【正文】 Waston 52) B. Kinds of Chinese tea China tea is famous throughout the world for its unique color, fragrance, flavor and finely shaped leaves. According to the ways of manufacturing, Chinese tea can be divided into six categories: green tea, black tea, oolong tea, white tea, scented tea, and tea lumps. (Zhou 159) 1. Green Tea Green tea has the longest history and still ranks first in production and variety in China. People like to drink green tea for its freshness and natural fragrance. Longjing(龍井 ) Tea from the West Lake of Hongzhou, Maofeng(毛峰 ) Tea from Huangshan Mountain, Yinzhen(銀針 ) Tea from Junshan Mountain, Yunwu(云霧 ) Tea from Lushan Mountain and Biluochun(碧螺春 ) Tea from Jiangsu are the famous green tea. 3 2. Black Tea Black tea also owns a good reputation in all over the world. Different from green tea, the tea leaves turn from green to black in the fermentation. Black tea is thoroughly fermented. 3. Oolong Tea Oolong tea both own the freshness of green tea and the fragrance of the black. In recent years, it has bee popular with more and more people for its effects in helping to reduce high blood pressure, , prevent coronary heart disease, aid digestion and lower the cholesterol.` The history of oolong tea be produced in Fujian province is at least 400years. Today it is also grow in Guangdong and Taiwan. It is difficult to pick the tea because it grows on cliffs which people rarely reach. So it is considered the most precious. 4. White Tea White Tea is as white as silver. Fujian’s Zhenghe and Fuding are the major producing areas. And Yinzhen tea and White Peony Tea are the famous varieties. 5. Scented Tea Scented tea (also called Flower Tea) having the smells of flowers is a variety unique to China. The dries flowers spread as they were just picked up when put in boiled water,. 6. Tea Lump The black tea or green tea is pressed into the shapes of brick, cake or ball. The tea lump is convenient to store and transport and is suitable for minority people in border regions. The most famous tea lump is Yunnan’s Puer tea(普洱 ), which has great therapeutic effects. One recorded examples shows that, among 20 patients suffering from high cholesterol(膽固醇 ), those who drank three cups of this tea every day for one month experienced a 22% drop in their cholesterol levels, but those who drank ordinary tea three times a day showed no change. (Zhou 160) Yunnan pressed tea is a suitable beverage for all ages. It is also known as a diet tea(減肥茶 ) and beauty tea as well. 4 C. Customs and rites of tea Teadrinking is a nationwide custom in China. Having three meals and tea a day. is a daily necessity for the Chinese. A mon Chinese saying runs, “when we get up in the morning, the first things we should get ready are firewood, rice, edible oil, salt, soy, vinegar, and tea.” Whenever we sit round a table, or have a gettogether with good friends, a cup of fragrant tea will give a rich flavor to the occasion. Most people are willing to enjoy their afternoon tea. When it es to summer or warm climate, tea seems to calm down the heat and bring on instant cool together with a feeling of relaxation. Based on this, teahouses abound in towns and market villages in South China and provide elderly retirees with the locates to meet and chat . Tea houses are everywhere in every town and city. Many elderly people often rise early in the morning and hurry to the tea house to enjoy a cup of tea. As shown by Lao she’s famous play The Tea house that a tea house is a society. 1. The great therapeutic effects of tea According to the Holy Farmer’s Herbal Classic, 2,700years ago, shennong often got poisoned after tasting various herbs he picked,. Later, he found a plant, tea, which could detoxify him. Since then, the Chinese people have treated tea as a precious medicine bestowed on human beings by the cosmos. (Wang 95) This story shows that the Chinese people first used tea as medicine. Some tea have great effects in helping to reduce high blood pressure, aid digestion, prevent coronary heart disease and lower the cholesterol. And some tea even be known as a diet tea and beauty tea as well. 2. Funeral and sacrificial customs and tea rites Tea has been used as one of the sacrificial offerings to gods and ancestors from ancient times in China. In Liu Jingshu’s Fantastic Garden, of the Southern Dynasty (420479), there is an interesting story(Zhou 157): a young widow lived with two sons. They were all fond of drinking tea. But before drinking, the young mother would offer a cup of tea to an ancient tomb in their courtyard. Her two sons became disgusted with this practice and decided to dig up the tomb. But they were stopped by the mother. That night a spirit appeared in that woman’s dream saying that “I am a spirit 5 living in the ancient tomb for three hundred years. I am grateful to you for your protection and offering of the fragrant tea. Though I am a heap of rotten bones, I’ll surely repay you.” the next morning they found in their courtyard one thousand strings of ancient coins with a new thread binding them together. From this story we know that offering tea to god or ancestors at the memorial ceremony had bee a practice. Archaeological discoveries have proved the custom of using tea as a funerary object. In an ancient tomb of Western Han Dynasty (.)unearthed at MaWangDui in the suburbs of Changcha, Hunan province, tea was listed in the brochure of burial articles. Although these customs were fatuous and superstitious, they also contained Chinese philosophies of life. The Chinese advocated that people should look squarely at life when they were alive, instead of leading a befuddled life as if drunk or in a dream。 渭南師范學(xué)院 本科畢業(yè)論文