An Analysis Of Pomes About Tea In Northern Song Dynasty

Tea poetry is an important part of poetry. Broadly speaking, it refers to poems in connection with tea. In a narrow sense it refers to poems with tea as the theme and things related with tea. This paper takes the tea poetry in Song poetry in Northern Song Dynasty as the research focus, which not only includes poems related to things about tea but also poems with tea as the theme, namely a combination of both narrow sense and broad sense. Through understanding of the Northern Song Dynasty tea poem, we must grasp the mentality of the society and its scribes of the Northern Song Dynasty.This paper can be divided into two parts. The first part is the introduction which mainly defines the tea poem and analyzes the research condition of tea poem in recent years. The second part is the body which is divided into three chapters:the first chapter analyzes the origin of tea poems. It takes dynasties as the dividing line and points out reasons that tea poems formed in those dynasties, and then lists reasons tea poems get prosperity in Northern Song Dynasty on the basis of the previous dynasties. The second chapter divides tea poems into three types:the first type is narrative poetry which mainly introduces famous tea varieties, tea making process and its after drinking effects in Northern Song Dynasty; the second is lyric poetry which is an introduction to the friendship and affection for the landscape and tranquility represented in tea poems; the third is argumentation which illustrates the Zen Buddhism and scholars’Principle of doing things. The third chapter is focuses on the characteristics and the scholars’ mind of tea poem in Northern Song Dynasty. The first stanza describes characteristics and differences compared with the former tea poems; the second stanza focuses on the scholars’ mental states in Northern Song Dynasty, exploring their amusement and insight implied in tea poems; and the third stanza writes literati and their dissatisfaction with political reality, love and enthusiasm for life and loyalty of the mentality reflected in tea poems in late Northern Song Dynasty.