Tea culture is an important part of Chinese and English culture and also has a deep influence on their cultures。 For example, in the language usage, tea culture has profound and interesting meanings in Chinese and English idioms。 In Chinese tea idioms, tea is mostly used in its original meaning, while in English it often reflects different intentions。 In addition, tea has a close relation with literary works, which enriches Chinese and British literary contents。 Tea culture has an important manifestation in the novel, prose and poetry, etc。
In today’s society, the study of tea culture is of great significance。 It not only makes us be familiar with the history, development, influence of Chinese and English tea culture, but also makes tea culture appeals to large number people, which helps us promote the spirit of tea culture。
2。 Literature Review
2。1 Previous Studies on Tea
Belonging to intercultural category, tea culture in China and Britain has been studied many times by experts and scholars。 The most four famous books to effect tea culture are The Classic of Tea by Lu Yu, All About Tea by William Harrison Ukers, World History of Tea by Jiao Shanrong, Green Gold –The Empire of Tea by Eris Macfarlane。 Chinese scholar, like Yao Jiangbo, Chen Wenhua, whose data analysis and quantitative study conduct a comparison between Chinese tea culture and British tea culture。 文献综述
Chinese experts have done many researches on tea culture。 Regarded as one of the seven daily necessities firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy, sauce, vinegar, tea has its importance in people’s daily life。 A simple meal in Chinese is weak tea and scanty meal, namely a simple diet。 We can obviously see the importance of tea even in a simple meal。 Tea drinking in China has a history of more than four thousand years。 According to Lu Yu’s Tea Classics, tea-drinking in China can be dated back to the Zhou Dynasty (1100- 221 B。C。): Tea was discovered by Shennong and was popular as a drink in the State of Lu because of Zhou Gong。 (Xu 58) As the legend said, Shennong, a legendary hero, tasted hundreds of wild plants to find which plants were poisonous and which were edible, which prevents people from eating the poisonous plants。 It is said that he was poisoned seventy-two times in a day, however, he was saved by chewing some leaves of a kind of plant blossoming with white flowers。 Because his belly was transparent, people could find how the food moved throughout his stomach。 When people saw the juice of the tender leaves go up and down in Shennong’s stomach as if it were searching for something, then they called it “cha”, meaning searching in Chinese。 Later it was renamed “cha” and had the same sound of the present one。 It’s the origin of tea。 Roughly since the Tang Dynasty, drinking tea has been an essential part of self-cultivation。
The custom of tea drinking can be traced back to millennium BC in China, but this beverage first be introduced in England about in seventeenth century。 We can’t confirm the exactly time when tea was first found to Britain。 It can be only confirmed that tea was sold in Britain in 1657, according the book A Social History of Tea written by Pettigrew Jane, she says China’s tea was transported to the landing of London by the Eastern India company in the mid-seventeenth century (Xu 271)。 Tea first was established in Britain because of the influence of a Portuguese princess, Catherine of Braganza(1638 – 1705), the queen of CharlesⅡ。 It is said that she brought tea-drinking to the English royal court and made it popular among the aristocracy of England in 17th century。 Because she is a tea-drinking lover, tea gained the social acceptance among aristocracies and replaced wine ale。 Quickly, owing to Catherine’s advocation, tea was loved and pursued by upper class。 Later, tea was sold in markets and the East India company made tea as a part of their regular trade from 1688 (Xu 272)。 At the end of 18th century, tea drinking became prevalent among the common people due to the great fall of price。 Transformations of the custom policy in China have changed the demand of tea drinking in Britain。 Before that time, tea was very expensive for ordinary people。 Britons loved tea very much, just as the evidence pointed out by an Italian who was traveling to Britain in 1755 illustrated, she said even if a maid must drink tea twice each day to show her status and she must write the condition to her bond。 As time goes on, Britain has formed its own special tea culture (Xu 272)。 来,自,优.尔:论;文*网www.youerw.com +QQ752018766- 从跨文化视角浅谈中英茶文化(2):http://www.youerw.com/yingyu/lunwen_88062.html