The Application Research On Tea In Buddhist Temples In China

Tea,the Chinese national drink,has a long history,who had witnessed Chinese people’s progress from barbarism to civilization.During the process of discovering,growing and utilizing tea,Chinese people used tea as a vehicle to express various ideological forms of thoughts,beliefs,emotions,love and hatred among people and between human beings and nature,all of which are embodied by Chinese tea culture.In the process of researching Chinese tea culture,we inevitably should study Buddhism,Taoism,and Confucianism.Which requires us to study the philosophy and rituals of Buddhism and Taoism,understand its spiritual connotations.Base on dialectical materialism and historical materialism viewpoints and methods,Truths have been preserved,for the sake of the past,instead of the people,and to mislead the public.The author firstly conducted a literature review on Zen Gate Affair,Buddhist classic sutra and Buddhist tea rituals in order to trace back the source of the application of tea among Buddhist monks.Meanwhile,the author also stepped into the temple to study the daily life of the monks,the application of tea in practicing and to experiencing the life in the temple,and to experience Zen in the temple.After several months of in-depth research,sample collection,paper search,and interviewing with monks,,the author has the following findings.The physiological function of tea drinking is mind-refreshing and brain-awaking,which made the monks take a fancy to tea in the beginning.However,in nature,it is a perfect integration between Buddhism and the essence of tea.Other Buddhist sects,except Zen,barely referred to the spiritual sphere of the application of tea.But Zen has made massive contributions to the technics of tea processing,development of tea arts and the spiritual meaning of tea drinking by growing tea,drinking tea and developing unique technics of tea processing in various Zen’s temples.The characteristics of tea application of the current stage are as bellows.1)Contemporary Chinese Buddhist temples’ application methods for tea basically followed the past application of tea in the feudal era,including the application for the sake of purely physiological effects,and the application when participating in worship and worshipping Buddha,offerings.2)Tea application in China’s temples have been affected by a lot of modern factors.These include involvement of business operation,which is unavoidable.Some temples locating in the scenic spots,with a long history of their own tea culture,driven by the business opportunities and tourism,have developed into Zen Tea Culture Zone with the spirit of the Times.3)The monks’ cognition of tea is not like what the outsiders believe.Tea is not mystical and profound,but is more of a common image in life.It is a medium that is closer to the realm of Zen.4)The monks who drink tea are more in number than those in the feudal period,and their application methods are closer to life Whether it is Wutai Mountain where no tea is grown,or Jiangnan Temple in the deep tea production area and the various temples in South China,the application of tea is a very common practice for the monks in daily life to the extent that no monks never drink tea.But some monks might also have their own preferences over different kinds of tea.All in all,tea drinking is quite common in China’s temples.5)Tea application is not profit-oriented in China and is conducive to Buddhist practice.Tea application in the context of Temples in China is spiritual and in compliance with the nature of tea.Temples in China are not doing business.