature of our Enshi Jade Dew can be controlled at around 80-85°C. The tea leaves are intact and the soup is bright green like Jade Dew. The taste is fresh and mellow, the aroma is clear, and the floral and chestnut aromas are obvious and lasting.
When brewing Japanese Gyokuro tea, the temperature can only be controlled at around 55°C. The leaves are finely broken, bright green, and the soup is dark green with a seaweed-like fragrance.
And their tea-making techniques of sencha, powdered tea, matcha, and roasted tea, which one of them is not learned from our tea-making techniques? Moreover, they have only learned the basics of most techniques. Whether it is the types of tea or the tea-making techniques, they are not comparable to us, so they seek a sense of existence in some so-called rituals.
But in my opinion, the performance form of Japanese tea ceremony is very simple. It is just a repetitive processing of the tea playing methods in our Tang and Song dynasties, which has become more complicated and formalized, and even ignores the tea itself.
We Chinese people believe in simplicity. We can use the simplest way to make delicious tea and let ordinary people drink tea. For thousands of years, tea has been an indispensable part of our lives. All 56 ethnic groups drink tea. Due to the differences in regions and ethnic cultures, many different tea cultures have been derived. It can be said that a hundred flowers bloom. "
At this point, Su Xing couldn't help but snorted, "Some people like to rush to buy Japanese tea and strongly advocate Japanese tea ceremony. I don't really understand. As citizens of the country where tea originated, how much do you know about our tea and tea culture? Have you drunk several types of tea in our country? Have you seen our tea evaluation, tea art, tea ceremony, and tea cultivation? If you don't understand your own tea culture, then what is the basis for saying that Japanese tea is better than Chinese tea, and that Japanese tea culture is more elegant and advanced than ours? In your minds, does putting a label of 'Japan' raise the grade?"
The messages on the public screen scrolled very quickly.
"Fuck, I learned something new!"
"Do we have so many types of tea? I don't usually drink tea, I only know black tea, green tea..."
"I have seen some tea connoisseurs making tea at the Tea Expo. I think their movements are very smooth, meticulous and graceful. However, the purpose of each step is to make the tea taste good, not just for performance."
"When I traveled to Japan, I also bought a lot of their green tea and matcha. But in China, I was not interested in these things. I never thought about learning about them, let alone buying them. (Expression: Covering face)"
"I have tried Dahongpao among black teas, Anji Baicha among white teas, and Tieguanyin among green teas is pretty good."
Su Xing glanced at the public screen and couldn't help but correct him, "Da Hong Pao is the rock tea among oolong teas, Anji white tea is green tea, and Tieguanyin is not green tea, it is Minnan oolong."
The netizen sent a string of messages: "..."
Many people also typed on the public screen: "Hahahaha"
Someone else said, "What are you all laughing at? This is basic knowledge about tea classification in our country, but how many people in this room know this?"
The scrolling of the public screen paused for another two seconds.
Su Xing continued, "Let's talk about the incense culture. The host has said a lot about the topic of incense before, and I think it makes sense. Let me briefly talk about my own views here. The earliest incense culture in my country did not come from the spices in the Western Regions. We have a very long history of using natural incense. According to historical records, we have made extensive use of spice plants since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.
In our country, incense is a part of everyday life. It is both elegant and common. It has been part of our daily life for thousands of years. Our incense, in addition to cultivating sentiment, also combines pharmacology and focuses on the care of the spirit and body. It can be said to be invigorating and nourishing, and it reflects the thickness and profoundness of our culture everywhere.
The Japanese incense culture is indeed well-preserved now, but I think that the Japanese incense culture is like the tea culture. Due to the lack of materials and cultural heritage, they could not create our huge incense recipe system. They could only learn from our Tang and Song Dynasty method of burning incense over fire, and combined with the solemn formal process they pursued, it became their current incense culture. "
After a pause, she continued, "It's similar with flower arrangement. The founder of Japanese flower arrangement is Ono no Imoko. He came to our country to study and exchange ideas. He found that we like flowers very much, especially some literati and scholars who like flower arrangement. He was amazed by our flower arrangement art. After returning to Japan, he resigned from his official position and became a monk, devoting himself to the study of flower arrangement. This is the origin of Japanese flower arrangement.
Although both our Chinese and Japanese flower arrangements pay attention to the beauty of lines, Japanese flower arrangement is more about the beauty of form, while our Chinese flower arrangement pursues the beauty of artistic conception, which is more chic, elegant and unconventional.
From ancient times to the present, we have liked to personify flowers and trees, such as the Four Gentlemen of plum, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum, the lotus as a pure friend, and jasmine as an elegant friend. Flowers and trees carry too much emotion of our people and have formed our country's unique flower and tree culture and flower arrangement art.
Why do some Chinese people who grew up under the influence of our profound culture look down on our own flower arrangement art and instead advocate Japanese flower arrangement that is framed in a regular way? "