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Flowers for Tea GLOBAL EA HUT Contentsissue 105 / October 2020 Tea & Tao Magazine Purple紫天 Sky GLOBAL EA HUT Tea & Tao Magazine 國際茶亭 October 2020 茶 花 藝 Chabana Flowers for Tea GLOBAL EA HUT ContentsIssue 105 / October 2020 Tea & Tao Magazine Purple紫天 Sky This month we are beginning a new series on Chabana, the art of arranging flowers for tea. We will start with some background and history of Love is traditional flower arranging in general, as well as some of the styles to begin or deepen our practice of changing the world arranging flowers for tea. And we have a wonder- ful aged sheng puerh to drink as we learn. bowl by bowl Features特稿文章 13 09 Introduction to Chabana By Wu De (無的) 13 Scholar Flowers By Huan House of Flowers (浣花草堂) 35 17 Writing A Landscape By Huan House of Flowers (浣花草堂) 21 21 Flower Offerings By Huan House of Flowers (浣花草堂) 31 Bamboo Tubes By Huan House of Flowers (浣花草堂) 35 Dish Flowers By Huan House of Flowers (浣花草堂) 39 Jar Flowers 09 By Lai Xueli (赖雪麗) Traditions傳統文章 03 Tea of the Month “Purple Sky,” Aged Sheng Puerh, Yunnan, China 25 Fifth Annual Photography Contest 45 Special Offer: © 2020 by Global Tea Hut Purple Sky Cakes All rights reserved. recycled & recyclable No part of this publication may be 47 Voices from the Hut reproduced, stored in a retrieval sys- “Bowls of Soul in Big Sur” tem or transmitted in any form or by any means: electronic, mechanical, By Andjelka Jankovic photocopying, recording, or other- wise, without prior written permis- 53 TeaWayfarer Soy ink sion from the copyright owner. Emma Potz, USA n October, theFrom weather in Taiwan is perfect forthe out- this year, so we editorwould like to encourage you to reach out door tea. When it isn’t raining, we can sit outdoors and let us know some areas you would like to learn about in and brew up some nice aged oolong, yancha, aged the coming year. Also, we feel like there are many burgeon- sheng puerh and shou puerh. The amount of amaz- ing writers in the community who should be submitting Iing tea that have been donated this year makes the selec- work for the Voices from the Hut section of this magazine. tion easy these days. We feel very abundant and blessed to If you have anything at all to say about tea or Cha Dao, have so many wonderful teas to choose from. The autumn please submit using the contact info on p. 47. We would is metal, so we nourish it with earth teas like shou and aged love to read about your tea journey! sheng and control the metal with fiery teas like traditional This is a special issue that we have been planning for oolongs and sometimes red teas (in the morning). years. Tea and flowers have had a relationship for millennia, Together with friends around the world, we have been including outdoor sessions in gardens to view flowers and sharing a lot of gratitude for having Tea in our lives as we the art of arranging flowers as part of our chaxi practice. pass through this difficult year. It is such healing medicine. A chaxi practice, creating a special “stage” for each tea ses- Tea truly is a blessing... Whether under lockdown and un- sion to honor our guests and the occasion, is one of the able to leave the house, or travel, the Chajin can turn to life-transforming aspects of tea that is powerful and ripples tea. When there is adversity and hardship, as we have all throughout our lives, changing much more than just how no doubt faced this year, we also can turn to our practice we prepare tea. Bringing flowers into our tea space is one to reflect on the world we would like to live in and on our way to honor the unique glory of each tea session—the “one role in it. Staying peaceful through adversity allows us to encounter, one chance” spirit of tea. It is also a powerful learn from the challenges, to grow and make lasting chang- way to bring Nature into our space, sharing the enlight- es. Whenever we remove our charge from the situation and enment of the plant kingdom in the form of flowers with replace it with loving-kindness, the solution always flows the wisdom of another enlightened plant, Tea. Flowers are more smoothly, even if the solution requires taking a hard rich in wisdom as well, teaching us impermanence, beauty stance against something. This is as true in our personal and to celebrate the small things in life. May this issue start lives as it is in our communities and societies, local or glob- or deepen your practice of “chabana,” arranging flowers al. When we stay peaceful, we gain perspective and remove for tea, or inspire you to begin one. May it also remind us our negative charge, allowing us to hear the perspectives of all to literally stop and admire and/or smell the flowers of others, no matter how different from ours or how “wrong.” life—all the precious ordinary moments that are all dharma Then, we can also see more clearly how, when and where flowers in their own right... to take effective and helpful action. And if that action is a strong stance against something, we can do that with lov- ing-kindness and peace in our hearts and eyes. Tea can pro- vide all of this and more. In the space of tea, we find whatever solace we need. If we seek relaxation and release, the tea space is warm and Wu De freeing. If we seek to explore and learn, there are an infinite number of directions to choose. If we want to cultivate emptiness, meditative mind and receptivity, tea facilitates that as well. And if we want to contemplate our role in life and the world and the positive changes we want to see in our lives and societies, tea provides the space for contem- plation and introspection. Tea practice is also about service, teaching us to share our peace, insights and wisdom with –Further Reading– others and to do so out of a love for kindness that is more often received more fully and deeply by others. Truly, we are This month, we highly recommend reading or all blessed to have Tea in our lives! re-reading the November 2018 issue, which is all As we start to reach the top of this year’s hill and head about chaxi. Learning about chaxi in general will down into the next year of Global Tea Hut, we would like provide a wonderful context for understanding to ask all of you to submit some ideas for topics you would chabana and where it unfurls in a life of tea, even like to see us cover in the coming year. We did this last year practically. All past issues are on our website in and it resulted in some of the amazing issues you have read the archive. 2 of the ver the course of this month, we will be drinking wrappers of the CNNP (“China National Native Produce a very special wet-stored tea from the late ’90s or & Animal By-Products Import & Export Company”). In from 2000, which is a replica of the famous 1980s 1988, Mr. Zhou traveled to Yunnan to discuss a way to dis- “Purple Sky (紫天)” cake. These replicas were common tinguish his cakes from others in the Hong Kong market. in the late 1990s and early 2000s. As the prices of older The factory agreed to put the purple “天” stamp on all the teas began to skyrocket and as more people appreciated goods of Nantian Trading Company, not only 8582 and what made them special, businessmen wanted to cash in 8592 cakes, but also on the outer packaging of loose tea. on the reputation of such famous cakes while puerh lovers And thus, “Purple Sky” cakes were born. wanted to commemorate their favorite cakes of yesteryear This replica was made in 1999 or 2000 and has under- and try their hands at similar blends. gone wet storage. This is a great chance for us all to taste The original Purple Sky cake was one of the famous some wet-stored tea. “Wet storage” is the modern way of 8582 blends. The birth of 8582 and 8592 cakes are insep- discussing traditional storage, or what was just “puerh arable from Nantian Trading Company (南天貿易公司). storage” back in the day. All tea was wet-stored, in other Nantian Trading Company was founded by Mr. Zhou words. Wet storage simply means that it was stored in a Cong (周琮), whose ancestral home was in Tengchong, place or area with more humidity. But that is relative, so Yunnan. He went to work in Hong Kong before the found- you have to wonder “more humidity” than where… ing of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 and later Since the puerh boom, puerh tea has often been kept in founded Nantian Trading Company. In the late 1970s, Mr. very dry conditions, whether intentionally slowing down Zhou was influenced by his father and returned to Yunnan the aging in controlled rooms or in areas that are much to do business and began to get involved in the puerh tea drier than where tea was traditionally matured: for exam- industry. Mr. Zhou used his understanding of the Hong ple, in dry cities like Kunming or Beijing. Trying to sepa- Kong market to cooperate with Menghai Tea Factory (勐 rate their tea from traditional tea and create new markets, 海茶廠).
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