徐艺珈
茶之流派--续9（2017年7月12日）
The tea-ideal of the Sungs differed from the Tangs even as their notion of life differed. They sought to actualize what their predecessors tried to symbolise. To the Neo-Confucian mind the cosmic law was not reflected in the phenomenal world, but the phenomenal world was the cosmic law itself. Æons were but moments—Nirvana always within grasp. The Taoist conception that immortality lay in the eternal change permeated all their modes of thought. It was the process, not the deed, which was interesting. It was the completing, not the completion, which was really vital. Man came thus at once face to face with nature. A new meaning grew into the art of life. The tea began to be not a poetical pastime, but one of the methods of self-realisation. Wangyucheng eulogised tea as “flooding his soul like a direct appeal, that its bitterness reminded him of the aftertaste of a good counsel.” Sotumpa wrote of the strength of the immaculate purity in tea which defied corruption as a truly virtuous man. Among the Buddhists, the southern Zen sect, which incorporated so much of Taoist doctrines, formulated an elaborate ritual of tea. The monks gathered before the image of Bodhi Dharma and drank tea out of a single bowl with the profound formality of a holy sacrament. It was this Zen ritual which finally developed into the Tea-ceremony of Japan in the fifteenth century.
正如同唐宋在思想上的相异一样，宋的茶道也与唐代的茶道不同。宋人试图将前人只作为象征来看待的东西变成现实。在宋理学家眼里，理想世界并不能反映宇宙的规律，因为那个世界正是宇宙规律的本身。天命并不是重要的事情——毕竟涅槃重生是必定会发生的事情。在茶道的思想中，永恒仅仅只是在描述思想和风格永不停歇的变幻这样一个事实。它是一种过程，而非一种手段，而这正是奇妙之处。它是圆满的，但并非人们最终所追求的完满，是追求过程中不可或缺的步骤。每个人从出生第一瞬间就开始与自然直接接触。由此产生了一种新的艺术理念。茶开始从一种诗意的消遣发展为一种自我认识的方式。Wangyucheng称赞茶“有洗涤灵魂的能力，它的清苦使人想起接受到别人真心劝告的余味”。Sotumpa则认为茶中那种无瑕纯粹的精华能够使人保持高尚的情操，维持高洁的德行。在佛教徒中间，尤其在南方的教派里，纳入了许多茶道大师，他们构想出一套精巧的茶艺仪式。修行的和尚在每次冥修前都会聚在一起，从一个简朴的茶碗中饮下茶汤，肃穆得如同圣餐会。而这种仪式正是之后十五世纪日本茶道仪式的母体。
Unfortunately the sudden outburst of the Mongol tribes in the thirteenth century which resulted in the devastation and conquest of China under the barbaric rule of the Yuen Emperors, destroyed all the fruits of Sung culture. The native dynasty of the Mings which attempted re-nationalisation in the middle of the fifteenth century was harassed by internal troubles, and China again fell under the alien rule of the Manchus in the seventeenth century. Manners and customs changed to leave no vestige of the former times. The powdered tea is entirely forgotten. We find a Ming commentator at loss to recall the shape of the tea whisk mentioned in one of the Sung classics. Tea is now taken by steeping the leaves in hot water in a bowl or cup. The reason why the Western world is innocent of the older method of drinking tea is explained by the fact that Europe knew it only at the close of the Ming dynasty.
不幸的是十三世纪时蒙古部落的突然崛起导致了中原文化的荒芜和中原对于元代皇帝残暴统治的臣服，最终毁灭了宋代文化几乎所有的果实。到十五世纪中期，稚嫩的明王朝试图复兴这些文化，可惜一直被自身内部的矛盾所困扰，直到中国十七世纪时再次沦陷于满族人之手。礼仪和习俗已被改到面目全非。将茶碾压成末的步骤已被遗忘。一位明代的评论家十分惋惜宋代经典中描述的茶筅样式已经失传。饮茶的方式转变为在杯或碗中以热水来浸泡茶叶。因而我们发现，西方世界对传统饮茶方式的无知恐怕是因为欧洲人仅只接触过明朝的茶文化的缘故。
