Tea is a door that opens the culture of the Song Dynasty.
We can use tea to learn about every aspect of the Song dynasty people’s life.
My name is Han Zheming, I graduated from China Academy of Art.
I really like the culture of the Song Dynasty.
My friends often joke with me that Mr. Han is like a person from the Song Dynasty.
So I can make Dian Cha (whisking tea).
In our history, Song Dynasty was a culturally rich age for China.
So tea culture had already broken into society at that time.
Whether it was the common folk, the literati or the nobility, they were all skilled in making tea in various ways.
"The Grand View of Tea" written by Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty mainly discussed how to make Dian Cha at that time.
It was a new breed.
It was very popular at that time.
‘Dian’ has at least three meanings:
First of all, it means little and quick.
A cup of tea can be made quickly with a small amount of tea powder.
Second, it also has the meaning of choosing.
Dian Cha had to be made with better quality tea at that time.
Like I just showed, this imperial tea cake was made in the shape of a dragon and phoenix.
The third meaning of Dian is inspiration and activation.
It also has the meaning of transformation.
Emperor Huizong created "Qi Tang Dian Cha Fa".
It’s the process of pouring water little by little,
a total of seven times.
Use a bamboo whisk to mix and whisk the tea and water.
Add water gradually, making the tea paste foam up nicely.
Add water in the second, third time, continuously whisk the tea with the bamboo whisk.
The foam gets thicker and finer,
looking like clouds or snow.
It's kind of similar to milk caps.
The Song Dynasty people called it “snow milk cloud soup”.
So it was praised by the literati at that time.
After watching “A Dream of Splendor”, many friends became particularly interested in the art of painting on tea soup.
The so-called tea soup painting is actually similar to the concept of latte art.
In the Song Dynasty, tea soup painting was not a single art form, but refers to the general art form.
Although now it is more difficult for us to fully know how the Song Dynasty people painted,
we still can use our imagination.
Through the articles in literature, we can imagine how delicate a painting is, something that is there just for a moment, then it’s gone.
To re-present the elegance of the Song dynasty literati at that time.
Today I'm going to show you the tea soup painting is similar to “Eight Views of the Xiao and Xiang Rivers” which was painted by Muxi Fachang.
It is the scene around Dongting Lake in Hunan Province.
In such a small area on the top of the tea soup, it can present the drizzling, cloudy and rainy feeling of the area around the Xiao and Xiang Rivers
Song people also leisurely enjoyed afternoon tea very often.
For example, the concept of tea desserts also enriches its culture because of the leisure life of the literati
Our tea culture should not be cut off.
What I do is to let more people know about Dian Cha and the Song dynasty.
And let people know that there was a golden age in our culture.
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