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Tea Adventures

江山 Jiangshan, or River and Mountain, translates in Chinese to…

Tea Adventures

江山 Jiangshan, or River and Mountain, translates in Chinese to ‘one’s country’. It is a term used possessively by a ruler. When Zhou En Lai responded to Nixon’s puzzlement on why he received such a small amount of Dahongpao as the official State gift in 1972, Zhou said to him ‘we gave away the equivalent of half the Jiangshan’.
So what constitutes the country of China to a ruler, includes the Jiang (Yangtze River), and Shan- all the spectacular mountains in between. And preferably all the areas that have both river and mountain together, the ultimate spectacular scene like Wuyi.

The Jiangshan of China has both become more orderly and prosperous, and more restrictive and repressive. I noticed that on this trip, the Great Firewall of China has tighten its grip even more. I could not access many smaller sites, nor could I access even the Teance site. Forget YouTube or Facebook. Many selective content on sites like CNN were also eliminated but one is under the illusion that such news sites were permitted.
But who needs freedom of speech when you have Dahongpao to drink and a relaxing raft down the River, right?

Philosophically, is it ok to live in repression in exchange for peace and prosperity? Or is the seemingly available freedom of expression really freedom of thought? Is there really freedom of thought, aside from the practice of the sages? Isn’t our US media brainwash just as insidious as Communist government mind control? We, the people of Hong Kong, tend to think these were very taxing discussions, and go get ourselves some egg tarts and afternoon tea instead. Yet when such freedoms were taken away from the people of Hong Kong, they rose to defend it- at last, something was more important than food and the many luxuries and comforts in life.

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The Importance of Teaware, Part 1

Tea Adventures

Assuming we have great quality teas, how do you ensure that the steeping process enhances and elicits its best qualities? Right technique and understanding, as well as a lot of ‘gongfu’ definitely are requirements. But one often overlooked, but crucial requirement is using the right teawares. The teapot is so called because it is a pot for tea, which means, function must precede form. That teapot’s ability to steep, pour, and extract the right taste notes from the intended tea, is of utmost importance. For example, a decorative pot that pours slowly, allowing the tea inside to over-steep, makes it unacceptable as a teapot, but only as an attractive object d’art. A teapot’s usefulness is guided by material, creation, and the artisan’s ability to translate the understanding of tea to his pot. The type of teapot in which you steep the tea plays an important part, including the different types of materials…

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一所懸命 Isshokenmei in Japanese means with all one’s might, try to…

Tea Adventures

一所懸命 Isshokenmei in Japanese means with all one’s might, try to accomplish the impossible. 一線生機 Yi Xian Sheng Ji in Chinese means there is a slim thread of a chance to survive and live.

As we made our way through this incredibly claustrophobic, scary deep ascending cave with just a crevice of space between rocks called One Thread Sky, the thoughts were about this idea of hanging by a thread in one’s existence. The two phrases from Japan and China mean the same to me- that we all exist in just that thread of chance and opportunity, and that tenuous opportunity is what we must hold onto, like the thread of a spider. How much effort we apply to our existence means whether we will have the opportunity to view the sky yet again….

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Today is the birthdate of Guanyin Bodhisattva. We were woken up…

Tea Adventures

Today is the birthdate of Guanyin Bodhisattva. We were woken up with chains of firecrackers, as is the custom of Fujian to not just make offerings of incense, but for special occasions, bring out the fireworks. The town was lit up by fireworks at night, and throughout the day, pilgrims go to temples like this one to pay respects. Fujian province, the home of tea, is the most Buddhist of the provinces, where many folks believe themselves to be Buddhists without actually practicing with more than once a year offerings at New Year’s. Still, when asked what they thought being Buddhist meant, they say it meant ‘to be a good person, and not to be greedy. ’ I’ll take that.

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