When reading the poems about tea in class, I came across one common theme, the glorification of tea through nature. Two poems that I feel have expressed this link particularly well are Lu Tong’s “Written in haste to thank Imperial Censor Meng for his gift of freshly pricked tea” and Jiaoran’s “Making fun of the Envoy Cui Shi”. Tea is deeply rooted with nature, and each poem expresses the beauty and godly essence of the world from which tea originates.
In Lu Tong’s poem, the second stanza specifically details the beauty of nature with the essence of tea. The imagery used in phrases such as “hibernating insects awaken in the spring breeze” and “the humane breezes secretly nurture the pearly tea sprouts” paint nature as a peaceful and ethereal being which creates tea. This stanza mentions the emperor, majesty, princes, and nobles, all fit to be blessed with nature’s tea. The promise of spring, and the way he describes the tea as “buds of gold” shows how glorified tea is in nature. He uses “white flowery froth” and “Clouds of emerald” to describe the end product after following natures partnership with tea. By presenting nature as a holy, beautiful higher being, he shows how he believes tea is straight from the gods.
In Jiaoran’s poem, he also links tea with the glory of nature. He interestingly uses a phrase similar to Lu Tong’s “buds of gold” in saying “golden buds”. The beautiful colors of the tea is described “white as snow” and its taste compared to “nectar of jade pistils”. He says “Only Cinnabar Mound could attain such a thing” . Later, just as Lu Tong described the tea as fit for roylaty, Jiaoran made it clear that only certain people, rulers or gods could be worthy of such excellence. He references how alcohol is beneath those such as Bi Zhuo, Tao Qian, and Marquis Cui, claiming only tea is fit for them.
Both poems link the beauty and serenity of nature with the value of tea. The relationship between the gods and nature is the same that is explored between tea and royalty explored in these poems.
