To others: I add pieces occassionally in my spare time. Please feel free to jump in this page. -habpi

i. The Cup of Humanity

Tea began as a medicine and grew into a beverage. In China, in the
eighth century, it entered the realm of poetry as one of the polite
amusements. The fifteenth century saw Japan ennoble it into a
religion of aestheticism--Teaism. Teaism is a cult founded on the
adoration of the beautiful among the sordid facts of everyday
existence. It inculcates purity and harmony, the mystery of mutual
charity, the romanticism of the social order. It is essentially a
worship of the Imperfect, as it is a tender attempt to accomplish
something possible in this impossible thing we know as life.

茶由医药进而转化成饮品。在八世纪的中国，它由雅趣而入诗境。十五世纪的日本把它尊升为一种美学的宗教——茶道。茶道是对隐藏于尘世琐事中的美的精神诉求。它教导纯洁和和谐、至爱［1］的神秘、社会秩序的浪漫精神。它本质上是对缺损的膜拜，因为它是在生活这个不可能中完成可能的温和的尝试。

我的版本：
茶由最初的药品逐渐成为饮品。在八世纪的中国，它由雅趣而入诗境。十五世纪的日本把它尊升为一种美学的宗教——茶道。茶道是在尘世污秽中对美的追求。它教导纯洁与和谐，互敬互爱的奥妙，以及对社会秩序的浪漫诉求。茶道崇尚缺憾，在不完满的生活中温和地寻找某种完满。【多提意见啦】

The Philosophy of Tea is not mere aestheticism in the ordinary
acceptance of the term, for it expresses conjointly with ethics and
religion our whole point of view about man and nature. It is
hygiene, for it enforces cleanliness; it is economics, for it shows
comfort in simplicity rather than in the complex and costly; it is
moral geometry, inasmuch as it defines our sense of proportion
to the universe. It represents the true spirit of Eastern democracy
by making all its votaries aristocrats in taste.
茶的哲学不仅仅是普通意义上所说的美学，因为它同时表达了伦理和信仰，我们对人类和自然的整体观念。它是卫生，因为它要求洁净；它是经济，因为它在简朴而不是复杂和奢费中传送舒适；它是道德的几何，因为它引导我们在宇宙中的定位。它把所有的信徒都变成了品味的贵族，由此而代表了真正的东方的民主精神。

The long isolation of Japan from the rest of the world, so conducive
to introspection, has been highly favourable to the development of
Teaism. Our home and habits, costume and cuisine, porcelain,
lacquer, painting--our very literature--all have been subject to its
influence. No student of Japanese culture could ever ignore its
presence. It has permeated the elegance of noble boudoirs, and
entered the abode of the humble. Our peasants have learned
to arrange flowers, our meanest labourer to offer his
salutation to the rocks and waters. In our common parlance
we speak of the man "with no tea" in him, when he is
insusceptible to the serio-comic interests of the personal
drama. Again we stigmatise the untamed aesthete who,
regardless of the mundane tragedy, runs riot in the springtide
of emancipated emotions, as one "with too much tea" in him.
日本与世界其他地方的长期隔绝使人重视内部精神，这非常有助于茶道 的发展。我们的家居习俗、服饰和饮食、瓷器、漆器、绘画——我们的特有文学——都受到了它的影响。从来没有任何一个日本文化的学生可以忽视它的影响。它薰沐了贵人堂榭的风雅，进入了贫贱草民的土屋。我们的农民学会了花卉园艺，我们最卑微的劳工懂得向石和水施敬。在我们的日常用语中，如果一个人不能领悟人生的悲喜剧，我们说他“没喝过茶水”。对那种无视尘世悲苦、在无羁的情绪里恣意放浪的滥美主义者，我们谴责他说“茶水喝多了”。

The outsider may indeed wonder at this seeming much ado
about nothing. What a tempest in a tea-cup! he will say.
But when we consider how small after all the cup of human
enjoyment is, how soon overflowed with tears, how easily
drained to the dregs in our quenchless thirst for infinity, we
shall not blame ourselves for making so much of the tea-cup.
Mankind has done worse. In the worship of Bacchus, we
have sacrificed too freely; and we have even transfigured
the gory image of Mars. Why not consecrate ourselves to
the queen of the Camelias, and revel in the warm stream
of sympathy that flows from her altar? In the liquid amber
within the ivory-porcelain, the initiated may touch the sweet
reticence of Confucius, the piquancy of Laotse, and the
ethereal aroma of Sakyamuni himself.

旁观者可能会很奇怪这似乎是无中生有的一切。小小茶杯中何有波澜！他会说。但是当我们细想一下人类的欢愉之杯是何等的微小——一掬清泪就将之溢漫，我们的无穷贪欲轻易使之干竭——我们就不应该为了在茶杯中大加发挥而自责。人类的罪恶远过于此。在对酒神的膜拜中，我们总是过度敬祭；我们甚而美化了战神的血污形象。为什么不献身于茶的女神，在她的祭台飘来的暖汽中放情享受呢？在象牙瓷碗中的液体琥珀里，品尝者可以找到孔子怡人的谦让、老子的奔放，和释迦牟尼本人那圣洁的芬芳。

Those who cannot feel the littleness of great things in
themselves are apt to overlook the greatness of little things
in others. The average Westerner, in his sleek complacency,
will see in the tea ceremony but another instance of the
thousand and one oddities which constitute the quaintness
and childishness of the East to him. He was wont to regard
Japan as barbarous while she indulged in the gentle arts of
peace: he calls her civilised since she began to commit
wholesale slaughter on Manchurian battlefields. Much
comment has been given lately to the Code of the Samurai,
--the Art of Death which makes our soldiers exult in self-
sacrifice; but scarcely any attention has been drawn to
Teaism, which represents so much of our Art of Life.
Fain would we remain barbarians, if our claim to civilisation
were to be based on the gruesome glory of war. Fain
would we await the time when due respect shall be paid to
our art and ideals.
那些不能在自己的大事中体会到渺小的人，容易在他人的小事中忽略伟大。普通的西方人，在悠然自得中把茶艺看作展示东方人陈腐可笑的一千零一件怪事中的又一件。当日本享受温柔的艺术与和平的时候，他一贯称她野蛮；当她开始在满洲战场上大肆杀戮的时候，他说她进入了文明。近来武士道——使得我们的战士勇于牺牲的“死亡的艺术”——吸引了大量的评论；但是少有人注意那如此丰富地代表了我们“生活的艺术”的茶道。如果我们所谓的文明要建立在丑恶的战争荣耀上，那么我们还是快乐地作“野蛮人”吧。我们会快乐地等待我们的艺术和信念得到应有的尊敬的那一天。

When will the West understand, or try to understand, the
East? We Asiatics are often appalled by the curious web
of facts and fancies which has been woven concerning us.
We are pictured as living on the perfume of the lotus, if not
on mice and cockroaches. It is either impotent fanaticism or
else abject voluptuousness. Indian spirituality has been
derided as ignorance, Chinese sobriety as stupidity, Japanese
patriotism as the result of fatalism. It has been said that we
are less sensible to pain and wounds on account of the
callousness of our nervous organisation!
什么时候西方会理解、或试图理解东方呢？我们亚洲人常常被那些编织在我们身上的事例和幻想的奇怪网络所惊骇。我们被描述成生活在莲花的香气里，如果不是在耗子和蟑螂堆里。这要么是疲软的想象力，要么是下流的粗俗。印度的修炼被嘲笑为无知，中国的儒雅成了愚蠢，日本的爱国成了宿命。据说我们的神经组织长了茧子，所以感觉不到多少伤痛！

Why not amuse yourselves at our expense? Asia returns the
compliment. There would be further food for merriment if
you were to know all that we have imagined and written
about you. All the glamour of the perspective is there, all the
unconscious homage of wonder, all the silent resentment of
the new and undefined. You have been loaded with virtues
too refined to be envied, and accused of crimes too
picturesque to be condemned. Our writers in the past--the
wise men who knew--informed us that you had bushy tails
somewhere hidden in your garments, and often dined off a
fricassee of newborn babes! Nay, we had something worse
against you: we used to think you the most impracticable
people on the earth, for you were said to preach what you
never practiced.

为什么不让我们来逗您开心呢？亚洲回敬了。要是您知道所有那些我们对你们的想像和描写，还有更多的乐子呢。想像的风采都齐了——对奇迹不自觉的驯从、对新的未知的默在的敌视。你们被授予了那些太过高尚而无法嫉妒的美德，太过壮丽而无法谴责的罪行。我们从前的作者们——那些无所不晓的贤人们——告诉我们，你们在衣服里什么地方掖着一条毛茸茸的尾巴，你们经常拿婴儿炖汤吃！不，我们还有更厉害的对付你们：我们一直认为你们是世界上最不实际的种族，因为据说你们宣扬那些你们从来不实行的东西。

Such misconceptions are fast vanishing amongst us.
Commerce has forced the European tongues on many an
Eastern port. Asiatic youths are flocking to Western colleges
for the equipment of modern education. Our insight does not
penetrate your culture deeply, but at least we are willing to
learn. Some of my compatriots have adopted too much of
your customs and too much of your etiquette, in the delusion
that the acquisition of stiff collars and tall silk hats comprised
the attainment of your civilisation. Pathetic and deplorable as
such affectations are, they evince our willingness to approach
the West on our knees. Unfortunately the Western attitude is
unfavourable to the understanding of the East. The Christian
missionary goes to impart, but not to receive. Your information
is based on the meagre translations of our immense literature,
if not on the unreliable anecdotes of passing travellers. It is
rarely that the chivalrous pen of a Lafcadio Hearn or that of
the author of "The Web of Indian Life" enlivens the Oriental
darkness with the torch of our own sentiments.

在我们中间，这种误解正在迅速消失。出于商业的需要，许多东方的港口现在说西方语言。亚洲的年轻人成群结队地涌向西方院校来获取现代教育的装备。我们的见解不见得深入到你们的文化，但我们至少愿意去学习。我的一些同胞接受了太多你们的习俗、太多你们的礼节，以为穿着硬领子、戴着高礼帽就等于拥有了你们的文明。尽管这种热情是病态可怜的，它们展示了我们甘愿屈膝以就西方。不幸的是，西方的态度不利于理解东方。基督教的教士是来布道的，不是来学习的。你们的信息是基于对我们的庞大文献的一点少得可怜的翻译，若不是来自旅行者的不可靠的道听途说。只有在罕见的情况下，会有Lafcadio Hearn或《印度生活全景》的作者那种优雅的文笔，用我们自己的感触作燃料，来照亮那东方的黑暗。

Perhaps I betray my own ignorance of the Tea Cult by being
so outspoken. Its very spirit of politeness exacts that you say
what you are expected to say, and no more. But I am not to
be a polite Teaist. So much harm has been done already by
the mutual misunderstanding of the New World and the Old,
that one need not apologise for contributing his tithe to the
furtherance of a better understanding. The beginning of the
twentieth century would have been spared the spectacle of
sanguinary warfare if Russia had condescended to know
Japan better. What dire consequences to humanity lie in the
contemptuous ignoring of Eastern problems! European
imperialism, which does not disdain to raise the absurd cry of
the Yellow Peril, fails to realise that Asia may also awaken
to the cruel sense of the White Disaster. You may laugh at
us for having "too much tea," but may we not suspect that
you of the West have "no tea" in your constitution?

或许我过于直率了，违背了茶道的要义。它的礼数正是点到为止，不要越庖冒言。但我不会作一个拘于礼数的茶客。新旧世界之间的相互误解已经造成了太多的危害，一个人不需要为了作一分促进理解的贡献而道歉。如果俄罗斯肯屈尊来多理解一点日本的话，就不会有二十世纪初的这场血腥的战争场面。对东方问题的轻蔑给人类带来了何等悲惨的后果！欧洲帝国主义一边安于“黄祸”的荒谬的呼喊，一边意识不到亚洲也会在“白祸”的残酷意味中惊醒。你们可以嘲笑我们“喝了太多茶”，我们难道不能质疑你们的成份中“没有茶”？

Let us stop the continents from hurling epigrams at each
other, and be sadder if not wiser by the mutual gain of half a
hemisphere. We have developed along different lines, but
there is no reason why one should not supplement the other.
You have gained expansion at the cost of restlessness; we
have created a harmony which is weak against aggression.
Will you believe it?--the East is better off in some respects
than the West!

大家还是停止这些互相攻击的妙语吧，四分之一个地球之间的碰撞如果不能使我们变聪明点，也该让我们沉闷一下。我们从不同的路走来，但是我们之间没有理由不能互补。你们凭着不停的劳碌扩张；我们创造了一种难以御敌的和谐。您能相信么？在有的方面东方胜于西方！

Strangely enough humanity has so far met in the tea-cup.
It is the only Asiatic ceremonial which commands universal
esteem. The white man has scoffed at our religion and our
morals, but has accepted the brown beverage without
hesitation. The afternoon tea is now an important function
in Western society. In the delicate clatter of trays and
saucers, in the soft rustle of feminine hospitality, in the
common catechism about cream and sugar, we know that
the Worship of Tea is established beyond question. The
philosophic resignation of the guest to the fate awaiting him
in the dubious decoction proclaims that in this single instance
the Oriental spirit reigns supreme.
奇中有加的是，人性在茶中已然找到了相通之处。茶是唯一的受到了普遍尊敬的亚洲仪式。白人看不起我们的宗教和道德，却毫不犹豫地接受了这种棕色的饮料。下午茶已经成了西方社会中的重要程式。在托盘和茶碟的细微磕碰中，在女主人殷勤的悉索声中，在惯例的奶和糖的问答里，我们已经知道对茶的膜拜已经毫无疑问的确立了。客人在哲理上屈从了在那未知的沏品中等待他的命运；在这仅有的事例里东方精神位居主宰。

The earliest record of tea in European writing is said to be

found in the statement of an Arabian traveller, that after the

year 879 the main sources of revenue in Canton were the

duties on salt and tea. Marco Polo records the deposition of

a Chinese minister of finance in 1285 for his arbitrary

augmentation of the tea-taxes. It was at the period of the

great discoveries that the European people began to know

more about the extreme Orient. At the end of the sixteenth

century the Hollanders brought the news that a pleasant

drink was made in the East from the leaves of a bush. The

travellers Giovanni Batista Ramusio (1559), L. Almeida

(1576), Maffeno (1588), Tareira (1610), also mentioned

tea. In the last-named year ships of the Dutch East India

Company brought the first tea into Europe. It was known

in France in 1636, and reached Russia in 1638. England

welcomed it in 1650 and spoke of it as "That excellent and

by all physicians approved China drink, called by the

Chineans Tcha, and by other nations Tay, alias Tee."

Like all good things of the world, the propaganda of Tea

met with opposition. Heretics like Henry Saville (1678)

denounced drinking it as a filthy custom. Jonas Hanway

(Essay on Tea, 1756) said that men seemed to lose their

stature and comeliness, women their beauty through the

use of tea. Its cost at the start (about fifteen or sixteen

shillings a pound) forbade popular consumption, and made

it "regalia for high treatments and entertainments, presents

being made thereof to princes and grandees." Yet in spite

of such drawbacks tea-drinking spread with marvelous

rapidity. The coffee-houses of London in the early half of

the eighteenth century became, in fact, tea-houses, the

resort of wits like Addison and Steele, who beguiled

themselves over their "dish of tea." The beverage soon

became a necessity of life--a taxable matter. We are

reminded in this connection what an important part it plays

in modern history. Colonial America resigned herself to

oppression until human endurance gave way before the

heavy duties laid on Tea. American independence dates

from the throwing of tea-chests into Boston harbour.

There is a subtle charm in the taste of tea which makes it

irresistible and capable of idealisation. Western humourists

were not slow to mingle the fragrance of their thought with

its aroma. It has not the arrogance of wine, the self-

consciousness of coffee, nor the simpering innocence of

cocoa. Already in 1711, says the Spectator: "I would therefore

in a particular manner recommend these my speculations to

all well-regulated families that set apart an hour every morning

for tea, bread and butter; and would earnestly advise them for

their good to order this paper to be punctually served up and

to be looked upon as a part of the tea-equipage." Samuel

Johnson draws his own portrait as "a hardened and shameless

tea drinker, who for twenty years diluted his meals with only

the infusion of the fascinating plant; who with tea amused the

evening, with tea solaced the midnight, and with tea welcomed

the morning."

Charles Lamb, a professed devotee, sounded the true note of Teaism

when he wrote that the greatest pleasure he knew was to do a

good action by stealth, and to have it found out by accident. For

Teaism is the art of concealing beauty that you may discover it,

of suggesting what you dare not reveal. It is the noble secret of

laughing at yourself, calmly yet thoroughly, and is thus humour

itself,--the smile of philosophy. All genuine humourists may in

this sense be called tea-philosophers,--Thackeray, for instance,

and of course, Shakespeare. The poets of the Decadence

(when was not the world in decadence?), in their protests against

materialism, have, to a certain extent, also opened the way

to Teaism. Perhaps nowadays it is our demure contemplation

of the Imperfect that the West and the East can meet in

mutual consolation.

The Taoists relate that at the great beginning of the No-Beginning,

Spirit and Matter met in mortal combat. At last the Yellow

Emperor, the Sun of Heaven, triumphed over Shuhyung, the

demon of darkness and earth. The Titan, in his death agony,

struck his head against the solar vault and shivered the blue dome

of jade into fragments. The stars lost their nests, the moon

wandered aimlessly among the wild chasms of the night. In

despair the Yellow Emperor sought far and wide for the repairer

of the Heavens. He had not to search in vain. Out of the

Eastern sea rose a queen, the divine Niuka, horn-crowned and

dragon-tailed, resplendent in her armor of fire. She welded the

five-coloured rainbow in her magic cauldron and rebuilt the

Chinese sky. But it is told that Niuka forgot to fill two tiny

crevices in the blue firmament. Thus began the dualism of

love--two souls rolling through space and never at rest until they

join together to complete the universe. Everyone has to build

anew his sky of hope and peace.

The heaven of modern humanity is indeed shattered in the

Cyclopean struggle for wealth and power. The world is

groping in the shadow of egotism and vulgarity. Knowledge is

bought through a bad conscience, benevolence practiced for

the sake of utility. The East and the West, like two dragons

tossed in a sea of ferment, in vain strive to regain the jewel of

life. We need a Niuka again to repair the grand devastation;

we await the great Avatar. Meanwhile, let us have a sip of tea.

The afternoon glow is brightening the bamboos, the fountains

are bubbling with delight, the soughing of the pines is heard in

our kettle. Let us dream of evanescence, and linger in the

beautiful foolishness of things.