Tea classics


Tea as a drink was first consumed in China and the earliest extant mention of tea in literature is the Classic of Poetry, although the ideogram used in these texts can also designate a variety of plants, such as sowthistle and thrush.
Chinese literature contains a significant number of ancient treatises on tea. Together, there exist approximately one hundred monographs or treatises on tea published from the Tang dynasty through the end of the Ming dynasty. Writers of non-Chinese backgrounds have also emulated the style of the Chinese tea classics.
The more famous books on tea are listed below.

Chinese

Tang dynasty

Song dynasty

Ming dynasty

Qing dynasty

Japanese

Eisai came to Tiantai mountain of Zhejiang to study Chan Buddhism ; when he returned home in 1193 AD, he brought tea from China to Japan, planted it and wrote the first Japanese treatise on tea, called Kissa yojoki. This was the beginning of tea cultivation and tea culture in Japan.

English

Translations

Modern Chinese

  • 陆羽《茶经》 -解读与点校, 程启坤 杨招棣 姚国坤. 上海 上海文艺出版社 2003
  • 茶经
  • 遵生八笺——白话全译, 重庆大学出版社

Czech

  • Lu Jü : Kniha o čaji. Translated by Olga Lomová. Spolek milců čaje a, Praha, 2002,.
  • Karel Valter : Vše o čaji pro čajomily, Granit s.r.o., Praha, 2000

English

The Classic of Tea Lu, Yu; Intro & Translation By Francis Ross Carpenter, Illustrated by Hitz, Demi;Boston, MA: Little, Brown & Co. 1974The Classic of Tea: Origins & Rituals Lu, Yu; Yu, Lu; Carpenter, Francis Ross; New York, U.S.A.: Ecco Press. 1995 reprint of 1974 edition. This is a complete translation.

French

Hungarian

  • Lu Jü: Teáskönyv – A teázás szent könyve a nyolcadik századi Kínából. Terebess Kiadó, Budapest 2005, Teáskönyv. Fapadoskonyv.hu, Budapest, 2010.

Italian

  • Lu Yu: IL CANONE DEL TÈ, Traduzione di Marco Ceresa, Leonardo. November 1990.
  • Marco Ceresa, Ph.D. Dissertation:I trattati sul tè di epoca Tang Far Eastern Studies, Istituto Universitario Orientale of Naples.1992

Russian

  • Лу Юй: Канон чая; перевод с древнекитайского, введение и комментарии Александра Габуева и Юлии Дрейзис. Москва: Гуманитарий, 2007. — 123 с.