The tea ceremony has extensively been illustrated, historically identified and discussed as a processing result of the eastern spirit. The Book of tea by Okakura Kakuzō is a prominent reference given that the author exhaustively shows how the implied philosophical principles adhere to Taoism and Zen. A suitable path (roji) plugged in the gloaming of evergreens and adorned with greenstone lanterns leads to the tearoom (sukiya). In this way, the walker can experience a sort of detachment from the world, combined with quiet meditation, understood to be the prerequisite for the delicious and finely flavored tea to be properly tasted. The tearoom comes as simple bamboo hut with a thatched roof and a door so short that the guest has to bend down to get in or out. Owing to the surrounding graceful sobriety, the attendee of the tea ceremony is prone to develop a humble attitude. All things considered, this room made of lightweight, simple materials turns out to be a little home in line with the Japanese traditional architecture. Therein, silence reigns pleasingly; it is only broken by iron particles ringing in the teapot because of the turbulent movement of the boiling water in which they are dipped. The ambient colors are faint in dim light. There are no alien objects which might disturb the tearoom harmony. Adornments and decorations reduce to temporary flowers and paintings which are arranged following clear aesthetic criteria. In this respect, the presence, say, of flowers would conflict with floral background images because of repetition in the pattern. And then again, a black object should not be positioned in close proximity to another one of the same color. There even must be some differences in the wood species that nearby objects are made of.
The preparation of tea is likewise careful, even though, according to rules that have been encoded over time, it differs today than it was in time past. In fact, the preparation changed over time from adopting tea boil to tea infusion, going through the tea-smoothie period, rather following subsequent stages of the Chinese civilization. In this regard, the customs existing in China during the Tang, Sung and Ming dynasties are of special importance.
Originally, tea was a beverage containing many ingredients including, for example, a piece of onion, even by addition of salt. During the Tang dynasty, the preparation of “foamed liquid jade” changed becoming an art in which the harmony of the universe would manifest itself in obedience to the law for which the universality can be recognized by individual details. The rules for this preparatory art were laid down from selecting the leaves: according to the Chinese poet Lu Wu, which authored the first book on tea, the best leaves are distinguished by being prone “to bend likewise the tartar riders’ leather booths, to curl likewise a mighty ox’s horns, to lift likewise the fog from a ravine, to twinkle likewise a lake brushed by the zephyr and to be humid and soft likewise soil after rain”. The poet also described three stages of water boil in the teapot, namely when bubbles, like fish eyes, appear on the water surface (first stage); when they resemble crystal pearls in a fountain (second stage); when the boiling water becomes very rough (third stage). Lu Wu also recommended sipping tea using light blue china cups, so that the beverage would have assumed a pleasant amber undertone.
In the Sung dynasty, the tea smoothie became popular and salt was no longer added. In the same period, the Zen school in Southern China developed a true tea ceremony which was imported into Japan. A distinctive feature of that ancient ritual was that the Chinese monks used to circle around a sacred image before taking the tea. The rules governing that ritual also provided that all drank out of the same cup. After China’s Mongolian invasion and occupation in the 12th century, several pieces of the Chinese culture were lost. This accounts for a change in the preparation of the tea, specifically for the transition from the smoothie to infusion mode. However, Japan held and passed on to the future generations the governing principles elaborated by the Sung movement for the tea ceremony (see here).
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