Research On The Aesthetic Connotations Of Tea Things Of The Literati In The Late Ming Dynasty

Drinking tea is the most natural thing for Chinese people. The so-called "seven necessities (firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, tea)" reveal the close relationship between tea and everyday life of Chinese people. In the long history of China, tea hosts up time in its own particular way. It contains cultural factors of more than 5000 years. Under the impetus of the literati, the most ordinary daily action has followed the track of history and risen to a spiritual activity with cultural and aesthetic meanings. Since Du Yu in the Western Jin Dynasty wrote Chuan Fu to chant tea things, tea things have been passed down with their unique elegance and aesthetics. The refinement in the Tang Dynasty and romance in the Song Dynasty suffered the Mongolian army in its heyday and spread to the Late Ming Dynasty. The presented pureness and nature enabled the tea culture truly root and sprout in China and deeply influence the tea life of the contemporary people. As for this paper, it takes aesthetic interests and artistic conception of tea things of the literati in the Late Ming Dynasty as the main research objects. By discussing the aesthetic connotations of tea things of the literati in the Late Ming Dynasty, the author summarizes their significance in constructing contemporary tea aesthetics. The full paper is divided into four chapters.Chapter 1 shows an overview of tea things of the literati in the Late Ming Dynasty. Section 1 provides the concept definition. It defines the concept and research scope of the Late Ming Dynasty and tea things of the literati. Section 2 traces the historical origins of tea things of the literati in the Late Ming Dynasty and combs characteristics of tea aesthetics from the Wei and Jin Dynasties to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, thereby illustrating the inheritance of tea aesthetics of the literati in the Late Ming Dynasty of the previous dynasties and its influence on the later generations. Section 3 demonstrates the background of tea things of the literati in the Late Ming Dynasty. The Late Ming Dynasty is an era of turbulence. On the one hand, commodity economy rapidly developed. On the other hand, the literati failed to "enter political stratum" or "succumbed to partisan struggles". The way of the literati to keep awake and alert to "material desires and materialization" was to advocate and apply "life aesthetics"Chapter 2 explores tea life of the literati in the Late Ming Dynasty to manifest their aesthetic interests. Through the description of life tea things and landscape tea things, the author indicates that the aesthetic interest of tea things of the literati in the Late Ming Dynasty is mainly embodied as "the unity of knowledge and practice", namely, making tea by oneself. During these activities, the literati would be personally involved in the production of tea. They would draw water and make tea to enjoy the fun of tea things, thereby expressing their aesthetic feelings of the pursuit of spiritually "favoring mountains or favoring water"Chapter 3 elaborates the artistic conception of tea things of the literati in the Late Ming Dynasty. Section 1 analyzes formation of the artistic conception from three perspectives:the purity of tea sources, the purity of teamen and the purity of tea environments. In Section 2, the author analyzes the pursuit of "purity" of the literati in the Late Ming Dynasty. Based on this, the author indicates that tea aesthetics is not merely a kind of artistic conceptions; it is also a lifestyle of the literati against "the corrupted world"Chapter 4 describes the possibilities and significance of learning from the tea aesthetics of the literati in the Late Ming Dynasty to construct contemporary life tea aesthetics. The paper introduces contemporary lifestyles and proposes the "life tea aesthetics" from "landscape tea environments" to "gardens on desks" and from "exquisite tea wares" to "hand-made tea wares"The Late Ming Dynasty is a period of drastic social changes. It is a period when the literati face up to the problems of "mind" and "matter" in the long history. As for how to balance the contradictions and conflicts between "mind" and "matter", it is also a problem confronting contemporary Chinese. The literati in the Late Ming Dynasty created "life aesthetics" of themselves, so as to keep a saintly and pure heart in the corrupted world. Nevertheless, they might go to extremes for this and fall into the obsession with materials. Accordingly, a luxury lifestyle began to flourish, which was counterproductive. For people living in the contemporary society, it is possible for them to draw experiences and learn lesions from this and construct real "life tea aesthetics", thereby truly relaxing the excessively harried heart through a cup of tea.