《茶经》的成书背景与中日茶道的流变

陆羽《茶经》对茶道的贡献并不是创新性的,其中所描述的煎茶法,是建立在前代采叶煮羹法与茶饼碾末冲饮法二者基础之上的改良。陆羽在世时的追随者并不广,唐代寺院才是用茶的主力军,而寺院中所流行的是茶饼碾末冲饮法,并非陆羽所创的煎茶法。但饮茶之风由日本求法僧东传日本后,煎茶法却成了当时日本主流的饮茶方式。宋代点茶法兴起,文官集团斗茶之风盛行,僧侣集团则针对如何饮茶形成了一整套的典章规范。两种风气再次传入日本,彼此交互作用,最终催生出了日本灿烂的茶道文化。由于中日在茶道价值取向上的差异,点茶法在明代以后没落,崇尚朴素简易的泡饮法成为中国最主要的饮茶方式;日本茶道则在细节的讲求刻画方面取得了很大进展,最终演变为一种注重舞台效果与宾主默契的表演。

The Background of The Book of Tea and the Evolution of Chinese and Japanese Tea Ceremony

The actual contribution of The Book of Tea by Lu Yu is not revolutionary,in which the tea boiling method was in fact based on the improvement of leaf picking and powder drinking methods from previous generations.Lu Yu’s influence was not so widespread during his lifetime and temples in the Tang Dynasty were the main force in consuming tea,where powder drinking method was the most popular drinking style instead of the tea boiling method.However,when Japanese learned how to drink tea from those Japanese monks who travelled to China in the Tang Dynasty,the tea boiling method had become the mainstream tea drinking method in Japan.In the Song Dynasty,Chinese officials loved the tea fighting,while a set of norms about drinking tea was formed gradually in temples.Those two kinds of trends were spread to Japan again,which led to the birth of tea ceremony eventually.Because of differences in value orientation,the simple brewing method has become the main way of drinking tea after the Ming Dynasty in China,as Japanese tea ceremony made great progresses in detail depiction and stage effect,which has eventually evolved into an art show between the host and guests.