The ratio of Chinese tea to western coffee culture

Tea, coffee and cola are called the three largest drinks in the world, and the largest consumption is tea and coffee. Coffee plays an irreplaceable role in the life of westerners, no matter in school, company, shopping mall or at home, everyone enjoys it with a coffee cup, while tea is deeply rooted in Chinese life, it is not only a kind of drink, but also carries Chinese culture. Tea and coffee represent two different cultures of China and the West.

(1) the history of tea culture and coffee culture

Since Shennong tasted Baicao tea, the people of Bashu began to drink tea at the end of Shang Dynasty and the beginning of Zhou Dynasty. King Wu cut down tea as a tribute in 1066 BC. In the later period of the original commune, tea became the exchange of goods. During the warring States period, tea already had a certain scale. In the Han Dynasty, tea became a special tonic for Buddhist meditation. In the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern dynasties, tea was based on the Yangtze River and spread to the north at the same time, and the style of drinking tea spread. In the Sui and Tang dynasties, the whole people drank tea, and the tea industry was prosperous, and teahouses, tea banquets and tea parties appeared, which encouraged guests to pay homage to tea. At this time, the Tea Classic, the first tea culture monograph in the world, came into being. At the beginning of Song Dynasty and the end of Ming Dynasty, tea culture reached its heyday, and fighting tea, tribute tea and gifted tea were popular all over the world. In the Qing Dynasty, tea culture developed more deeply, and opera and Quyi entered the teahouse to perform. Tea in the Qing Dynasty has always been in a position of surplus in foreign trade. With the development of history, people have continuously enriched, enriched and developed the tea culture in various activities of tea.

By comparison, coffee beans were not fried in boiling water for the first time until about 1000 AD. Yemen began to grow coffee around the 15th century. Venice merchants first brought coffee to Europe in 1615. By 1683, the first coffee shop in Europe had opened in Venice, the most famous being the Florence Cafe, which opened in St. Mark's Square in 1720. In the process of colonization, the Dutch grew coffee in Malaba, India, and brought it to Java in what is now Indonesia in 1699. Coffee entered America in 1668 and became popular in South America as a fashionable drink, followed by coffee houses in New York, Philadelphia, Boston and other North American cities. Coffee entered Taiwan in 1884. It can be seen that the history of Chinese tea culture is much longer than that of western coffee culture.

(2) the Doctrine of the mean of tea culture and the rationality of coffee culture

China is located in the east of Eurasia, facing the sea, with a vast territory and rich products. Chinese culture grows in a relatively closed and broad geographical space, and its cultural tradition is determined by the semi-closed, temperate continental geographical environment and agricultural self-sufficient small-scale peasant economy, that is, the patriarchal society of "family-state integration". For thousands of years, the dominant ideology in Chinese society has borne the brunt of the traditional Confucian ideology and culture against the background of small-scale peasant economy, which is characterized by "Doctrine of the mean", "abiding by normality", "balance" and "symmetry". Confucianism introduced the idea of "Doctrine of the mean" into Chinese tea culture. Tea is born in the mountains and forests, it is moisturized by nectar, its taste is sweet in bitterness, and it can make people's heart clear, peace of mind and clear mind. These characteristics of tea are consistent with the Confucian Doctrine of the mean. Tea is a clean thing, through drinking tea can be introspection, save people, but also can keep clean, give tea with incorruptible, noble character. Confucianism believes that drinking tea can communicate ideas, create a harmonious atmosphere, enhance mutual friendship, coordinate interpersonal relations, and promote harmony. The Confucian idea of harmony derived from the Doctrine of the mean is, in the eyes of Confucianism, harmony is the degree, harmony is appropriate, harmony is appropriate, and everything is just right, no less than mistakes. The idea of harmony is permeated in tea culture from a whole set of tea activities, such as picking tea, making tea, brewing tea, ordering tea, making tea, tasting tea and so on. When making tea, "the sour, sweet, bitter and astringent blend is too harmonious, and the slow speed is moderate"; when entertaining guests, "offer tea as a courtesy to the elderly, prepare tea with a strong intention to show strong affection"; when drinking tea, "drink good tea to know deeply, admire this is the Chinese and English grass"; the environment and state of mind for tea tasting is "common accident elegance to vanity, serenity to far concealment". All these reflect the Confucian Doctrine of the mean, Ming Theory, modesty and frugality.

Western culture originated and developed in a relatively open geographical environment, and there is no typical agricultural region like China, which can always influence the whole cultural trend. The birthplace of Western culture is ancient Greece, Rome, the islands and peninsulas on the north bank of the Mediterranean. Island culture is developed not by agriculture, but by competitive business. The development of commodity economy and the open marine geographical environment make Westerners extroverted and active. They have independent and unruly personality, pioneering spirit and trading concept. Western countries survive in the process of war, competition and struggle. The abnormal development of geographical environment and productive forces does not allow Westerners to "think twice before they act." they must make a prompt decision to make judgments and actions. The lands of European countries are relatively narrow and unable to form the natural and economic conditions of self-sufficiency and long-term isolation like ancient China, the changes of national boundaries, the migration of ethnic groups, and the consistency of ancient customs, myths and folklore, which not only laid a solid foundation for cultural exchanges and exchanges between them, but also created a spirit of cultural openness.

Western philosophers regard rationality as a fundamental symbol that distinguishes human beings from animals, which establishes the rational tone of western culture. Western culture is a rationalist culture, which aims to construct an abstract idea world in self-consciousness. take those abstract subjective laws as the essence of the world, and then achieve the rational alienation of the world. This is also reflected in coffee culture. Coffee brewing from grinding coffee beans to utensils, and then to the water temperature ratio have strict requirements, brewing out of the fragrance, strong flavor. For example, fresh water after boiling will contain the right amount of carbon dioxide can increase the aroma of coffee, but keep boiling water will reduce the evaporation of carbon dioxide, so the best water temperature is 95 ℃, the water temperature is too low will make the coffee taste can not be completely released, the water temperature is too high will make coffee ingredients deteriorate, too much or less is not good. For example, the coffee for one person is 8 grams light, 12 grams strong, and the water is 120cc. All these reflect the rationalism of coffee culture.

(3) the unity of heaven, earth and man of tea culture and the dichotomy of heaven and man of coffee culture.

Tea culture is a Taoist theory of the unity of heaven, earth and man. Taoism believes that heaven, earth and man are equal and should adapt to nature and take the initiative to understand the law, so that people can get the greatest satisfaction. Tea is produced in the forest of the mountains, receives the essence of heaven and earth, and bears the rain and dew of abundant soil, which contains the Taoist charm of "indifference", "serenity" and "returning to nature", that is, "man and earth, earth and heaven, heaven and nature". Although the traditional Chinese literati and scholar-officials received Confucian education, when they suffered political setbacks, the indifferent fame and wealth of Taoism and the idea of returning to nature would affect them. therefore, a mode they generally follow is to "care about the people when they have status and pay attention to themselves when they are unknown". The literati use tea poetry to pursue the ideal realm of integrating their hearts into the landscape. Su Dongpo's "Jijiang fried tea": "Live water still needs to be fried over a live fire, and a deep clear is taken from the fishing stone." The big ladle stores the moon into the spring urn, and the small spoon divides the river into the night bottle. The snow milk has been fried, and the loose wind suddenly makes a sound of diarrhea. At the end of the withered intestines, it is easy to ban three bowls, sit and listen to the length of the desolate city. " Through the drink of tea, we can understand the tea ceremony, the way of heaven and humanity.

Western culture advocates the separation of man and nature, and the two are opposing relations. If people want to survive, they must obtain material life materials from nature. Westerners advocate individualism, which is embodied in its tradition of humanitarianism in thought and in free competition in action, prominently in the affirmation of individual personality, value, dignity and other aspects. respect and advocacy for individual independence. Western philosophy pursues the understanding of nature and the grasp of the law of the development of all things. In order to conquer nature, we use empirical and rigorous speculative means to clearly distinguish between man and nature, subject and object, and things, in order to achieve the understanding of the Noumenon of nature. Although Arabia, which was the first to eat coffee in history, had the most prosperous port city in the world at that time, it banned the export of any coffee seeds. In 1616, the Dutch finally smuggled the surviving coffee trees and seeds to Holland. after understanding the objective process of coffee growth, they began to build a man-made greenhouse suitable for coffee growth in a tropical or subtropical climate.

(4) Zen Buddhism of tea culture and Christian spirit of coffee culture.

The content of Zen practice in Buddhism can be divided into three types: precepts, Ding and Wisdom. The so-called Ding and Wisdom means that monks are required to practice meditation, meditation and no distractions, so as to understand the road. Because sitting for a long time is easy to cause fatigue, many monks worry about dozing, and tea has the pharmacological functions of refreshing, invigorating and relieving thirst, so the earliest opportunity for the bond between tea and Buddhism may be the sleep-relieving function of tea. Subsequently, Buddhist monks had a better understanding of tea, and they found that the taste of tea was bitter and slightly sweet, and the tea was light and clean, which was suitable for the quiet and indifferent attitude towards life advocated by Buddhism. In addition, drinking tea was helpful to meditation and enlightenment, so Buddhism's understanding of tea rose from the material level to the spiritual level. Many famous ancient teas in Chinese history were first planted, picked and processed in monasteries. For example, Mengding Tea, the most famous tea in the Tang Dynasty, was produced in Ya'an, Sichuan Province. it is said that it was personally planted by Master Puhui of Ganlu Temple in the Han Dynasty. it is the earliest artificially cultivated tea tree in China, and it is listed as one of tribute tea because of its excellent quality. Buddhist monasteries not only plant tea trees, but also become an important part of the daily activities of Buddhist temples. In many famous temples, there are teahouses or teahouses, as well as "tea drum" and "tea head". The tea in the temple is called "temple tea". Tea also plays a role in the relationship between the monks and the monks in the Buddhist monastery, making the emotional ties between the monks and the monks closer. In addition, on the Buddha's Christmas day, people bathe the Buddha's body with tea soup called "Buddha washing tea" for pilgrims to drink and pray for disaster relief.

According to the story spread around the Christian world, in the Kaffa region of Ethiopia in North Africa, a shepherd named Kaldi went out to shepherd as usual and suddenly found the sheep bouncing and very active. He looked carefully and found them eating the red fruit on the ground. He estimated that it was the red fruits that made the sheep so excited. So he took the red fruit to a priest in a nearby monastery for advice. after hearing the shepherd's words, the priest became curious, so he sent several red fruits to his mouth, and after a while, the priest became lively. From then on, all priests ate a few red fruits before mass, and later named them plus fruit, which is the coffee fruit handed down to this day. It can be seen that coffee is also used as a pick-me-up among Western Christians.

As we all know, Western civilization originated from the ancient Middle East, Greece and Rome, and religious and secular consciousness constitute the basic framework of Western civilization. Westerners believe that God values the soul of the individual, and there is a confrontational relationship between human body and soul, any person, man and nature. Under the domination of this concept of values, Westerners have a strong sense of personal struggle and competition. Dante believes that there is no family without an individual, and the glory and nobility of a family lies first and foremost in having a glorious and noble individual. The affirmation of human value and dignity is first of all the awakening of each human's self-consciousness and the determination and development of the boundaries of self-nature in accordance with free will. To westerners, life is like making coffee. If something you have done loses its original freshness, then redevelop and take risks, just like after a brew of coffee, it loses its original flavor and becomes tasteless, then discard it and start making it again.