_TEA-DRINKING_
That tea is our favourite drink is very generally known, but people
may perhaps ignore the considerable part that it plays in our lives. I
will not speak here either about its cultivation or the process of its
manufacture, which are pretty well known. I will limit myself to telling
the use that is made of this precious aromatic plant. Since tea has been
known in China, a part of the first pickings of the harvest is sent each
year to the Emperor by the authorities in the producing districts. This
is called “The Tea Tribute.” Formerly, the Court used to distribute tea
to the officials, and the usual presents consisted of tea. Another thing
shows the importance that we attach to this article, and that is, that
we have tea-inspectors, just as we have salt-superintendents, who are
high functionaries specially commissioned for the purpose. Instead of
cafés, as in Paris, we have nothing but tea-houses in China, and these
may be seen everywhere. It is at these tea-houses that people meet to
talk, to rest, and to enjoy the cool air. When you call on a friend the
first thing that he does is to offer you a cup of tea. When you write an
invitation to a friend to come and spend some time at your house, the
formula you use is, “The tea is ready.”
Whilst you are waiting in a shop for your orders to be executed, the
shopman hands you a cup of tea to help you to be patient. In the very
hot weather, charitable people in towns always put outside their doors
great urns of tea for thirsty passers-by to drink from, and these urns
are refilled as soon as they have been emptied. Those are our public
fountains. There is always tea ready in the workrooms and other places
where workpeople meet. Tea is the only drink used by the people. Amongst
the highest in the land there are also numerous tea drinkers. It is
thought that this beverage has the gift of rendering one’s mind more
lucid. It is always green tea that is drunk in the upper classes—the
little leaves taken from the bud at its first opening and dried in the
sun. This is our Château-Lafitte. As to black tea, if is made of leaves
which have reached maturity and have been dried artificially. This is
all the difference that there is between the two kinds. No artificial
colouring of the leaves is ever resorted to. Qualities vary, of course,
according to the localities in which the tea is grown, just as is the
case with wine. The best tea is that grown on a tree which grows in the
garden of a monastery which is situated on the Ou-I mountain, in the
interior of the province of Fou-Kien. The priests do not sell it, but
keep it for the use of distinguished visitors. They give you about ten
leaves in a cup not much bigger than an egg-cup, and pour on it water
taken from an excellent spring which is situated near the monastery. The
cup is covered for a few moments to allow the tea to draw. The scent that
rises from the cup when the tea is ready is most exquisite, and a cup of
this tea not only produces a feeling of great bodily comfort, but also
has a most exhilarating effect on the mind.
I once amused myself by placing a few grains of boiled rice in a cup
of that tea. The rice was almost immediately dissolved. This made me
understand how energetic is the effect of this beverage, its beneficial
action on the human body, and the impossibility of drinking much of it.
Tea is so essential a factor in Chinese alimentation that authors like
Lu-U have published whole books on the way of preparing this drink.
These books are our Mrs. Beeton’s. Tea, as a matter of fact, to be good,
must be made with rain or spring water heated to a certain degree of
heat. The water should not be allowed to boil more than a few minutes,
and, when bubbles begin to rise, it should be taken off the fire. The
utensil in which the water is boiled should be made of certain materials
and no others. True connoisseurs only use pots made of Ni-Hing, a kind
of terra-cotta ware which is not varnished inside. Thus prepared, the
tea is an economical and healthy beverage. It is drunk continually and
at all hours of the day, even just before going to bed. Its effect is
never an exciting one. Apropos of this, one of my compatriots has said
that the Europeans, and specially the English, do not know how to make
tea. In the first place, they let it boil. Secondly, they add strong
spirits, which destroy its taste; or sugar, which makes it lose its
savour. Tea should be allowed to infuse for five minutes at the most,
and should be of a clear colour, barely yellow in hue. The U-Tchien, or
Jade-Spring monastery, is situated in the province of King-Tiou, in the
midst of rocks and waterfalls, and is surrounded with tea plantations,
which produce tea-leaves of the size of a man’s hand, which are called
“The Tea of the Hand of the Immortals.” An octogenarian who lived in that
neighbourhood had the face of quite a young man, and enjoyed the very
best health, and used to tell anybody who would listen to him that he
owed his good health and his youthful appearance to the use of this tea.
It is not surprising that so beneficial a drink should have inspired the
poets. There is an innumerable quantity of single lines about tea in our
literature. Here are a few specimens of these proverbial sayings which
refer to tea:—
“To make your friends pass a pleasant evening the poor man
offers them tea.
To make tea with snow is to taste celestial savours.
When you make tea in the forest, the smoke drives the storks
away.”
The harvest time varies according to the district. In some parts the
harvest is picked before the rainy season. In others, it is begun at the
sound of the first clap of thunder; in other parts, the first cry of the
cuckoo is the signal for the pickers to begin their work. All sorts of
stories are told about our tea, amongst others, that the tea we export
has already been used and dried again. That is a mere fable. The tea we
export is of average quality, and is so abundantly to be had that there
is no necessity for us to take recourse to the disgusting expedients
suggested. I may add that the export trade is almost entirely in the
hands of European business houses. Besides, all our old tea-leaves are
used in China as sea-weed is used in France for stuffing mattresses,
cushions, and so on. Thus tea, after having fortified our bodies during
the day, affords us a bed at night.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]