GLOBAL EA HUT Tea & Tao Magazine 國際茶亭 September 2020 Classics of Tea Sequel to the Tea Sutra Part II GLOBAL EA HUT ContentsIssue 104 / September 2020 Tea & Tao Magazine Heavenly天樞 Turn This month, we return once again to our ongo- ing efforts to translate and annotate the Classics of Tea. This is the second part of the monumental Love is Sequel to the Tea Sutra by Lu Tingcan. This volu- minous work will require three issues to finish. As changing the world oolong was born at that time, we will sip a tradi- tional, charcoal-roasted oolong while we study. bowl by bowl Features特稿文章 49 07 Wind in the Pines The Music & Metaphor of Tea By Steven D. Owyoung 15 Sequel to the Tea Sutra 17 Volume Four 03 Teaware 27 Volume Five Tea Brewing 49 Volume Six 27 Tea Drinking Traditions傳統文章 17 03 Tea of the Month “Heavenly Turn,” Traditional Oolong, Nantou, Taiwan 65 Voices from the Hut “Ascertaining Serenity” By Anesce Dremen (許夢安) 69 TeaWayfarer © 2020 by Global Tea Hut Anesce Dremen, USA All rights reserved. recycled & recyclable No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval sys- 從 tem or transmitted in any form or by 地 any means: electronic, mechanical, 球 天 photocopying, recording, or other- 升 起 wise, without prior written permis- 樞 Soy ink sion from the copyright owner. n September,From the weather is perfect in Taiwan.the grieve well. Theseeditor are a powerful recipe for transformation. We start heading outdoors for some sessions when Suffering then becomes medicine, mistakes become lessons we can. Our tea choices start to shift towards roasted and grief becomes love and connection… In that way, we oolongs like our Tea of the Month or Cliff Tea to make our lives and our world beautiful, even in pain. Icontrol the metal element of this season. We also need Turning from our troubles, which needed to be ad- to nourish the metal some days, though, and for that we dressed, let us now return once again to the past—to the begin to drink well-aged sheng and shou puerh teas. It is an Classics of Tea series. Nothing survives without tradition, important month to start breaking out the charcoal stove, but no tradition survives without adaptation. Many of our as it will make an even bigger difference with these teas at modern tea farming, production and brewing methods this time of year. have changed since dynastic times, but understanding the This is proving to be a challenging year for all of us and heritage of tea helps contextualize and found our modern for the world. It is important to stay focused and positive. practices in their roots. We have covered the Tang Dynasty Challenge is what helps us grow; it is the grist for our mills. (618–907) with Lu Yu’s Tea Sutra, the Song (960–1279) As the Buddhist slogan reminds us: “No mud, no lotus!” with the work of the emperor Song Huizong, followed by Adversity either constricts and closes us down or it becomes several treatises from the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644). In an invitation to transform into something better, more the last issue of our Classics of Tea series, we started trans- open and beautiful in the light of our potential. Most of lating and annotating the lengthy Qing Dynasty (1644– us have been offered the hand of change as individuals, and 1911) text the Sequel to the Tea Sutra by Lu Tingcan (陸廷 the gates of new roads have certainly been lifted for us as a 燦). As we learned then, Master Lu claimed to be a direct society. We should all step through these gates and into a descendant of Lu Yu himself and felt that an updated se- new world. quel was well overdue. He put brush to paper and created Our prayers, love, light and tears go out to those who a much longer book than his predecessor. In the last issue, have suffered or are suffering as a result of the pandemic. we translated and annotated the Preface and Volumes I, II May Tea help you to not turn away from your grief, or be and III of the text. There are nine volumes in total. In this distracted from it, but to face it open-heartedly and respon- issue, we will work through Volumes IV, V and VI, leaving sibly, metabolizing your pain into the loving fertilizer that the final section for a future issue of Global Tea Hut. Since your adoration for life demands. That is how the next gen- oolong was invented in the Qing Dynasty, it is only fit- eration of hearts are nourished by those who have suffered ting we share a traditionally-processed oolong to match our to feed life and heart. May each cup be a prayer of transfor- studies of the ancients. May these studies enrich and deepen mation, turning our loving-grief that we offer because we your tea practice, steeping it in the centuries that have come love life into blessings that beget more beauty in the name before any of us ever picked up our first teapot. of that which we grieve or suffer through. In the West, it is often assumed that medicine should take away the pain, allowing us to escape and hide from life and run from death. This is a curious attitude for a mortal being who must, in the end, die him or herself. It is also odd Wu De behavior for a being whose very life is dependent upon the death of other beings. Every day, plant beings and animal beings are sacrificed so that we can live. By trying to hide from pain, suffering and death, we dishonor what they have 真 given. This is not to say that pain medications do not have their place—they do—but rather that unmetabolized grief is itself an illness. Many of the issues we now face are the –Further Reading– haunted unmetabolized grief of our ancestors. We should seek to understand that if we love someone or something, This month, we highly recommend reading or grieving them is a part of what it means to love them and to re-reading the November 2019 issue, which con- love life itself. To live well, we must grieve well. tains the first part of this volume. The treasured When you put these two truths together, you have a article in that issue about Lu Tingcan by Steven powerful recipe for facing such times of collective and per- Owyoung is particularly amazing. That issue is sonal adversity: turn challenges into growth and learn to important background for this Part II. 理 2 of the ver the course of this month we will be drinking keepers “rough tea (maocha, 毛茶),” which was “unfin- Heavenly Turn, a beautiful charcoal-roasted, ished” and then the shopkeeper would roast the tea to traditionally-processed oolong from Central their customers’ tastes. Like tea processing, these roast- Taiwan. It seems only fitting that we have a traditional ing skills were handed down in secret. Nowadays, a lot oolong tea to sip while we explore this classic, since it of farmers have learned to roast their own teas and most was written in the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911) when shops sell finished products, participating less and less. oolong tea was invented. Granted, the early oolongs Our Tea of the Month is also roasted by the farmer who were striped teas from Wuyi, not ball-shaped oolongs produced the tea, harvested from his certified organic (let alone Taiwanese tea), but this is still a descendant of gardens with plenty of biodiversity. the traditions that were begun then and owes its beauty They say that each stage of the tea processing should to them. enhance the tea without leaving a trace of itself, so the Oolong tea is withered indoors and out, shaken, fired roasting should not leave a roasty flavor in other words. (de-enzymed), rolled and roasted. It is the shaking that This tea is roasted superbly, with a strong and bright af- really distinguishes oolong from other kinds of tea. This tertaste that lingers in the mouth for many minutes after kind of processing went on relatively unchanged, with you swallow. It takes great skill to charcoal-roast a tea, as minor improvements, until modern times. It wasn’t you must first master the fire. The same is true for using until Taiwan began modernizing that things began to coals instead of electric heat for tea preparation—you change—a change that would influence the entire tea cannot just set the temperature and relax. You have to world in many and varied ways. We discussed the move first master the skill of selecting the right charcoal that to greener, lighter oolongs in our last issue. Usually, we won’t smoke, and then practice for years to master using find that traditionally-processed oolong tea is richer, the ash to control the temperature to the precise degree more full-bodied and satisfying to drink. desired. Even then, the formula taught to you or refined Traditionally, oolong tea was oxidized between for- from decades of experience won’t be applicable to this ty and seventy percent. Nowadays, a lot of oolong tea tea and this charcoal. You will have to monitor it careful- in Taiwan and elsewhere is lighter, and then there are ly, which means you will also have to be very sensitive to a few outliers on the heavy end, like Eastern Beauty. the chemical changes in the tea and the corresponding Within the narrower range of traditional processing, the appearance and aromas, examining and smelling the tea relationship between roast and oxidation is like filling at regular intervals to know when to adjust the coals/ash a bucket, with lower oxidation meaning you can roast and when the tea is roasted to the desired degree.