在浙江聽茶經

聯合國大會近期宣布每年5月21日為“國際茶日”，以贊美茶葉的經濟、社會和文化價值。“茶之為飲，發乎神農氏”。中國是茶的故鄉，更是茶文化的發源地，茶對于中國人來說是有特殊意義的。捷克文學報2019年第12期以中國茶為專題做了一組報道，其中有去年到訪過浙江的記者雅娜·帕夫洛娃的文章，我們來看看她怎么說茶。

坐落在杭州的中國國家茶葉博物館外觀樸實無華，一對年輕人坐在長椅上眼望茶園。在中國我們首次有機會參觀茶園。走入建筑內部，您會發現自己身處地道的中國茶館里。這里展示了茶的歷史以及當今對茶的研究，前來參觀的游客每年過一百萬。我們漫步展廳，展示柜里陳列著目前已知的1300種茶中的一部分。然而，它們的共同祖先只有一個——中國茶樹，山茶。

茶的故鄉在中國西南地區。幾千年前，綠茶從這里走向中國各地，然后到日本、韓國，到印度，再傳播到世界各地。最初的制備方法與我們今天所熟悉的方法大不相同，而且這種飲料甚至很有可能不符合現代消費者的口味。方法是：將茶葉搗碎，水煮，加鹽。

傳說神農氏發現了茶。他非常智慧，宣稱飲用水都必須在喝前煮沸。某一天他坐在灌木叢旁煮水，有幾片葉子恰好掉入沸騰的水罐中，神農喝過，感覺味道很好。這則神話非常準確，據說茶在公元前2737年出現。

事實是，古代中國人在公元前好幾個世紀就知道茶了。早在西周時期，茶就作為祭神貢品。茶葉還被當做蔬菜，當作草藥用于醫藥。到了漢朝，人們普遍飲用煮過的茶湯來治病。

根據史料記載，飲茶習慣直到唐代才普及，當時中國經歷了“大唐盛世”，政治穩定，經濟發展。當然，起初這是貴族的特權，后來逐漸普及到更廣泛的社會階層。最后到普通百姓家中，成為良好的日常生活的七大必需品之一。當時，蒸過的茶葉被壓成塊狀，類似于小磨盤或磚塊。如今，磚茶可以作為紀念品買到。飲用時必須先將其壓碎，然后再沖泡。

中國茶葉博物館館長吳曉力向我們介紹說：“公元8世紀前后，陸羽撰寫了一部專著，描述了從茶樹種植到加工制作和飲用方法的完整過程，后世稱之為《茶經》。到了宋代時，碎片狀的茶已經廣為人知，制備簡單省力，使用竹簽攪拌。”茶在當時也成為最重要的出口商品之一。1191年在中國留學的日本和尚最澄歸國時，將茶種帶回了日本，促成了茶在日本的傳播。

茶也經歷過黑暗時期。在蒙古人統治的元朝被邊緣化。吳曉力接著講到：“明代（1368～1644年）之后，茶又回歸到百姓生活中，而且推出了新的加工種類——碎片茶。1391年皇帝甚至下詔，規定上供給宮廷的茶必須是碎片狀的。”

如今茶種類分為：綠、黑、烏龍、紅、白和黃茶。有趣的是，在古代中國只有綠茶一種。17世紀，在中國南方開始發酵加工紅茶和烏龍茶，用于外貿，而且它們不同于未經發酵的茶，在出口所需的長途運輸中不會變質。

（原文為捷克語，由北京外國語大學副教授徐偉珠翻譯。）

China National Tea Museum in Hangzhou looked unpretentious. A young man and young woman sat together on a bench looking out at a tea plantation. It was the first time that we visited a tea plantation in China. We stepped into the museum and found we were in an authentic teahouse. The museum displays the history of tea and results of tea studies and it receives more than one million visitors a year. We wandered through the exhibition halls， reviewing exhibits. What are on display in showcases are just a small part of the 1，300 tea species known to mankind. However， all these tea species share a common ancestor： ， a species of evergreen shrub or small tree whose leaves and leaf buds are used to produce tea.

The home of tea is in the southwest of China. Tea as a beverage began its eastward journey thousands of years ago. It then spread all over China. It traveled further to Japan， Korea and India before it reached the length and breadth of the world. The original tea making differed from the way we know very well today. The ancient beverage， in all probabilities， may not appeal to modern tea drinkers. In the ancient procedure， tealeaves must be pulverized and boiled in water. It must be seasoned with salt before it was served.

A Chinese legend has it that Shen Nong first discovered tea. The patron of agriculture instructed that tea must be boiled before it could be drunk. One day， he was boiling water by a shrub. It happened that some leaves fell from the shrub into the boiling water in the water jar. Shen Nong sipped the water and found it tasteful. The myth offers an accurate time to indicate when this happened： it happened in 2737 BC.

In fact， ancient Chinese knew about tea for many centuries in the pre-Christ era. As early as the Western Zhou （1，100-771BC）， tea was part of the offering at the royal sacrificial ceremony in honor of deities. Tealeaves were also used as herbal medicine and vegetable. In the Han Dynasty （206BC-220AD）， steeped tea was generally used as a medicine.

As testified by historical records， it was not until the Tang Dynasty （618-907） that tea became a popular beverage. The centuries witnessed the great prosperity of the Tang era featuring political stability and economic growth. At first， only privileged nobles could afford tea. Then the fashion spread downwards. Eventually， it was one of the seven necessities of well-maintained everyday life. At that time， tea was steamed and pressed into bulks in the shape of a brick or a small millstone. Brick tea can be purchased as a tourist souvenir. It can be easily transported to Tibet. A tea brick must be ground before tea is made.

Wu Xiaoli， curator of China National Tea Museum， gave us a brief introduction to the genesis of . Lu Yu （733-804） wrote a book exclusively dedicated to everything he knew about tea. The book covers information on planting tea trees， processing， and tea drinking. The special book is also known as . In the Song （960-1279）， pulverized tea was a popular beverage. It was easy to make tea out of pulverized tealeaves. A bamboo stick was used to whisk pulverized tea until it frothed. At that time， tea was also one of the most important commodities China exported to overseas markets. In 1191， a Japanese monk named Saichou finished his studies in China. The tea seeds he brought back to Japan made tea farming real in the island country.

There was a dark age for tea. It was marginalized when the Yuan dynasty ruled China from 1271 to 1368. Tea came back to the everyday life of Chinese in the Ming Dynasty （1368-1644）. There emerged a new tea product： broken tea. In 1391， an imperial decree stipulated that only broken tea could be tea tributes to the royal house.

Today， there is a great variety of tea products： green tea， black tea， oolong （green and yellow）， red tea， white tea and white tea. Interesting enough， there was only green tea in ancient China. In the 17th century， tea farmers in southern China began to produce black tea and oolong tea， which underwent microbial fermentation before they were ready for international trade. Unlike unfermented tea， these tea products would not deteriorate on their long journey across the world to overseas consumers.

（The article was written in cooperation with the Chinese newspaper Guangming Daily and the Czech monthly Literární Noviny. The Chinese version has been printed in Chinese tea， a magazine.）