Tea is a work of art and needs a master hand to bring out its
noblest qualities. We have good and bad tea, as we have good
and bad paintings--generally the latter. There is no single
recipe for making the perfect tea, as there are no rules for
producing a Titian or a Sesson. Each preparation of the leaves
has its individuality, its special affinity with water and heat,
its own method of telling a story. The truly beautiful must
always be in it. How much do we not suffer through the constant
failure of society to recognise this simple and fundamental
law of art and life; Lichilai, a Sung poet, has sadly remarked
that there were three most deplorable things in the world: the
spoiling of fine youths through false education, the degradation
of fine art through vulgar admiration, and the utter waste of
fine tea through incompetent manipulation.

茶乃是一门艺术,非高手不能达其至臻圣境.如画品有高下而往往后者居多,茶亦有优劣之分.茶无定法,画无常道,如提香,雪村各有妙手不同.不同茶之制法炯异,其所适之水质温度有别,而表达方式亦各有千秋.而至美必在其中矣.然而,对于艺术生活中如此简单质朴的原则,世人长期以来竟然如此漠视,令人实为痛心.宋代诗人李之来曾哀叹世间有三大可悲之事,劣师误人子弟,俗赞损毁丹青,粗手暴忝珍茗.

Like Art, Tea has its periods and its schools. Its evolution
may be roughly divided into three main stages: the Boiled Tea,
the Whipped Tea, and the Steeped Tea. We moderns belong
to the last school. These several methods of appreciating
the beverage are indicative of the spirit of the age in which
they prevailed. For life is an expression, our unconscious
actions the constant betrayal of our innermost thought.
Confucius said that "man hideth not." Perhaps we reveal ourselves
too much in small things because we have so little of the great
to conceal. The tiny incidents of daily routine are as much a
commentary of racial ideals as the highest flight of philosophy
or poetry. Even as the difference in favorite vintage marks
the separate idiosyncrasies of different periods and nationalities
of Europe, so the Tea-ideals characterise the various moods
of Oriental culture. The Cake-tea which was boiled, the
Powdered-tea which was whipped, the Leaf-tea which was
steeped, mark the distinct emotional impulses of the Tang,
the Sung, and the Ming dynasties of China. If we were
inclined to borrow the much-abused terminology of
art-classification, we might designate them respectively, the
Classic, the Romantic, and the Naturalistic schools of Tea.

茶,如同艺术一样,亦有时代流派之分.按其流传演变,大致可分为三个主要阶段:烹茶,抹茶,泡茶.我们现代则属于最后一个阶段.这几种品茶方式恰恰代表了它们所处时代的精神.因为生活是一种表现,我们无意识行为正是我们内心世界持续的不经意的流露. 子曰:"吾无乎隐尔." (译注: 语见<论语.述而>. )也许正因为没有什么大事需要隐瞒,我们才往往拿太多的琐事来表现自己. 其实,柴米油盐之日常琐事,也可以和深奥高雅的哲学诗歌一样,反映出民族的理念.
正如对佳酿美酒的不同品味,代表了欧洲不同时期不同民族各自不同的习性, 各种茶之理念也体现了东方文化不同情调的特征. 所煮之团(饼)茶,所抹之末茶,所泡之叶茶,恰恰体现出中国唐,宋,明三朝特有的激情冲动. 倘若借用被滥用的艺术分类术语，我们可将茶流分别归纳为古典派，浪漫派和自然派。

The tea-plant, a native of southern China, was known from very
early times to Chinese botany and medicine. It is alluded to in
the classics under the various names of Tou, Tseh, Chung,
Kha, and Ming, and was highly prized for possessing the
virtues of relieving fatigue, delighting the soul, strengthening
the will, and repairing the eyesight. It was not only
administered as an internal dose, but often applied externally
in form of paste to alleviate rheumatic pains. The Taoists
claimed it as an important ingredient of the elixir of
immortality. The Buddhists used it extensively to prevent
drowsiness during their long hours of meditation.

茶树原产于中国南方，很早就为植物和草药界所认识。 茶在古代典籍中又称荼,蔎,荈,诧/奼,或茗.茶有解乏,提神,强心,明目等功能,而倍受人们的青睐。 茶不仅可以内服，也常做成糊膏外用来治疗风湿痛。 道家认为茶是长生不老丹的重要成分。佛教徒在长时间打坐时也靠大量饮茶来驱除困意。

By the fourth and fifth centuries Tea became a favourite
beverage among the inhabitants of the Yangtse-Kiang valley.
It was about this time that modern ideograph Cha was
coined, evidently a corruption of the classic Tou.
The poets of the southern dynasties have left some fragments
of their fervent adoration of the "froth of the liquid jade."
Then emperors used to bestow some rare preparation of the
leaves on their high ministers as a reward for eminent services.
Yet the method of drinking tea at this stage was primitive
in the extreme. The leaves were steamed, crushed in a mortar,
made into a cake, and boiled together with rice, ginger, salt,
orange peel, spices, milk, and sometimes with onions!
The custom obtains at the present day among the Thibetans
and various Mongolian tribes, who make a curious syrup
of these ingredients. The use of lemon slices by the Russians,
who learned to take tea from the Chinese caravansaries,
points to the survival of the ancient method.

到第四、第五世纪时，茶已经成为长江流域人民喜爱的饮料。 直到那时，“茶”这个现代的字符才开始成型， 很明显，它是由古"荼"字变形而成的。 南朝诗人曾经留有很多诗句来表达他们对 “玉液汤花(译注: 即水面上浮的茶的泡沫)”的狂热崇拜。 (译注: 这里南朝应该是唐以前,可东晋,宋齐梁陈有关茶的诗实在不多.倒是南宋有很多咏茶诗词.) 那时的皇帝常常把一些珍稀的茶叶赐与大臣以奖励他们的忠良。 但当时的饮茶方法还是处在极为原始的阶段。 茶叶先是被蒸过，再用臼捣碎作成饼状，和大米、姜、盐、橘皮、辛香料、奶一起煮，有时甚至还加入葱！ 这种饮茶习俗仍然还在西藏、以及蒙古的一些部落保留着，那里的人用这些原料煮成一种奇异的浓茶。 俄国人是从中国商队那里学会了喝茶，他们喝茶加柠檬片的习惯仍然残留着这种古老的饮茶方式的遗迹。

It needed the genius of the Tang dynasty to emancipate Tea
from its crude state and lead to its final idealization. With
Luwuh in the middle of the eighth century we have our first
apostle of tea. He was born in an age when Buddhism,
Taoism, and Confucianism were seeking mutual synthesis.
The pantheistic symbolism of the time was urging one to
mirror the Universal in the Particular. Luwuh, a poet, saw in
the Tea-service the same harmony and order which reigned
through all things. In his celebrated work, the "Chaking"
(The Holy Scripture of Tea) he formulated the Code of Tea.
He has since been worshipped as the tutelary god of the
Chinese tea merchants.

是唐代的大师们使茶道摆脱原始阶段达到最终的完善。 由于8世纪中叶陆羽的出现，我们有了茶文化的第一个倡导者。 陆羽出生在一个儒,释,道寻求互通的时代。那个时代泛神的象征方法促使人们要以小见大，见微知著。 身为诗人的陆羽,发现在茶道之中,同样蕴涵着统辖万物的和谐与秩序.他在名著"茶经"(茶道之圣经)一书中,制定了茶的法则. 从那时起,陆羽就被贡奉为中国茶商的守护神(译注: 这里可以意译为"茶圣")